Chapter 40

Bill, Kathy and Linda, after their trip from the airport, walked down the hallway of the retreat accompanied by Jeff's four younger wives. As they neared the kitchen, Wainwright and Margaret stepped into the hallway. "Well, well. My favorite lady," Wainwright said, scooping Linda into his arms.

Laughing, Linda said, "You had better be careful about who you are calling your 'favorite lady.' Ms. Stanford..." then at Margaret's mock glare, "uh, Margaret might have something to say about that," she finished grinning at Margaret.

As soon as Frank turned her loose, Margaret hugged her as well. "He won't get into trouble as long as he's talking about you," she laughed. "You happen to be pretty special to me, too. We're so glad to see you."

In the living room a few minutes later, she was introduced to everyone else, but managed to call each by name before Arlene, who was doing the introductions, got the name said.

"I loved the DVD," Linda said, speaking to everyone. "I watched it twice on the way up here. It was super. It was very nice of all of you to do that for me."

Evie, who seemed to be especially taken with the sparkling-eyed teenager, nudged her husband and leaned close to say, "She's beautiful."

"Yeah, I agree," Dave said. "Very much."

Apparently Evie's whisper carried, because Linda's face flushed, and she grinned at Evie.

"Come on," Arlene said, "We've got something to show you two."

"Dinner will be in thirty minutes," Diana said, "Be back by then." Having heard what Evie said, and seeing the look on her face, Diana smiled at her friend, "Go on with them if you want to Evie. Some of the things came from you and Dave, and you're just as much a part of this as anyone else, not to say anything about all the work you two have done on the suite."

"No, I'll help with dinner. I don't even know her..."

"Nonsense, it's almost ready to be put on the table. You've more than done your part. Now go with them. Dave might want to go, too."

Dave laughed, "Nope. I'll let the women do this."

Evie squeezed Diana's hand, smiled at her husband and took off down the hall to catch up with the girls.

"What brought that on?" Jeff asked a little later when he was able to get Diana aside, a puzzled expression on his face.

"I don't know. It was just... something. The look on Evie's face when she was introduced to Linda..."

"Yeah, come to think of it, I guess she would want to be there when Linda sees the renovations to the suite."

"Uhmmm, maybe. But I think it was more than that. Heck, she builds for a living. She must have been with homeowners many times when they first saw renovations. She seems taken with Linda... Well, Kathy is with them, too. Maybe Evie just wants to be there when Linda and Kathy see the surprise that she and the girls prepared for them," Diana finished, neglecting to mention anything she had done.

A couple of minutes later, Jeff's four young wives, plus Kathy, Evie and Linda stood in the hallway by the newly renovated two-bedroom suite, waiting for Linda to open the elegant door.

"What's everybody waiting on?" Linda asked.

"For you to open the door to the suite that belongs to you and Kathy," Ann said, giggling.

"Well, if it 'belongs' to both of us, then we should open it together," Linda said, nodding to Kathy who grinned and put her hand on the lever with her.

They pushed down, and the door swung open on silent hinges. Kathy almost had to push Linda, who stood in the doorway staring. The two young women stepped into the room.

Turning slowly around in a circle, "This is ours?" Linda gasped to Kathy as they both stared at the elegance displayed around them. Two cream print sofas formed an "L," with one of them facing a large plasma television as large as Jeff and his wives had in their bedroom suite. Ornate (maple) carved baseboards matched six-inch ornate cove molding above the walls, the pattern continuing throughout the suite. (The expert finish carpenter was back at work with a vengeance.)

"Oh, look," Kathy said, indicating three matching crystal lamps sitting on three elegant wooden tables trimmed with inlays of what were obviously rare woods.

"The table," Linda managed to get out as she pointed to a four foot by four foot etched glass table with carved glass legs setting in front of one of the couches.

Arlene spoke up, "Mom ordered the table for the sitting room in our suite a month or so ago. When she heard that you were coming, Linda, she decided to put it in here, instead. And I don't mean to slight you, Kathy. This suite belongs to the two of you."

"But... but why would she do this for us?" Kathy asked. "I'm just an employee of Mr. Wainwright's company. Why would you spend all this money..."

"Well, to be a little melodramatic, but nevertheless, accurate, we do put our lives in yours and Bill's hands every time we get on that plane. Besides, you're very special to Mr. Wainwright and Margaret, and you're going to be here a lot because they are. Oh, crap. I'm not doing well with this..." Arlene finished, unable to put into words what she felt.

"Do you like the color?" Jennie asked. "We picked it out."

Tearing their eyes away from the beautiful table and lamps, both young women looked around the room. The walls were a light gold with golden and bronze wallpaper on the accent wall.

"You picked this? It's beautiful. The whole room is beautiful." Linda said, looking around.

"Well, we all picked it out," Jennie said. "We tried to quiz your dad about your favorite colors, both of you, and other things," she mysteriously said, a smile tickling her face.

"Look at the window," Kathy sighed, nodding toward the large picture window that overlooked the front lawn and would reveal the tumbling rough vista of the abyss and the tree-lined slope of the mountain beyond, come morning.

Linda and Kathy both hurried to the window and looked out. Linda ran her hand through the sheer beneath the thick and obviously expensive drapes, then turned back to the others. "This... suite... It can't be just ours. It's for us to use on the weekend when we come down, right?"

Arlene stepped over and hugged the slightly younger girl, then leaned back to look into her face, "This suite belongs to you and Kathy. No one else will use it. You can leave all your stuff here that you want. We might come in from time to time to make sure everything is clean for you before you come up, but this belongs to you two — no one else."

"I never had anything like this. I mean, I have a nice room at home, and we have a nice house, well did have. Dad says that our house will have to be sold because of the divorce, but he promised me that I could pick the house that I wanted if he could afford it and it was close enough for him to quickly get to the airport. He told me, over and over, that the retreat was really nice, and that giant living room I just saw is... just, I don't know. I never saw a television that big. And all that beautiful furniture, but this is... is... mine? I'm sorry, Kathy, ours I should say."

Melissa grabbed Linda's hand and Jennie took Kathy's. "Come on, Linda," Melissa said, "Now we get to show you what is yours alone."

"Then we'll show you yours," Jennie said with a little laugh to Kathy.

Standing in front of the door to her bedroom, Linda hesitated, her face flushed. Tentatively she pushed down on the door lever and gave a gentle push. Stepping quickly inside, she hissed in her breath for a second, then the teenager in her took hold and she squealed, spinning in a slow circle with her arms partway extended. Stopping her turn, she stood stunned, staring at the queen-sized, carved-cherry, canopied bed. The semi-sheer white canopy was set off by white bows on the posts. The bed was partially turned down to reveal the eight-hundred count white sheets below the white shimmering comforter and pillow shams of satin. The bed skirt was a light gold to match the love seat of light gold and light red which set nearby, but could be easily moved because of hidden wheels beneath the legs.

"Try it out," Arlene quietly said, giving Linda a slight nudge.

That's all it took. With a squeal, Linda ran to the bed, lying face-down on it, running her hands over the astonishingly smooth sheets. Rolling over and looking through the semi-sheer canopy at the ceiling, she whispered, "I feel like a princess."

Without thought, Evie grabbed the nearest girl, who happened to be Ann, and hugged her, laughing, almost as excited as Linda.

Off the bed in an instant, Linda grabbed Kathy's hand and dragged her to the window. "Oh, look. I have a beautiful window, too," she said, looking out onto the lawn, lit by the outside lights as darkness descended on the mountains.

As they turned away from the window, Linda dashed to the HD DVD player sitting on a cabinet under the wall-hung HDTV. Opening the doors below the player revealed row upon row of movies. Kneeling, she pulled out several at random, fighting not to squeal with delight. Seeing a laminated booklet, she picked it up, glanced at it and turned to the others.

"That's a list of all the movies. They're in the theater, and you can use them anytime," Jennie said, smiling at Linda's astonishment.

"There are so many," Linda said, putting the movies and list back. Thinking she had seen everything, she stood and slowly turned until her eyes rested upon the large dresser. Unconsciously, she quietly whispered, "Oooh," as she focused on the basket flanked on each side by two dozen yellow roses in their crystal vases. The basket with its big pink bow sitting on the ornately mirrored dresser produced a stunning effect. "How could I have missed this," she said a little louder. "Oh... I was so excited that I didn't even see all this."

Dashing across the room, she snatched the large card attached to the front of the basket.

WELCOME TO OUR HOME, LINDA

NOW YOUR HOME AS WELL!

The card was signed by everyone at the retreat, including Frank, Margaret, Dave, Evie and Fred.

Tears streaming down her face, Linda put the card on the dresser and carefully removed the bow, then the clear plastic wrap from the basket.

Jennie brought her a tissue that Linda gratefully accepted as she began lifting out items from the basket while she dabbed at her eyes.

"Oh, my gosh. Oh... my... gosh..." Linda's exuberance continued to build each time she reached into the basket and brought something else out. Suddenly she stopped, turning to the others. "You didn't have to do this for me. Oh, I guess that was a dumb thing to say. Oh, I don't know what to say. Thank you."

Grabbing Arlene, Linda hugged her, then the others. Shortly she was back to bringing one thing out of the basket at a time, rejoicing over it, then setting it on the dresser with the other items that she had already removed. The cosmetics and other items were not directed specifically toward a fifteen-year old. All the women, led by Diana, had discussed in detail how the direction of the items should go.

Having heard from Frank and Margaret how intelligent and adult Linda was, the women had skewed the targeted age a little higher. There were many items for a teenager, but things such as makeup and perfume were expensive and designed for young adults. To understate, this did not go unnoticed by Linda. Realizing that they were treating her like an adult, her feelings for the Matthews went up yet another notch.

Ann nudged Kathy. "You haven't looked in your new bedroom," she said, a gleam in her eye.

A look of shock crossed Kathy's face, since she had not thought for a second that they had done anything special for her, other than put her in this gorgeous suite. She had already been here before, and the suite she had used for the weekend was like everything else in the retreat — beyond beautiful. Yet this suite wasn't the generic, although elegant, suite she had been assigned last weekend.

Kathy didn't know what to do; she just stood there. Melissa grabbed one hand and Ann the other, laughing, they pulled Kathy toward the other bedroom.

Kathy managed two steps into her bedroom before she stopped and took a breath. Restraining herself by a thin margin from tearing about the room as Linda had done, she sighed as she saw the king-sized bed with its cherry headboard, a series of five-inch mirror panels arranged in a diamond pattern across the width of the piece. To the side of the headboard were two dimmer switches, one to control two wall glass lamps and the other for the two silver-trimmed lamps sitting on the side tables.

The comforter and pillow shams were a royal red with gold lines running though them, while the bed skirt was gold with red lines running though it. Above the headboard were matching draperies that were tied together on the top under a bunched valance to form an upside down "V" from the center of the bed, before spreading out via tiebacks to the corners of the headboard. Opposite the bed was a large plasma television on the wall to match Linda's TV, and a HD DVD player sitting on a similar cabinet to the side.

Kathy couldn't resist running her hand over the silky feel of the sheets as she walked past the bed toward the window to look out as Linda had done. She knew that she would spend many hours just sitting in the window seat looking at the view. What a marvelous place to read or study, she thought.

Having spotted the basket flanked by two dozen red roses setting on the dresser, she tried to inconspicuously wipe her eyes. Smiling at her, Arlene handed Kathy a tissue and hugged her. "Open your basket," she whispered.

Kathy approached the basket, but cupped a rose in her hand, bringing her nose close to inhale the fragrance. "They're beautiful," she said, never having received roses from anyone before. "They're so beautiful."

Opening the card with trembling fingers, she realized that it was identical to Linda's. It, also, was signed by everyone. But why are they doing this for me? I know that they're treating Linda special because of all she is going through and her mother deserting her, but why me? I'm nothing special. I just work for Mr. Wainwright, regardless of what they say about us flying the plane.

"Well, don't just stand there, silly," Linda said walking up behind her, fighting, mostly successfully, to not jump up and down. "Let's see what they got for you."

Pulling the first item her fingers touched out of the basket, she held her breath for an instant — Oscar de la Renta's Dewdrop Crystal Parfum. She set the crystal bottle down carefully to admire the beautiful container crowned with a full-blossomed flower on which a delicate dewdrop had come to rest. My gosh. If the rest is like this, there are hundreds of dollars setting in this basket. The next item out was Oscar de la Renta Active Body Bath, then came the makeup. It went on and on. She was certainly aware that the Matthews were rich, and she was used to being around Mr. Wainwright and others that were rich, but lifting the crystal bottles out of the basket brought home an idea of how much these people had spent on her.

Her hands shaking, she set the last item down. Turning to the girls, she said, "You can't do this. This is too expensive. I just work for Mr. Wainwright's company. I'm an employee. I recognize some of this. It's fabulously expensive... Way too expensive for me."

"Oh, pooh," Arlene laughed. "You're our friend. We just want to know whether you like it or not."

"Like it? I love it. Oh, this is fabulous. I could never be able to afford all this. It's everything that I've wanted. This room — this suite — is... is beyond words."

The hugs started again with everyone laughing and commenting on various things from the basket.

Kathy turned to Linda holding up a bottle of bubble bath, "I'll bet our place is going to smell great," she told Linda, both of them grinning at each other, as Kathy dabbed at her tears.

"You bet," Linda answered. "I can't wait," she said fighting not to break down and bawl.

"Did you do all this since last weekend?" Kathy asked, again looking around the room.

"Well, it started out to be a surprise for Mr. Wainwright and Margaret, but then we decided to do the first suite for the two of you," Arlene said.

"We managed to finish Bill's as well," Evie said. "We brought in two crews from Denver, and it was close, with all the other things that were going on, but Korey got it done."

Arlene smiled at them. "We had a little family meeting and decided that you two might like to be in a two-bedroom suite instead of being alone so much of the time. Plus you can still have your privacy with your own bedrooms."

"Oh, Linda and I get along just great," Kathy laughed, then smiled at Linda. "I think this will work out beautifully, don't you Linda?"

"You bet. This is a big place. It will be good to have Kathy close by."

"For things that go bump in the night," Kathy teased.

Linda laughed, an almost tinkling sound that Kathy loved to hear. "No, silly. I'm not afraid. Besides, I spend a lot of time... uh, by myself," she finished, thinking about how much her mother had been gone lately, her good mood threatening to change.

All of them realized that the problems with Linda's mother were probably what had caused the dark look to cross Linda's face, but Evie was the first to respond, grabbing Linda's hand.

"We still haven't seen your..." Evie started.

Helen announced on the PA: "COME AND GET IT BEFORE WE THROW IT OUT."

Linda and Kathy laughed. "Was that, uh, your teacher, Dr. Boswell?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, that was Helen, also our sister-wife," Melissa said, grinning. "Really helps on tests," she teased, blatantly lying.

"Oh, it does not," Jennie said, laughing.

"That's Mom's little invitation to dinner," Arlene said, "but it kinda caught on and we all do it sometimes. Come on. Let's hurry. We'll come back after dinner and check out your bathroom. You've got a surprise there, too," Arlene finished as they all left the suite.

Much to Evie's consternation, the girls took off at a run again, laughing and giggling, in the best mood she could imagine. Screw it, she thought, belatedly deciding to run with them. I'm not going to walk along behind like an old woman. Besides, with the healer, I'm feeling more like those teenagers every day. Putting on a burst of speed, she caught up with them and grabbed Ann's hand, giggling as they stormed by the living room as Jeff, Dave, Frank and Bill walked into the hallway.

"Come on slowpokes," Evie yelled over her shoulder as they passed.

The men looked at each other. "I don't know who that blond is," Dave said in a mock serious voice. "I've never seen her before."

A moment later the men were laughing and kidding Dave as they went through the kitchen door, teasing him about Jeff not being the only one married to a teenager.

After their usual superb meal, Diana, Laura, Helen, Margaret and Evie tried to shoo Kathy, Linda and the girls out of the kitchen to enjoy themselves, but they balked.

"No, Ma'am. You've bought me adult presents; I'm not going to act like a kid when it comes to cleaning up after dinner," Linda said, as her dad grinned, proud of his daughter.

Diana smiled back at Linda, "Okay, but your father tells me that you play tennis. The night is beautiful and the court has lights. Of course there's the game room and the pool. So have fun."

With all the help, and the efficiency of the Matthews women, the kitchen looked like a picture out of Better Homes and Gardens in minutes.

Later, Diana and Evie sat in Evie's living room. Diana quietly said, "One day soon, you and I need to have a long talk. I've been noticing some things about myself and my sister-wives. Jeff has mentioned some things, also. I'm going to get him to ask the healer about something. If it turns out the way I think it is going to, you and I will have a lot to talk about. Seeing you with Linda tonight has started things to gel in my mind. I may be wrong, but I don't think I am."

"What is it?" Evie asked, a look of wonder on her pretty face as she sat on the couch in her living room, turned to face Diana sitting beside her. Unconsciously, she wound a lock of hair around her finger as she propped an elbow on the back of the couch, stared at her friend.

"Well, I don't have all the information I need, right now. Let's wait until I can get Jeff to ask the healer, but he has remarked over and over about how well all his wives get along together. How well Arlene and I did even before we came out here, and to some extent, it has applied to Jennie and Melissa even when we were back in Georgia. I think that is, to a large extent, the influence of our Alpha Male, as we've talked about before. But I think there is more going on lately than we have realized."

Diana's eyes softened as she looked at her friend, who stared wide-eyed back at her. "You look different, too. Oh, you were beautiful the first time I saw you," Diana said as Evie blushed and tried to protest. "Hush, you are, and the healer has made you look younger... and more, somehow. I think your attitude is changing. Oh, I know that some of it is because you're around our marriage, but still... you've made a comment or two about not being able to satisfy your husband now that the healer has influenced him, and Dave's sexual appetite has... increased, shall we say. Maybe something is happening because of that and other things..."