Sweet Revenge

“You will,” Taylor said. “Everything is going perfectly.”

He kissed me sweetly and held me close. As I stood there in his loving arms I knew that he was right.

Everything was going to turn out just fine.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ted

I pulled up to the house feeling a bit drained. It had been a decent day on the golf course with Marvin and Tony, a few new business associates. They were new to the scene. Apparently, their rich daddy had died of a sudden cardiac arrest a few months back and the two of them had inherited millions. They were newly rich, young, and bored. They were the perfect suckers to get involved in the bike company.

And they loved racing. Both of them remembered me from my racing days and they were both very sympathetic to my plight with the back injury and the dead wife and all. I hammered it up a bit and milked the sympathy out of them like the pro I was. On top of that we had quite the entertaining golf game. Those guys were a riot. It was kind of like playing golf with the guys from the movie Stepbrothers.

After the game we hung out in the bar at the country club and got loaded. I must have drunk six shots of liquor with six beers to chase it down with. The boilermaker was a hell of a drink. I had to wait about two hours before I trusted myself to drive home without putting a scratch on my Ferrari.

As I drove home I thought about my current situation and how beautifully everything was working out. The new nanny I hired—Jane—she was pretty amazing. Not only was she sweet to look at, but she was super-efficient. The kids had taken to her right away and loved her to death. They minded her way better than they ever minded me or anyone else. She had some weird, sixth sense bond with them or something. Whatever it was, I couldn’t explain it. But I was happy as shit that she was there.

And lately she’d even stepped up her notch to include cleaning and some cooking, even though I had both a butler and a maid to do those things. She was not satisfied with the job they did—and apparently neither was I—because the house had become so spotless I could eat off the floors and everything sparkled.

Plus, her cooking skills were not to be outdone. She had a way of preparing food that just made every bite melt in your mouth. And it was real, succulent food. Most of the stuff my butler fixed tasted like the school lunches I remembered as a kid. Hell, I threw half of his food out and lately I’d been ordering out more than eating at home. It kind of made me wonder what the hell I was paying him for, but so far he’d been better than nothing. Now, I was starting to think about giving the nanny a slight bump in pay and firing both of their sorry asses.

I walked into the house amazed once again at how clean and “homey” it felt. It hadn’t felt like that in a long time and I was just now remembering how much I actually missed it. I was damn happy being a bachelor, but sometimes I did miss the comfort of having a great woman in the house regularly.

When I entered the kitchen I was surprised to see Jane putting the finishing touches on some Salisbury steak. It was one of my favorite dishes. And she had fixed mashed potatoes and gravy, plus some fresh, made-from-scratch rolls with it. A huge saucer plate of butter was in the middle of the table. It all smelled heavenly.

“Wow, this is a feast fit for a king,” I said.

Jane noticed me and was startled for a moment, but quickly smiled.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No, you’re fine. I should have heard you come in,” she replied. “I gave the butler and the maid the night off. The kids were feeling a bit rambunctious and I thought they might do with some less noise in the house. It seemed to do the trick.”

“Good thinking,” I said. “I have to admit; I love your cooking. I’m sure that I’m not the first to mention that. Did you take any culinary classes or anything somewhere?”

“Yes, actually,” Jane said. “I attended culinary school for a few semesters, but ultimately I had to drop out due to financial issues.”

“Well, there loss is my gain. With your exceptional talent they should have let you stay for free. Hell, they could have given you a job and let you teach them.”

Jane smiled and glanced down at my pants. It was then that I remembered I was wearing the classical, checkered golf pants.