10. Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
The ‘guest bedroom’ in the Harrington mansion ended up being nearly the size of my condo in Stillwell.
It wasn’t just one room, but a suite of them: sitting area, bedroom, a bathroom with a claw-foot tub and water pressure that would’ve given Maria Alvarez an orgasm in multiple contexts.
A sliding glass door led to the rear balcony, through which I could see the sloping back lawn of the estate glowing silvery in the moonlight.
The bed would’ve been big enough for me and all three of my wives. Marcie plopped herself down on the foot of it the second we were alone, bounced a couple of times to test the springs, then flopped backwards onto it with her hand on her belly, laughing like she was back at rush for Delta Rho.
“I’m pregnant!” she cried, balling her hands into triumphant fists. “Uncle Jack, I’m pregnant, I’m spending the night in a freaking mansion, and I just saved the Avery Company!” She lifted an arm. “Pinch me!”
I did. She squealed.
The servants had already laid out robes for us—I hadn’t the faintest idea how they’d figured out our sizes.
They’d also sent over what was left of the champagne, tucked inside of a bucket full of ice with a couple of fresh flutes.
That butler of Tallulah’s looked like he’d rather have poured it over both of our heads than left it with us, but he did as the lady of the house demanded.
“I’m going to get comfy,” Marcie told me, kicking her legs like she was at a slumber party. “So comfy. I deserve to be pampered, don’t I, Uncle Jack? Since I’m going to have a baby and all?”
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning. Marcie’s enthusiasm was infectious.
And she was right. Pregnant. My angel was pregnant.
Holy hell, I had three wives and all of them were going to have my baby. Our babies.
By the end of next year, I’d be a father times three. No, four at least, because of the twins.
That was incredible. So great it felt almost impossible.
I was still thinking about it when Marcie’s voice snapped me out of my reverie. “Jack?”
“Hmm?” I said, blinking. “Sorry, babygirl, what did you say?”
Marcie smiled. I think she understood what was going on in my head.
“I said, will you go check on Caroline?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the next room.
“She played it off, but Tallulah got her good without even meaning to. I don’t want her all alone in there chewing on it while we’re celebrating in here.
” She gestured at the bottle. “Take that, maybe?”
That’s my girl, I thought. Riding the greatest high of her life, and she was still thinking of others.
“Yeah, that looked like it opened an old wound,” I said, taking the bucket. “I’ll be right back?”
Marcie smiled. “I’m going to go run the tub!”
While Marcie went to bathe, I walked next-door to Caroline’s room.
It was right next to ours, and it must have been some kind of space specifically for a guest’s hired help, because it looked a lot smaller than ours.
The door stood open a crack, as if she’d been expecting company, but I still stopped and knocked on the frame to announce my presence, regardless.
“Caroline? It’s Jack. Just stopping by to see how you’re doing…”
“Come on in,” she said.
I did.
Caroline’s space was about the size of a modest hotel room: a single sitting area with a bed and an attached bathroom.
It featured a fireplace, though, with a nice old armchair sitting beside it, and the willowy woman had somehow started the blaze and gotten it nice and toasty while Marcie and I were busy getting settled next door.
She was currently occupying the chair, her boots off and next to the fire, reading a small book with a blue cover she must have kept in the bottom of her makeup bag.
She smiled when she saw me. Then her gaze slid to the bottle and the smile froze. “Oh.”
I lifted the bucket. “Marcie’s not going to drink it. So I figured…”
Caroline remained relaxed in the chair, yet there was something taut in the way she watched me.
“That’s a very kind gesture,” she said, clearing her throat. “You really shouldn’t have.”
“If you hadn’t shown up when you did,” I told her, “I don’t think Marcie would’ve been able to convince Tallulah she was serious. You’ve… you’ve more than earned your spot in the family, Caroline. Even if somebody tries to bring up what happened, I won’t let anyone kick you out…”
“I appreciate that.” A gentle little laugh escaped her. “More than I think you know. Which is why I hope it won’t offend you if I tell you to take that bottle back with you. Because the first thing I’m going to do if you leave it with me is pour it right down the sink as soon as you leave.”
I paused. Caroline picking the sparkling cider at dinner flashed in my head.
And suddenly I knew.
“You don’t drink,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
“I do not,” she admitted. “Do you know why?”
I thought I did, but I didn’t say it.
“Because I like drinking,” she said after a beat. “Which is why I haven’t done it for nine years. I know it’s the cliche to list the months and the days, too, but honestly, I don’t remember them off the top of my head. One day at a time, right?”
Nine years. I did the math without meaning to, the same way my engineer brain brought up every factoid I knew about Huntington’s in the middle of the Call Your Daddy fiasco.
Compared it to the little my princess had told me about what happened to Caroline’s extended family in the so-called Willoughby “cult.” And realized that while it hadn’t ended there, what she described had probably started around the time the world decided her family needed to be torn apart for its own good.
She watched me do it. She didn’t flinch.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “It’s a whole thing.”
I swallowed hard. “I apologize,” I said, tucking the bucket behind my back.
“Oh please,” Caroline said, gesturing with a chuckle. “You couldn’t possibly have known. I don’t even know that Mona knows, and that woman generally knows everything.”
I nodded. “You mind if I pull up a chair?”
She didn’t. I sat down and talked a while—Tallulah, Marcie, the family, nothing much in particular—while the sound of running water carried from the room next door.
Eventually the last lingering traces of hurt were gone from Caroline’s eyes, and I decided to let her have a little peace and quiet. For now, at least.
“I’ll take this with me,” I said, scooping up the bucket a short while later as I made to leave. “But, full disclosure? I’m going to pour it down the sink when I get back to my suite.”
Caroline’s brows rose. “Why? You’re not a friend of Bill’s, are you, Jack?”
Friend of Bill was coded talk members of AA used to identify each other. I wasn’t, but I recognized it: I had an uncle who worked the program, and Daniel and I had once had to stage a mini-intervention for a VP at Ramsey whose drinking nearly cost them their job.
I was already shaking my head. “No,” I said, “but I have this weird feeling that one is going to be visiting Marcie and me a little later?”
Caroline smiled. “Go be with your wife,” she said. “Tonight is the best night of her life. Her husband ought to be seeing to her every whim, not next door trying to cheer up the help.”
I think both of us knew by then she was far more than just the help. But I took her advice all the same.
Back in our room, I made my way over to the little en suite kitchenette and poured what was left of the bottle down the sink. Part of me felt almost sinful, wasting what was at the very least several hundred dollars’ worth of champagne, but it just felt wrong to keep it in the house tonight.
Besides, if the Harrington account really did wind up under the Avery Company umbrella in the morning, the rest of my harem would be able to buy plenty more to celebrate with.
The bedroom was noticeably warmer and more humid when I stepped inside.
Marcie was curled up with her shoulders against the headboard, freshly washed, skin still pink from the heat of the tub.
A thick, terry cloth robe—one of the ones Tallulah’s people left out for us—covered her like a blanket, ending at mid-thigh.
I would’ve bet every dollar in both my business and personal accounts that my angel didn’t have a stitch on underneath of it.
“There you are,” she purred, her eyes bright with mischief. She nibbled her bottom lip in a way that made me wonder what she’d been getting up to in the bath while I was gone. “Is she okay?”
I nodded. “She got rattled a little, but she’s fine. Tough girl. I guess she’d have to be.”
“Good.” Marcie crooked a finger. “Come here?”
With a grin, I did just that. By the time I reached the head of the bed I was down to my undershirt and boxers, and when I was close enough Marcie pulled me into her arms and put her forehead against mine.
“I’m going to have a baby,” she whispered, her voice practically crackling with excitement. “We’re going to have a baby, Jack.”
“I know, angel.”
Her smile was so bubbly it made my heart jump into my throat. “Me, Kiki, Sam… we’re all going to be mommies. Maybe a few months apart, but… they’re all going to get to grow up together. Yukiko’s twins, Sam’s little girl, whatever I’m going to have…”
I chuckled. “We don’t know Samantha is having a girl—”
“She’s having a girl,” Marcie said serenely, like she’d received a psychic vision. “Me, on the other hand…”
Marcie took my wrist and guided it into her robe.
For a second, I thought she was going low. Then she pulled my hand to her stomach and held it there, quiet and reverent as she stared into my eyes.
“I think it’s gonna be a boy,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “A little heir to the Ramsey name. And the Avery.” She giggled. “Someone so stinking cute he’ll probably have to beat the girls off with a stick, like his Daddy.”
My hand found the side of her face, fingers tangling in her blonde locks. “You are so beautiful, Marcella.” I blinked back tears. “I’m so glad we found our way to the other side of this. And on today, of all days…”