by Cee, DW
“Definitely not, Sir.”
“Did you make her happy?”
“Probably not, Sir.”
“Are you going to piss off her fiancé?”
“Most definitely, Sir.” I thought I saw his face crack just a smidgen. The smile was there, somewhere. “May I ask you a question, Sir?”
“Go ahead.”
“How long will you be staying in San Francisco?”
“We leave tomorrow night, I have a meeting Thursday and Friday, and I’ll be home in time to take my wife to the theater that night. Why?”
“I was wondering if you’d allow Delilah to stay in San Francisco with me?”
“Hell, no.” Donovan Taylor snorted. “I won’t let her go see her fiancé. What makes you think I’ll let her be with you?”
Damn. I thought I was further ahead than I really was. “I know Lilah really likes dresses and there’s an Oscar de la Renta dress exhibit at the Fine Arts Museum. I thought she might want to see it.”
Donovan Taylor thought about what I’d said. Had I actually stumped him? “Delaney mentioned wanting to see this exhibit. How long will it be there?”
“I believe the exhibit is done at the end of the month.”
He thought again and then called his wife. “Princess? Can you meet me in San Francisco?” She must’ve asked why because the man in front of me answered, “I have a surprise for you. I’ll be there early Thursday. Meet me, Princess. We haven’t had a weekend away in a while.” There was some form of complaining. “How about you come Friday after DJ is done with summer school? He can go stay with anyone on the cul-de-sac and the twins can fend for themselves while you’re away. It’s not like they’re home much. As for the theater tickets, give them to your parents. Anything else?” I guess Mr. Taylor had resolved all the issues. “Good. I’m here with the kids. I’ll call again when I get to the hotel. Bye. I love you.”
“Good thinking, Nolan. If Delilah agrees, you can hang with her until the Mrs. and I leave on Sunday.”
“Where will you, Mrs. Taylor, and Delilah stay?”
He stopped to think again. “The Mrs. and I will be at the Fairmont. Delilah will stay at the Reid apartment.”
“May I—” I don’t know why I tried. I was shut down immediately.
“When hell freezes over.”
“What if Nicky joins us?” We both turned to my only true ally in this room.
“You coming, Nicky?”
“Contrary to what you think, Uncle Donovan, I do work for a living.” The snort was back. “However, I have a lab I can visit in San Francisco, so yeah, since you brought the plane, I think I will hop along.”
“Can the three of us, plus my two debate partners, stay at the Reid apartment?”
Once again, the pause before he asked, “Ellie, how many bedrooms in your SF apartment?”
“Three, Uncle Donovan.”
“Are there still all those crazy beds? Jungle room still exists?”
“Last I was there it did.”
“All right.” He looked dead at me. “If Delilah agrees, you and your debate partners may stay there. Boys in one room. Girls in the other. You got it?”
How could I not get such a scary overture? “Yes, Sir.”
“Good. See you later.”
Donovan Taylor left the room after giving me a gift like no other.
San Francisco! Here we come.
Delilah: “And I say, hey, hey, hey, hey, I said, hey, what’s going on?...” ~4 Non Blondes
How on earth did I end up in San Francisco with this man? How did Nolan keep ingratiating himself into our family ventures and adventures? To be fair, he had a purpose for being in this city. I was here because I wanted a ride home with my father.
Ellie, James, and John went back to work, JR had meetings to attend in DC, and Ian decided to head back to Iceland, so Nicky and I followed Dad. Nicky told me that he, too, had meetings scheduled. I was the only one with absolutely nothing to do.
“Mom’s coming?” I asked when I received a text asking about the weather up here. I told her it was cold, like always.
“Your mother and I will have a romantic weekend away from you kids.” Dad made us sound as if we were still dependent upon him and Mom. I supposed we kinda were, but mostly, we weren’t.
“What am I to do?” I asked no one in particular.
“Can you help me, Delilah?” Nolan queried.
What could I possibly do to help this man? “I suppose?”
“Have you ever debated before?” I nodded yes. “Great! Can you help me with research on this topic here?” He pointed to the one section of his laptop that had a big empty space. “I’ve been having too good of a time in New York with your family. I should’ve done more studying, but I didn’t. Instead, I played.”
“Why do you do this, Nolan?”
“The debate?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s something I did in college with my two partners, Cam and Eddie, and we enjoyed it so much, we continued on. This weekend is a super important tourney that I haven’t been faithful to—too many distractions in my life.”
“So when will Cam and Eddie arrive? And is Cam a man or woman?”
“Tonight, and Cam is all woman. She was the homecoming queen, president of her sorority, summa cum laude graduate. She’s beautiful, she’s sweet, and she’s as funny as they come. You’ll love her when you meet her tonight. They’re flying up after work.”
All the enthusiasm in all those adjectives irked. Who was this perfect Cam?
What also kind of irked was the fact that in the course of one trip, Nolan felt comfortable enough, with my family, to bring his friends to our place. No one minded, and there was plenty of space. However, there was just this weird sense of closeness that happened since New York. How it was actualized was beyond me.
“Give me your laptop. I’ll help.” I grabbed his computer and went from site to site looking to fill in all the blanks. Nolan walked back and forth in the living room and recited his speech. He also played the role of the other team members and asked counter questions. Then, he’d answer those points. He was quite a good actor and debater.
After watching him briefly, Dad asked, “Nolan, you ever think about becoming a lawyer? We could always use another acute lawyer.”
“For about a year and a half when I went to law school and passed the bar.”
“You have a law degree?” Dad was impressed and interested. He was always dismayed by the fact that his three oldest never wanted to take over the family business. There was still hope that DJ might turn out to follow in Daddy’s footsteps, but that was a longshot. DJ was more interested in playing football than arguing a case.
“I do, Sir. I have a law degree, and a business degree, but I’m a few years away from earning my MD and doctorate. The lab has taken too much of my time. I dropped out of the classroom a few months ago and haven’t been tempted back in.”
“How old are you?”
“Same age as Delilah, Sir.”
Dad was now damn impressed. “Have you invented anything like my nephew Nicky?”
“I have, but nothing as successful—at least until my hair growth serum gets FDA approval. That’s my slam dunk. I’m hoping Nicky and Delilah will join efforts with me since they’ve begun working on one for men. My product is for women. We can market them together.”
“How long does it take to come up with something viable and sellable?”
“Years. Research alone takes years and years. I’m willing to share my secrets and the lab, but your daughter is resisting.”
“Why, Baby? Why are you still saying no?” Dad thought I was nuts. He’d go ballistic if he knew I’d already bound myself to work with Nolan when he ferreted that information from John. I’d been a chicken and hadn’t kept my end of the bargain. Nolan was a gentleman about not calling me out. “Why would you give up this kind of an opportunity? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Hop aboard and enjoy the ride.”
&n
bsp; “I’ve told you, Rhys isn’t crazy about the idea.”
“You can tell Rhys I said to man up. If he’s insecure about you working with Nolan, then he has no business believing he’s going to marry you. I don’t want a pansy-assed son-in-law. Since you don’t appear to have direction in your life right now, I’m insisting you start working with Nolan and your cousin. That’ll get you up every morning and keep you from becoming lazy.”
“Lazy? Did you call me lazy?” What the hell? “Daddy. You do understand that I—”
“Enough,” Dad cut me off. “You start working with these two fine young men once we’re home,” he said to me. “You,” he pointed to Nolan, “come see me in my office and work on a case with Jane. I think you’ll be perfect for this medical patent case we’ve been having trouble with. Your expertise in medicine, law, and debate will come in handy. Can you do that?—Spare some time for our firm? We will pay you, of course.”
“I’d pay you to work for you, Sir.” What a kiss-ass.
Daddy smiled his evil smile. “Good. Now that we’re settled, I’m off to work.” Dad took a few steps before he said, “I change my mind. Nolan,” he commanded, “come with me. Let’s see how good you can really be.”
“Where are you taking him, Daddy? He has to prepare for a debate.”
“There’s no better debate preparation than doing battle in a conference room. You see that thick file over there?” Dad pointed to the tome-sized folder. “Start skimming while we’re sitting in San Francisco traffic.”
“With pleasure, Sir.”
That’s how Nolan ended up with a job with my dad, and how I ended up with a job with Nolan. What the hell was going on?
I...
Donovan: I…mpressed
This kid was a freaking genius!
Between his orating skills, his knowledge in medicine, and his law degree, he singlehandedly ran circles around the opposing team.
“Where’d he come from?” Jane, who flew up here to help, asked. “How’d Nolan O’Shaughnessy end up in this conference room?”
“Forget Rhys. I’m going to push for this kid. He’s a damn prodigy,” I told my partner. “Nolan, what kind of law were you going to practice had you decided on this profession?”
“Patent.” He answered during this quick break. “Patent law was most necessary for my inventions. That was one of the reasons why I went to law school before finishing my medical degrees. I needed to know what I was up against, I didn’t want to get hosed by my competition with in-house lawyers, and I didn’t want to pay the exorbitant lawyer fees.”
“I like you better and better, Kid.” The smile on his face said it all. “Get back to work,” I commanded, not wanting him to lose focus or to feel too confident about himself.
Jane whispered, “So you’ll switch allegiance just like that? You’re going to make Lilah break off her engagement?”
I snorted. “Like I have that kind of power. Can you exert that kind of influence over Maxie?”
Jane replicated my sentiment. “Yeah, right! Especially since her father is such a sucker for his daughter, I’m screwed. We’re all screwed.”
“How about we let Nolan and the rest of our staff finish this up? Let’s go meet our spouses at the Giants’ game.”
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day. Let’s go.”
Call me crazy, but between Nolan and the staff Jane brought up with her, I felt pretty good about our chance of winning. I let them be and went to meet my bride of almost thirty years.
“So you really like this kid, huh?”
“You saw him. Wasn’t he impressive to you?”
Jane answered, “Yeah, but being smart and being good enough for my daughter are two very different ideals.”
“Honestly, I like both guys. Rhys appears to be a fine young man. Nolan is no less a fine young man. The advantage Nolan has over Rhys is that he lives in LA. I want to keep my daughter here in town with me. I don’t want her living half her time in England and the other half with us. Eventually, when she has children, I want to see them daily.”
“You were smart to buy up all those homes behind us. We can most definitely open up a small pathway between us and what will eventually be the next generation. With Lilah getting married, I guess she has first pick.”
“I’m just glad everyone was willing to invest in those houses. It wasn’t easy purchasing each and every one behind us. That street is huge. It has fifteen homes.”
“When will you let Lilah know about your wedding present to her?”
“Once she picks a husband,” I answered with a chuckle.
Jane and I arrived at AT&T Park and found our spouses already imbibing in their afternoon delights.
“Hello, Princess.” I gave my wife no less a greeting than the one Max gave his. “You’re both earlier than I expected.”
My beautiful wife said, “It was pretty slow today so we left the hospital early, with the blessings of the chief and former chief.”
“Jake and Grandpa Henry have been on double duty these days. Your dad is too old to be working this much.”
“You know Dad loves it. He’s as sharp as ever and he even told Jake to take the weekend off since the three young doctors were back. Jake should be picking up his wife right now as I speak. They’ll be joining us in a few hours. We’re to meet them for dinner,” she added.
“Nick and Bee coming, too?”
Max informed us, “They said it’s a definite possibility. Apparently, Bee flew up to Seattle last night. She was coming home tonight but Nick told her to meet him here instead. Last we heard, it wasn’t a done deal.”
“This is going to be fun. All of us haven’t traveled as couples in years.” I couldn’t remember the last time we all traveled without kids—though technically, Lilah and Nicky were in the same city.
“So, Laney,” Jane said, “Donovan is vetting a new boy for the position of your son-in-law.”
“What?” My sweet wife asked aloud. She turned to me for an answer.
“I’m not vetting anyone, Jane. You always were a troublemaker.” The accusation was met with an eye-roll. I explained further, “A simple comment about Nolan O’Shaughnessy being an impressive lawyer has Jane believing I’m looking to replace Rhys.”
“Are you looking?” My wife knew me too well.
“Not looking, just observing.”
“None of our parents pushed us one way or the other where our relationships were concerned. Let’s not play matchmaker with our daughter.” The warning was there.
“I thought you were Nolan’s champion.”
“I never said I was his champion. I only commented that I felt a kinship.”
“Whatever. Let’s forget about our daughter and her beaus. When are Jake and Emily arriving and where’s dinner?”
I wasn’t lying when I said I was just an observer.
I also wasn’t lying when I said that I was impressed with Nolan O’Shaughnessy.
