“And as you saw, the parents haven’t recovered. But don’t worry. Stacy will straighten them out.”
That idea bothered him. He’d helped solve international skirmishes but it would be his wife-to-be who’d handle four disappointed parents?
“You ready to see your office?”
Nate looked up at the house with its deep porch. “Who owns this place?”
“I don’t know. Someone in the Thorndyke family, but it’s all done by mail.”
“Could it be Billy Thorndyke?”
Bob grinned. “The boy dumped by the beauteous Terri? Speaking of whom, the scuttlebutt is that you two are more than friends.”
“Not true,” Nate said, but he looked away. “After you.”
Bob took a key from his pocket, unlocked the big front door, and they went inside.
Within seconds, Nate knew he hated the place. There were two large rooms plus a kitchen, a bath and a pretty garden room in the back. Stacy had done a brilliant job of decorating. She’d used the apartment in DC as her starting point, and mixed modern furniture with pieces from the Southwestern US. On a big pine door was a brass plaque: Nathaniel Taggert. Inside was a desk of heavy oak, with Western carvings down the sides. It was something that someone from Colorado would be assumed to like.
The framed paintings and drawings were of ranch scenes. There was even a glass-fronted box containing different kinds of barbed wire. The rugs were Navajo.
“Look like your home state?” Bob asked.
“Sort of.” Nate didn’t add that it was a tourist’s version of Colorado. He looked out the window of what would be his office and saw a shaded front yard and the street. There was a sidewalk where a woman was walking her dog.
This is it, he thought. This is where I’ll be spending most of the rest of my life. Behind the desk was a huge chair done in artfully aged brown leather. “I’ll be a Colorado cattle baron in Virginia.”
“What was that?” Bob asked.
“Nothing.” He turned back to the man. “So what do you do?”
“I have a law degree but so far I haven’t used it. I’m going into politics so I’m trying to build my résumé. I’m going to Africa to do some teaching.” He paused. “I think I ought to tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
“Stacy’s father bought the old Stanton house for your wedding gift.”
Nate looked at him in question.
“You know that big white house in the center of town? The one with the fountain in front of it?”
For a moment Nate was blank, then his eyes widened. “You don’t mean that derelict old place with the columns, do you?”
“The very one. Stacy and her dad love that house.”
“Stanton,” Nate whispered as he began to remember. “Her parents’ house was remodeled to look like it.”
“Yeah,” Bob said. “When Lew was a young and ambitious lawyer, he wanted the biggest house smack in town, where he could see and be seen. But the owners wouldn’t sell, so he made his house as much like it as possible. He laughs about it now. So anyway, he finally bought the big old house, and he’s going to give it to you and Stace. She will love making it back into the showpiece it once was. You’ll have to live in construction for a couple of years, but someday you’ll have a grand staircase to walk down. Stacy will wear one of her Dior gowns and—Are you all right? You look like you’re going to be sick.”
“I, uh, I need to go to the doctor.” Nate’s voice was barely audible. “I mean Jamie. My cousin. I need to see him. Now.”
“Sure,” Bob said. “I’ll walk back to Lew’s place.” He put the key on the corner of the desk. “This is yours now.” He started for the door, but turned back. “Nate, I don’t really know you, but I do know Stacy. She’s mad about you. You’re all she could talk about the last time she was here. The elegant dinners, your apartment, your glamorous nights out. She kept saying that you were her dream man, that it was as though she’d made you up, that you were too perfect to be real. She’s so happy you’re going to come here to live and open an office. She can’t bear to leave her parents, and now that her brother has moved to LA, she’s tied even tighter here.”
When Nate was silent, Bob said goodbye and left the house.
Nate waited a while then he went outside, locked the front door and sent a text to Jamie.
Meet me in the gym. 2 m