Page 10 of The Bet
“It’s Tobias’s birthday tomorrow.” Jacob told her.
“It’s his birthday?” Savannah hadn’t mentioned a word of it. “I didn’t know.”
“Mommy said Tobias doesn’t want to make a big deal of it. I don’t think old people like birthdays the way we do.”
She laughed. “Oldpeople? I guess they don’t. Do you think I’m old?”
“Not as old as Tobias.”
“Do you think your Mom is old?”
“Mommies never get old.”
She smiled.
“So they’re having a celebration for Tobias’s birthday?” Probably a dinner, she assumed, and some cake, and drinks, under the stars. That was the thing that had amazed her. The stars were so clear, so sharp, so easy to see, and there were so many of them. It took her breath away looking at the sky. It was beautiful. Only last night, she and Jacob had gotten into the separate hammocks and tried to count stars.
“Yeah.”
“Do you know who’s coming tomorrow?”
“Mommy said Grandma and Grandpa, and Tobias’s mom and dad and Xavier and Kay.” He counted off on his fingers.
“Kay and Xavier?” The way Jacob said it made her wonder if they were an item. Izzy had met Tobias’s brother at the party and had remembered him specifically because his girlfriend had bumped into her and spilled her drink all over Izzy’s jacket. And Savannah’s cousin Kay was hard to miss in that blood-red dress she had worn to the party in the summer.
Izzy had been wary of going but Tobias had told her that Savannah was desperate to meet her, and that they both wanted to personally thank her for stepping in and rescuing Jacob from the clutches of that woman who was trying to take him away.
“Are they together?” she asked, wondering if Jacob had intel that Cara and her magazines weren’t privy to.
He looked up at her with a puzzled frown. “You mean ‘is she his girlfriend?’” He screwed up his nose as if the idea of a girlfriend was disgusting.
Izzy glanced over her shoulder, wondering if the bodyguard could hear. For some reason, she felt as if she was being nosey, sticking her nose into other people’s business. She was curious. That’s all.
“Dunno.” Jacob shrugged. “Tobias says Xavier has a new girlfriend every week, and Millicent said it was about time he stopped making wild toast.”
“Whatdid she say?” Izzy asked.
“I dunno. Toast, or oats, or something like that.”
She grinned. Sowing his wild oats, probably.
As they approached a clump of trees and shrubs, the bodyguard took charge and led the way. They followed him down a flight of rickety wooden steps, then through a clump of trees and shrubs. The flowers blossoming around them had a sweet smell, like honey.
She heard the loud gushing water as they edged out into a clearing.
And there it was.
A wall of blue silk threaded with crystal, surging and thundering down the mountain. Izzy put her hands on Jacob’s shoulders, not because he was in any danger of falling, but because she was cold, and thought he might be too. The temperature was cooler here.
“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” she said, raising her voice.
He nodded, and they watched the water swishing over the rocks and collecting into a bluish-green pool at the bottom. It was stunning. She inhaled deeply, admiring the view, feeling soothed by the sound of the water.
She wanted to be still, and to make the most of this moment. It was amazing how calm and free she felt after a few days without her cell phone. Kawaya was such a huge contrast to her daily, normal life. There were no horns blaring, no sirens screaming, or traffic growling.
The sound of nature was soothing in comparison.
She had done the right thing by coming here, and now she wished Tobias and Savannah had come a few days earlier. Tomorrow, with the guests arriving a day before the wedding, the peace and calm of paradise would be lost forever and they would not know this calm again.
