“I’m grateful you tried,” Paula said generously. “When do you want to stop?”
“I can do it till the end of the year if you want, as I promised. But I really want to stop by then. It’ll still be sad for me. Let’s say I’ll do it till Christmas. I could do a farewell column for the holidays.”
“That’s more than fair,” Paula said gratefully. It was two months’ notice, and Kait had managed to do both jobs since February, and through three months of shooting the show.
“What are you going to do with it?” Kait hated to see them end the column, but she knew they might.
“We thought you would decide to quit, and we made a decision to end it then. There will never be another ‘Tell Kait’ like you. We’re going to replace it with a beauty column Carmen is dying to write, ‘Carmen Cares.’ ”
“She’ll be great at it!” Kait said, sincerely happy for her friend.
“Well, good luck with the show. You’ve got a winner on your hands. We’re proud of you,” she said, and Kait smiled. It meant a lot to hear it. She had taken a big risk writing the bible for the show. And Zack had believed in her, which made it happen. He had gone to bat for her.
She rode the wave of praise and great reviews all week. She emailed Carmen to tell her she had quit, and wished her luck with her new column. They promised to have lunch soon, but they were both busy and had no time for now. As Kait thought about it, after she read more good reviews, she realized that she really had started a new chapter, just as Nick said. She had a new career, a new talent to develop, a host of new friends, and suddenly a very exciting life. And there was always real life in every mix. She had lost her daughter, which was a major tragedy, just as Maeve had lost Ian. But along with the blows life dealt them were the joys, and Kait had more than her fair share of those now. There was always the bitter and the sweet to contend with to keep one off-balance. But this new time in her life was very sweet. And she realized with an ache in her heart that Candace would have been proud of her too.
Chapter 17
Nick called her almost every day after the first episode aired. And the second one was even better. With the reviews they’d had for the first night, the ratings went through the roof for the second, and kept climbing week by week. And they had more great reviews. But even more important, people all over the country were talking about the show and loved it. And the social media were buzzing with it.
She had just finished planning her family Thanksgiving when Nick called her just to check in. She had invited Agnes to join them, because she had nowhere to go, and Maeve and her daughters, to keep them from having a mournful holiday without Ian for the first time, and she decided to ask Nick if he wanted to come to New York to join them. He thought it sounded like fun. She warned him that she’d be busy the next day, because Stephanie and Frank were getting married and it was family only. But they were flying back to California the night of the wedding, and Tom and Maribeth and the girls back to Texas, so she’d be free on the weekend.
“That works,” he said, sounding intrigued by the plan. “I was thinking about going skiing in Aspen, but I’d rather spend it with you. Would your children mind if I come?”
“No, they’d love it,” the holiday was going to be challenging for them too, without Candace. They had all had their losses that year, so some new faces in the mix would boost everyone’s spirits. Kait was sure of it.
“Just check with them to be sure. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.” He was very considerate about not intruding. She asked both her children the next time they spoke, and they thought it would be fun to include the others. As Tom pointed out, they had something to celebrate with a hit show. It was a better perspective than mourning Candace and Ian, which Kait had been dreading. She loved the idea of Nick joining them, and so did he. And Maeve liked it too, when she mentioned it to her, since Nick and Ian were old friends. They would be twelve at her dining room table, which was perfect, and she booked a caterer for the holiday. And they were going to the Mark, which was Stephanie’s favorite restaurant in New York, for a wedding lunch on Friday. It was going to be a busy weekend.
By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, six episodes had aired, all of them resoundingly successful. Kait had been working hard on scripts with Becca all month, for the second season. Now they had a standard to live up to, which was driving all of them. Only the cast really had time off, Kait and Becca didn’t, and Zack was always busy with the production aspects of the show.
Kait had one hard blow two days before Thanksgiving, when Candace’s furniture and belongings finally arrived from England. It had taken time to get them packed up, they came by ship, and were slow clearing customs, and it almost tore Kait’s heart out to see them at the storage company where she had them delivered to sort through them. Her clothes, her desk, her books, some teddy bears from her childhood she’d taken with her. Boxes of photographs from her travels, letters she had saved from her mother until they switched to email. It was hard to see it, and before it destroyed her, she left it all in storage to go through more thoroughly another time. She wasn’t ready to deal with it yet, and it would have spoiled the holidays for her. She was shaken after she saw it.
Frank and Stephanie arrived on Tuesday to get their marriage license, and had a quiet dinner with Kait that night. Tom’s family arrived on Wednesday night. Nick flew on his plane and was staying at the Four Seasons this time. The guests were invited for four o’clock in the afternoon on Thanksgiving, with dinner at six. Kait had always liked being together as a family on holidays, and they all looked immaculate and elegant when the guests arrived. The table gleamed with crystal and silver on one of her grandmother’s embroidered tablecloths, with rust-colored flowers in the center. And the smells from the kitchen were delicious.
Maeve and her girls were the first to arrive, and Tamra and Thalia thought Tommy’s daughters were adorable, and played with them while they waited for the others. And everyone talked and ate the hors d’oeuvres the caterer served on one of Kait’s silver trays.
Agnes showed up next in a black velvet Chanel dress with a high neck and white cuffs. Nick was last with an enormous armload of roses in fall colors. The caterer helped Kait find a vase big enough, and she put them on a side table, while everyone chatted animatedly, and the men slipped into Kait’s bedroom to watch football until dinner. The atmosphere was everything Thanksgiving should be. And when they finally got to the table, Kait said grace and mentioned both Candace and Ian, and dabbed at her eyes afterward with her napkin, as did Maeve. But the rest of the dinner was high-spirited, and the turkey and trimmings were excellent.
Nick talked about his recent trip to England, and Tom and Maribeth about a photo safari they wanted to take in South Africa in the spring, without the children. And Nick suggested that they all come to stay at the ranch with him next summer.
“It’s not as fancy as the Grand Teton Ranch,” he said to Kait with a grin, “but I’ll do my best to entertain you.” Tom loved the idea, and nodded agreement to his mother, who said it sounded like fun to her too.
Maribeth put Merrie and Lucie Anne to bed after dinner, and the adults stayed till after ten o’clock and then finally dragged themselves to their feet after a lot of food, and started to leave. Before he did, Nick wished Stephanie and Frank a beautiful wedding and a happy life together. They both were touched, and thanked him. They had mentioned at dinner that they were closing on their new house as soon as they got back to San Francisco. And Kait noticed that they had held hands through most of dinner. Frank had given her an antique engagement ring, which he had told her was the best he could do, and Stephanie loved it.
Everyone kissed and hugged when they left, and Kait teased the bridal couple afterward and told Frank to close his eyes in bed that night, since he was not supposed to see the bride until the wedding, and said they were planning to blindfold him at breakfast.
“For real?” He looked at his future wife in a panic, and Stephanie laughed at him.
“Don’t pay attention to my mother.” He was looking somewhat daunted after sharing Thanksgiving with a table full of major movie stars, his future mother-in-law, and the prospect of staying at Nick Brooke’s ranch the following summer. Nick had invited Maeve and her daughters too, he had enough room for all of them.
“What a nice evening,” Tommy complimented his mother, as he poured himself a brandy and handed one to his future brother-in-law after the guests went home. Kait was tired, but pleased with their Thanksgiving meal together.
She had missed Candace, but in some ways it was no different than the years she hadn’t come home. Kait tried lying to herself and pretending that she was in London, but at other times she was acutely aware of the truth, and she could see that Maeve was too about Ian. There had been tears in her eyes more than once, but she had fought to maintain her composure, and Nick had kept the mood light for all of them with funny stories. He had wanted it to be a good Thanksgiving for Kait, and he thought it had been.
Nick called her when she was in bed that night, thanked her for letting him join them, and said he’d see her on Saturday. He had rented a car, and they were going to drive to Connecticut for the day and find an inn to have lunch. And he was flying back to Wyoming on Sunday. She was touched that he had come so far to spend Thanksgiving with them. He told her he had loved it.
The day dawned cold and clear the morning of Stephanie’s wedding. She and Frank were awake early and went jogging in Central Park around the reservoir before the rest of the family was up. They returned red faced and invigorated as Kait was pouring coffee for the adults, and milk into cereal bowls for the two little girls. They were playing games on their iPads, and Tommy wandered in with The New York Times under his arm.
“What time is the wedding?” he asked casually, as the joggers went to Stephanie’s bedroom with a glass of orange juice.
“We have to leave at ten-thirty,” Kait told him. “The ceremony is at eleven-fifteen.” Without telling Stephanie, she had ordered a bouquet of phalaenopsis orchids, and it had just arrived. She still hadn’t seen her daughter’s dress. By all familiar standards, it was a very unusual wedding.
They gathered in the living room at ten, the girls in the dark green velvet-smocked dresses they had worn the night before with white organdy collars and white tights, and black patent leather Mary Janes like Kait’s children had worn at their age. Tommy had opted for a blazer and gray slacks, with a navy coat over his arm, and Maribeth was wearing a beige Chanel suit. Kait had chosen navy blue, which she thought suitable for the mother of the bride. Five minutes later, Stephanie walked into the room in a white wool suit that was dressier and more traditional than anything her mother had seen her wear in years, and Frank was in a dark suit Stephanie had helped him pick out, and his beard was neatly trimmed. Kait went to get the florist’s box and handed Stephanie the beautiful bouquet, and pinned a sprig of lily of the valley to Frank’s lapel, and then she handed two tiny pink bouquets to her granddaughters. They looked like a very respectable group as they took the elevator downstairs to an SUV with a driver Kait had hired for the occasion, and they headed downtown to city hall right on schedule. Stephanie checked that Frank had the license with him that they had picked up on Tuesday. Frank said he had it in his pocket, as Stephanie turned to look at her brother.
“Will you give me away?” she asked him as a last-minute thought, and he nodded, touched, and patted her shoulder.
“I would have given you away years ago, if Mom had let me. Mostly when you were around fourteen.” They all laughed at his comment. They followed one another into city hall with Kait leading the way, holding her granddaughters’ hands, and the two couples right behind her.
And at precisely eleven-fifteen, Frank and Stephanie stood before a city clerk after Tommy had handed her over, said their vows to each other, and were pronounced man and wife. They exchanged rings while Kait held the bouquet, Frank kissed the bride, and then it was over. They took photographs of the ceremony and emailed them immediately to Frank’s parents, and then on the front steps of the courthouse they posed for more photographs, and then headed uptown to lunch at the Mark. Kait looked at her daughter proudly. It had been an instant wedding, but suddenly Stephanie was married and it brought tears to Kait’s eyes. She blew her nose as her son patted her shoulder.
They sat at the table at the Mark until three o’clock, drinking champagne, while everyone chatted and laughed and the bride and groom were happy. Tommy brought up the visit to Nick’s ranch again.
“I’d love to go there next summer, Mom. Do you think he meant it?”
“It sounded like he did.” She thought it would be fun too, and so did Stephanie and Frank. It was unanimous. At three-thirty they were back at the apartment, and, standing in the doorway, Stephanie tossed the beautiful bouquet over her shoulder and her mother caught it, more as a reflex than a desire.
“You’re next, Mom,” Stephanie said, laughing at her, and she and Frank went back to her small bedroom to change. They had stayed in her childhood room behind the kitchen, next to their nieces.
“Don’t hold your breath for that,” Kait said about the bouquet, and set it gently on the table. She wanted to have it preserved for Stephanie. And when Stephanie and Frank reappeared they looked more like themselves. Frank was wearing an old army surplus jacket with a fleece lining, jeans with holes in them, his favorite hiking boots, and a sweater that had seen better days, and Stephanie was wearing a purple parka she’d had since college, jeans, and a matching pair of hiking books to Frank’s. She looked totally happy and at ease, and Kait smiled when she saw the gold bands on their left hands that were bright and shiny and new, and didn’t have the patina of age yet.
The bridal couple hung around with the others until six, and then headed to the airport for an eight o’clock flight to San Francisco. Stephanie thanked her mother for the perfect wedding, and said it was exactly what they had wanted. She was touched that her mother had respected all of her wishes, and added a few details of her own, like the bouquet and groom’s boutonniere. They all waved from the doorway as the newlyweds left and got into the elevator.
“That was perfect,” Kait said, collapsing into a chair, as Maribeth went to change the girls into play clothes for their flight. Kait made sandwiches for them to eat before they left, and at nine o’clock, Tom and his group left for the airport to fly back to Dallas. The Big Event was over. They’d had Thanksgiving together, and Stephanie’s wedding, and when the door closed behind the last of them, Kait put on her pajamas and lay on her bed, and did something she’d been dying to do for weeks. She put on an episode of The Wilder Women that she had recorded, just the way she had with Downton Abbey for several years. Now she could watch her own show, and she loved every minute of it. It was even more fun watching it again. She watched three episodes before midnight. And then Nick sent her a text, afraid to call her. All it said was “How was it?”
She called him back and told him all about the wedding, and admitted that she was dead on her feet, but couldn’t wait to see him in the morning.
“Do you still want to go to Connecticut, or do you want to stay here?”
She wanted to go, but the weather made the decision for them. It was pouring rain the next day, and they decided to stay home in her apartment, eat popcorn, and watch movies. She forced him to watch two of his own because she hadn’t seen them. He groaned but sat there with her, and as darkness fell, he turned to her and smiled. “I always have so much fun with you, Kait. And I don’t even like watching my movies. But I do like watching you,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her, and she pulled him back onto the couch with her. They lay there, kissing, and then she took his hand and walked him into her bedroom, which was what he had wanted to do all day, but didn’t want to scare her if she wasn’t ready.
They peeled off each other’s clothes in the twilit room, and slid between the cool sheets, as passion overwhelmed them and they made love. They lost all track of time and where they were, and afterward, they dozed in each other’s arms and woke up hours later. It was dark in the room, and he turned on the light next to the bed and looked at her.
“Do you have even the remotest idea of how much I love you?” he said to her, and she smiled at him.
“Maybe half as much as I love you.”
“Not a chance,” he said and they made love again, and a long time later, they got up and cooked dinner, as he grinned at her. “I don’t think my old films have ever had that effect on anyone before.” He laughed. “We’ll have to watch more of them.”
“Anytime you like, Mr. Brooke,” she said and kissed him, and then they went back to bed and talked and whispered in the dark, until they fell asleep. And she realized, as she drifted off with Nick pressed next to her, that he was an important part of her new adventure. In a single year, her whole life had changed, and she loved it.
Chapter 18
December was an insanely busy month for Kait and Becca. They were getting the scripts ready and polished for the second season. They had time, but wanted them to be perfect. They had twenty-two new episodes to start shooting at the end of January. The network had confirmed their second season as soon as the show went on the air and the ratings went crazy. There were fan sites on social media dedicated to the show and the stars.
Kait had stopped writing the column the week before. It was an enormous relief not to have to do it anymore, and it would be nice not to have a demanding schedule during the rest of the hiatus. She was going to be developing more story lines for the scripts.
Kait had gotten Christmas presents for her family and the members of the cast that she was close to, and small token gifts for the entire cast and crew. She gave each of them a fun red plastic watch and a big chocolate Santa Claus. And now she had to get the house ready for Christmas.
The Cast Page 22
