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"Oh yes, his business interests are far-ranging. You can't eat money, you know. Agriculture addresses one of humanity's most basic needs, and I know that he is always telling me that he's in one time zone or another. It's easier to talk to him when he's in Beijing than in Western Europe, though."
"Oh?" I looked at him. He had a lot of explaining to do.
"Yes. In Beijing, I'll call him early in the morning, and his time it'll be a reasonable hour at night. When he's in France, it's just impossible to get in touch. He will tell me, "I am busy, Mom." That'll be it." She blinked. "But don't worry. I will leave you two lovebirds alone. I know what it is like to be a newlywed." She winked at me.
I felt heat rising in my cheeks. She had no idea that Jimmy and I were on the outs. She knew that I had left, but she obviously was on my side.
I looked down at my plate. My soup had vanished. I ate the last bite of bread in my hand.
"Thank you so much for putting together dinner, Mrs. Fox. I highly appreciate it."
"Call me Diana, darling. Mrs. Fox applies to both of us now."
I winced. "It does. I'll go upstairs and get ready for bed. Good night.”
El Dorado
Amelia
"I'll help. Thanks, Mom." Jimmy bent down and kissed his mother's cheek. I could see the affection between them, no matter how sassy she was. She loved him, and she would be an excellent grandmother to our children. That was a good thing, since my mom was long gone. The kids would only have two grandparents to spoil them instead of four.
"In here." Jimmy touched my arm and indicated one of the doors.
I opened it. I saw gold everywhere, like I was a conquistador who had suddenly discovered El Dorado.
"Dear Lord." I looked around. He had a canopied California King bed. Everything in his room was done in shades of gold.
He stuck his hands in his suit pockets, ruining the line of his clothes. "My mom...I got tired of all my hockey stuff in my room, but I did not have time to fix it. I gave my mom complete permission to redo it. Do you like it?"
"It's so much." I blinked. I touched the wall. "Is this silk?"
"Yes, all the wallpaper is silk. It's the opposite of a child's room, you see."
"Okay." It wasn't really a bedroom; it was a suite. He had a gigantic walk-in closet that was the size of my tiny apartment. "I cleared out a side for you."
I looked at it. "Maybe it would be better if you cleared your bottom racks and just me have them. I'm too short for the top racks."
He smiled at me. "Whatever you want, Mrs. Fox."
I wagged a finger at him. "I'm still mad at you." But I smiled a little bit. He had gotten ready for me to be here, and that counted for something. Not a lot. Not for knocking me up, not for conspiring with my dad to marry me and have Jimmy take over my dad's business. But it was enough to poke a tiny crack in the wall that I was holding around my heart. I had some hurt in my heart, and standing here in the closet he had prepared for me mended some of it.
"If you want to unpack your little suitcase, I can get the rest later."
I noticed that my suitcase was in the room. I looked at him and cocked my head.
"Who brought it up?"
“We have a man who is sort of our jack-of-all-trades. We don't really have a household staff. We have a housekeeper
who cooks for us and our jack-of-all-trades is her husband. They live on the grounds, though it's in a cottage."
"Okay." I opened up my suitcase, and I brought my little toiletries bag into my new bathroom. It was all gleaming gold taps. It was nicer than my bedroom at home, and that was saying a lot.
He came up behind me as I got my toothbrush out to brush my teeth. He wrapped his arms around the indent of my waist, and his chin came down gently on the top of my head.
"I know that you are not that happy right now, but I swear to you, we will make this work if we can. I want this baby." He touched my stomach. "And I have wanted you, even without the pregnancy." I watched his face in the mirror. I could read him like a book. No. He had concealed so much of himself from me, making me think that he was just some Cheesehead farmer when he was really a businessman on par with my father.
"You have a lot of apologizing to do, Mr. Fox." I turned around. I poked him in the chest with a light finger in the center. "You lied for a long time."
