Chapter 19
Izzy
“Izzy!” Katherine says, jumping up from her chair to hug me. “I was so thrilled when Nikolai told me you’d be coming.”
I hug her back, happy to see that she’s dressed as glamorously as ever. The patterned shawl she’s wearing would look frumpy
on almost anyone, but on her, it transforms into something elegant. I admire how she owns her wardrobe, rather than let the
clothes wear her.
As I sit, she gives her son a much more reserved kiss on the cheek. Given the brief times I saw them interact over the summer,
it’s clear that they’re not as close as I am with my parents. He didn’t go into any detail, but I could tell he was relieved
when I agreed to come. While I’d have done it even if I hadn’t interned for Katherine, it’s nice to see her again.
“I figured you’d want to catch up with your favorite intern,” Nik says, draping his suit jacket over the back of his chair
before taking a seat next to me. When he picked me up earlier, I nearly drooled at the sight of him. It’s impossible to look
bad in a two-thousand-dollar suit, after all. “It’s been nice to have a friend on campus.”
A friend. It’s the most accurate way to describe what I am, even if the word makes my stomach twinge.
I just smile, arranging my napkin in my lap. “Yes. We’ve run into each other quite a few times now.”
She smiles at us both, clasping her hands together. She’s wearing expensive rings on every finger except the left ring. We were discreet around her; I don’t think she ever suspected that we were hooking up. “And how are you, Izzy?”
“Good.” I open my menu. Katherine originally suggested Vesuvio’s, a restaurant in town, but when I told Nik that’s where Sebastian
works, he got her to agree to a fancy little place in nearby Hudson instead. “I’ve been busy with school and volleyball.”
“My new intern isn’t half as good as you,” she says as she opens the wine list. “The other day, she ordered powder blue tablecloths
instead of baby blue. It completely threw off the momentum of the reception planning.”
I wince. I made a mistake like that exactly once, and corrected it before she even noticed. “Yikes. I’m sorry.”
“Not everyone appreciates the details like you do.” She turns her attention to Nik, twisting around one of her rings. “Your
grandfather wants to know how things are going.”
“They’re good,” Nik says, glancing at me. “School is fine. Hockey is fine.”
“Good.” She takes a sip of water, pressing her lips together. “Call him soon, please.”
He nods. “I will.”
They both fall silent. I needlessly adjust my napkin as I look between them. A little stiffness, I expected, but this is just
awkward.
“Are you in town for the hockey opener tomorrow, Katherine?” I ask after we order our food. “I wish I could make it, but I
have an away match.”
A selfish part of me is grateful that I won’t have to pretend to only cheer for Cooper. I’d definitely feel unwarranted jealousy
if I noticed girls wearing Nik’s jersey, too.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she says, fiddling with her rings again.
I blink. “Really?”
Nik’s foot nudges against mine. I give him a look, but he ignores it. Katherine asks him a few more questions about his classes, and he replies to each one, offering just enough information to be a complete answer, but not enough to encourage conversation. I gulp my wine, grateful that the server didn’t card me.
“I’m going to the powder room for a moment,” she says eventually, reaching for her purse. “Be good, you two.”
I turn to Nik as soon as we’re alone. “She doesn’t go to your hockey games? Ever?”
He shrugs. “It’s not her scene. Hasn’t been since she divorced Dad.”
“Not her—she’s your mother.”
“An astute observation.”
“Why did you bring me here?” I bite my lip. “Just so she’d focus on me, not you?”
“I brought you here because I wanted a friend with me.” He leans in, his hand brushing over my thigh. “And because yes, she
likes you and misses you. Which is more than I can say about our relationship.”
“Oh, Nik.” I can’t imagine being so formal with my own mother. “Why? What happened?”
He looks at me with the flickering, hesitant expression he wore when he asked me to lunch in the first place. “Ask her about
how work is going. I thought you might enjoy talking to her about some of your old clients.”
When we finally wrap up the meal, Nik gives Katherine a perfunctory kiss on the cheek before going to get the car. I spent the lunch chatting with her about work; he seemed content to listen, chiming in occasionally with a comment or question. It was nice to talk wedding planning specifics again, even if the discomfort never faded. It might be boring to most people, but I actually do like pondering the differences between powder blue and baby blue and the respective vibes they bring to a reception.
“I’m so happy to see that Nikolai is finally dating someone,” she says as she slips into her coat. “And that it’s you, especially.”
I freeze with my scarf halfway around my neck. “Oh. We’re not... we’re just friends.”
“Well, even that,” she says, although she raises an eyebrow. “I’ve never seen him with many friends.”
“He has his teammates.” I fight the urge to add something about how she’d know that if she went to his games. It’s not my
place to overstep like that, even if I do have my own relationship with her. Whatever happened to cause this rift between
Nik and his mother, I’d be willing to bet it has nothing to do with hockey. I’m glad that he wanted me to help him today,
even if it was just because I’m someone who knows her.
She has a frown on her face, as if her mind is elsewhere.
“I just worry about him,” she says eventually. She pats down her blond hair, so different from his. He must look more like
his father. Her eyes are blue instead of brown, and she has a rounder face. “He’s always been a loner. Never brought girlfriends
around, either. But he does look at you in a way I haven’t seen from him.”
My breath catches. Of course she’d want to see that, if she thinks he’s lonely. She’s just reading into things.
Not for the first time, I wonder what led to her divorce from Nik’s father. It seems like his dad isn’t part of his life at
all.
“It’s been nice to be his friend.” I step onto the sidewalk with her, bracing myself against the chill in the air.
“You’ll keep in touch, won’t you?” She hugs me again as Nik pulls up in his car. “We can talk about next year. If I didn’t
scare you away from the industry, that is.”
“Really?”
“Of course,” she says with a smile, looking more like the woman I remember from the summer—ready to go to bat for her clients at a moment’s notice—than whatever happened over this lunch. “You have a big heart, Izzy. That’s rarer than you’d think it would be.”