Chapter 50

Monday morning, November 28th

Dani’s phone rang, the middle of the friggin’ night. She rolled over and answered it, “Hello,” in a very groggy voice, it had awakened both of us. I looked at my watch, six-fourteen in the morning, and groaned.

It was the third night in a row with not much sleep. Dani and I had been doing a lot of ‘reconnecting’ from the time we went to bed until wayyy late, then again during the night. Sleep hadn’t been the priority. I couldn’t say the same at six-fourteen in the morning, sleep sounded awfully good, a lot better than the damned telephone.

“Have you looked at the news this morning?” It was Amanda, Dani’s agent, Dani’d turned on speaker phone.

“Uh, no, you know what time it is?” Dani asked, sounding barely awake.

I heard a laugh, “Oops, guess I kind of forgot you’re three hours earlier than us, but now that you’re awake, get your computer, look up ‘Thanksgiving box office’ on Google.

Dani grumbled a little, then climbed out of bed and retrieved her laptop, sliding back next to me, both of us leaning up against the headrest. She followed Amanda’s instructions, looking up the box office for Thanksgiving weekend. There it was, the words ‘Second Chances’, and the number ... two hundred... “This can’t be right, can it?” Dani asked Amanda over her phone, stuttering in disbelief

“Two-hundred-eighty-seven-million dollars, blowing the Thanksgiving weekend record out of the water, yes, it’s right!” Now, Amanda’s voice was relaying her excitement. Dani’s hand went to her mouth in incredulity. “You know what your share is ... a little over eleven million dollars!”

“And that’s one weekend, it’ll be in theaters until after Christmas, probably at least triple that amount ... and then when the video comes out...”

The phone slipped out of Dani’s fingers, and she turned to me, silently mouthing, ‘Oh My God!’

Amanda was still talking, but neither Dani nor I were listening, just looking at each other, our mouths agape. I picked up my phone, my HP calculator app; $287,000,000, four-percent - $11,480,000. I showed the number to Dani, and maybe triple that by the end of the year?

I think we were both numb, realizing that Dani’s movie, mostly BECAUSE of her, was the hit of the decade, maybe even longer.

My alarm went off, six-thirty, my long vacation weekend was over. I needed to get up and open the store in Pasco, except my brain was still in a daze. I climbed out of bed and straight into the shower, leaving it nice and cold, hoping it’d shock me back to the real world.

It worked, all I was thinking when I got out of the shower was that it was so damned cold in the house!

As the day went on, and numerous of our customers commented on Dani’s movie and how wonderful she was, some wanted to know how they did that barrel-racing scene, and I told them it was exactly like it seemed, Dani on a top barrel horse. I was relieved that none asked me about her love scenes, those would be a little embarrassing.

I also thought about Dani and teaching, how she missed it. I could relate because I loved the auto parts industry, and would be devastated if I suddenly had to give it up. I knew the school wouldn’t take her back, even with her teaching and people skills, she’d just be too distracting, the boys and maybe even other teachers would likely be constantly thinking about her naked. But an idea came to me that I wanted to discuss with her.

Five o’clock finally came, and after our last customer left, I locked the doors. Honestly, it felt good that life was back to normal. I guess as normal as it could be being eleven-million dollars richer than when we went to bed last night.

I know that a lot of couples have a ‘mine and yours’ philosophy with finances, keeping their incomes separate and sharing expenses. Dani and I had never taken that approach, everything was ‘ours’, our checking and savings accounts in both our names. I didn’t anticipate any change, although, I was going to leave that to her since this windfall was truly hers, she’d earned it.

Having Dani greet me at home, looking beautiful, was a stark reminder of what could have been if she’d gone to Tampa. I’d be coming home to a cold, lonesome house. Instead, my wife met me telling me how much she loves me, both with her soul-searing kiss and telling me in so many words.

After dinner he suggested calling Mark, the financial planner we’d met in Reno, the guy who took her phone and actually called the number I’d given him, Amanda Browning, that agent from my dream. He’d jokingly said to call him when she became famous and rich. Somehow, I knew Amanda’s name and phone number from my coma, but Dani thought it would be silly to call her as she wasn’t an actress and never would be. Ha!

I guess that time had come.

He was the first guy I ‘saw her with’ after I awoke from my coma; we were in this nightclub part of the Silver Legacy Casino, Dani in that sexy, gold lame dress and blindfolded (kind of a fetish of mine), and when I came back from the restroom, she was dancing with this incredibly good-looking, distinguished, older guy – awfully close, his hand wandering on her bare back, and Dani snuggled tight to him smashing her almost-bare tits to him. I stood, watching, almost enraged jealous but damn, it was hot. Except eal life was different than my dreams, I couldn’t take it, I tapped his shoulder, letting him know it was MY wife he was getting a bit too close with.

Next day, I saw him in the hotel restaurant at breakfast and introduced ourselves ... and the fateful phone call happened.

He was single and alone in town, and seemed like a nice guy, so we (I don’t remember if it was me or Dani) invited him to spend the day with us until his flight home that afternoon. Dani wanted to ride the giant swing in Reno, and promised Mark a ‘treat’ if he’d go with her, since she knew there was no way I could (I did anyway, the scariest thing I’d ever done). Her ‘treat’ turned out to be a very ‘beyond-friend’ type of kiss in our hotel room, fucking hot! He had such a crush on her. I’ve always suspected it would likely have gone further (maybe MUCH further) if he hadn’t had a plane to catch.

And now, if we called and saw him again, what then?

The other interesting thing about Mark was that there was another man, ‘Marcus’, a guy we’d met on a plane in one of my dreams, almost an exact look-alike, also a financial advisor, also single and lonely, having lost his wife to breast cancer, also from Seattle, fifties, maybe sixty, Mark was sixty-three when we met him, another one of those anomalies from my dream, a coincidence that couldn’t happen but did.

Setting my ruminations about Mark aside for a little bit, trying to banish the lewd images that were fluttering through my mind, “I thought about something today, about your teaching,” I told Dani, “I saw your reaction when you were talking with Allison, you miss it ... a lot. I know there’s kids who struggle, could you volunteer to tutor outside school?” and something else popped into my mind at that instant, “or maybe ... you always wanted to teach a calculus class, could you do that privately?”

Dani cocked her head like she was thinking. “I ... why not? I’m still certified ... and besides, it wouldn’t take the place of school, just be supplemental. I know private tutoring is legal, why wouldn’t teaching a class as long as the student is still in school? I like it.”

“I wouldn’t even need to charge for it, and we could buy the books,” she added.

“You have any idea how many kids there might be?” I asked.

“In my algebra two and trig classes, I’d guess there were maybe five or six bright enough. That was why the district wouldn’t do it, there just weren’t enough kids for calculus.”

Dani’s smile grew wider, “I want to do it, I love the idea, I could tutor kids two evenings a week, and have a calc class two evenings. I’ll go talk to Troy (the superintendent) tomorrow, see what he says,” and the thank you kiss she gave me – wow, just wow!

All that ‘practice’ with Alan Ryder was paying off.

“Come on, come to bed,” she told me, “after that idea you need a reward ... so do I.”

Who was I to argue? It turned out to be another very nice, very sexy evening. On second thought, maybe ‘nice’ isn’t exactly the right word to use, Dani was most definitely not a ‘nice’ girl that night. Lol.

The next day, Dani said she was going by the school to talk to Troy about our teaching idea, and during a lull in customers, I took a break and called Mark to discuss our finances, our first contact with him since we took him to the airport in Reno that day last March.

“Horizon Financial, may I help you?” a lady answered.

“Hi, is Mark available?” I asked.

“May I tell him who’s calling.”

“The name’s Robert, I’d like to discuss some possible investments.”

“Thank you, please hold, I’ll put him on.” She had a pleasant voice, very professional too.

I waited, at least he was real, not like ‘Marcus’, that was a figment of my imagination.

“This is Mark, how may I help you?” he answered in that smooth, ‘distinguished gentleman’ voice I remembered from Reno.

“Mark, this is Robert Shore, we met last spring in Reno, you might remember my wife, Daniella, you rode that swing with her,”

“Yes, of course I remember, what a wonderful surprise,” he chuckled, “I presume you’ve come into a little money ... I saw her movie, breathtaking!”

“Well, yeah, and you said...”

“I’d love to handle your account, could we meet sometime?” He took a moment, I heard paper shuffling, “I’m free Thursday afternoon, would four work? I could take you to dinner afterward.”

I thought about my schedule, we could be back Friday, I want to be at the store Saturday, it’ll be so busy now, right before Christmas. “I don’t see why not,” I told him, “I’ll double check with Dani and let you know if she has a conflict. Otherwise, we’ll plan to be there.” I checked his card, “Address still the same as on your card?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered, “fourth floor, suite 428, I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Suite 428, I wrote it on the back of his card then realized it was already on the front, along with the address.

And I was back behind the counter, waiting on a customer, wondering...

That evening, Dani was bubbling over, like she couldn’t wait to tell me her news. Troy was supportive, he told her that he’d talk to the math teachers and get some names, ‘No more than five,’ Dani said she’d told him. “I’m going to do some research, find the best beginner calculus textbooks I can find,” she told me, then added, “I’m so excited, this is the best idea you’ve ever had.”

Well, maybe not ‘the’ best, I thought that phone call to Amanda Browning was right up there.

Then I told her about my conversation with Mark, how he was eager to meet with us again. It was only last March when we met him in Reno, eight-plus months, and it’d been just thirteen months since my accident. So much had changed since then, our lives so different.

Dani agreed, that would work for her. She didn’t act like it meant anything more than a business meeting, but I watched her eyes, how they sparkled. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but I’d make a bet that she was looking forward to much more than ‘business’. I know she was dying to know if he’d met someone yet. When we left him, he’d said that Dani had encouraged him, that he might try dating again, the first time since his wife had died several years earlier.

That night we slept instead of fucking, the first time since ... hell, I didn’t even remember the last time that we’d actually used the bed for sleeping. It was nice but still ... I missed the ‘other’.

Dani was already disappointed by Thursday morning that she hadn’t heard anything from Troy about the schooling. I laughed and told her to have just a little patience. She frowned and stuck her tongue out at me. Yep, a ‘mature adult’.

We packed and left at eight that morning. It’s about a four-hour drive, but with the snow-packed highway over Snoqualmie Pass, it would likely take at least another hour, and Dani wanted to have a chance to check into our hotel to get cleaned up from the trip before we met Mark. Thankfully, though, it was supposed to be warm in Seattle, low sixties, so maybe the highway over Snoqualmie would be thawed by then.

Dani wanted to take her Mustang, but I’d had snow tires put on the Accord, so we were committed to it. With lunch and no, the packed snow hadn’t melted, so it was nearly two when we arrived at our hotel, the Four Seasons overlooking Elliott Bay.

The weather was certainly different than it’d been in Kennewick over the weekend, a far cry from thirteen in Kennewick five days earlier to sixty-two in Seattle.

Oh, maybe I should mention, Dani’s first royalty payment was in our checking account Wednesday morning; after Amanda’s ten-percent fee and Federal taxes - seven million, four hundred, eighteen thousand dollars, plus a few hundred.

We could afford the $528 at the Four Seasons.

A porter carried our luggage to our room, and I pressed a twenty in his hand before he left us. The view of the city and bay was beautiful, we were looking forward to the sunset. At least, that’s what I told Dani, when in reality, I was anticipating ... something else.

Dani took her toiletry and garment bags in the bathroom, and I brushed my teeth and shaved in the lavatory just outside the bathroom then dressed in a pair of slacks and nice shirt.

After waiting another fifteen minutes, I yelled into the bathroom, “You know, this is just a business meeting, right?”

“You said we were going out to dinner afterward, didn’t you?” she answered.

“Yes, Dear.”

So, I sat on the bed gazing out the window at the amazing view.

Finally, at about twenty till four, I heard the bathroom door opening and turned to see, my eyes gazing at my wife from top to bottom. She was wearing the Giovanni Rossi heels, a short burgundy leather skirt, the hemline at least eight inches above her knees, and a beige blouse that had to be silk, with just a faint glimpse of her black bra poking through, her long, auburn hair brushed to a sheen, lips were beautiful with the Rose Petal Peach lipstick, cheeks barely shaded, and her eyes and brows darkened ever so slightly.

In short, she was beautiful.

“Wow!” was all I could think to say. And that perfume! Enough to drive a man insane.

If I’d thought for a minute that this was only a ‘business’ meeting for Dani, I’d been quite mistaken.

And my dick was responding quite enticingly, it had only been three days, but after what he was used to quite frequently, that seemed a long time. And now, seeing Dani like this...

It took us about fifteen minutes to find Mark’s building, took the elevator to the fourth floor, then down the hall to the right to Suite 428. I could feel Dani’s trembling hand as I pushed open the door, then followed her inside. There was a small waiting room with an attractive woman sitting at her desk, “May I help you?” she asked, very politely.

“We have an appointment with Mark at four,” I told her, “Robert and Daniella Shore,” I added.

She checked her schedule, then smiled, “He’s with someone, it should be just a few minutes, please have a seat.”

So, Dani and I sat, and I noticed how tightly Dani held her legs together. I didn’t blame her, the way her skirt rode up her legs. I held her hand, still trembling, and whispered to her, “You remember this is a ‘business’ meeting, right?”

She smiled back at me, kind of a feeble smile, squeezing my hand in the process, her hand hot and clammy. I was quite bemused as I couldn’t think when the last time Dani had acted so nervously. She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I should have worn pants and a different blouse.”

I chuckled, “You look beautiful,” I told her.

She only squeezed my hand tighter. It seemed clear that she wasn’t comfortable with the impression she was going to give Mark.

I found it quite amusing ... and arousing, especially after the previous weekend we’d just had. How many times had she fucked?

We sat quietly and it took about another minute for a man to leave, Mark right behind him, heading straight toward Dani and me with a huge smile on his face.

“I’m so happy to see you both,” he said, shaking my hand and giving Dani a brief hug, “come on in,” he said, leading us into his office.

Once inside, he gave Dani a much more intimate hug, even a brief hug to me, “Needed to keep it professional for Kelly, she’s kind of ... you know.”

“I’d been hoping to hear from you, I saw you both on Good Morning America, then saw the movie, impressive to say the least.”

“We’d been planning on calling you for some time, just didn’t have the excuse until now,” I told him, noticing the blush on Dani’s face. Maybe she hadn’t remembered just how good-looking the man was, black hair with silver streaked through it, and obviously kept himself fit, especially for a man sixty-three, maybe even sixty-four now. If he hadn’t told us his age in Reno, I’d have guessed him at least ten years younger. He was wearing a tan shirt, dark brown suit jacket and slacks, no tie, easy to see how a woman like Dani could be attracted to him. And she had been, big-time.

He sat at his desk, clasping his hands together, “I assume the studio paid you well, I certainly hope so for the actress they got. Just how much are we talking about that you’d like to invest?”

I looked at Dani, her face back to normal, and gave her leg a squeeze. “Well,” I answered, “her first royalty payment was a little over eleven million, seven-and-a-half deposited in our checking account after her agent and federal taxes, and her agent’s expecting at least triple that by the end of the year. Dani’s contract is for four percent of the gross, and it’s already set the Thanksgiving weekend record.”

He cocked his eyebrows, “Wow, but I’m not surprised, with your story there had to be an immense amount of curiosity and then when the movie was so good, I could imagine how well it’d do.”

“We hear so much about people who get big windfalls, then are broke after a few years, don’t want that to happen to us,” I told him, not that I was really worried about it. Of course, those people probably weren’t either.

“Wise decision, it’s easy to do. So, how much of that do you think you want to invest?” he asked, “and how much risk do you want to take? The higher the risk, the higher the profit potential.”

Dani looked at me to answer him, “It’s your income,” I told her, “and you know we can live comfortably just off the stores, so ... your call.”

She frowned at me, but I just shrugged, and she looked back at Mark, “I know that Robert wants to replace his old Accord, and ... seems to think he needs a truck, one of those great big things...”

“Just a Ram 1500, Sweet,” laughing at her dramatics, “something to pull the travel trailer...”

“Oh yeah,” Dani started again, “forgot, he wants to buy a house, too, one of those great big things on wheels.”

I rolled my eyes, at least Dani had calmed down a bit, enough to play around a bit, a little joking.

“And we just bought a little farm, Dani’s grandparents’ place when she was growing up, we fixed up the house for her parents, that came out of her initial payment last July. That all came to about a half-million.” Maybe information he didn’t need, but oh well.

Mark was on his computer, chuckling, “Okay ... I have a suggestion, let’s put a half-million in a savings account that you can access any time, then half of the rest in a mutual fund that’ll be safe but still give a pretty good return, and the other half to get the biggest return we can. The stock market is low right now, a good time to buy, great actually, because all the experts predict it to go way up. I can’t make any promises but it is a good time to invest.”

Then he asked, “Is that four percent going to include digital sales too? Or just the theater receipts?”

“According to the contract, it’s everything, blu-rays, digital, and any other medium ... forever,” Dani answered.

That brought another smile, “So, you should have a steady income from it, even after it’s out of the theaters. Then let’s make it eighty-twenty high return, that’ll still give you plenty of safe money, with lots of potential for profit, and you can still cash out whatever you want, it’ll just take a little time, probably a day or two,” and he looked back and forth between us.

“Sounds great to me,” I said, and Dani agreed. This whole discussion just seemed surreal, discussing what to do with millions of dollars when only a few months ago we had to take out a big loan for the new store.

He stood, “Great, I’ll have Kelly draw up the contract in the morning, can you come in at ... say around ten, before you go home?”

We both nodded our approval.

“Okay, taxes, do you want me to help with that, or do you have an accountant?”

“No, any help we can get, I’ve always had them done because of the stores, but I’m not overly confident in them with this much money,” I answered.

“Good, you can send everything to us, we’ll get them down as much as anybody’ll be able. That’s what Kelly’s good at, she’s our tax expert. We do hire some people at tax time, but for something like this, Kelly will handle it.”

“Now, you were my last appointment of the day, can I interest you in dinner? I know a wonderful steak house I’d love to take you ... and it’s on me, no argument.”

Dani and I both agreed, it was the reason she’d dressed up. “Let me just finish this up, it’ll only take a little bit,” working on his computer, “and I’ll send it to Kelly so she can have the contract ready tomorrow morning.”

He asked for both our social security numbers, full names, and our address, and we gave it to him.

About two minutes later, “There, done, she has everything she needs.”

“Would you mind riding with me?” he asked, “the traffic this time of the evening can be brutal.”

“Lead the way,” I told him. I had no desire to drive in the Seattle evening traffic.

Of course, the guy would drive a Jaguar, I told Dani to take the front seat and I’d sit in back. I was still hoping...

When I sat down in that plush seat and he pulled out on the street, I thought that I could live with something like that.

After we were on the road, I closed my eyes and remembered that first time I’d seen Mark, dancing with Dani almost like lovers, and how jealous I was, then that kiss the next day, his hand under her blouse. Dani’s passion hadn’t been faked, and how I’d nearly lost it completely ... and I knew, if something did happen, it was going to be completely different than with Alan, or Jason, or Richard, it was going to be excruciating. And I wouldn’t have an April, Janet, or Jenny to distract me. Yeah, COMPLETELY different.

The ring on his finger was the same one as he had in Reno, funny how you remember something like that. The only picture on his desk was of his late wife, Jan too. I knew because he’d shown us her picture in Reno. So clearly, there was no new woman in his life. He’d been taken with Dani then (that’s a freakin’ understatement) and was now, I could see it in his face the way he looked at her, even though he’d tried to hide it.

I noticed her resemblance to Dani when he showed us her picture in Reno, but didn’t think that much of it. But that picture on his desk showed it so much more. She’d been younger than Dani when it was taken, but still ... It might have been a picture of a cousin, no – closer, maybe a half-sister, her smile, her eyes ... and her hair, it was about Dani’s length, a redder red than Dani’s auburn, a true redhead, but ... damn! I was sure that Dani hadn’t seen the resemblance, but Mark did, I was sure of it. Likely, that was what had attracted him to her in Reno, at least initially.

And Dani, how nervous and scared she seemed, there was only one reason, Mark’s ‘crush’ or whatever it was in Reno, was mutual. Ha, I thought she pretty much proved that with that kiss!

And whatever happened, I was NOT going to interfere, difficult as I knew that was going to be.

I wished I had sat on the other side of the car, behind Mark, so I could see between the seats, see how far Dani had allowed her skirt to ride up her legs.

He was right about the traffic, we’d have been lucky to be able to follow him, it was bumper-to-bumper.

“You’ll enjoy this restaurant, the Metropolitan Grill, it was voted the best steak in Seattle,” he told us. We were behind a line of cars, stopped at a red light up ahead, and I noticed Mark glancing down and to his right, looking like he was trying to be surreptitious. Dani had been studying his face, and no doubt she’d seen it too, him looking at her bare legs.

Was he wondering, like I had been all night, what she had on underneath that short skirt? A thong, g-string ... nothing? Wondering like me, how wet is her pussy? Maybe wondering if he’d find out later?

“You’re a beautiful woman, Daniella, as beautiful as Lynn was in your movie, she can’t compare with the real you ... it’s a little hard to keep my eyes off of you.”

He looked in the mirror, moving slightly so that he could see me, perhaps to see my reaction to his flirting. I smiled at him, giving him a little nod ... a green light.

“You’re a lucky man, Mister Shore, very lucky, indeed,” he told me, still looking in the mirror.

Dani leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek, “Thank you, Mark, you’re a sweet man, I’m surprised some lucky girl hasn’t plucked you out of the water yet.”

He shook his head, “Since Jan died...” and he took a deep breath, “I just haven’t been able to. Kelly’s even fixed me up with a couple of her friends, but...”

“I thought maybe, after Reno, after you seemed to hit it off with Dani,” I suggested.

“Ah yes, that evening and the next day with you and Daniella were the most enjoyable I’d had in a very long time. After I got home, I did go on a couple dates, Kelly’s friends, but there just wasn’t anything there. I don’t know ... maybe never.”

Dani put her hand on his thigh, squeezed it, rubbing it, “Mark, you can call me Dani, Daniella seems way too formal, hardly anyone calls me that anymore.”

And Dani, now she’s openly returning his flirts. How did I feel about that? Excited ... scared ... Much as I’m kind of anticipating ... later, yeah, I’d say a lot scared. I had to say it again to myself again, ‘I ... will ... not ... intervene... ‘

I also thought back to those minutes after I awoke from my coma, Dani in the hospital room, her excitement when she heard my voice that first time, her tears of joy. I didn’t understand then where I was or what was happening, but I do now. My wife had been sitting in that chair by my bedside for nearly the entire four months, day and night. I was confident ... no man could take away that kind of love. Not Alan Ryder, not Jason ... not Mark Richardson.

That thought was comforting, it made my ‘no-intervention’ vow seem much easier. I hoped. But when the time came ... if it became more than ‘just flirting’...

Not ‘if’, but ‘when’.

We pulled into the parking lot, Second Avenue and Market Street, an old, historic, brick building, the Metropolitan Grill. Dani waited, and Mark opened her door, getting a very nice glimpse, I was sure, of her legs as she climbed out. It was like the two were on a date; the distinguished, slightly older gentleman with a younger, very sexy woman on his arm.

Inside, the restaurant reeked of history and beauty, each table and each booth with a tablecloth, an authentic-looking ‘old west’ deco, and a flower arrangement. The bar was a battle-scarred wood, looking like it’d probably been there since the Civil War, maybe before.

The hostess greeted Mark as if she knew him and seated us in a somewhat private booth, probably a little newer than the bar but not much. At least it had a newer cushion on the seat and back. Dani sat beside me, straight across from Mark. I felt the heat coming off her ... and the scent of that perfume!

“I know it seems expensive but I’ll be offended if you don’t order exactly what you want. I assure you, it won’t damage my finances,” he said.

The hostess, Lisa, her name tag said, asked what we’d like to drink.

“I’d like a wine with my dinner, do you have a suggestion?” Dani asked.

Mark smiled, “Oh My Dear, I most certainly do, try the Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, I think you’ll love it,” he answered.

I looked at the menu, a glass, single glass, was thirty-four dollars. From the looks of his office and that Jaguar, he was probably right, thirty-four dollars wouldn’t bankrupt him. Likely not even if she ordered a second glass.

“Excellent choice,” Lisa said, “the Napa Valley is a wonderful red,” and she turned to me.

I chuckled at the names of some of their drinks, “I’d like to try a Nokesy, and where did you ever get that name?” I asked.

She laughed with me, “You’ll have to ask Rob, the bartender, about that one,” she answered, “I have no idea where it came from, but it’s one of his specialties, very good, I’ve been told.”