Chapter 94

Picco’s was hopping. It was a typical Friday night in the city and people wanted to see and be seen.

The Warner party had commandeered the room where the orchestra had been set up a few months earlier. Hailey had been bouncy since she returned from her father’s condo. She smiled and laughed the whole time she and the other females got ready. Picco’s didn’t require a jacket and tie to dine. It was the top of the line of casual dining but it wasn’t as upscale as Les Lumières Sur la Ville.

A few diners stopped their conversations when the group arrived and walked past the hostess stand to the private dining area. Many of the diners wondered why the room had been closed off. They didn’t expect a group of college-age kids and a few adults. A private room at Picco’s wasn’t something a typical college student could afford.

The kids weren’t carrying presents so it probably wasn’t a birthday party. They were dressed more conservatively than many of the people their age. No butt cheeks hung out below skirts; no belly button rings or tattoos were on display.

The group didn’t sit down for supper immediately. Instead they visited and talked. Mason and Edna Prohl had accepted the invitation at their son’s insistence. They had met David and Beth Warner at Thanksgiving. Both had seen the Warners when they lived in Cutter’s Crossing but they weren’t friends. Now Beth Warner was the primary owner of the company where Mason worked.

The company manufactured heating and plumbing supplies – and it had almost gone under a few years before. The CEO and his secretary had raided the corporate pension fund and ran off to South America. Beth Warner had swooped in after the company declared bankruptcy and kept 400 men and women from losing the only job most of them had ever known.

She was an icon in Cutter’s Crossing – and Mason Prohl was just a machine operator. He wasn’t upper management. Hell, he wasn’t even lower management. He was just a guy who served his time in the Marines and found a job when he got out so he could raise a family and live the American Dream.

Edna worked as a teacher’s aide in a preschool. They had two children, Bob and Martine, and both were wholesome, friendly children. They had a good marriage and they were happy but they weren’t in the same social class as the Warners. They gravitated toward Sean and Susan O’Malley, despite the disparity of their ages.

Sean and Susan were in the same boat as the Prohls. They felt overmatched when it was only Phil and Hailey around. Now that Phil’s parents were there, too, they were completely out of their element. Although neither of them worked for Barton Holdings they both understood how powerful Beth Warner was.

They had gotten to know the Warners and Prohls during Thanksgiving and they had gotten to know Phil and Hailey much earlier. The Warners didn’t treat them like they were peons. They made it a point to listen when the others talked and to solicit their advice and opinions. They didn’t lord over conversations. Still, they were uncomfortable sitting down and having a one-on-one conversation with either of the Warners.

Beth and David were well aware of the Prohls’ and O’Malleys’ reticence and set about to make them more comfortable. Beth sat down with Sean and Susan – and immediately pulled Sean Jr. onto her lap. The year old boy didn’t notice Beth was rich and powerful. He just noticed she was smiling and willing to do almost anything to get him to laugh.

“We have really enjoyed having Molly stay with us the past few weeks,” Beth said, smiling at the O’Malleys. “She is so much fun to be around. Thank you for letting her stay with us.”

“Like we could have stopped her!” Sean said with a laugh. “Once Tiffany announced that she was staying with you, well, I guess we could have chained her to a wall in the basement.”

“If we had a basement,” Susan commented.

“We used to do that with Phil,” Beth said with a conspiratorial wink. “Then he started to tell people. Plus, well, he started to stink. It didn’t matter how often we’d drag him into the yard to hose him off.”

Across the room, David was standing with Mason and Edna Prohl.

“Phil and I went to the batting cage today,” he confided. “He is crushing the ball. I wish I had thought about it earlier. We would have waited until you and Bob got in. I still remember Bob from All-Stars. Phil said he is even faster now. That kid can cover some ground in center field.

“I’m looking forward to seeing them play this spring. Do you two want to carpool down with us when we go?”

That led to a long conversation about baseball and life in Cutter’s Crossing. Soon, Beth had joined them. She kept the conversation going while David made his way over to Sean and Susan. It was done so seamlessly that no one even noticed – except Phil, who had seen it before. He and Katelyn were entertaining Bob’s younger sister, Martine. The young teenager was excited to have two adults talking to her.

Molly, Tiffany and Hailey were talking quietly at the table, their faces huddled together. Bob and Terrence were off in a corner talking about sports in general and where Terrence might wind up after April’s draft.

The whole room fell silent when Michael Warren walked into the room. Hailey vaulted up from the table and went over to him rapidly. She hugged his waist and drew him into the room.

“This is my Dad!” she said brightly. Michael was still nervous but he waved to everyone.

He saw David across the room and gave him a smile. The man didn’t look much different than he had 10 years earlier. David made his apologies to Sean and Susan went over to Michael, a hand extended.

“It’s good to see you, man,” David said. “I ... I meant to call you a hundred times that first month or so. We had a lot of stuff happen and before I knew it, school had started again. I did look for you the next year when the carnival came back around.”

“Things went pear-shaped with me about that time, too,” Michael admitted ruefully. “I’ve thought about you a few times over the years. You mentioned your wife’s family. I saw you on TV when she was named CEO. I also saw an article about Terrence Williams. Jesus, he’s as big as Hailey said he was.”

He reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope and handed it across.

“Oh, man!” David said with a laugh. “I wondered today if you still had those. Let me get Beth. She was floored when I told her about who you and Hailey were. I mean, she remembered the stories. Now I have visual proof.”

He turned to his wife, who was waiting across the room. She had to be talked out of tracking down Hannah Kramer and leaving her in a coma. Convincing her was not a brief conversation.

“Hey, Beth, come here!” David said, motioning her over. “You have to see these pictures. Michael took them at the carnival. Can we pass them around? I’m sure everyone would like to see Phil and Hailey’s first date.”

“Sure, David,” Michael said. “I’m glad someone gets to see them besides me. I sometimes wondered if any other human eyes would get to enjoy them.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Warren,” Beth said, shaking his hand.

“Please, call me Michael,” Hailey’s father said.

“I’m Beth,” Phil’s mother replied. “You have a wonderful daughter. I will admit that I’ve grown to love her very much.”

“Thank you for taking care of her,” Michael said sincerely. “She’s told me this afternoon about her life before meeting you. You’ve saved her life, Beth. I don’t say that lightly. She would have been alive but she wouldn’t have been happy. Hannah was the unhappiest woman I’ve ever met. She wasn’t always like that – or maybe she was. I thought she was just in an unhappy marriage when we met.

“I foolishly thought I could make her happy. When I got involved with her, it seemed like maybe I had. I think she just thought I’d get higher on the firm’s food chain than I did. I just don’t know. I’ve come to realize today that I never knew her. Our divorce was caused by infidelity – hers, not mine. I should have known, I know. She committed adultery with me so why should I expect fidelity when she was my wife.

“Hailey’s description of her mother tells me that Hannah is no happier today than she was 10 years ago. She raised Hailey to be an unhappy woman, too. You stopped that and for that I’ll always be grateful.”

“You’re welcome,” Beth said earnestly. “She reminded me of me of when I was her age. I was a lonely, entitled woman when I got to college. I’ll admit I liked her the first time I met her. Phil, uh...”

“Phil said she was a...” Michael finished.

“I think bitch is the word you’re looking for,” Beth said with a nod. “As we had dinner – in this very restaurant – I came to see his point of view. She wound up spending the night with us because Hannah couldn’t be bothered to come to collect her. I got to know her a little better. Then I saw her again the next evening at a company event. I had no idea her mother worked for one of our companies. I also had no idea that Hannah expected to be promoted. Of course, she wasn’t. That led to more problems for not only Hannah but for Hailey, too. I think she finally saw her mother as she truly was and it hurt her. Phil stepped up and took care of Hailey. Look at them now.”

“Look at them then!” David said. He had waited for the conversation to conclude before interrupting them.

He handed a photo over. It showed two little kids – a boy and a girl – on a carnival ride with David.

“That’s Phil and Hailey,” Michael said. “David and I decided they had way too much energy for just one of us. One of us would rest while the other took them on a ride.”

Both children were bright-eyed and smiling. Phil was pressed up against his father and Hailey was pushed against him by the centrifugal force of the spinning ride. There were a dozen photos in the pile. Some had David in them and others had Michael. All the photos had the kids.

“This is my favorite,” Michael said. The picture showed both men crouching beside their children. Both of the kids had dirty faces but brilliant smiles.

“Tell them how they got so dirty,” David insisted.

“We got them ice cream cones,” Michael said. “We were taking a break. Even the kids were tired. We sat down for a minute while the kids ate. Well, Hailey dropped her cone into the dirt. She started to cry. Philip was so sweet. He handed his over to her and said he didn’t mind a little dirt. He picked up her cone and started to eat it. Hailey decided that dirt wasn’t the worst thing in the world since Phil thought it was OK. She dipped her cone – the clean one Phil had given her – and dipped it into the dirt and took a bite. I got someone to take this picture of us when they were done.”

Hailey was standing behind her father with her arm around Phil’s waist. She clutched him tighter.

“You’ve taken care of me forever!” she said. “Look at us! I can’t believe I didn’t remember this. I can’t believe I didn’t remember the ice cream.”

The others had crowded round to look at the photos. Terrence and Bob rolled their eyes each time one of the females would remark about how cute something was. Edna and Mason looked on with appreciation and Susan and Sean were wondering how soon their son would find someone like Hailey.

It was late Saturday night when the two cars drove back through the gate at their college home. The renovations were finished, courtesy of one of the general contractor’s other jobs being canceled.

The man had called Phil a couple of days after he’d arrived in SouthPointe to see if he wanted to go ahead and put both crews to work on the house. Phil agreed and sent the rest of the money down from his personal account. He hadn’t mentioned the call to the rest of the group. He wanted it to be a surprise.

The surprise lasted about 10 seconds.

“What the fuck?” Katelyn asked as soon as she entered the house. The foyer used to open to the study area that had no door. Now the opening led to a closed door that resembled the one that used to be on her bedroom. The only difference was the fact the door had a deadbolt.

“Did they do the wrong floor?” Hailey asked as she eyed the door. It was identical to the door on the apartment she shared with Phil.

Phil reached beneath a couch cushion and retrieved an envelope with three sets of keys. Each one was clearly marked. He passed them over.