With the activity at the hotel buzzing like a well-ordered hive, Shana used her spare time to move her things out of the apartment she shared with Cate and into Justin’s penthouse.
Cate had already started packing Shana’s clothes into wardrobe boxes prior to the wedding. She also took it upon herself to hire two movers and a moving truck upon Shana’s return from her honeymoon.
Shana stood in the apartment living room watching two extremely buff, handsome, dark haired men in their early thirties lift heavy boxes like they were feathers.
“Where did you find these guys?” Shana asked.
Cate’s eyes peered over the top of the pear she was eating at the dark eyed Gypsy looking man dressed in a tight sleeveless tee shirt and painted-on black jeans. “At the gym.”
“I’ve never seen guys like this at our health club,” Shana replied looking at the man named Gabe whose biceps rippled and twitched when he so much as breathed. “Believe me, I would have noticed.”
Cate nodded slightly and swallowed a huge hunk of pear. “I quit going there. This is a new gym. Very Rocky-ish.”
“These guys are boxers?”
“Yeah,” Cate sighed.
“And just what are you doing there?” Shana gasped.
Cate’s eyes scoured the back end of Gypsy man as he bent over and picked up one of Shana’s upholstered French chairs single handedly and lifted it over his head. “Observing.”
“Good decision.”
The two men had filled the freight elevator and were making the last run to the truck, which left Shana and Cate alone.
“So, how goes it?” Cate said tossing the pear core into the trash can.
“Great. Wonderful. I highly recommend married life,” Shana said, mindful of Cate scrutinizing gaze. “So are you hoping to date the Gypsy king there?”
“He’s gay. I just like looking. And don’t change the subject. Are you happy?”
“Yes.”
Cate peered more deeply into Shana’s face. “Damn.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t tell if you’re telling me the truth or not.”
Shana sighed and pulled out a chair at the dining table. “I am happy…in my own way. I got what I wanted. The baby will have two parents and I’m with the man I love. He treats me wonderfully and adores me in bed.”
“But there’s the other thing,” Cate offered.
“I have a plan.”
“You always have a plan, Shana. Husbands aren’t like construction projects, you know. You can’t just draw up a blueprint for them.”
Shana felt a prick of tears sting her eyes. She was hanging on to a shred of hope, she knew, but it was all she had. “I’m going to make a real home for Justin and the baby. I think it’s something that has been missing for Justin for a very long time. Since his mother’s death, he hasn’t known a smidge of love or caring. I’m going to show him what it’s like to have all that back and more.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
Shana felt the persistent tear plunge from her eye and cascade down her cheek. “I can’t think about that.”
“I think you should, for the baby’s sake. Promise me you’ll do what you always do and devise a Plan B.”
Shana wiped her tear and nodded. “Okay.”
“And if that happens, I’ll be here Shana. I love you.” Cate hugged her best friend and said a silent prayer for her.
****
Justin had spent lunch and most of the afternoon with Leon Turnbull going over the last of his father’s Will. The formal and requisite filing of his marriage certificate with the state courts would insure that his father’s proviso would be fulfilled and the ownership of the Lux Hotel Chain had been officially transferred to Justin.
“It’s a day to celebrate,” Leon said handing Justin his copies of the formal documents.
Justin stared blankly at the stack of documents. His lifetime dream was reality. In the future, Justin knew he would look back on this moment and think, “There. It happened on that day at that point in my life.” It would feel then how it felt now when he looked back on the day he’d officially made his first million. Then his first billion. They were life landmarks.
Eerily, though, he never felt exuberant or elated at such times. Today felt like any other day. In fact, today he didn’t feel joyful at all. Being honest with himself, he actually felt quite dour. He was sure it wasn’t grief he felt over his father’s death. Nor was it a sense of his goal-oriented life-dream coming to an end. He still had plenty of work to do to rebuild the hotels and make them a success.
None of that explained this odd, sad, deflated feeling that overpowered him.
Leon looked at Justin whose shoulders were slumped as he took the sheaf of papers and held them for a long moment in his lap before placing them in his briefcase. “I suppose you want to get home to that gorgeous bride of yours. By the way, thanks for inviting me to the wedding. Frankly, it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to.”
“Really?” Justin looked up at him. “Why?”
“It was small and meaningful. Not so much folderol. The food was incredible. And the wines! I could tell you had a hand in that,” Leon chuckled and then his face became serious. “What I wouldn’t give to have a gorgeous woman,” he paused, “hell, any woman look at me the way that Shana looked into your eyes when she said her vows.” Leon looked off to the side and out to the window that overlooked the city. “Well, all I can say is, you’re the luckiest man on earth.”
Justin blinked. He tried to remember the wedding ceremony and to what Leon was referring, but he’d blanked it out. He didn’t remember Shana looking at him in any particular way that was different from any other time she glanced at him. She was just Shana. Exciting, sexy, hot Shana. For that, he had to agree with Leon. He was very lucky indeed.
“I am lucky,” Justin replied as he stood and extended his hand to his attorney. “Thanks for all your help.”
Justin walked out into the throng of shorts and tee shirt clad tourists on the sidewalk. The temperature had soared to over ninety. Justin took off his jacket and flung it over his shoulder as he turned north and walked toward the hotel.
Within two blocks, sweat from the heat had matted his cotton shirt to his back and chest. Swiping his face with his palm, he washed the perspiration from his cheeks and forehead. “I haven’t been like this since…”
The vision of Shana in the steam room the first time they met flashed through his mind and played itself again and again. Justin picked up his pace and began slow jogging toward the hotel. Shana. Naked. Hot. Ready for him.
Justin remembered Leon’s words. “I’m the luckiest man in several galaxies.”
****
Shana pointed to the last chair in the penthouse living room. “Take that one to the storage area as well. And that box is heavy. It contains all the draperies,” she said to the seven moving men she had hired, though none of them came from a gym or were boxers.
The last of Justin’s furniture had just gone out the door when the delivery of the new furniture arrived.
“Mrs. Yates?” the middle aged man with the Yankee baseball cap asked.
Shana stared at him blankly. Then she remembered. “Yes! I’m Mrs. Yates.”
“We’re here from Cozy Cottage with your new furniture. I have the bedroom suite first. Is that all right?”
“Certainly. The bedroom is right in through here,” she said walking the delivery man to the bedroom.
Standing in the doorway they saw drapery hangers installing new rods and yard of voluminous white voile floor length curtains. At the opposite side of the room carpenters were nearly finished tearing out the wall and ripping out sheetrock. It opened to a large unused storage closet on the other side.
The pounding and smashing was nearly deafening as Shana turned to the delivery man. “Here,” she said handing him a piece of graph paper on which she’d plotted out the furniture placement. “If you’ll just follow this plan f
or the layout, you shouldn’t have a problem.”
“Good thing the furniture is all covered in plastic so that all this dust won’t hurt it.”
“Oh, they’re nearly done. The cleaning staff is on their way up right now. By the time you get everything up here, we’ll be ready.”
“Whatever you say, lady,” the man replied scratching the back of his neck.
As Shana walked back into the living room, the new rugs were brought up and laid over the highly polished wood floor.
The cleaning staff went right to work behind the carpenters who carried out the debris in huge bundles.
The new living room furniture arrived minutes later. Shana had selected a 19 0’s low camel back long sofa with all down cushions covered in a white on white damask cotton fabric. There were two club chairs on the opposite side of the room covered in sage green and pink check fabric she’d found when choosing the Toronto fabrics. A rough hewn ash wood square cocktail table sat between the chairs and sofa. Above the white marble antique mantel, Shana had placed a portrait of Justin’s mother she’d found in the basement storage area that Peter Yates had pad locked years ago.
Gone were the heavy wine colored velvet drapes that shut out the view of Central Park and in their place were yards of silver-green silk fabric that puddled on the dark wood floor. The room was cozy and chic with a quiet but homey elegance.
Since the first time Justin had brought Shana to this penthouse, she’d been creating the perfect “home” in her mind. Each time she’d gone shopping for furniture and accessories for the hotels, she’d secretly re-decorated this suite to her liking. She wondered now if she had been literally writing the script of her own future even then.
She was more than pleased with the results. It was perfection.
***
When Justin walked into his penthouse, looked around at the absolute chaos of workers, delivery men and the absence of his luxurious furniture, fury shot through his body and exited in, “What in the Sam Hill is going on here?”
Shana whirled around to face her husband. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”
“I live here!”
“Yet. I meant not yet.”
She raced up to him and kissed him on the cheek as he stood stock still in shock. “Where is my furniture? The baby grand? My mother’s antique vase? The…”
“The vase is in the middle of the new dining room table with wild-flowers in it the way I’m certain she used it.”
Justin looked at Shana. “How did you know that?”
Shana smiled. “She just would have.”
The cleaning crew exited the bedroom and walked past Justin. “Good evening, Mr. Yates,” the woman, whom Justin remembered was named Mary O’Malley, said with a smile.
“Hello, Mary,” Justin replied politely. He turned back to Shana. “Get them all out of here, Shana. I want to talk to you,” he nearly hissed through gritted teeth.
Shana was non-plussed. She didn’t care how angry Justin was. This was a good move on her part.
“They’re all done, actually. The carpenters left hours ago.”
“Carpenters? For what?” Justin asked looking into Shana’s intractable blue eyes. She wasn’t a bit guilty for what she’d done. He could tell she was enjoying herself and at his expense. “What did you do?”
Her eyes flitted to the bedroom.
“Oh, no….” he said rushing toward his favorite room.
He stood in the doorway and looked at the quilt covered four poster bed that was so high off the ground he’d need a step stool to climb into it. Then his eyes took in the demolished wall.
“What in the blazes…????”
“It’s going to be a nursery. When I discovered all that glorious unused space, it was just perfect for what we need.”
He spun to face her, his face exploding with rage. “But you never consulted me! This is my penthouse. My things!”
“Now they’re ours. Not just ours, but the baby’s too.” She put her hands on her hips. “I won’t live in a sex suite, Justin. This was fine when you were playing pied piper to half the women in Manhattan. But that is changed now. I want to make a home for us. A real home where our child will be loved and loved and…well, loved.”
Shana’s earnestness and passion erupted in tears she hadn’t even felt forming in her eyes. All she knew was that she wanted a real life for her baby and for Justin. “All change is difficult, Justin, but it’s always for the best.”
“Well, I don’t like it.”
“You haven’t given it a chance.”
”Why did you do this without talking to me? If it was one of the hotels, you discuss even the selection of toilet paper holders with me.”
“Because this was personal. Because I knew you’d say no. Because this time, I know more than you do.”
“Then we need ground rules in our marriage right here and now. You will never do this again. We will talk everything over first. Agreed?”
“No,” she said adamantly.
Justin raked his hand through his hair. “I don’t get this. Who are you? Is this some hormonal/pregnancy thing I should know about?”
She touched his crimson cheek with her fingertips. “Justin. You are a powerful billionaire. You could probably run a few small countries at a time. But you don’t know anything about families. I do. I brought mine here for you to see what they are like. Families are full of laughter and love and arguing and trust and support. They make messes and they clean them up. The people in a home need comforting things. Soft sofas, soothing colors, warm blankets in the winter and cool breezes in the summer. A home is where you make memories. It’s not just a place to impress others. I know what it takes to make a home. You don’t. But I will show you.”
Justin felt her words strum strings in his heart that hadn’t been played since he was a child. What kind of a sorceress had he married?
“Does that include the portrait of my mother over the fireplace?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember ever seeing it. Where did you find it?”
“It was in the basement. I found your father’s storage area. How odd. You never saw that painting? She was beautiful.”
“Exquisite. He must have had it commissioned when they were first married. I wonder why he never hung it in our house?”
“Since it was here in the hotel, my guess was that it was in his office or a private suite perhaps.”
Justin slipped his arm around Shana’s waist. “Thank you for finding it. It means a lot to me.”
“I was hoping it would,” she said and kissed him sweetly. “I would like it if both of us went through the boxes I found down there. Maybe we’ll find some more things from your childhood that you have forgotten.”
“What on earth for?”
“To put in the nursery, silly. I want the baby to have a strong sense of both his parents and his grandparents. He should know how much you loved your mother. I want him to spend time climbing the rocks in Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona just as much as I hope he loves skating in Central Park.”
“You said ‘he’. Is there something you know that I don’t?”
“Oh, it’s way too soon to tell. I just have a feeling. Would you be disappointed if it were a girl?”
Justin realized at that second that this was the first time he’d actually thought about the child at all. Until this moment, Shana’s pregnancy had only impacted his life legally. He hadn’t had time to think about the fact that he was going to be a father. Fatherhood was something that happened to other men or to his college friends most of whom he’d lost contact with over the years. He’d never planned to be a father. In fact, he’d never planned anything beyond owning the Lux Hotel Chain and making money.
As he looked back into the transformed living room and dining room and saw his mother’s portrait looking back at him, he knew that this was the life his mother would have wanted for him. She would have wanted grandchildren. She would have wanted to hold his babies and tell him
how proud she was of him.
For the first time, he realized that Shana was giving him something he’d never thought he would ever have.
She was giving him a life.
CHAPTER TEN
It was the kind of Sunday morning Shana had thought only happened in romantic movies. The heat wave that had caused “brown outs” in New York and made for cranky hotel guests had moved out to sea. A dry, cool breeze sifted through the trees in Central Park and ruffled the petals of the geraniums and begonias on the penthouse roof terrace. Shana had slept until after nine o’clock, which was something she hadn’t remembered doing since childhood.
Stretching and yawning she opened her eyes to find Justin still in bed, still naked, his elbow bent so as to prop up his head while he watched her.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Trying to decide what I want for breakfast. Eggs Benedict, waffles and strawberries or you,” he said leaning down to kiss her.
She pulled back. “Let me brush my teeth first,” she pleaded throwing back the quilt and hand embroidered white Egyptian cotton sheets.
Justin grabbed her around her waist and yanked her back onto the bed. He planted a very firm kiss on her right buttocks. “Damn the waffles. I’ll take you. Yum.”
“You crazy…” she began and then spun around to face him. He clasped her breast in his hand and pulled it to his lips. “First. Appetizers.”
Justin nibbled and nuzzled while Shana sank her fingers into his hair and held him to her. She felt tingling sparks of arousal slinging through her belly. She slid her hand down Justin’s chest and toward his abdomen, when he took her hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed her fingers one by one, then curled his fingers around hers and held her hand to his throat. Resting his head between her breasts he said, “I want to apologize for being so angry about the penthouse. I love everything you’ve done. I have a confession. I sneaked a peak at the blueprints for the nursery.”
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