Page 5 of The Bet
Chapter 2
“Tobias Stone seems like a nice guy,” said Cara, picking up a magazine and showing her the center pages. “See.”
“Then it must obviously be true,” said Izzy, running her hand through her dark hair. She flicked her bangs away from her face, but it would only take a shake of her head to have them falling back over her eyes again.
“He’s not a creep, Iz. He’s New York’s hottest bachelor.”
Izzy turned to her in consternation. “I didn’t know Gideon Shoemoney was a creep either.” Otherwise she would never have agreed to baby-sit for his two young children during summer.
The Shoemoneys had paid her well for covering evenings and on weekends while their au-pair had gone back home to France for the summer. Izzy’s parents hadn’t been too happy when she’d told them she couldn’t come home for the holidays, but she had never intended to anyway. Pittsburgh didn’t have the same buzz about it that New York did, and after her first year at Columbia had flown by, she was keen to stay here for the summer before entering her sophomore year.
By the end of this college year, she wanted an internship at a top firm. Even a middle one would do. But top would be better.
“You have to let that go, Iz. Shoemoney can’t get to you now, and not everyone is going to be a pervert like him.”
“Yeah, well ...” Just because she’d left their employment didn’t mean she was over it. And just because she had fought back didn’t mean she wasn’t afraid of something like that happening again. He still owed her some outstanding wages, but she had written those off. With the way she had left, she had no desire to go back and ask for it, though she sometimes wondered what Shoemoney’s wife had made of her abrupt departure. She had been away on business, that last time, and was often away each time her husband behaved inappropriately. She hadn’t called Izzy to ask why she had left, and it sometimes made her wonder if she knew what went on.
“We’re marching aren’t we?” Cara reminded her. “And when we march with thousands of other women, we’ll be sending out a powerful signal that men can’t do this and get away with it. Not anymore.”
“Maybe.”
Cara flicked through the pages, and stopped. “His brother looks hot,” she squealed, examining the article as if it were an exam paper. “And he’s dating Gisele Steiner!”
Izzy shook her head. “Never heard of her.” Nor did she care. What concerned her more was whether she was doing the right thing by accepting the job which Savannah had offered her—to babysit Jacob on weekends, as and when needed. But, before that, Savannah had asked her something that had taken her breath away.
How would you like to spend 5 or 6 days keeping Jacob company so that he doesn’t get too bored at our wedding?
Izzy had had to ask Savannah to repeat the request, because she wasn’t sure she heard right. Cara had nearly had a seizure when Izzy told her later.
“You’re going to Fiji? Tothewedding of the year?” Cara had yelled, “That isn’t work, girlfriend, that is a dream!”
“It’s not Fiji. It’s their own—his own—private island. Kawasaki, or something.” Izzy couldn’t remember what it was called, even though Savannah had told her enough times.
“Staten Island is the closest I’ll ever get to an island,” whined Cara. “I don’t care if it’s Tobias Stone’s private island orhis shed,” Cara airquoted the last few words. “If it’s in Fiji, then who cares?”
And so she had decided ‘yes’. Yes, she would gladly accompany Jacob to their wedding. The rest, working for them, weekends and maybe evenings, babysitting, she would have to think about.
She had to go and see Savannah now, to sign the paperwork.
“I wish you could take me with you,” Cara said, yet again. “I’d ask you to put me forward for that role, but I hate kids. Can’t stand the brats.”
“Jacob isn’t a brat,” said Izzy. “But you might have been, once.”
Cara swatted her butt gently. “You don’t even look excited.”
“Iam.” She was. But what if Tobias Stone was like Gideon Shoemoney?
“I couldn’t tell,” quipped Cara, drily. “You get to fly in his private jet!”
Izzy grinned. She hadn’t told her parents yet. Flying to a billionaire’s private island, on his private jet would be the last thing her parents wanted to hear. She didn’t want to send her dad over the edge again. She wasn’t sure what he would make of it.
“Are you going to accept her other offer?”
“I don’t know,” Izzy replied, bunching her hair into a ponytail. “Creeps don’t have that name branded on their foreheads.”
“You said Savannah’s nice, down-to-earth and honest. She wouldn’t be about to marry Tobias if he was an asshole, would she?”
“Some women don’t know the men are assholes until it’s too late.” But Cara had a point. Savannah was nice, and the two of them had gotten on well when Izzy had met her for that first time at her engagement party. It had been a few weeks after that when Savannah had contacted her to ask if Izzy wouldn’t mind babysitting Jacob for a few hours now and then. Savannah had told her that she didn’t trust anyone with her son, and that Izzy was the exception. At that time, Izzy had been busy working for the Shoemoneys, but a month later, after what had happened in the laundry room, she’d left.
