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"She did. She came in smiling from ear to ear saying she rented some apartment in The Piedmont building on Virginia."
"How do you know it's one of my apartments?" JD asked. "There's eighty-something units in that building."
"Yeah, and you own half of them."
"I only own fifteen of them."
"Still. She said her rent was eight-fifty."
"She told you that?"
"Yes."
JD grimaced. "She shouldn't go around telling her business."
"It's fine. We're friends. She came up to me beaming this morning. She thinks she's getting some great deal from her landlord."
"She is," JD said.
Jim shrugged. "Well, I thought you might at least want to take her to dinner if you're gonna do all that."
"I can't believe that's why you called me up here."
"I can't believe you're losing thousands of dollars a month on a woman, and you won't admit that you want to take her to dinner."
"I'm not helping her because I want to take her out," JD said, speaking quietly to his dad. "And I just sat here and ate."
"Yeah, but you do want to take her out."
"No, I don't, Dad. She's just naïve and trusting, and she got taken advantage of. I wanted to take care of her. I didn't want to see her get disappointed and give up as soon as she got here, that's all. I'm making money hand-over-fist on those units. I just roll the loss into it. It's no big deal."
Jim knew his son well enough to know that was a lie. JD did not "roll any losses" whatever that meant. He had a lot of money because he managed every cent.
"Birdy said Mrs. Blankenship loves her," Jim said.
JD cut his eyes at his dad. "Why are you telling me that?"
"Because she must be a saint if she can get along with Ms. Blankenship. It's like living at a perpetual church service up there. Mom said Jordan's really smart with the Bible. She said she was talking a bunch of theology with Mrs. Blankenship the first time she introduced them. That was why Mrs. Blankenship was going to let her stay there indefinitely."
JD wanted to marry a good, trustworthy woman, and Jordan's ability to match old-school Biblical wits with Mrs. Blankenship was oddly attractive to him. It felt like his dad was exposing him by talking about it.
"Well, Jordan wasn't going to stay with Mrs. Blankenship any longer. She was planning on going back to Oklahoma if she couldn't find a place." He shrugged. "I just reconciled with her staying there for a year. It is funny, though, that I would try to make a way for her to stay when I was trying to get rid of her at first. I like her now. I think she's a good person."
"I remember you said she was snooping around about Mom's room when you first met her, but I've never known her to mention it."
"She doesn't," JD said. "She's not even curious. I talked to her about it, and she just dropped it."
"And Lila's fine, anyway," Jim said. "She's been safe and well for a year, JD. Everybody has kind of seen her coming and going. Mom said she's working and saving, and she'll be able to move into her own place soon. That guy's not coming to look for her."
"I know, but there's still no point in chancing it," JD said. "I don't want some article being written. The last thing she needs is for her ex to find out where she is."
"You could probably just tell Jordan," Jim said. "She's a nice girl. You could just tell her the truth about the room and that you don't want anyone to find out about Lila."
JD cut his eyes at his dad. Rita's room wasn't talked about. There were a few people who knew the details of it, but by and large, it was kept under wraps.
Jim shrugged. "Anyway, it's probably good that you don't care because I think your cousin has a thing for her."
"Has a thing for who? Jordan?" JD squinted and Jim nodded.
