Page 31 of A Mother’s Love

They were lying on their sides, talking and kissing.

“I have the girls for a week when I get home. You could meet them then. Dinner or ice cream, or Disneyland or something.” Olivia smiled thinking about it.

It was a whole new world for her. “I’ll miss you every night.

I’m picking them up as soon as we land, and I want to give them a few days to settle in.

This will be a change for them too, they’ve never met the women I’ve dated before.

So it’s a little bit of a big deal for them.

Can you manage for a few days?” He looked worried.

“I think so. I may have withdrawal at first. And I have a lot of work to do for my show in March.”

The deckhand arrived with the dinghy to take them back to the boat then.

They swam out to it, and sat wet and smiling on the way back to the yacht.

They had made an important decision on the beautiful little beach.

And as soon as they were back on the yacht, Peter followed Olivia to her cabin and locked the door behind him.

“Welcome to my life, Olivia Holbrook,” he said softly, as he took off her bikini top, dropped it to the floor and kissed her.

“I thought maybe it was just a shipboard romance,” she said in a hoarse voice.

“That too,” he said, as her bikini bottoms landed on the floor with his wet swimming trunks, “and that’s not over yet.” He kissed her, and they made it to her bed to celebrate what they had decided that morning. This was the beginning, not the end after all. The new year was off to a great start.

—

Bart and Halley went for a walk in the Bois de Boulogne on New Year’s Day.

They watched the children playing, families on bicycles, people walking their dogs, lovers kissing, old men playing pétanque.

It was another beautiful day, and they walked for a long time before they sat down on a bench.

There were peacocks walking past them, and they had seen swans on a lake.

“Everything always looks beautiful in Paris,” Bart commented.

“And there is always an underlying feeling of romance to it, and a quality of life you don’t feel in the States.

France is all about beauty and history, and family, and people kissing.

” He smiled at her as he said it, and leaned over and kissed her, since he had dared to kiss her the night before, and she kissed him back.

“I’m lucky to have met you on the plane,” he said happily, and she smiled in answer.

“So am I. I thought I was just going to go to my favorite shops and the Louvre. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone. It was my daughter’s idea that I should come. She suggested it.”

“I’m glad she did. I want to see you when we go back to New York, Halley, if that appeals to you. We both have busy work lives, but I want to make time to see you. What do you like to do?”

She smiled as she thought about it. “For years, all I did was take care of my kids and write. I didn’t make time for much else.

With Robert, we traveled when we had time.

We put a lot of things off for the future when we wouldn’t be so busy, and we never got to do them.

I don’t want to make that mistake again.

I ride, I love going to the movies, I love books and art, going to the theater, dinner with friends, or just two of us.

I volunteer at a center for abused women and children.

I’ve been very involved with that for a long time, and it’s important to me.

I like spending time with the kids there, and helping them see that they can have a good future, even though some pretty awful things happened to them in the past. Some of them come to us very damaged physically, with others the damage is all inside.

It’s easier to help the children than the women.

The damage they suffer is so pervasive, and it’s a cycle a lot of them can’t escape.

” He looked interested as she said it. They were sitting on a bench and he held her hand.

“How did you get involved with that, instead of something else? I support an entrepreneurial program for underprivileged young people entering the work force, trying to expand their vision and show them a bigger world of opportunities. It’s kind of the same idea.

But I meet them after they’ve managed to get an education and have gotten through college.

It’s to help them take off the limits other people may try to put on them.

The program is called Limitless, and we’ve had some real success stories.

It’s my way of sharing what I’ve learned.

Their horizons are so much broader than they realize.

If they’re bright, they can do anything they have the courage to do. ”

“That is a little bit like what I do, except that the kids I work with have been damaged by the people who should protect them and love them most. But once we get them to a safe place, they can make it to a good life. To answer your question, I had a difficult childhood, and I want to help them find their way out of theirs, and show them that they can. With the little kids, it’s just about loving them and making them feel safe.

Most of them have been in danger since they were born. ”

They talked about it for a while and then walked on, still holding hands, like two children.

Halley didn’t explain what her “difficult childhood” entailed, and she didn’t know if she ever would.

It was all she wanted to say for now. The rest was buried in a walled garden she didn’t visit anymore.

She preferred to live in the sun and bright daylight of the present, not the shadows of the past.

“Ryan and Véro shared some good news with me this morning,” Bart said to her as he drove her home. “They’re expecting a baby in July. That’s very exciting. I think they’re going to be wonderful parents.”

“I think so too.” She smiled at him. “How do you feel about being a grandfather?” she asked, and he laughed. She kept noticing how handsome he was, he didn’t look like a grandfather to her.

“A little bit outraged and a little bit scared, and very happy for them. I wasn’t ready for that image of myself.”

“You don’t look the part, and you’re barely old enough to be one. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“It’s nice that they’re so happy about it.

They went to have lunch with her parents today, to tell them.

They invited me to come, but I wanted to see you.

Her parents don’t speak English, and they’ll have a better time without having to translate for me.

Do you think your daughter who got married will start having children soon? ”

“Not for a while. She’s only twenty-seven and more interested in her career for now. And I’m not sure how keen her husband is on having kids. He didn’t have any in his first marriage. He’s thirty-nine and he has a very big job as a producer in television. He loves his work. So does she.”

“They all have babies later now. Ryan and Véro have been married for three years. You and I got an early start.” He smiled at her. “We grew up with our kids.”

“They were the best thing that ever happened to me. They were the only family I had. My mother died when I was eight, and my father when I was fourteen. I was alone for a long time before I had them.” It was his first glimpse of the difficult childhood she had mentioned lightly, and he didn’t want to pry.

“You must have been very strong as a child to come through that, losing your parents so young.” She didn’t tell him it had been a mercy for her.

“Children are stronger and more resilient than most people realize. They survive wars without their parents, and terrible lives, and some of them come out of it whole.” He could sense that whatever had happened to her, she was a survivor and had been one of those who remained whole.

But one paid a price for surviving, and he suspected she had.

She invited him in for a cup of tea when they got to her house, and he said he should really get back, but agreed to come in briefly. Ryan and Véro would be home from her parents’ by then, after delivering the good news.

Halley and Bart sat in her cozy kitchen and drank their tea. They were both happy and relaxed. He said he was planning to come back when the baby was born in July, and maybe a time or two before then.

“Maybe I’ll go down to the south of France for a couple of weeks afterward.

I love it there.” He talked about a house he had rented once in St.-Paul-de-Vence, and said he would love to go back.

He seemed to have a very pleasant life, and worked hard too.

He wanted to read more of her books now that he’d met her.

He had read most of them, which touched her, but had missed a few.

And then he left, promising to call to take her to lunch and dinner, when he’d know his son’s plans.

She pulled out her manuscript to edit that night and did a little work.

She wasn’t really in the mood, but thought she should.

It was a peaceful night. She took a bath and was going to bed when the phone rang.

She assumed it was the girls, since it was earlier in the Caribbean.

It was almost midnight, and no one else would call her at that hour on New Year’s Day.

The caller I.D. showed a blocked number, but she thought maybe they were calling from a phone on the boat.

She answered and there was no sound, but the line hadn’t disconnected, and then after a minute it did.

Halley thought it must have been a wrong number, or a poor connection from the boat.

She got into bed and turned off the light, and then the phone rang again, and she took it out of the charger and answered, and the same thing happened.

It didn’t disconnect for at least a minute, and it sounded like there was someone on the other end, but they never spoke and then the call ended.