“I think you’re entitled to one glass of champagne, Baby Sister,” Kate said fondly. She turned to Jenny. “What about you?” she asked. “You need me to pick anything up for you?”
“We’re good,” Jenny said. “The UPS man delivered six boxes of stuff from some photography shop for Josh. He’s up in the draw with Jake and the interns right now, but as soon as he sees that he has new toys . . . excuse me, tools . . . to play with, I will have completely lost his attention for the rest of the night.”
As Mandy stood up to leave, she said to Kate, “Now, you remember that Jessica is going to be here at the end of the week, right?”
Kate set her mouth. “I remember,” she said.
“And you’re going to be nice?” Mandy asked.
“Yes,” Kate said, “I’m going to be nice.”
“Good,” Mandy said, “because I decree that there will be nothing but peace and happiness on this ranch while I’m carrying this baby. Understood?”
“Understood,” Kate said, smiling in spite of herself.
Mandy turned to Jenny, who said obediently, “Understood.”
They both watched their little sister drive off and then Kate said. “Has Gretchen called?”
“No,” Jenny said. “Let’s call her now and get it over with.” She took her smartphone out of the back pocket of her jeans, punched in a number, and put the phone on speaker.
“Girl!” a voice said. “How are things out there in the Wild West?”
“Not so wild as you might think,” Jenny said, “but I did have a possum under my house last night.”
There was a pause and Gretchen said, “That’s some sort of large rat, isn’t it?”
“Close enough,” Jenny laughed. “Look, I’ve got you on speaker and my sister Kate is here. We were wondering if you’ve found out anything about our cousin, Jessica Northrup.”
“I was going to call you tomorrow,” Gretchen said. “From what I can tell everything about her story checks out, at least in terms of how she’s related to you and who the major players are in the Northrup clan of Boston. The old man is still the titular head of the family law firm, but the son, Joseph Allen, the Third, aka Trip, runs the show. They’re typical Brahmins.”
“What does that mean?” Kate asked, leaning in toward the phone.
“Upper crust, very discreet, old money types,” Gretchen said. “Stuffy. They can be a little genteelly shabby around the edges, but proud to the point of being stiff necked.”
“Are they hard up for money?” Kate asked.
“They’d never say so,” Gretchen said, “but most of those families have at least been hard pressed in recent years.”
“What about Jessica herself?” Jenny asked.
Gretchen laughed. “She appears to be the wild child of this generation,” she said. “Daddy dearest has bailed her out of a few scrapes. Doesn’t seem to be anything too terribly serious. From what I can tell she doesn’t actually do anything for a living but be fashionable and turn up in all the right places. Flirts at being a patron of the arts as she can afford to do so.”
Kate and Jenny looked at one another and shrugged. “Do you get any bad vibes off these people?” Jenny asked.
“Not really,” Gretchen said. “Jessica seems to be who and what she told you she was. I agree with you that her just showing up out of the blue is a little strange, but maybe she’s just impulsive. It would fit with everything I’ve been able to find out about her.”
“Okay, Gretchen,” Jenny said. “Thank you and I owe you one.”
“You owe me several,” Gretchen said, “but who’s counting?”
When the connection broke, Kate said darkly, “This is just all a little too easy if you ask me.”
“Lord, Katie,” Jenny said. “You were suspicious when we didn’t know anything about this woman and now you’re suspicious when we do. At some point we just have to accept that she’s our kin and get to know her.”
“All I know,” Kate said, “is that an old horse who hasn’t bucked three times in his whole life tried to kick a stall door down when he laid eyes on her. If Horsefly doesn’t trust her, neither do I.”
“You can’t judge people based on whether a horse likes them or not,” Jenny said.
“Watch me,” Kate replied. “Just watch me.”
80
Joe’s reaction to the news that he was about to be a father was one of pure elation. He let out a happy whoop and grabbed Mandy, lifting her off the ground and twirling her around, only to get a sudden panicked look on his face.
He put her down with exaggerated care. “Oh my God. Honey. I’m sorry. Did I hurt you? Do you need to sit down? Can I get you anything?”
“Joe,” she laughed. “I’m pregnant, not terminally ill. No, you didn’t hurt me. I’m totally fine. And, no, I don’t need to sit down. Are you going to be one of those kind of expectant fathers?”
“Honey,” he said earnestly, “I’ll be any kind of expectant father you want me to be.”
“You’re already everything I want you to be,” she said. “Just have fun, Daddy.”
“Daddy,” he said, repeating the word with wonder. “I’m gonna be a Daddy. Oh, God. I have to go tell Josh and Jake.” He started to run out and then he stopped and turned back toward her. “Oh, gosh. Honey, I’m sorry. Is it okay if I go tell Josh and Jake?”
“Dear Lord, Joe,” Mandy giggled. “Yes. Go!”
Joe’s overall attitude of walking on air only added to the sense of excitement pervading Mandy’s world as the day of Jessica’s arrival neared. As soon as her Boston cousin accepted the invitation to come for a weeklong visit, Mandy decreed that the new swimming pool would be finished and landscaped before her cousin arrived.
In a county where it was all but impossible to compel contractors to commit to anything that passed for a schedule, Mandy had proven unusually adept at getting work finished on time, and this was no exception.
Two days before Jessica’s visit, Mandy and Joe stood looking at their sparkling new infinity pool, surrounded by an expanded flagstone patio. The cabana at one end was outfitted with both an outdoor kitchen and fireplace, as well as comfortable lounge chairs and lazily rotating fans. The waterfall opposite the house looked remarkably natural and filled the space with the relaxing sound of running water.
“Honey,” Joe said approvingly, “you have absolutely outdone yourself. This is gorgeous. I’m never going to want to go inside again.”
“Do you really like it?” Mandy asked anxiously. “I didn’t forget anything did I?”
“It will be absolutely perfect as soon as we add the fish,” Joe said with a straight face.
“Darn it,” Mandy said, frowning. “I knew I should have told them to do a koi pond. Do you think Jessica will notice?”
“I was actually thinking about perch, not koi,” Joe said.
“Perch?” Mandy asked with confusion. “That doesn’t sound very ornamental.”
“I wasn’t thinking ornamental,” Joe said, “I was thinking edible. Don’t you want me to be able to fish right here in the comfort of my own back yard?”
Mandy punched him in the arm and exclaimed, “Oh! You!”
“Ouch,” Joe said with mock alarm. “That hurt!”
“You’re gonna think hurt, Joe Bob Mason,” Mandy said. “You just keep your nasty old perch out of my swimming pool.”
“Well, okay,” he said, “I can use catfish, but I’ll have to muddy up the water a little bit. It’s way too clear in there for bottom dwellers.”
Mandy thwacked him again and Joe burst out laughing.
“That water is clear and it’s going to stay clear,” Mandy declared. “Trust me. You do not want to know what I spent on the filtration system. Algae would not dare grow in this pool.”
“Got it,” Joe said. “No perch. No catfish. No algae.”
“Now,” Mandy said briskly, “we only have two days to plan the cookout, so we need to make a list.”
Joe frowned. “What cookout?” he aske
d.
“The one we are going to have to welcome Jessica to the ranch,” Mandy said. “I want you and Josh to cook the meat, that is unless you object to trying out the new grill.”
“Object!” he laughed. “My God, wait until Josh sees this thing for the first time.” Joe ran his hands lovingly over the gleaming expanse of stainless steel and said reverently, “A K1000HB Hybrid. I cannot believe we have a Kalamazoo grill.”
Mandy rolled her eyes. “For heaven’s sake, Joe, you didn’t get that teary eyed when you proposed to me.”
“I know, honey,” he said, “but, well . . . this is a $20,000 grill.” He looked at her helplessly, as if imploring her to understand the distinction he was drawing.
When Joe had insisted on buying her the Range Rover as a wedding present, Mandy said she wanted to put in their pool and give him the kind of outdoor living space he loved, complete with a kitchen.
The experience of deep-frying a turkey with Josh and Jake the previous Thanksgiving had kindled Joe’s interest in cooking. He was making progress with indoor cuisine, but both he and Josh were completely obsessed with grilling so Mandy had ordered him to get the best grill available.
“But, Mandy!” he protested. “The one I really want costs an arm and a leg.”
“Joe,” she said, “you are talking to a woman who has bought not one but two $7,000 espresso machines in the last year. Get what you want.”
Now, as she stood watching her new husband pet his grill, she couldn’t help but giggle.
“What?” Joe said looking up, and then blushing. “Okay, fine. Tease me. But isn’t she just gorgeous?”
“She?” Mandy said. “I’m competing with a $20,000 stainless steel female grill?”
Joe reached out and snaked his arm around Mandy’s waist, drawing her into a kiss that left her breathless. “You’re not competing with any female of any kind. Got it?”
“Got it.” She smiled up at him. “I love you, Mr. Mason,” she said.
“And I love you, Mrs. Mason,” he said. “Now, you don’t worry about a thing. We’re gonna grill up a spread your cousin will never forget. I can’t wait for Josh to see this baby!”
His face suddenly brightened. “Hey! Call your sisters. We need to give the grill a trial run tonight. I think Josh is in town right now. Let me call him to pick up some meat.”
Two hours later, everyone had assembled around the pool. The men were crowded around the grill testing knobs and buttons and reading passages from the owner’s manual. An array of steaks, hamburgers, and ribs was spread out on the rack, and the men’s technical discussion was interspersed with sage observations about the merits of marinades and rubs.
“Would you just listen to them,” Jenny said, taking two ice-cold longnecks and one lemonade out of the refrigerator in the cabana. “How can three men who spend their days running a town, excavating a cache of priceless artifacts, and manipulating thousands of dollars of camera equipment get so worked up about the relative merits of cayenne versus black pepper in a barbecue rub?”
Kate accepted the longneck Jenny held out to her and Mandy took the bottle of lemonade.
“The boys down at the security team office are just as bad,” Kate said. “Miles showed up yesterday with some new drones and there they all were, out in the pasture in their military black ops outfits clutching controllers and staging dog fights like a bunch of little boys.”
“Did you point that out?” Jenny asked.
“I did,” Kate said, “and Miles informed me they were conducting a ‘shake down’ to test the ‘tactical efficacy’ of the equipment.”
Jenny laughed. “That’s as bad as Josh coming back from the barber shop with the latest gossip and telling me it’s ‘information sharing.’”
“Miles is happy all this is finished though,” Kate said, gesturing with her beer bottle. “He didn’t like the extra activity ‘inside the perimeter.’”
Mandy frowned, “Why would the security team object to me putting in a swimming pool?”
“It wasn’t the pool Miles was bothered about,” Kate said. “He didn’t like all the ‘unverified personnel’ coming in and out of the front gate. He’d like to post a man up there and I won’t let him.”
“Why not?” Mandy asked.
“Well, for one thing,” Kate said, “I’m not going to have to pass by some security guy every time I drive on my own land. And second, I think people are talking enough about what’s going on out here without us putting an armed guard at the front gate.”
“Point well taken,” Jenny said. “I hate to bring this up, but we are getting ready to have company. Just exactly what are we going to tell Cousin Jessica about all this? The security boys aren’t what I would call low profile no matter how far they stay in the background.”
Mandy set her mouth in a firm line. “Now you two do not start,” she said. “We already talked about this. Cousin Jessica is family. The woman has eyes. She’s going to see everything that’s going on and it would be rude not to answer her questions.”
Kate cleared her throat and said delicately, “Answering her questions doesn’t mean we have to tell her everything, Baby Sister. I mean after all, we wouldn’t want to put her in danger or anything.”
The look on Mandy’s face faltered. “Oh,” she said. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
Jenny cut her eyes toward Kate, who gave her an imperceptible nod. “I have to agree with Katie about this, Mandy,” Jenny said. “If there’s even the slightest chance someone is after the treasure still, we wouldn’t want to get Cousin Jessica involved.”
“Of course not!” Mandy said. “I just don’t want her to think we don’t trust her. What should we do, Katie?”
“At the cookout the night she arrives you should let me tell her the short version of what’s going on at the cave,” Kate said. “I’ll answer her truthfully, but I won’t tell her enough to possibly put her in harm’s way. How does that sound?”
Mandy frowned. “You promise you won’t lie to her?”
“I promise,” Kate said.
“Alright. Then I guess that’s okay,” Mandy said. “I have to go inside and get the rest of the fixings for the burgers,” she added. “I’ll be right back.”
“Do you need some help?” Jenny asked.
“No, no,” Mandy said. “You two just sit here and have your beer and enjoy the pool. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as she was out of earshot, Jenny said, “You handled that well.”
“Thank you,” Kate said. “I want to make sure Cousin Jessica doesn’t know more than she needs to know, which is next to nothing.”
“Agreed,” Jenny said. She gestured toward the pool. “This should keep her well occupied. She looks like one of those women who wants to lay out in the sun all the time.”
“I never understood that,” Katie said. “Most of my life I’ve just wanted to get out of the damned sun and get in front of an air conditioner.”
“You never even saw an air conditioner until you moved off this place,” Jenny laughed.
“And look how quick I had one installed when I came back,” Kate countered. “In a state where it’s hotter than the hinges of hell on a regular basis, why exactly would anybody want to just get hotter laying around out in the sun?”
“You’re thinking about it like what you are, a working woman,” Jenny said. “For them, it’s a girly girl thing.”
“Getting heat stroke is a girly girl thing?” Kate asked.
“Getting an even tan is a girly girl thing,” Jenny explained. “And it doesn’t matter so long as it keeps Cousin Jessica occupied and out of our business.”
81
The evening of Jessica’s arrival at the ranch, Jake and Kate stood at the far end of the pool where the water flowed smoothly off the edge and into a lower collecting pond.
The sound of the falling water helped to protect their conversation from prying ears. Both were smiling, and to the casual observer seemed to be engaged in pleasant
small talk.
“You’re related to that,” Jake said, hiding the words behind the edge of his cup.
“Apparently,” Kate answered, turning as if gazing out over the pasture. “What do you think of her?”
“I think she asks too many questions,” Jake said. “She’s far too interested in the draw for my comfort level.”
Kate took a drink from her beer and murmured, “More than casual curiosity, you think?”
Jake turned and nodded as if Kate was showing him something on the horizon. “I don’t know,” he said. “The discovery of the first treasure was certainly major news and she’s already admitted to you and your sisters that she kept up with the reports, but first rattle out of the box tonight she wanted to know about the security teams.”
“Well, they are hard to miss,” Kate said, glancing back at the cabana where Jessica was engaged in telling an animated story to Josh, Joe, and Mandy. Jenny, who was sitting out of Jessica’s line of sight, caught Kate looking at them and rolled her eyes.
Kate stifled a giggle and said, “We really should get back over there and rescue Jenny. She’s going to kill us for deserting her.”
“Okay,” Jake said, “but I’m serious. I don’t like the way Jessica was asking how many security men there are on the ranch. Why would she need to know that?”
“She strikes me as the predatory female type,” Kate said. “Maybe she’s just on the lookout for hunky men in Kevlar.”
Jake frowned. “You think the security guys are hunky?” he asked, a note of uncertainty in his voice.
Kate cocked an eyebrow at him. “Really, Jake?” she asked. “I didn’t say I thought they were hunky. I said I thought Jessica might be on the prowl for one of them. I prefer my men a little more . . . academic.”
She delivered the final word with a drawled emphasis that brought a smile to Jake’s features. “I’m ridiculously academic,” he said.
“That you are,” she agreed. “I’ll take brains over brawn any day.”
“Hey!” he protested, affecting wounded pride. “I can do brawn.”
The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories Page 50
