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Perfect timing. I’d been a little worried that they’d show up before five, and then I’d have to decide whether to close down the shop on what was usually my busiest day of the week, but since they wouldn’t be arriving until five-thirty, that gave me plenty of time to wrap things up on my regular schedule and still be out at the Bigelow mansion to greet them.
Since she’d mentioned a navigation system, I guessed that they must be driving here in Tom’s fancy Porsche Cayenne SUV, and not one of his vintage sports cars. It made sense for that kind of trip, because the last thing you wanted was to have engine failure somewhere out on a lonely stretch of I-10 in the Arizona desert in early August.
I locked the doors to Once in a Blue Moon at five and stowed the cash from the register in the little safe I kept in the storeroom at the back of the shop. A quick stop in the apartment to freshen up and give Archie an early dinner — to which he shot me a baleful look but didn’t say anything. I suppose even Archie knew that grousing about being fed off schedule when I was heading out to meet family members probably wasn’t a good idea.
Monsoon storms had threatened all day, but now it seemed as if they planned to make good on that threat, since dark clouds had begun to bear down on the town, and thunder rumbled off in the distance as I headed out to my car. No rain yet, but I could almost smell it on the air, damp and heavy.
Well, if it was going to rain, better that it do it when I was only driving around town. I’d managed to avoid the rain when I was over at Calvin’s house the other night, although sounds of thunder had troubled my sleep and I’d woken up to wet pavement and a steady drip of moisture from the eaves outside my bedroom window. At least tonight I was only heading out to the Bigelow mansion, and even though it was on the eastern edge of town, the roads were paved the entire route except for the home’s driveway, which was well-maintained gravel and shouldn’t be an issue.
I swung into that driveway just as my mother and Tom emerged from the detached garage, luggage in hand. Since it looked like they’d parked in the far left-hand bay, I pulled up and stopped in front of the one next to it, then got out.
As soon as she saw me, my mother dropped her suitcases and held out her arms. Like me, she was slim and blue-eyed, although her hair was dark blonde rather than the deep brown I’d inherited from my biological father. She and Tom made a good couple, because he had blue eyes and silver hair, and kept himself in shape by running and playing golf.
I’d been expecting the immediate embrace, because my mother had always been the huggy type.
Which was fine, because I was a hugger, too — if people were comfortable with it. We shared a quick, hearty embrace, and then I gave Tom a much more subdued hug.
“Everything was fine on the drive here?” I asked, and my mother nodded.
“Yes, it was smooth sailing. A little tedious — we’re not used to long-distance drives — but it went well.”
Thunder rumbled, and my mother looked around worriedly. “Is it going to rain?”
“It might,” I replied. “It sure sounds like it wants to. We’d better get inside, just in case.”
She retrieved her suitcases — I offered to take one, but she demurred — and the three of us headed toward the house. As we walked, Tom asked, “Do you get a lot of storms here?”
“Quite a few if it’s a good monsoon season.” I slanted a glance up at him. “Didn’t you research the weather here before you bought the house?”
My mother chuckled at that question. “How would that have mattered? We’d already decided that we wanted to buy a house in Globe. I did double-check that it wasn’t quite as hot here as it is in Phoenix, but that was about it.”
Well, probably knowing they weren’t going to bake to death in 110-degree temperatures was the most important thing. By that point, we’d mounted the steps to the porch, and Tom was pulling a set of keys out of the pocket of his khakis. Despite the lowering sky, we were nowhere near sunset, and so the stormy light was still perfectly adequate to show off all the fine details of the front door, with its stained glass and aged brass knocker.
“Oh, that’s gorgeous,” my mother said, leaning past her husband to get a closer look. “Photos never give you a complete impression.”
“I still can’t believe you bought this place sight unseen,” I replied, and she only smiled.
“It wasn’t ‘sight unseen.’ Josie Woodrow sent tons of pictures and did a video walk-through as well. But it’s still not the same thing as being here.”
No, it wasn’t. Tom got the door open, and we all went inside, my mother ooh-ing and aah-ing over the gorgeous woodwork and all the antiques. Her husband wasn’t quite as effusive, but I saw the way he eyed particular details like the carving on the mantel in the living room and the plaster medallion on the ceiling in the dining room, and I could tell he was impressed.
“Well, it seems absolutely perfect,” my mother said after we’d made a circuit of the first floor. “But I suppose we should go upstairs and take a look there, too. After all, the house has seven bedrooms, so that’s still a lot of ground to cover.”
For some reason, a faint tremor of unease went over me. I couldn’t even say why, except that maybe I was starting to second-guess myself, and I wondered if I’d made a big mistake by not checking out the second and third stories while I was here with Josie.
“Sure,” I said, after noting that Tom had already nodded in agreement with my mother’s suggestion. “Although I’m not sure what you’re going to do with seven bedrooms. Isn’t that six more than you need?”
My mother shot me an exasperated look at such a display of naïveté, but Tom replied, “Several of them are actually furnished as offices, and we both can use something like that here. The rest of them? We’ll figure something out.”
“We’ll definitely need a couple of guest rooms,” my mother put in. “Then Nick and Madison and their families will have someplace to stay if they want to come visit.”
Somehow, I managed to maintain a poker face as she made that comment. While Tom’s kids generally never passed up a chance to sponge off him for something or other, I really couldn’t see either of them deigning to come visit poky little Globe, Arizona. They and their families all lived near the beach, and I couldn’t imagine the high desert here would hold much appeal for them.
But that was Tom’s problem…and my mother’s as well. I wouldn’t let myself worry about it too much.
“Then let’s go take a look,” was all I said.
The three of us headed upstairs. As advertised, the house did have seven bedrooms, along with four bathrooms on the second floor in addition to the guest bath downstairs. Everything on this level was just as beautifully furnished as the first floor, and spotless as well. I wondered if Josie had hired someone to come in and dust and vacuum while the house was vacant.
