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Everyone got a late start on Saturday except for Brody. I woke up to a text from Paul who hadn’t spent the night, saying that he and Brody were at the rehab center and wanted me to see the furniture.
I replied I’d be there in half an hour and managed to shower and dress without waking anyone but my furry friend who was pacified with treats.
After a drive thru run for coffee and pastries, I made it to the location where so much work and money had been poured in. I walked in and the waiting area looked like a living room with a desk area to one side. The hardwood floors had area rugs and there were plants. It was very homey.
“You like the couches?” Brody asked as he came out from the office.
“Yeah, the deep blue is soothing.” I nodded.
“Great. the offices are next and then the inpatient rooms.” Brody waved me back.
“Where’s Paul? I brought pastries,” I said.
“He’s putting a few things in his office. Computers arrive Monday and get hooked up with software installed. Staff is hired and we’ll do training over the next few weeks once we have everything stocked and equipped.” Brody opened the box and grabbed a doughnut.
“Great, thanks. You’re a wiz at all of this,” I said.
“I’m just glad to have something else to do. No drama here. Working at a family business was hell even if I loved the bridal gown side of things. Of course, when you bring in staff, I might not fit in,” Brody said.
“I think you’ll fit. Just like the mansion. You and Ivy are adorable.” I took off my coat before I grabbed a roll and enjoyed my coffee.
“Yeah, I know I sort of added myself to the group. I hope you don’t mind.” Brody sat in the rolling chair behind the desk.
“No, Ivy added you. And I’m glad. You’re good for her. Sorry for the weirdness with Mary Lou and all that. My life has a big vein of chaos and the supernatural.” I shrugged.
“I can live with that. But you’re really sure it’s okay for me to move in?” he asked.
“I thought you had.” I shrugged.
“I have, more or less, but I haven’t told my landlord. It’s your house, not Ivy’s,” Brody said.
I nodded. “True. But it’s a really big house. I’m not kicking Ivy out anytime soon and unless you treat her badly, I’m fine with it. I totally understand if you and Ivy want your own place.”
He sighed and finished his breakfast. “I feel better at your place. The world...it is scary. Security is being yanked from people who run their own businesses and tax rates are going up unless you’re mega rich already. I just don’t want to feel like I’m using you or Ivy.”
“You’re not. The world is scarier than before and if you get the job I’m thinking for you here—you’ll work your butt off. But I think you’ll enjoy it. Either way, you’ll earn your keep,” I said.
“Okay. If you’re sure.” He headed for a closet. “I’ll set up the coffee machine. I have to wait for the security system guys to get here anyway. They did the pre-wire but now we can put in the motion sensors.”
“On a Saturday?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Need anything else?”
“No, I’m going to bug Paul. He can give me the rest of the furniture tour. Thanks.” I headed back to the offices and found him sitting in his chair texting.
“You look comfortable,” I said.
“Good furniture is necessary. Try out the chairs,” he said.
I did and found them excellent. Sturdy but soft. “Very nice. Brody is still debating moving in? Hopefully I assured him it’s a good idea.”
“Is it? Sometimes moving too fast messes thing up,” Paul replied.
I nodded. “But that’s up to him and Ivy. For my little part, I’m fine with it.”
“Little part. It’s your mansion.” Paul chuckled.
I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s their relationship. If I asked you to move in, that’d be too fast.”
“Agreed. Especially with that crazy group living there now.” He smiled. “Think any of them will move out?”
“Not that I can foresee. Too many people? Not enough space?” I teased.
Paul looked me in the eye. “I don’t mind that you have more money than I do. A lot more money.”
“Family inheritance, it’s not like I earned it.” I hated how fragile men’s egos could be at times.
“I know. But I don’t want you offering to pay off my student loans or pay me a ton to work here.”
“Did I offer either of those things? Never occurred to me,” I said.
“However, if I moved in with you—in a roundabout way it would change the dynamic,” he replied.
“Why? Because you don’t have to pay your own rent or utilities?” I shrugged. “Owning a house that big costs what it costs. I own it but the taxes and the rest of it, they don’t vary by the number of people that live there. Well, the water and electric do a bit. Everybody helps out with food.”
“I’m not saying your setup is unhealthy for you guys.” He held up his hands in defense.
“But you don’t want to be a part of it?” I asked.
“No, not now. Not ready for that. You aren’t either. What you do takes a lot of out of you. I don’t want to be another person pulling on you.”
I frowned. “Greg and Ivy have helped me figure out what the heck I’m doing here. They’ve been with me since the beginning. Mary Lou and Matt only moved in because of recent events. I hired Gunnar recently and I need him on my team. I know it’s unconventional, but it makes no sense to own a mansion like mine for one person to live in. I can’t sell it,” I said.
“Why?” Paul asked.
“It’s freaking haunted. Defiant ghosts in the attic. Possessed items under the stairs. I can’t give that to anyone. They’d turn it into a theme park. Or someone could be hurt. It’s my family legacy and I have to contain it.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “Look, if the day comes when you want to move in we can talk about paying rent or bills. Whatever. I don’t care. I know money is a big deal for a lot of people but my fight—my struggle in life has nothing to do with money. Gran left me set up well and diversified. I’m not going to stress about money.”
“You’re lucky,” he said.
“I know. Then again, I get to see things no one wants to. Meet with murderers and face down demons. Don’t worry, if you want to stay over I still have plenty of guest rooms.” I stood up and headed to the elevator.
He rushed to catch up with me. “I was only teasing.”
“No, you weren’t. It’s fine. I’m not normal or ever going to fit in to high society or anything. New Orleans has an acceptance of the strange and unusual. Doesn’t mean everyone can handle it.”
I pushed the button and the doors opened with a ding. We stepped on and I hit the button for the second floor.
“I love how weird and unusual you are. How your life is. I just never want anyone saying I’m a gold digger.”
“But for women it’s okay?” I teased.
“No, but it’s more socially acceptable.” He nodded.
I looked at him. “Why the sudden desire for social acceptance?”
“My parents asked about you. It’s hard to explain the circumstances.” He sighed. “And Ivy mentioned your brother had blown into town and then left?”
I shook my head. “He appeared suddenly but got a job right away. We were shocked. He’s doing marketing at a casino and he had to train and get up to speed. It’s outside the city so he got his own place. They put him up in the fancy hotel attached to the casino until he found somewhere he liked. I guess it was the right move for him—with everything falling into place. You thought I was ashamed of him or you?” I prodded.
“Neither. I just wondered.” He smiled at me as the doors opened.
“I’ll see if I can get him into the city for dinner now that he should be settled. Or we can go out there. My family is as crazy and embarrassing as anyone’s but I’m not trying to keep them from you.” I stepped out onto the second floor.
“Sounds good. I would like to meet some of your family. Then again, I think you have a family you cobbled together living with you.” He led the way down the hall.
“You’re right there. But I want to meet some of your family, too,” I insisted.
He began talking about the furniture and setup for the rooms. Men.
***
I STARED AT THE CONTENTS of my closet and there was nothing that would fit what I had to do today. I wrapped a short fuzzy robe around me and decided to raid other closets. I knocked on Mary Lou’s door.
She wasn’t in her room, of course. She was in Greg’s. I opened the door and checked out what she had in her closet. The woman had more clothes than a department store and she’d apparently brought them all when she moved in.
Odds were I wouldn’t find exactly what would fit but I needed to look frumpy and conservative. I managed to find a few maxi dresses because Mary Lou was always on trend. One was peach with tiny white flowers. I couldn’t do better than that. I dropped the robe and tugged on the gown. Not a perfect fit but it’d do.
As I left the room, I found Greg in the hallway.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I think I’ll attend Sunday service at that little church. See if they throw me out or something.” I needed some sort of scarf or something to cover the cleavage. Not that it was revealing but with the high collared dresses I’d seen in Greg’s pics, I knew I had to be as conservative as possible.
“You can’t go alone,” Greg said.
“Please.” I walked back to my room to find something that worked.
He followed me. “Seriously. I didn’t see any single women there. Not that weren’t old with kids in tow.”
“Weirder and weirder,” I said.
“Take Gunnar or Paul,” Greg advised.
“Not Gunnar. I don’t want to freak Paul out,” I replied.
Greg smiled. “Trust me, this place is a shrink’s dream. Why are these people this way? You two could write papers.”
“Fine. I’ll ask him but I’ll look like frumpy crap.” I stared at myself in the mirror.
“Just think of it as a test drive for a Halloween costume,” Greg teased.
I texted Paul. He replied quickly and promised to arrive in twenty minutes. I really had no desire to sit in a small church where there were no rules. Where the pastor just did whatever he wanted. Religion wasn’t bad but some men took the power and ran with it.
Ivy came through with a white cashmere wrap which worked due to the weather. I wore white flats and no makeup. I swept my hair back in a clip but didn’t bother with any jewelry.
Paul walked in the front door and stared. “Interesting.”
“It’s as frumpy as I could find.” I shrugged.
Paul was in a conservative suit but that didn’t look much different than his normal clothes.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” Paul asked.
I nodded. “We can’t keep sending Gunnar or Greg over there. They’ll get paranoid. I don’t want to be late.”
We hopped into Paul’s SUV and were there just in time to sit down for the ten a.m. service, which was apparently the only Sunday service. We sat in the back and got a lot of looks.
The one room church was out in the middle of nowhere, areas that had been abandoned since Katrina. The shack wasn’t new but it was cleaned out. There were men at the doors; I didn’t see guns but I felt like they were armed.
The readings were nothing new, it was straight from the King James version. But the preaching was fire and brimstone. About how women weren’t supposed to be temptresses, despite what pop culture said. Don’t be Eve, be Mary was a creepy slogan.
I leaned in to Paul. “I feel like we just dropped into an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale,” I whispered.
He grabbed my left hand and nodded.
“What?” I asked.
“I think we should’ve worn rings or something,” he whispered in my ear.
He was probably right.
As the service ended, we filed out. I heard whispers about my dress and hair. The pastor shook hands with Paul but didn’t touch mine when I offered it.
“A nice couple. Are you looking for a new church?” the Pastor asked.
“Couldn’t hurt. Most religions tend toward the modern to draw people in. I prefer old school approaches.” Paul played into the Pastor’s hand.
“Excellent. Are you married?” the Pastor asked.
“Yes, we were the victims of a robbery. They took everything of value, including making us take off our rings. We’re waiting for the insurance money. You understand,” he said.
The pastor nodded. “I pray your originals are returned but sometimes God gives us a new thing for a reason.”
I smiled and bit my tongue. The pastor seemed to ignore me and believe anything Paul said.
A girl in the crowd was trying not to be seen, so of course my eye went right to her. it was the girl from the ladies’ room at the Dungeon. That made no sense at all, but it was the same girl. Same big eyes and blonde hair. Only now she looked innocent and wholesome.
“Ready, my dear?” Paul asked.
I nodded and smiled. I did my best to match his pace and not rush to the car.
Inside, I buckled my seatbelt and tried to be calm as he got us back to the main roads. Only then did I feel like I could talk.
“That is creepy.” I shuddered.
“Agreed. But I didn’t see anyone being mistreated. No obvious bruises or marks,” Paul replied.
He was right. If they were abusive, they hid it well. Or those people didn’t show up in church. Either way, I wasn’t done with them.