Impossible Things (28 page)

The women looked at each other and laughed and Lucy watched in amazement as her elegant and refined mother and grandmother ate pizza and drank champagne until they became tipsy.

A little after ten, after more than four hours of talking, Rosaline still wasn’t sure what she was going to do, or what she wanted, so they parted.

Lucy went downstairs with instructions to send Rodrigo to bed and she found him in his office with Lucas. The two of them were sitting with their feet propped up on the coffee table, holding glasses of beer and talking.

They both smiled when she came in the room and Rodrigo asked, “Everything okay?”

She shrugged. “She doesn’t know what she’s going to do.”

She sat across from them and looked down at her hands. “It’s weird to be the one trying to talk my own mother into divorcing my father.”

Rodrigo sighed. “I know
, but you’re right, she’s not happy. Like you she’s blossomed since she got here. Each day I see the two of you becoming more and more who you really are.”

Lucy took off her shoes and put her feet up on the table as well. Lucas stretched out his foot and touched hers and she smiled at him before saying, “It’s not about the money either.”

Rodrigo frowned and sat forward. “What do you mean?”

Lucy closed her eyes and sat back in her chair. Lucas’ sock-covered foot was still lightly touching hers and it felt warm and reassuring. It was good just to know that he was there. She thought about what she wanted to say and she opened her eyes to see that both men were looking at her.

“When I was growing up I thought that it was about the money. I thought that Isabella’s glamour came from the things she owned, from the expensive clothes and jewels and from the places that she went. Now I see that wasn’t it at all.”

She reached up and took down her hair from the bun
that it was in and rubbed her scalp before continuing, “It’s not the money at all. Isabella would be Isabella even if she lived in rural Iowa and was poor. It’s the life inside her, the passion and hunger for living life to the fullest that makes her who she is. Even if the only place she could shop was a thrift store she would still be elegant and stylish because she would still care.”

Both men were staring at her intently and she knew that somewhere in what she was saying existed a kernel of truth about what she felt for Lucas but she didn’t know how to get at it.

She leaned forward and looked from Lucas to Rodrigo and said, “It’s not that she is shaped by life but rather that life is shaped by her, by her intentions. Even in Iowa she would still be different, she would still be marching to the beat of her own drummer. She would still be going away from the crowd and making her own path through life.”

Lucas asked, “And what about you?”

She smiled at him. “I never made my own path. I followed others. When they said jump I jumped. When they told me what normal was, I strove to fit that ideal.”

Rodrigo asked, “Who’s they?”

Lucy shakes her head. “They are all the people who try to hold you back. Who try to make you fit into a mold. Who want you to be like them because they can’t handle people that are different.”

Rodrigo smiled. “I don’t know anyone like that.”

Lucy shakes her head, “And that’s why you are who you are without hesitation or reservation. That’s why you can love my grandmother like she’s twenty-three and not seventy-three. That’s why you took me in and gave me a home and have been there for me. You’re simply you and you don’t care what others think.”

They talked for a few more minutes before Rodrigo got up. He was at the door
when he turned back to say, “I invited Lucas and his mom to Christmas dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”

He walked out without waiting for a reply and Lucy and Lucas stared at each other. She stretched her foot out so that it was pressed firmly up against his and he smiled at her.

The clock on the fireplace mantel chimed Midnight and Lucy turned to look at it. She turned back to Lucas and said, “I was supposed to get married today.”

His eyes were serious as he searched her face. “Are you upset about that?” he asked and she shook her head. “No. I got a second chance and now I’m living the life I want to live.”

Blue eyes were locked with green as he said, “You could still get married today. You could marry me.”

Her heart turned over in her chest but it wasn’t in fear. She thought about it. Really thought about it
, and then she smiled at him and asked, “Would you get mad at me if I asked you to wait a year to ask me again?”

He didn’t say anything for a minute and she worried that he was mad but finally he smiled. “So you expect to be around in a year?”

She nodded and smiled back at him. “I’ll be here, and I definitely want you to be here. Are you willing to wait?”

He nodded slowly, “As long as I know you’re
not going to run away.”

She got up and moved over to the couch next to him. She sat down and he pulled her up against him. “I’
m not going anywhere. I’m home.”

He kissed her
, and the last pieces of the Lucy who tried to fit in, fell away.

              She woke the next morning with a smile on her face but it fell when she thought about her mom. She got up and opened the connecting door but Rosaline was still fast asleep. Putting on her robe she went down the hall to Isabella and Rodrigo’s room and knocked once before opening it.

Isabella was sitting in the middle of her bed, still in her red nightgown, and she shrieked and threw a sheet over a pile of things on the bed. “Luciana Opheila! You don’t ever open a door without waiting for permission on Christmas Eve! Don’t you know better?”

Lucy laughed and went towards the bed. “What did you get me?” she asked and Isabella rolled her eyes and said, “None of your business young lady. Whatever I got you will now go back because you’re now on my naughty list!”

Isabella’s eyes were twinkling as she said it and Lucy laughed again and went over to sit down at the dressing table. She picked up a bottle of perfume and smelled it, sighing with pleasure and then picked up and silver brush and ran it through her hair.

“What’s wrong?” Isabella asked and Lucy sighed.

She looked at her grandmother in the mirror and then
turned to face her. “Can I ask you a favor and you keep it just between you and I?”

Isabella nodded. “Of course you can.”

Lucy looked over to make sure that the bedroom door was firmly shut before asking, “Can you give me the name and number of the private detective that you hired to watch mom and me?”

Isabella frowned before asking, “Am I allowed to know what you want him for?”

Lucy shrugged. “Just to find out about someone?”

“Lucas?”

Surprised Lucy quickly shook her head. “No! Of course not. I think I know a lot about him, I mean I even met him mom. Is there something you know about him that I don’t?”

It was Isabella’s turn to shake her head. “No. I think you know more about him than anyone
. Even Rodrigo thinks that. Lucas has told you things that he refuses to discuss with his best friend.”

Lucy nodded, relieved to know that her instincts about Lucas were correct.

“Then who, may I ask, do you want to find out about?”

“Jeremy.”

Isabella raised an eyebrow, “Jeremy Martin?”

Lucy got up and went over to the bed. “I don’t know his last name. I wanted to find out about the guy that mom was with before my dad.”

Isabella pushed the covers back, careful that Lucy didn’t see anything and got up. She went over to her desk in the corner of the room and opened the bottom drawer. She pulled out a packet of papers and handed them to Lucy.

Lucy looked down and saw that she was holding a file on the man that her mom had once been in love with.

She looked up, “Why do you have this?”

Isabella shrugged and looked away before replying. “Because I’m a meddling old woman who just wants the people I love to be happy.”

In a whisper Lucy asked, “Is he still married?”

Isabella looked back at her and their identical blue eyes met. They each recognized the emotion in the other’s eyes. She shook her head and Lucy grinned and said, “Tell me more.”

Two hours later she was dressed in running clothes as she left the house. She had bought them and a pair of jogging shoes the week before. She had never eaten so much or so well in her life and the longer she lived with Isabella and Rodrigo the more weight she gained. It was time to do something about it.

She ran through Green Park as she thought about the things that Isabella had told her that morning. Jeremy Martin was divorced, and still lived in the South of France. He had three children, all of them younger than Lucy, and he worked for his family’s
vineyard. There was a picture included in the detectives report and Lucy had been shocked to see a handsome man with dark hair that was just turning silver at the temples.

She had expected that he would be sophisticated because he was French and because that was the kind of men that Isabella and even Lucy were attracted to
, and he was handsome, but he was much more down to earth than she had expected. In the pictures he had been wearing jeans and a jacket and had been walking through the vineyard inspecting his vines.

According to the detective’s report he had been divorced for ten years and was seeing a woman who worked in the village where he lived, though the detective didn’t think it was serious.

His children came to see him once a month; they were all at university, one in Paris and two in Marseille. His divorce had gone through easily and his ex-wife had married another man within weeks. According to people in the village she had been conducting an affair for years but her husband hadn’t seemed to care.

As she ran Lucy thought about him, and what he must be like. Did he ever think of Rosaline, did he miss her? Would he want to see her?

Two hours later she was running back to her grandmother’s determined to find answers to those questions.

The house was silent but changed.

In the drawing room a massive tree was already in place and scattered across the floor underneath it was a pile of presents. Like a child she went over and peeked at the tags to see if any were for her. Some were and she smiled before going upstairs.

Rosaline’s room was empty as was Isabella’s so she went back downstairs and checked Rodrigo’s office, but he too was out. She went to the kitchen and made herself a salad and picked up the phone. Lucas answered, sounding distracted.

“Are you busy?” she asked.

He laughed, “Never for you. I told you that.”

“Can you help me with something?”

“Of course. What? Do you have an itch you need me to scratch? I can be there in five minutes.”

She laughed. “No I’m serious.”

He sounded sad as he said, “So am I.”

“Can I borrow some money?”

“What?”

She got nervous at that. Was it too soon in the relationship to talk about money? She hesitated but went for it, because it was important. “Just for a week. I got paid but my check won’t clear for a few days and I need to buy my mom a present.”

“How much do you want?”

She thought about it and said, “I don’t know. I don’t know how much tickets to France cost.”

“What?”

She decided to tell him everything, and when she was done he said, “Why not just let me have my travel agent do it? You tell me when and I’ll have them book the flight, a hotel and a rental car.”

“You don’t mind?”

He sighed. “Lucy I would do anything for you. Anything. This small thing is nothing at all. Why not ask for something hard?”

She was serious when she said, “Thank you Lucas for being my friend. I know you’re more than that, but I also feel like you’re my friend.”

He was quiet a minute and then he answered and his voice was filled with emotion, “You’re welcome. Thank you for being my friend.”

They hung up a few minutes later with Lucas promising to bring the tickets and details about the trip the next day when he and his mom came to celebrate Christmas with them.

She ate her salad and went upstairs to take a shower. By the time she was out Isabella, Rodrigo and Rosaline were home. She could hear their voices from her room so she went downstairs to see them.

She knew something was wrong the minute she walked in the room.

Rodrigo’s face was stressed and Isabella had deep lines around her mouth that hadn’t been there that morning. “What’s going on?” Lucy asked.

They turned to her and she saw the look on her mom’s face and knew what it meant. Her mom was going home.

Lucy went across the room to her and kneeled at her feet, “Mom, why?”

Rosaline shook her head and looked away. It was Rodrigo who answered for her. “Your father called. He told her if she’s not home in two days he’s coming to get her.”

Lucy shook her head in anger and turned back to her mom. She grabbed Rosaline’s hand. “Mom if you want to go home to him that’s fine. But if you don’t then why are you doing it?”