Impossible Things (15 page)

“Lucy you’re lucky you got me
babe and you’ll realize it soon enough. Get your act together and maybe then I’ll let you come back.”

It was her turn to snort in disbelief. She turned, unlocked the door and walked out. When she got to the street she didn’t know where to go so she headed west. At the end of the street she hailed a cab. She didn’t want to be walking the streets of London with a
t least a hundred thousand dollars with of jewels on her.

When Lucy showed up at her grandmother’s front door Isabella didn‘t seem that shocked. She welcomed Lucy in with open arms, and when Lucy told her that she’d left Sam, Isabella wasn’t quite able to hide the smile that flickered across her face.

She asked Lucy if she wanted to talk about it but Lucy said no. She was tired and just wanted
to sleep.

Her grandmother led her to a beautiful bedroom, decorated in at least ten shades of pink and said, “This is your room anyway. It’s just been waiting for you. I had the crazy hope that your mom would let you come see me when you were little but that never happened
. At least you’re here now.”

Lucy smiled a sad smile and they hugged before her grandmother left her.

Lucy started the shower and was almost undressed when she realized that she didn’t have any clothes with her. In her haste all she had cared about was her jewels. That reminded her of the bracelet and she felt sick at the thought of it lying in pieces.

Shaking her head she stepped into the shower and when the hot water hit her back she almost moaned with the pleasure of it. She soaped herself and washed her hair with the shampoo in the shower before rinsing off and getting out.

After drying off, she washed her panties in the sink, hung them over the shower to dry, and went back to the adjoining bedroom. She pulled back the covers and crawled naked between the sweet smelling sheets. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

She woke to the sound of a soft knocking on her bedroom door and when she opened her eyes it took a minute for her to remember where she was. When the memory of the night before hit her she groaned.

“Lucy, its Rodrigo. Are you okay?”

Shaking her head she set up and only remembered that she was naked when the sheet fell below her waist. She pulled it up to her neck and called out to him. He opened the door a crack and stuck his head in. “I’m sorry to wake you but you had me worried. I was afraid that something had happened to you.”

Lucy turned to look at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was after two.  “Oh! I’ve never slept so late in my life. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head and pushed the door open a little further. “No, no, don’t trouble yourself about it. I was just worried, your grandmother left you to my care and I didn’t want something to have happened.”

“Where did she go?”

He slowly approached the bed. “A childhood friend is visiting and they arranged to meet months ago. Bella didn’t want to disappoint her.”

Lucy shook her head. “Of course not. I’m sorry to cause trouble.”

Rodrigo laughed. “Trouble? You could never be
any trouble. She felt terrible about leaving but I promised to take care of you. Now…a little birdie told me that you need clothes.”

“How did you know?”

She saw the direction of his gaze and realized that her hanging underwear were visible. She felt a blush spread over her face and chest but she nodded and he clapped his hands. “Perfect! Your grandmother checked on you before she left and saw that, so I have clothes for you.”

He turned and went back to the door and stuck his head out in the hall. “Adwen we’re ready.”

He opened the door and a maid came in with at least a dozen bags. She sat them on the end of the bed and Lucy smiled at her and the girl nodded before leaving the room.

Rodrigo approached the bed and opened a bag. He pulled out silk panties, at least a dozen pair in all the shades of the rainbow and threw them towards her. They were more beautiful and more luxurious than
any that she had ever owned and she had to resist the urge to hold a pair up to her cheek so she could feel their silky softness.

As she watched he pulled out a dozen bras that matched each of the panties and then opened another bag and pulled out a gorgeous tan sweater.

“Ohhhhh,” she breathed, unable to help herself.

He smiled and threw the sweater on the bed, on top of the bras, and then brought out a pair of dark jeans. Lucy saw the label and knew how expensive they were. She had seen their store but had never dreamed of owning such luxury.

“Everything should fit,” Rodrigo said, “I picked them out myself.”

Surprised she looked up at him, “You picked them out?”

He nodded his head towards the bag and she saw the same label that was on the jeans. “It’s my families company, now mine. I’ve been around women and clothes my entire life. If I can’t size a woman then my Nonno will come back and haunt me.”

She really looked at him then. She looked past the beauty and the charm of him and focused on the man beneath the layers. He was a good man, a kind man, a man who didn’t have an ulterior motive in loving her grandmother.

Lucy felt sick with the knowledge that despite everything that she had seen she’d still had reservations about him. She had believed that he loved her grandmother but she had also believed that Isabella’s money made it easier for him.

Now she finally saw that
wasn’t true at all. Rodrigo, her young grandfather, was the heir to the greatest Italian clothing company in the world, and was worth far more than Isabella.

Lucy had
been unfair to him and to her grandmother and she felt terrible about it.

She had tears in her eyes as she said, “Thank you
.”

H
e nodded. “Prego. You’re my granddaughter and though it may seem funny because of our ages I take my responsibilities very seriously. So get dressed and come have lunch with me and we’ll discuss all the ways that I plan to torture Sam.”

She laughed and when he left she got up and got dressed. She opened her suitcase and took out a simple necklace on a platinum chain with a diamond pendant, because the cashmere sweater needed something nice to go with it.

Her eye fell on the baggie with the broken bracelet in it and she took it downstairs with her, intending to ask Rodrigo if he knew of a jewelry shop where she could have it repaired. If anyone knew it would be him, she thought.

Rodrigo was waiting for her in the drawing room and the minute she stepped in the room he stood up and came towards her
. “Ahh, my Lucy you’re as beautiful as your grandmother. I see you and my heart pounds with regret that I wasn’t there when she was your age. I console myself that I’m here now. We mustn’t be greedy that’s what my mamma has always told me. When I was young I would steal all the candy from my sisters and eat it myself, and she said I mustn’t be greedy.”

He led her towards the front door and opened the closet but instead of pulling out the coat that she had worn the night before he brought out a beautiful navy coat of cashmere. She sighed and touched the sleeve.

“You can’t have all new clothes and wear an old coat,” he said, “What would people say?”

She laughed and he helped her on with her new coat. She put the bracelet in her pocket as he opened the door and let her go out ahead of him. At the curb was a sleek, black sports car and he helped her into the passenger side before getting in. She admired the soft, caramel colored leather and when he got in she said, “This is a beautiful car.”

He smiled. “Yes. My friend owns the company and I’m just lucky to know him. We grew up together so I get to try out the latest models before anyone else. They say it can go up to two hundred and twenty miles an hour, but in London I’m lucky if I get it up to forty.”

She
smiled. She knew nothing at all about cars, but it was beautiful. A few minutes later they pulled up in front of a restaurant and before the valet could open her door Rodrigo said, “I should have asked but do you like Italian?”

She nodded and he
was relieved when said, “Good,” before getting out of the car.

The restaurant was beautiful and the meal was wonderful. They talked and laughed over multiple courses and at the end of the meal the chef came to their table. He and Rodrigo shook hands before the chef turned to her and Rodrigo introduced them. “Chef let me present my granddaughter, the beautiful Lucy Jacobs.”

“Bella, bella,” the older man said, pulled her to him and kissed her on each cheek. She was laughing when he finally let her go and she saw Rodrigo rolling his eyes over the man’s shoulder.

Rodrigo paid and they were at the car when she remembered the bracelet. “Oh! I almost forgot. Do you know a place where I can have a bracelet repaired?”

He stood back on the curb and said, “But of course. Shall I take you there?”

She nodded and he shut her door. They went to Bond Street
, which was quickly becoming her favorite street in all of London, and Rodrigo escorted her into a jewelry store. Like the one that she and Lucas had met at, it was very high-end. She couldn’t have afforded even the smallest piece of their jewelry with all of her credit cards put together.

The salesman escorted them to the back and again she was reminded of the first day she met Lucas. Here she was, in another store, with another Italian, and with a suddenness that took her breath away a wave of longing washed over her when she realized how much she missed Lucas. She missed the sound of his voice, the smell of him, and the touch of his hand. 

She was brought back to the present when they arrived at the counter and an older man said hello. She brought out the baggie and put it on the counter. “It was broken. The jewels came out but I managed to find them all. I was hoping you could fix it.”

She pulled it out of the bag and heard a gasp. She turned to see that Rodrigo’s eyes were locked on the bracelet. Puzzled she looked at him, wondering what was wrong.
She asked but he just shook his head. “May I see it?” he asked and when she nodded he gently took it from her hands.

He stared down at it and whispered, “Soft and hard.”

Her head jerked in surprise. That was exactly what Lucas had said about it.

Rodrigo laughed under his breath and handed it back to Lucy. “Well it’s beautiful.”

He turned to the older gentleman, “Sir I hope that you can fix it.”

The man took it and carefully inspected it. “Yes I believe so. It’s gorgeous, first class workmanship, but one of the diamonds is chipped. I can replace that for you, but it will take a few days to find one as flawless as this.”

Lucy put her hand out. “Oh no. No. I want that diamond. Chipped or not. Can you fix it so that it will stay in, even with the chip?”

The man nodded and told her that he would have it ready for her in two days. He gave her a card and a receipt and they left the store. Rodrigo was quiet on the way home and she sat in silence as well, enjoying the comfort and warmth of the car.

When they got to the house Isabella was home and like a child Lucy eagerly showed off her new clothes. Her grandmother laughed and said, “That’s one of the many, many reasons why I married him; he has impeccable taste.”

Rodrigo smiled and kissed Isabella on the cheek but Lucy noticed that he seemed distracted. A few minutes later he left them alone, saying
that he was going out to see a friend.

She and her grandmother spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing. Isabella wanted to hear about her life back in the states, from the time she was a small child until she moved to London. She didn’t want her leaving any detail out and so Lucy kept talking. When she got to her teenage years she hesitated and then taking a deep breath she told her grandmother everything. About the stealing, about her father’s words, about the trips out of town to buy jewels.

Isabella listened without saying anything and when Lucy was done her grandmother reached out and took her hand. “I’m sorry that I was ever a party to your pain. I never wanted that.”

Lucy shook her head. “I used to be sorry, but I’m not anymore.
Over the past few weeks and even since last night I’m coming to understand that it’s who I am. When other little girls were dreaming about prom and the captain of the football team I was dreaming about diamonds, foreign men and fast cars-” she stopped and stared at her grandmother in shock. Then a broad smile broke out on her face as she reached up and touched her necklace.

“What?” her grandmother asked.

Lucy laughed and pulled her necklace away from her neck to show Isabella. “I finally got my wish. Today I wore a diamond, and rode in a fast car with a handsome foreign man. Today, thanks to you and Rodrigo, I got my wish.”

She went from happy to sad in an instant and
she began crying. Her grandmother moved closer to her on the settee and pulled Lucy into her arms. Lucy sobbingly asked, “Is it so wrong to want beautiful things? Is that really so wrong?”

“No, of course it isn’t,” her grandmother said and Lucy cried even harder.

When she could speak again she said, “I just wanted to be like you. I loved my mom so much but I didn’t want to be like her. She worked forty hours a week, came home, cooked dinner, cleaned the house and took care of dad and me. I didn’t want a life like that. I wanted a life like yours.”