“That would be great, Jim. I’ll make sure Michael compensates you for accommodating his baby boy. You know there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for Lucas.”
“Yes, ma’am. I appreciate that.”
After I hung up the phone I couldn't help feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve. Except for this time I was getting exactly what I wanted and more.
My mother always used to say it was just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it was a poor one. My family had money. My father had worked his way up the corporate ladder at Pepsi-Cola. He died of a massive stroke when he was fifty-eight leaving a very nice life insurance policy pay-out for my mother and me.
But a couple million dollars doesn't really get a girl very far. It paid for school and college and my real estate license. It also paid for my cozy five bedrooms, three bath home on over six acres of land in Forest Park that I am saving for a rainy day. But as far as I can tell, with Michael, there's nothing but blue skies ahead.
Plus, with Lucas away at school I’ll have a lot more time to convince Michael of the financial benefits of my taking his last name.
It's no secret that I love the man's money. It certainly does help and in my opinion, there is more than enough to go around. But, I have feelings for Michael, too. He's fun and likes the finer things in life. Trips abroad. High-end champagne. Fast cars. Yachts. Jets. He knew when he met me that I liked those things, too.
Is it really wrong to admit that?
I didn’t think so.
"Jeez, the whole house smells like a tobacco factory." I couldn't take it anymore. With the air-conditioning running, I yanked open all the doors and windows, turned on the ceiling fans and tried my best to get the smell out.
Just as I was opening the front door Lucas came downstairs. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with his Nikes and the Rolex his father had given him.
“Lucas? Where are your bags?”
“I’m not packing.”
I clicked my tongue.
“You need to get your ass back up those stairs, throw something in a suitcase, I don’t care what it is and get your ass ready to leave. Jim is bringing the plane in an hour early and suitcases or no you will be on your dad’s jet.”
“I said I’m not taking anything.” He snapped. “You can tell my dad that I’m buying new stuff in New Hampshire. I’ll need to furnish my apartment and I hear it gets even colder there than here so I’ll nothing I have here will be warm enough come winter.” He smiled that shit-eating grin of his.
“Is that so?”
“ Yeah. I guess I’ll see you guys at Christmas.” Lucas looked at me with eyes as hard a granite. He had some features of his fathers. The broad shoulders and he was at least six feet tall. But everything else favored his mother. It was like I was reminded that she came first every time I looked at Lucas. She’d never be just a memory if he were still around the house. That is why I convinced Michael it would be best for him to get out of the house and start experiencing life on his own.
Michael agreed that Lucas should go to college earlier. But nothing I said or did convince him that his son should have his allowance of almost ten thousand dollars a month taken away from him.
“How is he ever going to stand on his own?” I argued.
“Jenna, I worked this hard so my son would never have to stand alone. He won’t ever go without.”
Maybe not while Michael was a single father raising his son. But when I officially become Mrs. Michael Brine things will be changing.
I watched as Lucas walked out the door leaving it wide open behind him and climb into the back seat of an Uber. I guess the limousine was not good enough for him. He was gone and I had the house to myself.
As I let out a deep sigh I looked and saw the vacant spot on the wall across from the windows in the sunroom.
“Where the hell is my Erik Hansen painting?”
Chapter 13 - Tilly
“Hi, mama!” I yelled into the phone over the static. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes. You’re a little choppy but I can hear you. Are you still at the airport?”
“Yeah. The weather is expected to get better by sundown.” I pointed to the television screen that was broadcasting all blizzard all the time across the screen. “I actually saw a couple of the Airport plows going past and they are starting to clear the runways. That’s a good sign, I think.”
I had arrived just as the sleet and snow started to fall. But by the time I got to the luggage area and found my bags, the last to be dropped down the carousel, the entire city had been encased in ice.