THIRTEEN

 

 

September 17th, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

IT HAD BEEN a very long day and it was barely five in the afternoon when Lott pulled into his driveway. He and Julia had picked up a large bucket of KFC and it smelled wonderful sitting on the console between them the last mile.

Annie and Andor were both coming over when they broke clear of what they were doing, but as Andor said, he would come by only if there was a promise of chicken.

So they got chicken. And considering that Andor had spent most of the day at headquarters copying old files of missing person’s cases, he deserved chicken.

As they went into the kitchen and Julia set the chicken on the table, Lott decided they needed a little something to distract from thinking about the case for a moment.

“Got something I want to show you,” he said.

He took her hand and led her through his dining room and toward the bedrooms.

“If you’re thinking what I think you are thinking,” Julia said, laughing, “you know your daughter might show up at any minute.”

Lott laughed. “I was sort of thinking that, but I wanted to show you some remodeling I had done lately.”

He took her into what had been the house’s master bedroom, but was now a massive double walk-in closet with all built-in cabinets and clothes racks. He had had it all made of a light oak and put in cam lights over each dressing area, with two large mirrors on the walls of each area as well.

He had moved his clothes into one side of the closet and sadly everything he owned didn’t begin to fill the space.

“Wow,” Julia said, stepping into the room and just stopping. “What did you do with the bed?”

“Annie’s old room,” he said. “She assured me she would never be using it again.”

Julia laughed. “With as much money as she has, not counting Doc’s fortunes, I don’t think there is any worry of her moving home.”

“I left the door to the master bath at the back of this room,” Lott said, pointing, “and opened another door into the master bath from Annie’s old room, so this entire three rooms becomes one big master suite.”

“Wow, just wow,” Julia said, walking through the empty part of the closet and into the remodeled bathroom.

Lott was almost as proud of the bathroom remodel as he was of the closet. Designed perfectly for two people with a large vanity with two sinks, a shower, a whirlpool tub and a toilet room that could be closed off.

After she looked into the bedroom area with the new king bed, she turned back to Lott. Lott was very glad to see that she was smiling one of the happiest smiles he had seen on her.

“You interested in saving some money on rent?” he asked, indicating the new closet and bathroom. “This place is all paid off and I also have the third bedroom set up as an office with two computers and work stations.”

Julia came toward him and just kissed him, one of the hardest kisses she had ever done.

Then she pushed him back and held him at arm’s length. “Carol’s things? And are you sure you are ready?”

“I have what I wanted to keep of Carol’s things in boxes in the storage area off the poker room downstairs. Tucked away safe and sound.”

Julia nodded, but kept looking at him.

“I’m ready,” he said. “Carol told me she wanted me to move on after she died. I didn’t believe I ever could. But I never believed I would meet a woman like you either.”

“I can’t replace Carol,” Julia said. “And I never want to.”

Lott nodded. “I know. What you and I have together is very different than what I had with Carol, just as what you and I have I imagine is different from what you had with that former husband of yours.”

Julia laughed at that because her former husband was in prison at the moment and had married five women at the same time as he had been married to Julia.

“That’s why I did all this remodeling of the front room and the layout of the house and these rooms,” Lott said. “Not to erase Carol, but to give us a new starting place, since we both love that poker room downstairs so much.”

“And that wonderful new kitchen you put in as well,” Julia said, smiling.

“So we start fresh?” he asked.

“We start fresh,” she said, nodding. “But I’m hiring movers to move everything.”

“Oh, thank heavens,” Lott said, laughing. “I’m way too old to be doing that.”

Then as they were kissing again and Lott was about to pull Julia into the new bedroom, they heard Annie’s voice. “Anyone home?”

“Back here,” Lott shouted.

“Has she seen this yet?”

Lott shook his head and smiled at Julia.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Julia said.

And it was as Annie praised the remodeling and then gave both of them a huge hug.

And then she looked into her father’s eyes and said, “About damn time, Dad.”

And that made it all perfect.