Winners (27 page)

“How about coming with me?” he suggested mysteriously.

“What are you going to do there?” She still remembered her bad experience at Harrods the last time, but she knew she could handle that now too.

“I’m doing a business deal. If you don’t come, I’ll be back in a few days. If you want to join me, we could stay longer, although I have a lot to do here.”

“I’ll come,” she said, feeling adventurous, and told Teddy about it the next day. She hadn’t heard from anyone at school since classes ended, but she knew that this time people were genuinely busy and a lot of them had already gone away. It was going to be a long boring summer for her without a job. The trip to London would be a nice change and something to do. She always enjoyed trips with her dad.

Bill and Lily left for London a week later, and stayed at Claridge’s again. Her father had suggested taking an attendant for Lily with them, but she insisted she could manage on her own and preferred it. He took a two-bedroom suite, and they shared a living room, and he took her to Harry’s Bar for dinner, which was a club he belonged to. The food was delicious, and it was the first elegant outing Lily had had since the accident. And Bill was impressed at how well she handled it. She wore a short dressy black dress, tights, and pretty flats. It was a warm night, and they both enjoyed the evening at the posh club, and she had managed her wheelchair in tight quarters with grace. And the next day Lily tackled Harrods and several other stores she liked, and came back laden with shopping bags. Her father had given her their car and driver and taken a cab himself. He said he was going to an art auction at Christie’s, which didn’t interest her, although she knew Teddy would have loved it. She had promised to bring him back postcards from the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, which he was planning to use in a collage. She had already gotten them for him at a little store near the hotel. She looked victorious when she got back to their suite at the hotel, with all her shopping bags that the bellman brought up for her, and her father was waiting for her.

“Well, I don’t need to ask how you did today.” He laughed. “You must have gotten an A in that shopping class at Craig. Am I broke yet?”

“Not yet,” she said with a smile, but she had definitely done some damage and had fun, and managed all by herself, and was proud of it. It was a big difference from when she’d been there before and left the store in tears as people bumped into her, and salespeople were rude or ignored her, and she couldn’t even get their attention. “How was the auction?”

“Very successful,” he said, beaming at her. “I got what I came for. I could have done it by phone from Denver, but I don’t buy paintings like this very often.” In fact, he had never bought one as expensive or important, but this painting was special. “I figured I’d come over and enjoy it.” And it had been a good excuse to do something with Lily, and they were both having fun.

“Did you buy something?” He hadn’t told her that he was planning to buy a painting, just that he had business to do in London. He hadn’t wanted her to be disappointed if he didn’t get it.

“I certainly did.” He smiled as he handed her a photograph of it.

“Oh my God! Daddy, you bought this?” She recognized the artist immediately and the subject. “A real one?”

“I hope so!” He laughed at the expression on her face and what she said. “It’d better be at that price. I’ll be very upset if I bought a fake.” But there was no risk of that at Christie’s, and the provenance was flawless. He had bought one of the water lily paintings by Monet. Not an enormous one, but it was a good size, and a particularly lovely painting. “I’m going to hang it in the reception area of The Lily Pad. I thought it would look fabulous there.” For a moment Lily didn’t know what to say.

“That’s incredible.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him. And he pulled her close to him and held her. He knew that if he lived to be a hundred years old, he could never do enough for her, and he was thrilled that she loved the painting, and so did he. He could hardly wait to see it in the entrance of The Lily Pad one day.

She called Teddy immediately and knew he’d be just getting up.

“You’re not going to believe this,” she said breathlessly when he answered.

“What? You can walk?” They teased each other about that sometimes, and could, because they were in the same boat.

“No, you moron. Don’t be ridiculous. This is serious. My father just bought a painting at Christie’s.” She knew that Teddy sometimes followed the results of important auctions online, and would then report them to her, although she was less interested in them than he was. But she was very interested in this auction now.

“What did he buy?” Teddy sounded immediately intrigued.

“A Monet,” she breathed into the phone like a holy word, and she knew that to Teddy it was, and to her now too, because her father owned it, and had bought it because of her.

“As in Claude Monet? You’re kidding me, right?” That wasn’t possible. His parents had some very important art, but no one he knew owned a Monet. They only existed in museums.

“It’s one of the water lily series, and he’s going to put it in the entrance of The Lily Pad. You’re not going to believe how beautiful it is.”

“Let me look it up online. I’ll call you right back.” She giggled when they hung up, and he called her back five minutes later. “Holy shit! It’s incredible!” And he knew it must have cost a fortune because it said “estimate upon request,” which meant it was a bigticket item. A
very
big ticket, but he was polite enough not to comment, only on the beauty of the painting, which was remarkable. “I can’t wait to see it.” He sounded breathless with excitement.

“You have to come to the house and see it when we get back.” He hadn’t been to their house yet. Lily had been busy with school for the last few weeks. But she was planning to have him over for dinner and to hang out over the summer. They just had to borrow a van to do it, because of his heavy electric chair, which you needed a special lift to move. Because of it, he was a lot less mobile than Lily, who could put her chair in the trunk of any car, and the fancy chair her father had gotten her was light as a feather.

They talked about the painting for a few more minutes before hanging up and then she went to thank her father again for buying it.

“That’s something very special for us to have,” he said reverently, and he wanted it to go to Lily one day. It would become an important part of his estate, and could only be a good investment. He was impressed by the purchase himself, and he didn’t regret it for a minute. He had no buyer’s remorse whatsoever.

They spent the next two days shopping, spending time in Hyde Park, and going to restaurants, and they picked the painting up at Christie’s on the last day. He hadn’t wanted to leave it at the hotel. It was too important not to have under lock with a guard. And he had already made arrangements with the Denver Art Museum to put it in a vault until they could hang it at The Lily Pad. It was exciting just getting it to the plane and knowing they had it with them on the way home. It had been a wonderful trip for both of them.

She told Teddy all about it when she got home, and as a special treat, Bill arranged to borrow a van with a driver from Craig, and drove Teddy to the museum with Lily once they were home, so he could see the painting. He sat staring at it wordlessly in awe for a long time and then looked at Lily with tears in his eyes.

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said, overwhelmed, and it touched Bill to see how much he loved it.

Afterward they took him home for dinner, and he was able to go all over the house with Lily, thanks to the accommodations Bill had put in. They hung out in the living room and listened to music, and Lily made dinner for them in the kitchen that was so easy for Teddy to negotiate too. The visit was such a success that Teddy became a frequent visitor during the summer. And he did a painting of his own, inspired by the water lilies, and gave it to Bill to thank him for allowing him to visit them at home. It was a remarkable piece of art for any artist to have produced, let alone one with limited use of his hands. No one would have suspected that from the painting he created.

“We’re going to put it at The Lily Pad,” he assured Teddy, “in the same area as the Monet.” He was very touched by the gift, and impressed by Teddy’s talent, which was considerable.

And between Teddy’s visits, Walker, who dropped by a couple of times between summer plans, and a few of the girls from her class who visited her, Lily’s summer passed quickly. She and her father went to Aspen for a few days at the end of August and when they came home, it was time to go back to school for senior year. It had been an easy, lazy summer, the work at The Lily Pad was progressing well, and thanks to Lily and her father, it was the best summer Teddy had had in two years. He was part of the family now.

Chapter 21

Jessie wanted to take Chris to Denver to settle into his room in the dorm, but she had no one to leave the other children with, and he insisted he’d be fine going on his own. She felt terrible about it, and promised him she’d come out as soon as she could. She’d been telling Bill Thomas she’d come to Denver and consult with him again as soon as her kids were back in school, so she planned to visit Chris then.

Chris looked painfully adult the day he left with two suitcases, his computer, and his skis, and she had shipped his stereo and a bicycle by FedEx. She felt like a bad mother all over again, but she couldn’t go with him and manage the other three at the same time. And the friends she would have left them with were on a camping trip in Yosemite. She drove Chris to the airport in Reno and hugged him hard.

“Call me! I want to know how you are.” She was fighting back tears, and so was he.

“I’ll be fine,” he said, looking agonizingly like his father.

“Call me tonight.”

“Okay, okay.” She hugged him again, and he disappeared onto the plane for a direct flight to Denver. She went home with a heavy heart. Her first baby had left the nest, and she couldn’t imagine life without seeing his face every night. The house was like a tomb when she got home, and the other children looked as mournful as she felt. Heather was lying on the couch, staring blindly at the TV, Adam didn’t even beg to use the PlayStation, and Jimmy crawled onto her lap and hugged her the minute she sat down. No one wanted to eat lunch. She tried to talk them into a movie, but no one wanted to go, so she did laundry instead. She was folding clothes when Bill Thomas called her, and she sounded sad when she answered the phone. He could hear it in her voice.

“Is something wrong?” He was instantly concerned, and she was touched.

“Yes … no … just life, I guess. My oldest just left for college, and we all miss him already. It’s so quiet here without him.” And she relied on Chris so much to help her with his siblings, she knew it was going to be hard without him, but at least now he’d have some fun instead of babysitting and chauffeuring for her all the time. She felt guilty for having relied on him so much all year.

“Give him my number and tell him to call me if he needs anything, once he settles in,” Bill said. “Maybe this would be a good time to get you back here. I really need your advice, Jessie. We’ve been floundering for the last few weeks. I can’t get our medical setup right, and I haven’t seen a decent résumé in weeks. How soon can you come?” They’d been talking about early September, and it was here. She brightened at the invitation to consult for him again. It was just the excuse she wanted to visit Chris.

“As soon as you want me. I just have to tell Ben so he covers for me, and make arrangements for the kids. They start school next week. I hired a boy to help me after school now that Chris is gone, but he doesn’t start for a couple of weeks. He’s an instructor at the ski school. I need him to drive them around.” Heather had just gotten her learner’s permit, but she couldn’t drive alone without an adult, and Jessie didn’t want her driving the other kids.

“Why don’t you come the weekend after they start school, or the one after, whatever works for you, and you could make time to see your son while you’re here? We could all have dinner together if you like, with Lily. It would be great.”

“I’d like to. Let me get organized, and I’ll call you this week after I talk to Ben, and get the kids set up.”

“That’s fine.” He sounded relieved, and she had something to look forward to when she hung up.

Chris called her that night after he got his room assignment and met his roommates. He said they were going out to get something to eat, but he wanted to let her know he’d arrived. He seemed so far away and suddenly so independent. She couldn’t believe the time had finally come for him to leave for college, and she still looked depressed the next day at work.

“Bad weekend?” Ben asked her when he saw her face.

“Chris left for Denver.”

“I’m sorry.” He could see how upset she was about it.

“Yeah, me too. I hate it when kids grow up,” she said with a rueful smile. “Which reminds me, Bill Thomas wants me to go to Denver and consult on his rehab again, in the next couple of weeks. Which weekend works for you?” Ben said that either one was fine, and they settled on one in two weeks, and she called Bill that afternoon. He was delighted, and he realized that it coincided with Carole Anders’s next visit, and he told Jessie. Jessie was excited to see Carole, it sounded like a fun weekend, especially if she could spend some time with Chris too. She texted him to tell him when she was coming, and called the mothers of the kids’ friends, and had it all set up by that night.

The weekend she left for Denver went smoothly. She had a whole bag of things to take to Chris that he’d forgotten, including an extra blanket, and she had slipped in some framed photographs of the other kids. Jimmy made him a picture, which she promised to take him. And she left for Reno straight from work. The various mothers babysitting for her kids had picked them up at school. Ben gave her a pointed look as she left.

“I still think you should take that job,” he said, and she just laughed.