Jay looked jubilant, but Casey only smiled politely.
“If it would be all right with your parents,” Isaac said. Sabine had already told him that Casey’s parents would not attend, but he didn’t want to disregard them for Casey’s sake.
Jay couldn’t believe such an offer. The idea of such a wedding thrilled him. He’d been invited to many beautiful homes in his life, but the Gottesman residences—Park Avenue, Nantucket, and Aspen—took the cake. Casey told him there was also a large flat on the Place Vend?me.
“Would it be okay with your mother? To have it here or in Nantucket?” Isaac asked Jay.
“She’d love it,” he replied automatically. “Are you sure?”
Sabine and Isaac said in unison, “Of course.”
“Really?” Jay asked like a child at the prospect of getting a much wanted gift.
“We can have up to two hundred people,” Sabine said, recalling their last trustees’ dinner. The new caterer had done a very nice job, she thought. If it was a winter wedding in a large church, Casey could get a cathedral-length veil because she was tall enough. “And we can clear the room for dancing. Or we can have it at the club.” She felt cheery at the idea of a party with lots of young people. Then she yawned, sleepy and happy at once.
“If it’s a summer wedding, you can serve lobster.” Sabine put her left elbow on the table and rested her cheek on her hand.
It wasn’t that Casey was ungrateful. Sabine was offering her something she’d never had. Sabine and Isaac had married in Maui with no one in their respective families to witness the ceremony. Her parents had disowned her for marrying someone who wasn’t Korean. They had called Isaac garbage because he was the leftover of two women. Her mother and father returned every letter and gift Sabine sent them. Then her mother died, and less than a year later, her father died. They never saw Sabine’s exclusive department store in Chelsea or any of her beautiful homes. Sabine had told Casey once, “I made that store for them. No one loved clothes like my mother. And my father was handsome like a movie star. He wore the most beautiful neckties.”
Sabine fluttered her eyelids. “We had two hundred people here. Right, sweetie?” Isaac nodded at her indulgently, like a father.
“I don’t know two hundred people,” Casey replied, and Jay shot her a look.
She ignored him and drank the coffee served in the paper-thin porcelain demitasse cup. Sabine was falling asleep. Every morning she woke up at four-thirty, and at ten in the evening it was already an hour past her bedtime.
“You must be tired,” Casey said, covering Sabine’s soft, pretty hands with her own large, mannish one.
“I’m okay,” Sabine said. Her mouth made a small O even as she suppressed her yawn.
“I better put my wife to bed,” Isaac said. “You kids think about the wedding. The offer is good,” he said. He laughed at himself because it had sounded like deal talk.
Everyone said good-bye in the foyer. Sabine leaned in on Isaac, and he wrapped his heavy arm around her small shoulders. She was melancholy about them leaving, and Isaac hoped Casey would let them give her the wedding. A project would cheer up his wife. Sabine loved to give big parties.
The night had been warm, so there were no coats to retrieve from the closet. Casey put on the spring hat that she’d blocked herself. She’d trimmed it with pale pink silk peonies, but no one remarked on it. Sabine was standing up but snoring quietly. Casey and Jay thanked them for the dinner. And the offer. For everything. She kissed Isaac on both cheeks. The penthouse elevator that opened into their apartment came right away, and Casey and Jay stepped in. She caught Isaac’s wink good-bye. He looked older than she remembered—and kindly, like someone’s virile grandfather.
They were alone, and Jay slid his large hands under her linen tunic and held her waist. She let him do this, feeling nothing warm in his touch. “Can you believe they’d throw us a wedding? In that palace?” His voice was rich with pleasure and excitement. “Wow,” he remarked to himself. “They’re so nice.”
“Yes, they’re incredible,” Casey said. “So generous.” She pulled herself away from him as the polished brass doors opened to the lobby.
“And Isaac might help me,” Jay said. Again, sounding happy and lucky.
In the street, he kept chatting, and Casey nodded, looking straight ahead. She didn’t want to ruin his good feelings. But the thought that had persisted throughout the evening was: I have parents of my own.