Second Chances

by Nicole Andrews Moore

  Almost on cue the stewardess delivered a special package for Mrs. Gabriel Charmant. Isabella found it to be terribly exciting, since she had had little opportunity to answer to that name. For the moment, the dilemma over their living situation passed. She untied the bow, and opened the small square box. After pushing aside a layer of tissue paper, a platinum castle key chain had been revealed, and on it, two keys. She held them up in her hand and asked Gabriel, “What’s this?”

  He smiled widely and answered, “I thought it was obvious. These are the keys to our kingdom.”

  She tilted her head to the side and studied him momentarily, wondering what he could possibly mean by that. He wouldn’t have...? No, he couldn’t have...?

  Isabella would make that discovery soon enough. Gabriel picked up his BMW at the airport, loaded them into it with their considerable amount of luggage, and then began the drive home. She relaxed slightly when she discovered that they were, in fact, driving south. Maybe they would be staying at her barn after all.

  Admittedly, Isabella didn’t pay much attention to the drive. She busied herself with studying her new rings, still getting used to having them on her finger. Then, just as she tired of that, Gabriel reached out to her. She turned her attention to his hands. They were soft gentle hands that had never known a day’s hard labor. She smiled thinking how wonderfully they touched her, how well he now knew every inch of her. Resting back into the seat, she sighed contentedly.

  A moment later, he glanced at her and nodded at the driveway ahead that led to a place Isabella had never seen before. “Where are we?” She asked as they turned up the long private drive, flanked on either side by tall maple trees creating a natural canopy over head.

  “Exactly halfway between both our worlds,” he replied with a proud smile. “I thought we should always live our life in a compromise.” He gazed at her lovingly. A new thought occurred to him. “Your life is going to be so very different now. You know that, right?”

  “How so?” She wondered genuinely confused. Did this marriage come with unexpected obligations?

  He took a deep breath. “Well, you will no longer have to do much of anything that you don’t want to do. We have a driver to bring you to work every day and pick you up, if that be your wish. We have a cook, so that I keep my promise.”

  She smiled. “About only having to cook when I want?” He nodded and she leaned over to kiss his cheek.

  “We have a permanent nanny, as long as Maggie wishes to stay with us. What do you say, Maggie?” He asked, glancing at Maggie in the rear view mirror, seated next to Kyle in the back seat.

  “I told you, Mrs. Charmant,” she said with a laugh. “The minute I saw you two together, I knew this wasn’t going to be no temporary job, although you did give me a scare, Mr. Gabriel. I just wait patiently, you see. Maggie knows before you!” She laughed her deep, hearty, welcoming laugh before wrapping her arms around the children, who squealed in delight.

  “And of course there is a maid, butler, and gardener.”

  “Of course,” she acknowledged shaking her head in disbelief. “And just where shall we stack all these people, in your apartment or mine?” She glanced at him wryly.

  Gabriel nodded again for her to look up the driveway. This time she discovered not more driveway before her, but an enormous Tuscan castle that would rival the Magic Kingdom itself. And the realization of it all set in even before Gabriel’s words reached her ears. “Neither, darling, we shall be living here.” He watched her stunned face.

  “But...how?”

  “Think of it as a wedding present for us, from me and my father.” He sounded the horn as they pulled up before the front entrance.

  All the servants assembled outside, in uniform, making the situation feel completely surreal to Isabella. “I can’t believe it,” she laughed. “All these people are going to rely on me to give them direction. I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “You’d better learn how,” Gabriel warned. “Ten thousand square feet is an awful lot to clean while working full time.”

  “Ten thousand,” she repeated numbly.

  “Yup. The master suite has eighteen hundred square feet alone. Oh, and the lawns and gardens are on twenty acres.” He seemed so unaffected by all of this.

  He helped her from the car. The children rushed to the house with Maggie at their heels. Isabella stood outside for a few minutes looking around in wonder at her new home. There were so many personal touches. The design itself, Italian, a place meant to always remind her of their wedding and honeymoon. The fountain in the center of the circular portion of the driveway was a miniature Trevi Fountain. At last she walked up the marble steps with her hand through Gabriel’s arm.

  The servants greeted her, but she felt so overwhelmed by it all that she simply smiled and nodded at them. She would have to make a point of getting to know each of them later. Right now, she grew eager to tour the house. As she examined all of the three floors, it became apparent that both apartments had been emptied of their possessions.

  By the time she had completed the tour of the place, she had trouble just remembering the floor plan. “This place is your canvas,” Gabriel reminded her. “You decide what you want where, what color the walls are to be, and anything that needs changing. It shall be done. Have fun with it all.” He kissed her cheek and headed off to the study to call his father and catch up on business.

  “Oh,” Isabella said quietly.

  “What, darling? I will be quick so we can enjoy our first night home together. D’accord?” His body was turned away from her, but upon seeing her crestfallen look, he turned to give her his full attention.

  “Okay,” she conceded, “but my concern was that...well, I just wanted to call Jessie.” She looked at him shyly. “I have so much to tell her, you know.” She hugged him close.

  He smiled at her. “Oh, is that all? Use one of the other lines. We have four.” Then with a quick kiss, he turned and walked away.

  Great. Now she just had to find a phone.

  “I can’t wait for you to see it, but give me a couple of weeks. I want the place to look good.”

  Jessie laughed. “I’m sure the palace is a mess,” she joked. “So what’s it like?”

  “Huge. The master suite is larger than the house I grew up in. It has three floors, which hold six bedrooms, each with their own private full bath. I even have my own darkroom and studio. Oh, and the servants have separate quarters on what is technically the fourth floor. Get this. We have two kitchens. Two! I asked why. He said for entertaining. There are two powder rooms, six fireplaces, an elevator, and seven Tuscan terraces. Out back we have numerous gardens, even one large coy pond. There is a three car attached garage, and a guest house out back with two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and a kitchen. There is an enormous heated pool and spa with waterfalls. All the marble is imported from Italy. We have a wine cellar with a pretty hefty collection already. We received a lot of wine as gifts and we chose much on our journey through France and Italy. Every time I ‘ooed’ or ‘ahhed’ there he bought whatever it was that provoked the response. So now, in addition to the wine, I have landscapes from France and Italy, as well as some tapestries, and a huge pot to place. Although I suspect that I have plenty of room for all of it.” She sighed. “Oh, Jessie, I just keep waiting to wake up.”

  “Not this time, Isabella,” Jessie said. “This time you get to live the dream.”

  Ever since she and Gabriel had reconciled, Isabella had been nothing but blissfully happy. Now, as August drew to a close, Gabriel worried when he arrived home and found her sitting in their vast family room, staring at their family portrait hanging above the mantle, looking forlorn.

  “Darling, why are you so unhappy?” The question arose out of great concern.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Isabella groaned, “I just have to finish organizing for my big gallery opening. Dr. Pam expects it to be something spectacular.” She reached for his hand. “Before you came into my life I had lost my
passion for everything-- photography, life... Every picture I took felt stale. Now I am too passionate,” she laughed, pointing at the small stack of worn composition notebooks, threatening to topple over on the couch, and the photos scattered over every surface. “Now I see beauty everywhere, in everything. I don’t know how to decide…”

  “Where did all of these come from?” Gabriel asked amazedly, thumbing through a few before Isabella swiped them out of his hands.

  “Hey, these are personal.” She smiled before answering his question. “I started working on these at the beginning of our relationship. Some of it was just random pictures, but mostly I just recorded every minute of our time with ticket stubs, mementos, and more recently…photographs. I would work on them during the week when we were apart.” She blushed. “It helped keep you close even when you were far away.” She pushed the books and the pictures nearest to her onto the coffee table so that they could snuggle a few moments. “So now, I have way too much to work with.” She smiled to show she wasn’t really complaining.

  “I should think that would be good challenge to have,” Gabriel countered.

  “I know,” Isabella brightened. “Thank you for giving me enough work for a thousand shows.”

  School began again. The kids were both registered at new schools this year. Kyle would be attending a pre-school, while Rebecca had transferred to a new elementary school. Gabriel won. He was picking up the tab for a private school. Isabella thought the idea was ludicrous until she saw the school he proposed. This school lacked the stuffiness of most private schools. Instead, it was geared toward those with artistic intentions and a quest for knowledge. Every day, Rebecca came home bursting with excitement, eager to relay the new experiences of her day. Isabella found herself constantly exhausted. She had been working full-time at the studio, and receiving numerous offers from magazines ever since the spread of Gabriel’s apartment was published. Finally she was doing exactly what she had always wanted. And suddenly she realized that she didn’t know how she would be doing all that she accomplished without the assistance of the staff Gabriel provided her.

  The driver freed her up in more ways than she ever imagined. Each day she rode with the kids and dropped them off at school before being delivered to the studio. She had alone time with them every morning and afternoon, time all three of them cherished. The cook prepared amazing dishes all week long, but Isabella insisted on cooking everything herself on the weekends. On Saturday mornings, while the kids played outside, Isabella and the gardener worked side by side designing and maintaining the various flower beds, except for the one surrounding Rebecca’s castle. That one Rebecca insisted on caring for with the gardener’s assistance. And though she detested cleaning, Isabella and the children cleaned their own bedrooms and bathrooms in addition to picking up after themselves in the rest of the house. She refused to allow the kids to grow spoiled in such a lavish living situation.

  Isabella, more focused following her meeting with Dr. Pam, now worked without interruption in her own personal darkroom every night. She toiled like a maniac, afraid of losing her momentum. Some nights she developed a dozen or more of her chosen proofs, other nights she focused on arranging the layout of what she had already processed. Occasionally, Gabriel peeked in on her and tried to steal a look at her photos. Each time she laughed, shooed him away, and periodically pelted him with wads of discarded photo paper.

  One evening Gabriel arrived home late, expecting to eat alone, but instead discovered Isabella sitting patiently in the dining room with fine china, crystal, and silver set out. “Wow, there’s even linen tonight,” Gabriel commented. Then one terrible thought occurred to him. “I didn’t forget an anniversary or anything did I?” Before she could answer, he whipped out his Blackberry and began searching the calendar madly.

  She toyed with making her grand announcement to put him out of his misery, but instead decided to watch him sweat for a few minutes. She leaned back and smiled wickedly to herself.

  “Nope, not a first anything as far as I can tell. Can I just apologize in advance for whatever it is I have forgotten?” He looked contrite.

  Isabella couldn’t stand it any longer. Slowly, she rose from her comfortable position and walked over to him. She took him lovingly in her arms and said, “You haven’t done anything or forgotten anything. I just have some exciting news.”

  “You’re pregnant!” He blurted the words out excitedly.

  She took a breath. “Sadly, no,” she responded. “Apparently my news isn’t that exciting. I simply finished preparing for my gallery show.” She waited for his reaction, sure that his disappointment over her not being pregnant would overshadow her happiness at completing this arduous task.

  She couldn’t have been more wrong. “Oh, Bella, darling! That is wonderful news. I know how long you have labored over this show. We must celebrate. Dinner then what? Movie? No, not on a school night. Oh, swim? No, spa maybe, to relax? Or, a bubble bath in our Jacuzzi? Anything you wish.” He held her hands in his, eager to please her.

  “Dinner, for sure, then...we’ll see.” She hoped he would catch the tone of her last remark. She knew what she wants to do. One aspect of their marriage had been neglected as of late. They were both always so tired, or forced to work late and come to bed at different times. As newlyweds, they should be all over each other every spare moment.

  Gabriel smiled. “Really?” He pulled her closer. “So we both get to celebrate, eh?”

  The day of Isabella’s show arrived. She had thought that she would drive herself to work that day in case she was able to escape early, but Gabriel insisted that she have the driver bring her. “Oh, but I don’t know how long my day will be. I hate to get stuck there if I can come home early and get ready,” she complained to deaf ears.

  “I pay him very well to be where he needs to be, Bella. Don’t you worry.” He said those words with a tender smile, and punctuated them with an even more tender kiss.

  That afternoon when she stumbled out of the darkroom after developing a set of proofs, she found Gabriel waiting for her in the hall of the studio. He wandered around and waited patiently as she packed what she needed for the evening.

  “Did you have trouble finding the place?” She asked making small talk

  Gabriel shrugged. “Nah. I’ve been here before.” He watched as her brows knit together in confusion and decided to explain. “I had my pictures done here last spring. I needed new business cards.”

  Since they rarely had to take pictures for business cards in this small town, Isabella knew precisely who he was. Recognition dawned on her face. “You?” She sighed. “You were the business man who canceled on April 1st.” She shivered.

  “And then when I came to pick out the shot I liked best, you were in the middle of a shoot and we didn’t get to meet.” He wrapped an arm around her as they walked to the car arm in arm. “Are you nervous?” He recognized her small talk for what it is.

  She nodded, looking down quietly on the way to the car. “I‘m so relieved you were able to get away and meet me. I didn‘t think you‘d be able to. I know how busy you‘ve been.”

  “I‘ll never be too busy for you. I‘ll never be too busy to celebrate your accomplishments,” he murmured reassuringly, while drawing her close.

  Her show wasn’t until eight and as they drove back to the house, she wondered how she would possibly fill that time. She could feel herself tensing up the farther north they drove. Gabriel was smiling at her as he opened the door. He led her to the bedroom where she found two massage tables set up. Without thinking, she squealed and turned to hug her husband. “How do you do it?” She asked him seriously, her eyes shining with pure adoration.

  “Do what?” He responded quizzically.

  They have moved into the dressing room to disrobe and wrap themselves in their bathrobes. “You always know what I need. You take such amazing care of me,” she marveled as she finished cinching her robe. She started to open the door and head for the nearest table, bu
t Gabriel stopped her.

  “I always think of you,” he said seriously. “I always try to imagine what I can do to make you happy.” He pulled her close and planted a kiss on the very tip of her nose. “And you are so easy to make happy, so easy to be around. You aren’t like so many women. You don’t take any of this for granted, not me, the house, the money. It makes me want to spoil you all the more.”

  “Thank you,” Isabella said, quietly, suddenly filled with emotion at her husband’s proclamation.

  After their massage, Isabella and Gabriel sat in the hot tub for a little while. “Your stylist will be here at five,” Gabriel announced, running his fingers through her long locks.

  “My stylist?” Isabella asked, so relaxed that she barely stirred in his arms.

  “Yes, I’m having her bring a selection of clothes and someone to do your hair and makeup.” He nuzzled her neck.