“When do you start shooting?” Mark asked with interest.

“We go on location in New York in October. And we should be back here by Christmas. We'll shoot in a studio here after that.” He had two months to play before he went to work. “I'd like to go to Europe in September, before I start,” he said, looking at Valerie. Maybe they could go after his visit to Cape Cod. He could afford to now, and he was hoping to invite her. “How does that sound to you?” he asked Valerie softly, a little while later, while the others were talking to each other.

“Interesting,” she said with a Mona Lisa smile. “Let's see how Cape Cod goes.” There was a lot they still didn't know.

“Don't be so sensible,” he chided her, but she was smart. He had the feeling that he had finally met the woman of his life. “I'd love to go to the Hotel du Cap.”

She looked tempted, and they both laughed. They both felt the same nearly irresistible pull. But if it was right, it would unfold. They didn't have to rush into it. And later, while they took a walk on the grounds again, Valerie said as much to him, and Coop agreed. It was just that there was so much happening, he felt like a kid in a candy store, and he wanted to share it with her.

He told her about his conversation with Alex that afternoon, and said that he felt liberated after talking to her. They both knew he'd done the right thing by ending it with her, painful though it had been.

“I think she and Jimmy are starting to see each other,” Valerie said cautiously. She didn't want to be indiscreet, but she didn't want Jimmy to feel awkward with him, particularly now. Coop looked pensive for a minute, and then he sighed and looked at her. For an instant, all his male jealousies had been aroused, and then he calmed down.

“I think that sounds right, Valerie. For both of them. And this is right for us.” He smiled at her, and took her hand, and he kissed her that night when he left her at her door. It was a world full of new beginnings for all of them. It was funny the way things worked out the way they were meant to eventually, if you waited long enough. It had been a long wait for Valerie, and not as long for Coop, but they had found each other, and the right movie had even found him. It all felt like destiny as he kissed her again, and then she slipped quietly into the gatehouse, thinking of him. Cooper Winslow was not who she'd expected, but she was glad he had come along. She didn't even feel like Cinderella with him. She felt like herself, but a woman falling in love with her best friend. It was the same feeling he had as he walked down the path to the main house. What he was looking forward to now was their time on Cape Cod.





Chapter 26

Jimmy's casts came off on schedule in early August, and news of Coop's upcoming movie was all over the papers by then. He was a hero around town. Everyone was congratulating him, and suddenly he had more offers for work. But he was determined to get out of town with Valerie for a few weeks. And after that, he was going on to Europe, whether she went with him or not. She said she would decide after Cape Cod.

Jimmy was walking comfortably again by the time they left. He was seeing a lot of Alex, and things were going well for them. Mark and Taryn were taking the kids to Tahoe for two weeks. Only Jimmy and Alex were staying in town, because they both had to work.

Valerie made one of her memorable pasta dinners the night before they left. Coop was flying with her to Boston, and then they were driving to the Cape. Alex hadn't come to dinner, she had to work anyway. But Valerie had gone to the hospital that afternoon to have lunch with her and say goodbye before she left. But Mark and Taryn and the kids had come to dinner, and Coop was pretending to growl at them. He asked Jason if he'd broken any windows lately, and Jason looked mortified, and then Coop invited him onto the set when they were shooting in LA, and the boy looked thrilled. Jessica asked if she could come too, and bring some of her friends.

“I don't suppose I have a choice in the matter anyway,” he said, looking pained, with a glance at Taryn and Mark. “Something tells me we're going to be related sometime in the next few months. I will do anything you want, as long as you promise never to refer to me as your grandfather, step or otherwise. My reputation has taken a lot of hits over the years, but I don't think it would survive that. They'll be giving me parts for ninety-year-olds,” he said ruefully, and everyone laughed. But Jessica and Jason were slowly getting used to him. They were crazy about Taryn and willing to accept him as part of the deal. There was a possibility that they were all going to wind up related, one way or another, sooner or later, which was an exotic idea. Even he and Alex if she and Jimmy became a serious thing, and he and Valerie stayed together, which he hoped they would. It was all a little incestuous, but everyone seemed to have gotten something out of it, even Mark's kids.

“I hope the toilets flush this year when you get to Marisol,” Jimmy teased as they finished dessert, and Coop looked across the table at him with a puzzled expression, as Valerie scolded Jimmy for frightening Coop.

“It's not as bad as all that. It's just a very old house.”

“Wait a minute, back up Who is Marisol?” Coop asked with a strange look in his eyes.

“Not ‘who,’ ‘what,’” Jimmy corrected him. “That's my mom's house on the Cape. It was built by my great-grandparents, and it's a combination of their names. Marianne and Solomon.” Coop looked as though he'd been struck by a thunderbolt as he stared at them.

“Oh my God. Marisol. You didn't tell me that,” he said to Valerie, as though he'd just been told she'd been in prison for the last ten years. That might have been easier to absorb.

“Tell you what?” she said innocently, pouring him another glass of wine. Her dinner had been excellent, but he wasn't thinking about that now.

“You know exactly what I mean, Valerie. You lied to me,” he said, looking stern, and the others looked faintly concerned. Something was happening that none of them understood. But she did.

“I did not lie to you. I just didn't explain it to you. I didn't think it mattered.” But she knew it did, and was afraid it would.

“And your maiden name is Westerfield, I assume.” She made a kind of humming sound in answer, and nodded her head. “You fraud! Shame on you! You pretended you were poor!” He looked shocked. The Westerfield fortune was one of the largest in the world, surely in the States.

“I did not pretend anything. I didn't discuss it with you,” Valerie said nervously, while trying to appear calm. But she had been worried about his reaction for a while. It was a lot for him to swallow at one gulp.

“I went to Marisol once. Your mother invited me when I was making a film near there. The place is bigger than the Hotel du Cap, and if you turned it into a hotel, you could charge more. Valerie, that was a very dishonest thing to do.” But he didn't look as angry as she had feared he would. The truth was that the Westerfields were the biggest banking family in the East. They were the Rothschilds of America in the early days, and related to the Astors and the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers and half the blue bloods in the States, if not the world. The Westerfields made the Madisons look like paupers by comparison, but the difference was that Valerie was a grown-up, and didn't have to answer to anyone. Somehow, the circumstances were such, now that his finances were in order, or about to be, that it didn't seem like such a shocking alliance after all. And she wasn't a young girl, but he was stunned that she had never said anything to him. She was the most unassuming woman in the world. He had presumed she was a widow living on a small income. But it explained why Jimmy had been able to rent the gatehouse so easily. It explained a lot of things, about the people she knew and the places she'd been. But he'd never seen anyone as unpretentious and discreet as she was. He sat there and stared at her for a long moment, absorbing it, and then he sat back in his chair and laughed. “Well, I'll tell you one thing, I don't feel sorry for you anymore.” But he wasn't going to let her support him either. If they married, he was going to be supporting her. That was the way he wanted it to be. She could be as discreet as she wanted on her own budget, but their extravagances, and there would be many of them, would be paid for by him. “And I'm calling a plumber, if my toilet doesn't flush at Marisol, you little witch. What would you have done if I didn't get this movie?” He'd have been in the same boat as he had been in with Alex in that case. But Valerie was more mature. It wasn't just about the money with Alex, it was about their age, and not having kids, and being perceived as a gigolo, and Arthur Madison disapproving of him. But none of that seemed relevant with Valerie, because she was the right woman for him. And he was back on his feet financially, in fact better than he'd ever been.

“If you call a plumber at Marisol,” Jimmy warned him with a grin, “my mother will have a fit. She thinks it's part of the charm, along with the roof that leaks, and the shutters that fall off. I damn near broke my leg last year when the south porch caved in. My mother loves fixing the place up herself.”

“I can hardly wait,” Coop groaned. But he already knew he loved the place. He had fallen in love with it when her mother had invited him there. It seemed to go on forever, with houses and boathouses and guest houses, and a barn full of antique cars he could have spent the entire weekend in. It was one of the most famous houses in the East. The Kennedys had often visited there when they were in residence at Hyannis Port, and the President had stayed there. Coop was still shaking his head when the others left.

“Don't ever lie to me again,” he scolded Valerie.

“I didn't. I was being discreet,” she said, looking demure, with a decided look of mischief in her eye.

“A little too discreet perhaps?” he said, smiling at her. In a way, he was glad he hadn't known before. It was better like this.

“One can never be too discreet,” she said primly. But he loved that about her. He loved her elegance and her simplicity. It explained the distinction he had felt. She was an undeniable aristocrat even in white shirt and jeans. And suddenly he realized what it meant for Alex too. Jimmy was exactly the man she needed, he was part of her world, and at the same time, as much of a renegade as she. Even Arthur Madison couldn't object to him. And suddenly Coop felt pleased. Things had worked out exactly as they were meant to. Not only for him, but for her too. Even if she didn't know it yet, she was on the right track. And as Valerie cleared the table, and put the dishes in the dishwasher, Coop glanced at her.

“Does Alex know?”

“Knowing Jimmy, probably not.” Valerie smiled at him. “It matters even less to him than it does to me.” It didn't matter to them because it was part of them, right down to their bones. They hadn't made it up, or invented it, or acquired it, or married it. They were born to it, so they could live any way they chose. Richly, or poorly, or quietly or noisily. It was entirely up to them. And Alex was cut from the same cloth. It meant nothing to her, and she liked living as though she were poor.

“How do I fit into all that?” Coop asked Valerie honestly, pulling her close to him. She really was the woman of his life, whether she knew it yet or not. But he was determined to convince her of it eventually. Not for the money, but simply because of who she was and what she meant to him.

“You fit into it very comfortably, I suspect. You're used to all that. In fact, we might not be quite elegant enough for you.” He had lived very well for a very long time. In fact, he was very spoiled. And now, with the movie he'd just landed, he could afford to indulge himself, and her. And he had every intention of doing just that.

“I'll adjust,” he said, laughing at her. “I can see I have my work cut out for me. I'm going to spend all my money repairing your old house.”

“Don't,” she smiled, “I like it the way it is, falling apart and crumbling, with things falling down all over the place. It has charm that way.”

“So do you,” he said, holding her tight, “and you're not falling down or crumbling.” But he knew that when she did, he would still love her. And he was likely to crumble first, because he was, after all, seventeen years older than she. She was in fact a younger woman, and a very wealthy woman. But not too young. And no matter how rich she was, he no longer cared, because he had money of his own. It had taken a Westerfield to bring him down, and capture him. But the job had been done at last, and done well.