Chapter 7

The phone rang at six, startling Diana out of a dream that she could not quite remember as she heard her husband thanking the desk for the wake-up call. “You told them to wake us at six?” she asked, blearily looking at her watch. “Why? We’re on vacation, aren’t we?”

Jeff snatched the cover back. Diana’s nipples hardened in the cool air of the room, even though she had worn a teddy to bed. She leaned over, grabbed Jeff’s morning erection and encircled it with her mouth, but he pulled away, saying, “We don’t have time for that. We’ll need all day to check out the building and acreage. Let’s get a move on. We can stop for breakfast at a Waffle House, or something of the sort, on the way.”

As he started to enter the bathroom, Diana called after him. “She started, Jeff. She’s not pregnant.”

Jeff hesitated before going on into the bathroom without answering. In a moment, he said, “Check my bag, Babe. Both of you have birth control pills in there, with refills for a year. They’re not the same brand that you took before. They’re supposed to work after only three days. You need to read the instructions. I don’t know whether you start them today or not.”

Diana got the pills and headed for Arlene’s room to wake her.

A little while later, they were in their Escalade, and Arlene was anxiously reading from the directions. Jeff laughed and said, “I’ve been there before, Kiddo. I think I can find the way, but you can be my navigator, just in case. Of course, we could cheat and use the GPS,” he teased. “The trip was a couple of months back, and I wasn’t driving.”

Diana had already found a state map in the glove compartment, and she and Arlene set out to make sure Jeff didn’t get lost, saying it would be more fun finding it on their own rather than using the GPS. Since Jeff hadn’t eaten last night, he was more interested in breakfast than their directions. He found what he was looking for near the entrance to the interstate.

While they ate, Diana tried to tease her husband and chitchat, but he made little response, obviously still very down. We have just received a hundred and fifty-five million dollars, a multimillion-dollar house, or some such, set on more than six hundred acres, and a new car – a Cadillac for crying out loud – but he’s still down. My fucking Jack and Arnie has obviously hurt his ego an awful lot, and I can’t blame him. I would be destroyed if he did anything like that. Will he ever get over it? Will he ever forgive me? She smiled at him before kissing him on the cheek. Catching Arlene’s eye for a second while Jeff paid for their meal, Diana realized that her daughter was worried, too – big time.

As they got back in the SUV, Arlene hugged Jeff’s neck, “Thanks, Daddy. You’re the best.”

“For what, Punkin?”

“Everything. Just everything.”

Jeff smiled a little but said nothing else. Soon, they were on their way again.

“Looks as if Winter Park is about two-thirds of the way there. I’ve heard of it, but of course, I’ve never been there. Did you go through the city when you went to the conference you were talking about?” Diana asked.

Jeff glanced at her, “Yeah, we did. You don’t have a choice. There aren’t many roads in these mountains,” he said, pointing ahead of them. “We stopped for gas there, and I picked up a brochure at the station while Tingle was filling the vehicle. The cashier told me that some snow fell almost every month of the year. Winter Park is actually in a valley, but its elevation is still nine thousand feet or so at the town center. I remember reading that Winter Park, Colorado is the highest incorporated town in the US. I think that includes the ski resorts, though. The altitude of one of them is something like twelve thousand feet if I remember correctly.”

Hesitating a moment, he continued, “I thought we might come here on vacation sometime. Looks as if we made it. It’s a beautiful place, as everything seems to be in this area,” he finished, looking at the still snow-capped mountains in the distance.

A while later, they had crossed a mountain and were out of the snow and passing through Winter Park. Jeff motioned to a small restaurant on the left. “We’ll have to come back here one day soon.”

“That place, Daddy?”

“Yeah. Tingle, as I said, was driving when I came up. He insisted that we had to stop there.”

“It’s small,” Diana said, trying to be noncommittal as she checked out the nothing-special building.

“Yeah, it is that, but the lady who runs The Kitchen is a character. She has signs all over. One of them says something like, IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY – GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.”

“And she gets any business?” Diana asked.

Jeff chuckled. “The place is frequently packed. They process one order to completion at a time. When your meal is served, they start on the next one. One at a time. Quality, not quantity.”

“But it looks like their customers would get mad and leave – and not come back.”

“It’s a different world here. There just doesn’t seem to be a rush. Besides, she warns you with the signs ahead of time. If you are in a hurry, go somewhere else.” He chuckled again, saying, “After tasting the food, I won’t mind waiting for it again. I sure didn’t that time. And besides...”

They all chimed in with, “IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY – GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.”

Diana glanced over at her handsome husband. For a little while there, my Jeff was back. But now the laughter is gone, and his face has that lonesome look again.

Three-quarters of an hour, and one wrong turn later, they were high in the mountains. They had followed a small, winding and very steep road for several miles before turning into a driveway that seemed to go on and on, mostly up a cliff face. Diana’s side of the vehicle was on the outside on the first curve. She could see for what seemed like forever, straight down. When the switchback came, Jeff got the “view,” as he called it. Diana called it, “scared to death.”

“This is our driveway?” Diana whined.

“Yeah...” Jeff slurred, drawing out the word as the Escalade shifted into first, the big engine’s noise mounting as the slant of the drive increased upward.

“Oh, shit,” Diana quietly said. To her, the driveway seemed suddenly to go straight up.

“You’ll get used to it,” Jeff said. But Diana noticed that he didn’t look down on his next turn, and he had both hands firmly on the steering wheel – impressively sturdy-looking guardrails or not.

“The man who brought the SUV said they would be up in a few days with snow tires that we could change out when we needed them. He said they were already on the rims, and we could just swap out the wheels when winter comes.”

“You will be driving from now on. I’m not going to drive down this driveway,” Diana forced out while trying to look anywhere but down.

“You’ll get used to it. Besides, the drive is wide enough, paved all the way, and those rails on the side appear substantial.”

“Yeah. Right,” Diana said, closing her eyes for a moment.

Arlene, trying to get her mind off the sheer drop, took out one of the long cigarettes and lit it. Diana, who had just opened her eyes, caught Jeff looking in the mirror. “Jeff, I know she looks sexy with that cigarette, but if you take your eyes off that road one more time, I’m going to get out and walk. I don’t like this,” she said, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice to a normal tone as her eyes were drawn to the drop-off to nowhere that was much too close.

“I wasn’t...” Jeff tried.

“The heck you weren’t, Jeff Matthews. Now get us to this place in one piece before I wet my pants.”

They glimpsed something through the trees as they neared the top of the cliff. “Jeff, uh ... that can’t be it. Can it?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s it,” Jeff said, glancing where Diana was looking.

A little later, they pulled into the circle in front. Arlene and Diana both let their windows down, but neither said a thing. They just stared.

“Jeff, you have the wrong place,” Diana said, uncomfortably. “This can’t be ours. It’s ... it’s a hotel or something – a beautiful, fancy hotel. Or maybe a ski lodge for the wealthy. No, it must be a resort of some kind. A ski lodge would never be this beautiful.”

“It’s neat is what it is,” Arlene broke in. “And it is ours?” she asked, more than stated.

“Yep,” Jeff returned.

Diana, out of words, just sat staring.

Jeff laughed. “Indeed, this is the place. I’ve been here before, remember?” he said into the silence.

Arlene was trying to count windows but lost count because of the trees in the way.

When Jeff realized what she was trying to do, “Won’t do you much good to count windows. It’s built vaguely like a big triangle, although expanded on the narrow end. They passed out maps when we got here. It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed one.”

“I love the architecture,” Diana quietly said, still staring at the terraces and something like alcoves that broke up the outline of the structure. “It’s ... it’s tremendous, and it has to be the most beautiful building I have ever seen. It must have cost millions – many millions. It just can’t be ours,” she finished, awe in her voice.

“Well, a billionaire did have it built – a multi-billionaire, and it is our home now, no matter how large it is. I don’t know who designed it, but I’m with you. I’ve never seen anything like it. But it is ours. Lock, stock and barrel, as they say, and there are six hundred and forty acres of the mountain to go with it. A full square mile. Hell, we even have the mineral rights.”

Jeff put the big SUV back into gear. “I’m going to see if I can figure out how to drive around to the back. With all this stuff we have with us, I want to be as close to a door as possible. In the front here, you have to ride an elevator up to the first floor, and you can’t park very close to the building, anyway.”

As they climbed a grade and circled around to the back, Diana pointed. “There’s the garage.” Then a moment later, “Good grief. How many doors does that thing have?” as she eyed the long building sitting a hundred feet or so from the main building. “And there seems to be another garage that’s part of the same building, but it’s closer to the other end.”

Jeff chuckled. “Remember, Mr. Wainwright said they built this for a conference center and a retreat. It’s big. So they probably needed a lot of garage space for all the people. Undoubtedly, there is a lot of snow up here in the winter, and you wouldn’t want to leave your car out.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Diana responded, looking at the size of the beautifully landscaped parking lot between the retreat and the equally graceful-looking garage.

Spying a back door, they pulled near and got out of the SUV. “The alarm code is sixty-nine, sixty-nine,” Jeff offered

“Oh, Jeff,” Diana said as they mounted the steps, “that’s tacky.”

Jeff laughed as he dug the keys out of his pocket. “I guess we can change it to, two sixty-nine, sixty-nine.”

Arlene piped up with, “Or to sixty-nine, sixty-nine, three.”

“Young lady!” Jeff admonished.

When he started to say something else to Arlene, Diana poked him in the ribs. “Don’t be such an old fuddy-duddy. Besides, I think it’s funny – and, you were the one who started it,” she finished with a chuckle.

Jeff scowled a bit, but inserted the key, opened the door and quickly entered the alarm code.

Diana looked around her. “If this is the mudroom,” she exclaimed, “it’s as big as our master bedroom at home.”

“At home?” Jeff said, grinning. “This is our home. Remember?”

Diana pushed the door open to the hallway, stopped and just stared at the opulence. “Oh, my,” she sighed out, then started down the hall with the other two following, but the hall soon branched into other, even longer corridors. After a couple of wrong turns, she found the kitchen – well, she thought it was the kitchen. She just stood there, stunned. “You could run a restaurant out of this place – a big restaurant. This thing is huge. On second thought, I’d be willing to bet there are a lot of big restaurants with kitchens a lot smaller than this.”

Diana started down one side, running her hand along the shiny granite countertop. Stopping, she leaned across the extra wide counter to slide a door. While dashing down the counter, she opened door after door, then turning to Jeff, “They’re appliance garages,” she exclaimed. Then at Jeff’s raised eyebrow, she continued, “Like my little mixer garage on the kitchen counter in Georgia, except ... they’re big as well as recessed into the wall behind the counter, so counter space isn’t used up. Oh, Jeff. They’re full of everything. And it’s all industrial size. And look how wide the counters are, and they’re granite – superbly beautiful granite. Oh, Jeff, this isn’t just granite, it has to be a specialty item. And granite, unlike quartz, will last forever. Oh, Jeff, I can’t believe... “ Her voice trailed off as she continued to explore.

While Diana was pulling out appliances from their little homes, Jeff stepped off the kitchen. “Shit, this kitchen is almost as big as our house in Georgia,” he said but was interrupted by Arlene before he could comment further.

“Mom, Dad! There’s a walk-in freezer, and it has double doors like an airlock,” Arlene called out after going through first one, then on through the other. “And it’s huge,” came her muffled voice, even though the doors were open, “and it’s packed with all kinds of meat, and oh, just everything,” she finished, turning round and round, trying to look everywhere at once, just as Jeff and Diana caught up with her.

Diana picked up a package of steaks. “Hon, this meat is specially wrapped. Look at the thickness of the paper.” Then a second later, “It’s double wrapped to help keep down freezer burn.”

“Well, they used the place sporadically, but when they did, I suspect there were many people here. Makes sense, I suppose.”

Arlene, hugging herself, started for the door. “I’m freezing.”

Jeff laughed at her antics as she rushed out. “That’s the reason your mother and I took the time to put on the coats that were hanging in the airlock before we came in.”

Arlene stood just inside the kitchen door, prominent bumps displayed on the front of her blouse, even through her bra. “I’ve never been in anything that was that cold before,” she said when her mother and dad were back in the kitchen, after hanging their coats up and securing the doors.

Jeff inadvertently focused on her nipples before quickly averting his eyes, scolding himself for looking at his daughter, but Diana saw and also noticed how quickly he looked away.

Diana opened a door on the same wall as the freezer before stopping. “That’s not all the frozen food,” she said. There are two big stand-up freezers in here, and this pantry is bigger than our entire kitchen in Georgia.

Jeff stepped into the “L” shaped room. The base of the “L” ran along the back wall of the kitchen, and the long section of the “L” ran the length of the kitchen behind the counter where Diana had opened the appliance garages. There was even a small office opening off the base of the “L.”

“Jeff,” Diana said, stunned. “We’ll never be able to eat half this before it spoils. This place is not unlike ... a grocery store.”

“Well, Frank said it was stocked. He didn’t say it was stocked for fifty people for a year, though,” he added with a chuckle. “We’ll give part of it away. There are bound to be some schools or churches in the area that would be glad to get some extra food. Come on,” he finished while taking Diana by the arm and starting her out of the pantry, “Let’s see what else we can find.”

“Dad,” Arlene asked, “why do you suppose there are two big kitchen tables in here? And they’re nice. Not like anything I’ve ever seen in a kitchen before.”

Before Jeff could answer, Diana said, “If I’ve counted correctly, the bigger table seats twenty, and the smaller, ten. I suspect this is where the help ate.” She ran her hand over the contoured leather back of one of the kitchen chairs, “But if the help ate in this much luxury, I wonder what the dining room looks like.”

Jeff chuckled again, “I’ve been in one of the dining rooms. Total luxury. Wainwright knows how to spend money, no doubt, and Wainwright, Inc. practically manufactures the stuff. Plus, he is supposed to own many ‘satellite’ companies – whatever that means – according to Tingle. As I said earlier, he’s a billionaire several times over.”

Arlene sat at the bar that ran partway down the kitchen, nearer the tables than the other side, slowly spinning herself. “Dad, this seat feels better than your recliner at home, and it’s leather, too. If Mr. Wainwright used leather and granite in the kitchen, I wonder what the furniture is like,” she said, sliding out of the deep seat and heading for the door. “Come on, Mom, let’s find the living room,” Arlene gushed as she headed out.

In the hallway, they stopped, deciding which way to go. “I think it’s down to the left,” Jeff said, “but I don’t think they called it a living room. I think it was called a sitting room.”

Diana chuckled. “It’s ours now, so we can call it anything we wish.”

Another hundred feet or so, and Arlene opened a set of large double doors on the right. As Jeff followed the women, he bumped into them as Diana and Arlene froze in the doorway. The floor-to-ceiling glass wall gave a spectacular view of the landscaped front with elegant, wide-spaced trees starting almost against the building. A hundred yards farther, and they could see the driveway curve around to the beginning of the switchbacks that eventually descended to the unseen county road over a quarter of a mile away. The room had numerous recliners, and overstuffed, beautiful, leather-bound furniture. Many tables of various types were situated about the room, and the biggest TV screen that Arlene and Diana had ever seen hung on the left wall above the biggest fireplace they could imagine. The opening had to be at least ten feet wide. The room was enormous, the furniture tasteful and designed for comfort.

As Jeff gently pushed the women forward, he said, “I’ve been in here just once, and then for only a little while, the one night I spent here. But it is beautiful, isn’t it?”

As Diana turned to the right, she grabbed her husband’s hand. “Oh, Jeff. Just look at that stairway ... That has to be mahogany. Oh, my,” she finished, her voice trailing off as she took in the elegant slow curve of a grand stairway at the other end of the room. “Can’t you just imagine a bride walking down that?”

From the look on Arlene’s face, she could, and there was little doubt just who the bride was that she was imagining.

Diana turned to her husband with a sparkle of moisture in her eyes, “Jeff, this is the most beautiful room I have ever seen in my life. You could put – I don’t know – a hundred people or more in here. Can this actually be ours?” she asked, barely audible.

“It’s ours, Babe; that’s what the contract says. And there’s a deed in there somewhere with the contract that says the six hundred and forty acres that surround the place are ours as well.”

“What will we ever do with this much room, Baby?”

“Any damn thing we want to,” he said, laughing.

Diana tensed before looking at Jeff, “Where did you put the keys?”

“Uh, I laid them on the kitchen counter. Why?”

“Don’t you dare just put those keys down. If we lock ourselves out of this place, what would we do? It must have been miles since I last saw a house. And I’ll bet our cells won’t work in these mountains,” Diana scolded.

Chapter 8 »