“I never thought I’d see you here!” It was an odd greeting after so much and so long.
“I never thought you would either.” She laughed and gave him a hug that reminded him of old times.
“How are you, really?”
“How do I look?”
“Just the way I’d want to see you. Tanned, healthy, and relaxed.” And also sober. That was a relief.
“And that’s how I am. It’s been a long bunch of months.”
“Yes. I know.” He knew that he would never know the full story, but he was certain it had come close to destroying her. Much too close. “You’re staying for a while?”
“Just a few days. Then I have to go back. Simpson is in the midst of making a deal for me, for a book.”
“How perfectly marvelous!”
“That’s how I feel.” She smiled happily, and hooked her arm in his, as he prepared to lead her away for a walk.
“Come. Tell me about it. Let’s go sit down under the trees over there.” He removed two more iced teas from a silver tray and headed for a gazebo far from the courts. They had a lot to catch up on, and for the first time in years she seemed willing to talk. He had missed her very badly, but the time had done him good as well. He had realized at last what she represented in his life, and what she could never be. He too had made peace with himself and the people he dreamed of, as much as he ever would. Most of all he had accepted what seemed to be his role. Acceptance. Understanding. As life’s trains passed him by. The last lonely gentleman standing on the platform.
Kezia was almost sorry to leave Marbella, for the first time in her life. She had come to terms with a thousand ghosts in the months she’d spent alone, not only Luke’s ghost, but others. She was even free of the ghost of her mother. At last. And now she had to go home.
It was funny, on the plane home from Spain she remembered something Alejandro had said a long time ago. “That whole life is a part of you, Kezia. You can’t deny it.” Though she didn’t want to live it anymore, she no longer needed to exorcise it either. She was free.
It was a pleasant flight, and New York was hot and muggy and beautiful and throbbing when she arrived. Hilary was wrong. It was exciting even in August. Maybe no one who mattered was there, but everyone else was. The city was alive.
There were no photographers to greet her, nothing, no one, only New York. And that was enough. She had so much to do. It was late Friday night. She had to go home and unpack, wash her hair, and first thing the next morning, she would take the subway to Harlem. First thing. She had flown home from Spain for her book, but to see Alejandro too. It was time now. For her anyway. She had planned it for a long time. And she was ready. For him. For herself. He was part of her past, but not the part she had put away. He was the part she had saved for the present.
And the present looked and felt splendid. She was unfettered now, unbound and happy and free. She tingled with the excitement of all that lay ahead … people, places, things to do, books to write, her old conquered world at her feet, and now new worlds to conquer. Above all, she had conquered herself. She had it all now. What was there to fear? Nothing, and that was the beauty of what she had found. No one owned her anymore, not a life-style, not a man, no one. Kezia owned Kezia, for good.
The days with Luke had been treasured and rare, but a new dawn had come … a silver and blue morning filled with light. And there was room for Alejandro in her new day, if he was around, and if not, she would ride laughing and proud into noon.
To Beatrix with all my love, D.S.
Published by
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Lines from “Getting There” by Sylvia Plath are reprinted from ARIEL (1965) by Sylvia Plath. Copyright © 1963 by Ted Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., Faber & Faber, London, and Olwyn Hughes.
Copyright © 1976 by Danielle Steel
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eISBN: 978-0-307-56674-4
July 1989
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Copyright