Chapter 10 #2
Waking up the next morning, she didn’t have any trouble remembering where she was.
The mansion. She even liked the name of it.
Richardson Mansion was going to be something that she remembered for a long time.
Getting out of the shower, she decided to go for another swim.
But almost as soon as she got into the water, she realized how sore she was just from yesterday.
Determined to swim her laps, Katie enjoyed her morning in the pool more than she had last night.
Getting out and then getting dressed, she made herself some breakfast and ate it in the big kitchen.
It would be warm, this room, when there was cooking going on, and she would bake cookies when the cook was off.
Smiling to herself, she realized that she could write herself a fantasy about the house that would keep her warm in the winter months that she was back in her cold condo.
It wasn’t really cold, but she didn’t spend much time in the place.
It was a place to crash between jobs, and she’d always thought that was enough.
Now that she’d been given some money, she was going to redo her condo and make it fun.
She didn’t know how much fun she could make it, but she was going to do it even if she had to spend the entire five grand a month on the upkeep of it.
The first thing she was going to do was plant some flowers around the front door.
She’d gotten used to seeing them around, and she wanted to see more of them.
Tinkering around the house, she discovered that each of the bedrooms was filled out with everything it would need to have someone sleeping in it right away.
They were in different colors, and she found that she loved the yellow room the best. The big four-poster bed was something that she’d had as a kid when her parents were still living together, and she had had such dreams in the bed.
There was a canopy in one of the other rooms that she fell in love with as well.
Going out for lunch, she decided that she was going to pick up her dinner as well.
There were no staples in the house, so she couldn’t have cooked if she wanted to.
Baking cookies sounded good, but she’d have to buy everything that she needed to cook them, and what was she supposed to do with the leftovers?
Not that she couldn’t afford it, but it would be just a waste of time for just one person.
Instead, she picked up a box of them to have as her dessert after dinner.
She was just checking out when she noticed someone new in town.
The Smith’s had been around for a while now, but the woman with one of them was new.
She has a look of happiness on her face, and she could tell that the couple was in love.
They didn’t see anyone else but themselves in the store, and she thought that was cute.
Checking out with her cookies, she also picked up a magazine on houses for sale, just to see if she was going to be asking too much for her home, and went to her car.
Mr. Gloom was helping her with the sale of the house as well.
She was going to miss the little man and his suits.
She’d have no use for an attorney after the sale of the house, and she wasn’t happy about that.
As soon as she was in the house with her food, she sat down and had her lunch.
She wasn’t sure why, but she wondered if Mr. Gloom had a first name that was cheerier than his last. It didn’t suit him at all as he seemed to be in the best of humor all the time.
She was even getting used to him having glitter on his person, too.
Sometimes, after seeing him, she’d check to see if she had any glitter on her, and sadly, she never found any.
She would have saved it to remember him when she was down.
~*~
Rance was finished with his work early and decided that he was going to take Kimber out to dinner.
He wasn’t hungry; they’d been having sex sometimes twice a day since they’d come together, but he’d eat something with her.
They’d not been out on a proper date since he’d met her, and he was going to take care of that tonight.
He called her. It was sometimes easier than trying to find her in the big house.
“I don’t have any plans, no. I was just going to read up on some of the things that are in your library.
I was thinking too that since I have the time and money, I might go back to college and finish up my degree.
I think that I’d like that a great deal.
” He told her she was brilliant. “I don’t know about that.
I used to have to struggle when I was studying before.
It might have been because I was working several jobs while going to school, but I did try. ”
“What would you like to do? You do know that you can have several college educations. I know that I do. At one time in my life, I’ve been about everything.
Recently, I was a stockbroker so that I could make sure my money was being handled well.
We have a great deal of it, but I didn’t want to come up at the end of my life and wonder where it all went. ”
“I worry about money too. I know you said that I didn’t have to, but I do.
I guess it’s from growing up poor all the time.
I don’t think that my parents ever had any extra money for anything, much less a vacation.
” He told her that they should take a trip.
“I’d love that. I’ve never been out of the state of Ohio. Not once.”
“We’ll have to get you a passport then. And travel to places that I’ve not been in decades.
Some of the more famous places were nothing more than small run-down places that wouldn’t have warranted a sign, much less all the hoopla that is going on about it now.
” She asked him if he’d been to Paris. “Yes, well, before it was anything more than a dirty town. I love watching the things grow around it.”
“I’ve never been anywhere worth mentioning.
Since I’ve only been in Ohio all my life, I have seen the sights around here.
Nothing much to look at, but that’s what I’ve been to.
” He said that they’d have to remedy that.
“I hope so. That would be so much fun to see the world with you. I know that I’ll probably bore you to tears, but I don’t care.
I want to see it and have my passport stamped several times. ”
“We’ll do it then.” As they talked about their trips, he told her stories about things that he’d done in his life.
Some of them were terrible, and she worried how he’d survived, but he always said something that made her smile, too.
He had a way of sprinkling bits of humor with the things that he’d done.
He loved making her laugh, and her smile was something that he could see forever.
“We should plan a trip for the winter months around here. We won’t have to miss the good weather, but the snow is something I can do without. We’ll go someplace warmer than here.”
“Sounds wonderful. I’ll work on getting my passport in the morning.” He told her that he could pull a couple of strings and get it for her tomorrow. “No, I want to do this. It’s part of the experience.”
“All right. But if you change your mind, you know that I’d love to take that burden away from you.
” They talked about a lot of things, mostly the world as he knew it then, but they had fun too.
As soon as they were ready to go out, he decided it was high time he got her a ring.
He’d been neglecting that part of their relationship for whatever reason, and he wanted her to have whatever she wanted.
He wanted to shower her in diamonds, but he knew on some level that she’d not like that.
A diamond ring for sure, but she’d only wear things that meant something to her on a personal level.
He’d been looking at things that he’d made at one time and knew that they wouldn’t suit her.
She needed something special made for her, and he was determined to do it.
As soon as he thought of something to make for her, he knew just what he wanted to do for her.
A diamond surrounded by smaller ones that would shine brighter than her smile. If that was even possible.
He found himself working on sketches of it during dinner on napkins, and she was thrilled with the design. Now all he had to do was get to someplace to have it started so that he could make it on his own. He loved Kimber so much and wanted the world to know it.
Dinner was wonderful. He’d had a steak to her salmon, and he was thrilled that she’d eaten every bite.
He didn’t nag her about eating enough food to keep up with him, but she seemed to understand.
He had noticed, too, that she was drinking more juice than he remembered from before, and that was good, too.
Rance didn’t want anything to happen to his lovely mate, and that would start with her eating better.
“I’ve been thinking about children.” He asked her if she’d changed her mind.
“Not really. I don’t think that this is the time to bring them into our world.
Maybe someday. But not now. The reason that I was thinking about children is that there seems to be a lot of underfed children in town.
I was wondering if there is a school-sponsored breakfast program that would help with that. ”
“I know that there was at one time. The trouble was getting volunteers to go in and make the food, then serve it. I’d have to check, but I’m betting that it doesn’t happen anymore.
” She said that was sad. “It really is. I know that Brew had been the one to set it up and worked it for a while, but he got tired of trying to keep it running without support. The local pack has made it work, but I think they get paid for working the kitchen duty. No one wants to work for free, I guess.”