Safe Harbour

by Danielle Steel

  “You have to hold on, Andrea. You can't give up.” She was feeling deeply affected by all she'd heard and the way Andrea sounded, and she was sorry that she couldn't get out yet. She knew that seeing Andrea again would be stressful for her. It was still too soon after all she'd been through herself. “I'll call you. Let me know how you are.”

  “I will,” she said, crying openly. “Thank you. I know you'll take good care of him.”

  “I promise you I will,” and then she decided to tell her about Matt. She had a right to know now. “I'm getting married in June. To Matt.”

  There was a long silence, and a slow sigh. As though she felt absolved somehow, and she hadn't totally destroyed Ophélie's life, which she hadn't. “I'm so glad. He's a nice guy. I hope you'll both be happy,” she said peacefully.

  “Me too. I'll call you soon. Take care, Andrea.”

  “I love you… and I'm sorry,” she said in a whisper, and hung up. Ophélie set the phone down gently, as Matt came back into the room.

  “What was that about?” he asked, looking concerned. Ophélie was obviously upset.

  “Andrea,” she said, looking straight at him.

  “Is this the first time you heard from her?” She nodded.

  “Was she begging your forgiveness? She damn well should.” He was still outraged over what she and Ted had done, and then Ophélie realized suddenly that she should have asked him about the baby. But how could she refuse? She didn't think she could, nor should. He was, after all, Pip's half brother, and Ted's child.

  “She's dying.”

  “When did that happen?” He looked stunned.

  “She found out two months ago. She has ovarian cancer, and it metastasized to her lungs and bones. She doesn't think she has more than a few months. She wants me to take the baby. Us …” She decided to make a clean breast of it immediately. “I said yes. How do you feel about that? I told her we were getting married, and I can tell her we can't, if you don't want to. But she doesn't have anyone else. How do you feel about it?” He sat at the foot of her bed for a minute and thought about it. It was certainly a major addition to their life, and not one he had expected, but he could see her point. It would be hard to refuse, and in some ways harder still for her, because the baby was Ted's, and Pip's half brother. It was a very peculiar situation.

  “Our family seems to be growing exponentially, doesn't it? I don't see how you can't take him. Do you really think she'll die?”

  “Sounds like it. She sounded pretty bad.”

  “I don't think we have much choice. At least he's cute,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. He was an incredibly good sport. And they agreed not to tell Pip about it for the time being. It was too depressing, and she had been through enough trauma with her mother over the past six weeks. She didn't need to know Andrea was dying. It was just too much.

  Ophélie got a note from Andrea, thanking her, a few days later, and she didn't call after that. Ophélie was going to call her, but she was so tired and weak herself, she kept putting it off and it still upset her. Matt drove her to the beach two weeks later, with Pip and the dog. They took a short walk, and sat in the sunshine. It already felt like summer, and was only March. They talked about their wedding plans. They had decided to do it quietly at the beach, with just their children present, and a priest Matt knew in Bolinas. It sounded just right to them. Neither of them wanted a fancy social event.

  And two days after they'd taken Pip to the beach, they went back out together on a brilliantly sunny day. She said that she thought the sea air had been good for her, and he agreed, but he had something else in mind. They packed a picnic lunch in the city, since he had nothing to eat out there. And as soon as they got to the house in Safe Harbour, he set the basket on the table, and put some music on. She had a fair idea of what he was thinking, and she was ready this time. They had waited a long, long time for this. It was what should have happened in Tahoe, and didn't.

  As soon as they walked in, he put his arms around her and kissed her, and she looked up at him. Long before he ever touched her, she was already his, and wanted to be. She followed him into his bedroom, and he took her clothes off gently and laid her down on his bed, and then he joined her, and they cuddled quietly under the sheets, until passion overtook them, and swept them away on a gentle sea. It was the joining of two lives, two people, two hearts, two worlds, and was all they wanted it to be. It was what they had both hoped for and had only dreamed. And together in each other's arms, at Safe Harbour, the dream came true at last.

  28

  OPHÉLIE HAD BEEN PLANNING TO CALL ANDREA EVER since she'd heard from her two weeks before. But she'd been overwhelmed, trying to catch up on things that had piled up when she was sick. She had to go to a suppression hearing in the case against her assailant, because the defense wanted to suppress her testimony and prevent her from testifying at the trial. After an exhausting morning in court, which Matt attended with her, the defense's motion was denied. And she was still tired. Something always seemed to stop her when she was going to call Andrea. She had promised herself finally that she was going to call that afternoon, before Pip came home. She was about to dial the number, when Andrea's au pair called.

  “I was just going to call her,” Ophélie said pleasantly. “How is she? I'm glad you called.”

  The voice at the other end sounded uncomfortable, and hated to tell her the news. “She died this morning, just before noon,” she said, and Ophélie felt as though she'd been hit by a brick.

  “Oh my God… I'm so sorry…I didn't know…I thought… she told me it would be a few months …I had no idea it would be so soon.” Death didn't always come on schedule, or as planned. In fact, it never did. And all she could think of as she sat there was of having been at the delivery with her, less than a year before. It had been so exciting and so joyful, and so moving, and as she thought of it, she realized that that was how she would remember her. And suddenly she was glad that she hadn't seen her when she was sick. After nearly twenty years of friendship, their lives had become unhooked, but maybe it was meant to be that way. Andrea had a path to follow that no longer included Ophélie. She had made a terrible mistake that had hurt Ophélie terribly, but a child had come of it, and now he was coming home to her. All of life's strange twists and turns never led where you expected them to. It was impossible to even guess at one's destiny.

  “Is there a funeral?” Ophélie asked her, wondering if she was supposed to organize it. How odd that was too, they had always talked about weddings and affairs, and Ophélie had given a christening party for Willie because she was his godmother. And now they had to have a funeral for his mother. But the au pair explained that that wasn't what Andrea had wanted. They had already come to get her, she wanted to be cremated and sprinkled at sea. No service, no memorial, no mourners, no tombstone anywhere, just peo-ple's memories. It seemed cleaner to her that way, and for once Ophélie agreed. Under the circumstances, it was going to be less painful for everyone that way.

  She had made her own arrangements to get rid of her apartment, and her things. All that was left was Willie. The au pair offered to bring him over later that day. Which meant that Ophélie had to tell Pip.

  She was waiting for her in the kitchen when she came home from school with Matt. And Pip instantly reacted to the look on her mother's face. Matt already knew. She had called him in the car while he was on the way to school. And he had said he would do everything he could to support her, and Pip.

  “Is something wrong?” Pip still remembered the last time she had seen her mother look like that, it had been a lot worse, but it frightened her anyway. She was afraid she was going to tell her that she and Matt had decided not to get married, but Ophélie instantly assured her that everything was all right, but she had sad news.

  “Is it Mousse?” He was out in the garden and she hadn't seen him, and Ophélie smiled at her. Other than Matt, they had no one else left.

  “No, it's Andrea. She died today.” Pip looked shocked
at first and then sad. “She was very sick. She called me over two weeks ago, but I didn't want to tell you for a while.”

  “Were you still mad at her?” Pip asked, watching her mother's face.

  “Not really. We kind of made up when she called and told me she was sick.”

  “What did she do to you?” Ophélie exchanged a look with Matt and he wondered what she would say, and he approved of what she did say to Pip.

  “I'll tell you all about it one day, when you're grown up, but not till then.”

  “It must have been very bad,” Pip said solemnly. She knew her mother well enough to know that she would have forgiven Andrea sooner otherwise, and seen her again.

  “I thought it was.” But Pip also needed to know that Willie was her half brother one day.

  “What's going to happen to Willie?” Pip asked sadly. He was an orphan now. It was a terrible thought, even to her.

  “He's coming to live with us,” she said calmly, and Pip's eyes grew wide.

  “He is? Now?”

  “Today.” Pip looked pleased, and Matt smiled. It was a strange turn of events certainly, but like everything else, meant to be, if it happened that way. It made him realize again how odd life was. If things had turned out differently, Ophélie might have died of her gunshot wounds. Instead, they were getting married, and another woman's baby, who was also Ted's, was coming to live with them. Life and its extraordinary and often complicated and unexpected turn of events.

  The au pair brought Willie over with all his belongings late that afternoon, and Ophélie and Pip were waiting for him when he arrived. It was an emotional moment for Ophélie, because the baby was not only Ted's, but Andrea's, and they had been friends for eighteen years. He had grown a lot, they hadn't seen him in four months, and Ophélie asked the woman if she would be willing to stay and work for them, and she agreed. The household was getting busier and more crowded by the minute. But Ophélie wasn't up to taking care of him herself yet. And it would have been a full-time job. For Pip and Matt's sake, she wanted help with him, or she wouldn't have enough time or energy for them.

  She did some quick thinking and spoke to Matt for a few minutes, and he was willing, if she thought it would be all right with Pip, which she was sure it would be. She asked him to move into her bedroom, since they were getting married anyway. And she gave Ted's den, where Matt had been sleeping, to the baby and the au pair. It worked for the time being. Chad's room was still considered sacred ground and offlimits. But she had to agree with Matt, they were going to need a new house soon. She wanted to have guest rooms too for Robert and Vanessa. As things were now, Vanessa would have to sleep with Pip when she came to visit, which delighted Pip, and was certainly possible. But they were beginning to burst at the seams. And the house at Safe Harbour, with its single bedroom and cozy living room, was only going to work for Matt and Ophélie as a romantic retreat, which didn't seem like such a bad idea.

  By late that night, once the baby and au pair were settled, and Pip was asleep in bed with Mousse at her feet, Matt was in bed next to Ophélie, and he turned to her with a grin.

  “Things are certainly changing around here quickly, aren't they, my love?”

  “You can say that again. Imagine if I get pregnant!” She was only teasing him. With Willie's arrival, their family seemed big enough, and she had no intention of adding to it, now or later. Before they fell asleep, she thanked Matt for what a good sport he'd been about everything.

  “You never know what's going to happen around here from one day to the next,” he said happily. “I'm beginning to enjoy it.”

  “Me too.” She snuggled down next to him as she said it. And a few minutes later, all the residents of the house on Clay Street were sound asleep.

  29

  THEIR WEDDING DAY IN JUNE DAWNED BRILLIANTLY sunny. It was a perfect day, with bright sun and a gentle breeze. There were little fishing boats on the horizon, and the beach looked swept clean. Safe Harbour had never looked better.

  The priest had arrived at eleven-thirty, and the wedding was set for noon. Ophélie was wearing a simple white lace dress, to her ankles, and carrying a bouquet of tuberoses, and Vanessa and Pip were wearing white linen dresses. Matt and Robert were wearing slacks and blazers. And Willie, in the nanny's arms, was wearing a little blue and white sailor suit. He had just started walking and was wearing his first pair of shoes. And Ophélie couldn't help noticing he looked just like his mother, which was something of a relief. The alternative would have been harder to explain, although he did look a little like Pip. There was a definite family air. And when people commented on it, Pip was pleased. She had no idea, and wouldn't for a long time, her mother hoped, that it was true, that Willie was in fact her family, although not Ophélie's.

  They were all in good spirits, and they were leaving for France the next day. They were going to spend a week in Paris, and then two in Cap d'Antibes, at the Eden Roc. It was an extravagant honeymoon that Matt had insisted on treating them all to, but he said he had hardly spent a penny in years. And they were all looking forward to it. And as soon as they got back, Ophélie and Matt had agreed to look for a new house. The house on Clay Street was about to burst at the seams.

  Robert was his father's best man, and Vanessa the maid of honor, Pip the official bridesmaid. They had thought of using Willie as a ring bearer, but he was teething again, and they were afraid he'd swallow the rings.

  The priest spoke briefly and touchingly about bringing lives and families together, about the resurrection of the spirit, and the sorrows of past lives being healed. He spoke of hope and joy and sharing and family, and the kind of love and blessings that brought and kept families together. And as Ophélie listened to him, her eyes drifted down to the beach, to precisely the place where Matt had been working when Pip must have found him almost exactly a year before. It was impossible not to think of the serendipity and good fortune and blind luck that had brought them together. All because of one little girl walking down the beach with her dog.

  Matt saw Ophélie's eyes wander toward the beach, and thought of exactly the same thing, and as he looked at her, she looked back at him and their eyes met and held. It had been remarkable good fortune that had brought them together. But it had taken more than luck and happy accidents or even love. It had taken wisdom and courage to put their lives back together, and to have the sheer grit it took to reach out and hold on tight. It would have been so much easier to never try, to never touch at all, to run away and hide, while protecting old wounds. Instead, they had dared, they had danced, they had trudged on through the dark and the cold, defied the demons, faced the terrors, and refused to run away. It was more than just an act of love they were celebrating that day, it was an act of courage, and of faith, and hope and belief. All the bits and pieces had come together, the tiny threads, loosely bound at first, and now carefully threaded and woven into the fabric of their new life. It was above all a choice they had made, not to give in to death, but to embrace life. A choice not so easily made. It was a tightrope Ophélie and Matt had walked, a delicate balance to reach safety on the other side. They had found what they wanted, and fought for it, until they reached safe harbor, and escaped the storms at last.

  And when the priest asked Ophélie if she took this man for the rest of her life, Pip spoke up softly and whispered in unison with her mother, “I do.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 530 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international best-sellers include Second Chance, Ransom, Safe Harbour, Johnny Angel, Dating Game, Answered Prayers, Sunset in St. Tropez, The Cottage, The Kiss, Leap of Faith, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.

  Visit the Danielle Steel Web Site at

  www.daniellesteel.com.

  a cognizant original v5 release october 16 2010

  SAFE HARBOUR

 
A Dell Book

  Published by

  Bantam Dell

  A Division of Random House, Inc.

  New York, New York

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © 2003 by Danielle Steel

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002071585 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address:

  Delacorte Press, New York, New York.

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  eISBN: 978-0-307-56678-2

  v3.0