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Van snorted.
“Their stars,” he said firmly, “shall remain crossed. Just as our paths shall remain uncrossed.”
“Young man,” Mrs. Kazinski murmured, “I wouldn’t count on that if I were you.”
Chapter Four
Does Mother Know Best?
M
ARY CALLED HER MOTHERthe next day and pointed her car toward Helen Samuel’s country home. It was a struggle to wait until cups of specially blendedgreenteaweresteamingonthekitchentable,but her mother would need the restorative. Finally, Mary could let the happy word bubbles burst out of her lips.
“Mom, I think I have found The One.”
Marywantedtohearhermothersay,yes,itsounds as though you have; now go for it with all you’ve got. Her mother, however, would never say that.
Right on cue, Mom reached out and squeezed her daughter’s hand with gentle, worried love. “Oh, honey, when you called to say you were coming over — it’s not Sunday — you’re always so busy, as you would be while you’re establishing your career — I’m blathering, aren’t I?”
Mary squeezed back. They both babbled when a flood of love and worry swamped the mouth’s ability to keep up. Mom did manage to listen, though, long enough to hear Mary’s story.
“I can’t wait to hear Betty laugh when I tell her about you stumbling into your hero businessman in the park.” Mom’s forced smile didn’t last. “This isn’t really funny, though, is it? I’d rather believe this isn’t real, this hasn’t really happened to you. It could have been years before you had to deal with what happens to the women in our family.”
“Or it could have been never. I wasn’t sure I believed this would happen at all.”
“I know you had your doubts, and I was glad you had them. Why should you worry until you had to? Are you sure now that — ”
“No, Mom, I’m not sure. Maybe our family curse is justonelong,multi-generationalcoincidence.Maybe I’m just feeling a wild but ordinary attraction. Maybe he isn’t The One. But — ” Mary chewed her lip “ — I think I’m hoping he is.”
Her mother’s lines of worry deepened. Mom had fought long and hard to find peace and happiness on her own, without her One. She didn’t want the same struggle for her daughter.
“Mom, he’s an amazing man. He inherited a moldering old company, Van Deventer Ventures — ”
“Everyone knows that company. This city would roll over and die without it.”
“Yeah, and it was baby steps away from bankruptcy when Van took over.”
“It’s not now? Well, you’re the one with that postgrad degree in business.”
“The company is minting money now, Mom. I hear he talked to every guy and gal on the shop floor to get their ideas on turning the company around.”
“That sounds smart. I don’t suppose many bosses pay attention to the people who do the work.”
“He did. They found ways to improve quality and cut prices, and his marketing campaigns are brilliant. Customers are lining up at his door instead of importing from cheap-labor countries. The company can’t keep up with all the new customers, and now he’s selling this cash cow to its own employees at a ridiculously reasonable price.”
“I heard something about that. Why would he do that when it’s making so much money?”
“I don’t know why he wants out, not yet, anyway. He has some ultra-secret project up his sleeve, too, taking the company in a whole new direction. I’ll find out about that too.”
“You will. You always do.”
“Aw, thanks, Mom.”
“I have one smart, talented daughter. I’m sure you and your MBA can explain it all to me and everybody else who doesn’t understand these things. But I wish he’d sold the pieces of the company for what he could get, like you said most tycoons would have. You wouldn’t want to write about him. And you’d still have a job.”
Mary didn’t want to think about that. That was done. She wanted to think about Francis Van Deventer the Fifth and the story she could tell if he would only give her an interview. “We’d soon be living in a ghost town if it weren’t for him. Instead, everybody’swinning,andwhenhaveyoueverheard of that happening in Big Business?”
“Maybe, but that dratted man has also bowled you over in love. Thank heavens you still have some doubts.”
