“How was London?” Annie asked Liz when she came to visit, and the look on her face said it all.

“It was wonderful. Alessandro is coming here next month, and I want you to meet him. He’s a grown-up. It’s so nice to be with a man who’s not a kid. He’s a man, and he acts like one. I love him, Annie.” For the first time in her life, she knew it was true. She wasn’t afraid to love him, no matter what the risk.

“That’s what I always wanted for you,” Annie said with a smile. Liz was a woman now. She wasn’t a child anymore. “Do I hear wedding bells in your future?” Annie asked her. She hoped so, but she didn’t want to push.

“Maybe. We’re in no rush. If everything works out, I might apply for a job with Italian Vogue. But not yet. We want to see how it goes. I might help him open a store in New York.”

“That all sounds good.” Annie felt as though she had gotten Liz safely home. It had taken sixteen years. And she noticed that Liz had even gained some weight. She looked happy. She didn’t look like she was running scared anymore. She wasn’t afraid to lose him, or to love him. She was willing to take the risk. And Katie had figured out that she didn’t have to take quite so many risks. Ted was enjoying being free again. They had all grown up. And so had Annie. They had each come through their rites of passage and grown as a result.

And what about you?” Lizzie asked her. “Where’s Tom?”

“He’s in Brussels. The poor guy had to fly over two hours after we got home. He didn’t seem to mind. I guess he’s used to it. That’s how he lives. Running around the world, chasing the news.” And she had the best of all worlds now. The kids she had raised, and a man she loved and wanted to be with. There was room for all of them in her life. And Tom knew it too. They were part of his life now, not just hers. They were all swimming in the same direction with quiet, steady strokes.

Tom called Annie that night, just after Liz left, and told her he was coming home. The story in Brussels had been covered. It was morning for him in Belgium, and he said he was leaving in a few minutes.

“What are we doing this weekend?” he asked her.

“Nothing that I know of. Why?”

“I was thinking that it might be nice to spend a couple of days in the Turks and Caicos again. I could use a little rest.” It was a major understatement after the past week.

“Yeah, me too,” she said, thinking of how wonderful it had been the first time they’d been there and how far they’d come since.

“Do you think the kids can survive without you for a few days?” he asked hopefully.

“I think so. Everyone seems to be back on track and relatively sane for the moment.” And she felt that way too. She had never felt saner or stronger, and she was ready for a life with him.

“It’s your turn now, Annie,” he reminded her gently, and she thought about it and nodded.

“I guess it is.” And then she corrected him with a slow smile. “It’s our turn.” She had given them sixteen years of her full attention, and now she wanted to share that with him. She was still there for her sister’s children, and she always would be, but she had the time now to give him. The kids were grown up. They were taking over their own lives. They had made mistakes, and corrected them. And they had learned from it and survived. And so had she. He had come at the right time in her life, neither too late, nor too soon.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he said, sounding peaceful and happy. He couldn’t wait to come home to her. He had something to come home to now. A woman, and a family. He was ready for that too. He never had been before.

Annie had just gotten back from the office and was making herself a cup of tea when he walked in.

“How was your flight?” she asked him as he kissed her. It seemed so normal for him to be there, as though he always had been.

“Long and boring. I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Katie was out, and Ted had gone back to his apartment for a few days to pack up and move. Tom and Annie were alone, and it was peaceful. She finished her tea, and he followed her into the bedroom, and he was smiling when she turned around. “What are you smiling at?” she said as she sat down on the bed and kicked off her shoes and looked at him.

“I was thinking about how happy you make me,” he said as he sat down next to her. “I remember when I thought there wasn’t room for me in your life. I’m not worried anymore,” he said comfortably, and lay back on the bed and pulled her down next to him. “This is where I want to be.”

“Me too,” she whispered, and he kissed her. She didn’t feel pulled in ten directions. The kids had grown up, and so had she.

He drew her into his arms then and knew he was home. Finally. She was the woman he loved, and this was his home now, with her. And it had only taken a broken arm, a sprained ankle, and a lifetime for them to get here, and it suddenly all seemed so easy and just the way it was meant to be.

Annie had to give sixteen years of her life to her sister’s children in order to be ready for him. Lizzie had to make her way through countless Jean-Louis in order to be brave enough to love Alessandro. Ted had to live through the insanity of Pattie to find out who he was and what mattered to him. And Katie had to defy everything and everyone and risk it all in order to find her freedom. They had each come through their growing pains and challenges, and so had Tom. He needed to be married to the wrong woman in order to recognize the right one, even if she didn’t come packaged quite as he had expected and looked too busy for him when he got there. She didn’t know it, but she’d been waiting for him.

The lessons they had all learned had been valuable and hard but well worth it. And the rite of passage, for each of them, had been the lesson they each needed to learn. There was a perfect symmetry to it, Annie realized, as she smiled into Tom’s eyes. Even the sprained ankle and the broken arm had been part of a divine order that led them to each other. None of it had been an accident or a mistake. It hadn’t been easy, but the rewards had been so great, for all of them. Annie was so grateful for how it had turned out. It could have been so different if they had faltered or refused the challenge—they would never have gotten here. But they had all been very brave. She smiled knowingly as Tom kissed her again. The circle was complete.


About the Author


DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, A Good Woman, Rogue, Honor Thyself, Amazing Grace, 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.



Family Ties 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.

Copyright © 2010 by Danielle Steel

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Delacorte Press,

an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,

a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

DELACORTE PRESS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Steel, Danielle.

Family ties : a novel / Danielle Steel.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-440-33916-8

1. Women architects—Fiction. 2. Single women—Fiction. 3. Orphans—Fiction. 4. Parenting—Fiction. 5. Parent and adult child—Fiction. 6. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

PS3569.T33828F36 2010

813′.54—dc22

2010001938

www.bantamdell.com

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