Chapter 22

I was nervous on Friday. This was the first time I had gotten so intimately involved in one of Dad’s designs, literally from inception to completion. It was my baby more than it belonged to anyone else, and yet at the penultimate moment I had been shut out and forced into a bystander’s role. The electricians received my nervous visit prior to school with good grace. They had started on the trenching first thing, being careful to cut away the sod where they were laying conduit in order to be able to replace it in the evening.

School was almost unbearable. I made it to lunch, almost too much of a basket case to eat. I said almost. The girls didn’t help things either.

“What time are you picking us up?” Paige asked me.

“Excuse me?”

My mind had been on the myriad of things that could still go wrong. I could show up after school to find that the lighting hadn’t been installed, piles of dirt and sod heaped up around the yard. I had nightmares of the pristine white rock being sullied by the soil-and-mud-encrusted shoes of all the craftsmen and caterers.

“What do you mean, picking you up?”

Paige and Gloria exchanged a meaningful glance. “I told you he wouldn’t have thought of that. I’ve seen him working on that tablet of his during class, arranging and rearranging schedules all week. I’ll bet there’s nothing going through that mind right now except how everything could get messed up at the last second.” Paige told her.

They both rounded on me. “Here’s how this is going to work, Tim.” Paige was laying down the law. “You will go home immediately after school, shower, shave, put on that nice cologne that your grandmother gave you for your birthday, get dressed in that beautiful suit, and then drive over to my house to pick me up. I expect you there by four-fifteen. I will be ready for you. You will leave your pickup in my driveway, and we will take my mother’s Audi over to collect Gloria.”

I was confused. Paige told me I was going with Gloria when we had that situation with the invitations. Now I was going with Paige? “Huh?”

“I told you he wouldn’t get this the first time around,” Paige informed her friend. “From the top. Go home, shower, shave, get ready. Come to my house, pick me up. We take the Audi to get Gloria. You are going with both of us. You, I, and Gloria arrive at the house by five, where you have special dispensation to park in the garage. Mother gives us our own private tour, and we all stand by to meet the guests when they begin to arrive shortly after six. We will have a small supper before that so you don’t faint from hunger during the evening. Is that clear?”

I don’t know if I lost control of the situation somewhere along the way, or if I never had control to begin with. I’m sure Gloria and Paige would insist on the latter.

“I think so, shower and shave with you ladies, then eat, after which we get dressed and drive to my house where I get to show you the bedrooms.”

They shared a disgusted look. “Yeah, he’s got it alright,” said Gloria. “I just hope it isn’t contagious.”

School let out, meaning I could use my cell phone. The first call was to Dad, then the electricians, Grandpa, and Evie, in that order. Everyone assured me that things were fine, the grounds were immaculate, well lit, and not to worry. I wanted to stop by to check on things when my instructions from Paige forced their way to the front of my mind like words outlined in neon. Right. Go home, get ready, pick them up.

Grandma had two roses with pins prepared for me when I got there. “For the two ladies you’re escorting tonight. I know I’ve said this before, but you really must be gifted to persuade both of them to accompany you.”

My hands went up in the universal sign of surrender. “This time it was purely accidental, Grandma.”

“Go get ready. I’ll wait for you.”

She looked elegant in the dress she had chosen in Atlanta.

Before I walked down the hallway to the bathroom, I made sure to hug her. “I haven’t mentioned this lately – I love you, Grandma. We couldn’t have done this without your help.”

She was misty-eyed when I released her. “Oh! You McKenzie men get me all frazzled. Go get ready while I fix my face.”

Following instructions, I headed off to do my part.

I almost forgot the flowers as I headed out the door, decked out in my new finery, looking and smelling like ‘a million bucks,’ as Grandma put it. She pressed them into my hand.

My pickup led me down the road to Paige’s place. I was nervous again when I parked off to the side of their garage, walking back along the driveway to the front door. I was let in by the housekeeper who asked me to wait in the drawing room off to the side of the entrance. It was unfortunate that I followed instructions as I didn’t get to see Paige come down the stairs to greet me.

I have no idea how the ladies did it, but they had found the perfect dress for her. It was stylish and elegant, turning her athleticism into the long and lithe lines of a model. Navy blue, it hugged her curves, leaving one shoulder bare and wrapping around the rest of her. She was wearing a single strand of pearls at the base of her neck, the rest of her jewelry consisting only of diamond earrings and a matching tennis bracelet. I was puzzled as to when she found time to do it, but her hair had understated highlights woven into it, making her pixie cut exotic. She looked extraordinarily gorgeous, and I said as much.

“Paige,” I told her as I presented her with the red rose, “You look amazing. When did you have time to highlight your hair? It’s incredible, but surely you couldn’t have done it between school and now.”

She must have been used to my particular brand of crazy already. “Tim, I went to the salon last night – it was like this all day. You really didn’t notice it at lunch?”

I had a hard time remembering that I had gone to the barber this week myself. No, I didn’t notice. “Of course I did. It’s just that with the dress bringing out the violet in your eyes, there’s even more contrast with the blonde accents.”

“Nice save, McKenzie. Now let’s go get Gloria.” She took my proffered arm, linking us together as she led me through the house to where the Audi stood, proudly dominating the garage. “Wait just a sec.”

From her clutch she took out the keys, handing them to me before allowing me to open the passenger door. “One more thing.” She kissed me briefly on the cheek. “Now we can go.”

The engine started quietly, remaining that way as I backed the car out of the garage. Paige gave me directions to Gloria’s, insisting that I turn left on the road connecting my new house with the Goddard’s instead of the right that would have taken us past the property. “We’ll all get to see it together,” was the only explanation I received.

The ride to Gloria’s didn’t take long. She lived in an upscale subdivision near to us. The Audi pulled up neatly into their driveway.

“I’ll wait in the car,” Paige offered. “Gloria deserves her moment.” She handed me the other rose I had left in the console.

The doorbell could definitely be heard from the exterior of the house. Mrs. Foster opened the door, welcoming me in. “Hello, Tim. I’ve seen you at church, but I don’t know if we’ve ever met. I’m Linda Foster, Gloria’s mother. I’m glad Gloria gets to attend your little party tonight.” Her look told me that she wished it was her instead.

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Foster, I’m sure we’ll be having other parties too. I’ll see that you get an invitation.” I could see her brighten at that thought.

“Let me go check on Gloria. She’s been ready for a while, but you know how we women like to make an entrance.”

I watched her turn down a hallway toward the rest of the house. She soon returned, announcing my presence. “Gloria, Tim’s here.”

If I thought that Paige was a vision, I wasn’t prepared for Gloria. Her long black hair swept over her shoulder, wrapping around to one side only. My eyes followed the inky line it made to see a spectacular red cocktail dress elevating and highlighting all of Gloria’s natural attributes.

“You’re beautiful, Gloria.”

She smiled girlishly, twirling around and flaring the short dress. “Do you like it? Your grandmother designed it and had it made for me that afternoon we were in Atlanta.”

The flower in my hand got presented to and pinned on Gloria before we turned to leave. Almost too late, I remembered that I had an online presence now, and that there was a wall, sadly lacking in pictures. I handed off my phone.

“Mrs. Foster, could you take some pictures of me and Gloria please?”

The proud parent is always happy to take pictures of their child – Mrs. Foster was no different. She had taken several, Gloria going over to help select the ones that should be kept while deleting the rest. It was another few minutes while additional shots were taken before they were satisfied. In return, I offered to reciprocate for the two of them. Thankfully, I must have been a better photographer than Mrs. Foster, since the selection process went much more quickly.

We were ready by the door, and I was reaching for the knob when there was a déjà vu moment.

“One more thing.” Gloria stopped me and kissed the cheek that Paige hadn’t. “Now we can go.”

We made it to the car where I settled Gloria into the back seat. As I took my position once more, Paige reached out to grab my chin, turning my head from one side to the other.

“You little minx!” She addressed Gloria. “You just had to do it, didn’t you?”

They both started laughing.

I had a sudden idea of what they found so funny, flipping the visor down and opening the lighted mirror to check on my suspicions. Sure enough, two light sets of lips adorned my freshly shaven visage, one on each cheek. My hand rose to rub them off, only to be caught by Paige.

“Not until we get some pictures of both of us with you like that.”

Gloria agreed. “Now you know why I had you facing to your left for the pictures at home.”

It promised to be an interesting night.

The drive to the house was nerve-wracking, the girls chattering away like beautiful magpies. Nothing they said got through to me however, I was too apprehensive about the grand reveal. My driving claimed my full concentration to cover, and the private driveway to my new home beckoned to me before I knew it. I turned the Audi down the freshly paved ribbon, stopping just off the road.

There was a slight problem with security who didn’t want to let us through. I urged them to make a call to the house where Evie was presumably coordinating things – that allowed us to continue on. Up until now, the house had been shrouded in the evening’s growing darkness that accompanied this time of year. As we approached, the exterior and temporary lights came on, revealing the entire structure in what had to have been a carefully timed illumination. My foot couldn’t help it, gently hitting the brakes and bringing the car to a halt, halfway between the road and the garage.

“Wow!” Escaped my lips.

There were echoes of that from the other two occupants of the vehicle. When we had enjoyed the vision before us for long enough, I released the car to continue its journey, turning neatly into one of the three garage bays, and bringing us to a halt. The doors unlocked as I turned off the engine, and I got out, looking around at the results of my labor. Sometime in the last two weeks, Grandpa had put the epoxy coating on the garage floor, turning a dull concrete slab into a beautiful surface, resistant to the oil that was sure to be dripped on it in the future. There were custom cabinets and a small work bench adorning the rear of the room as well.

The honk of the horn, sounding exceedingly loud to my ears, broke me out of my reverie. In the car, two angelic faces peered back at me, one of them looking more than slightly apologetic. They were waiting for me to open their doors for them, just like any southern gentleman would. Oops. That’s why the horn.

My sheepish expression as I walked around the car to let them out was all the apology they needed. First Gloria and then Paige were released into my care, and the three of us walked to the garage entrance to the house. When I opened the door for my escorting beauties, we were met by Paige’s mother, Evie. She waited until all three of us were in the kitchen with the passageway to the garage closed behind me before speaking.

“Welcome to McKenzie Construction’s first custom home to be built in Georgia, and the re-emergence of LM Designs.” Her smile accompanying the greeting let us know she was happy for us to be here. “Please feel free to experience the delightful features this house has to offer, and enjoy the refreshments...”

Her prepared remarks were cut short as I moved under better lighting and Mrs. Goddard caught a view of my face. “Tim, what have the three of you been doing?”

“Oh, this is too good. I have to get this on camera. Hold still.” Whatever else Evie might be, she remained a proud parent. The cell phone came out and began to snap pictures of my embarrassment. After all, I was escorting her only daughter to this event, along with another girl, but that was beside the point, and she wanted photographic evidence of what we had been up to.

Paige finally took pity on me, moistening a small towel at the sink and rubbing the lipstick from my cheeks. “There, now you look more proper.” She had her mother take some shots of the two of us, finally adding Gloria into the mix. The flashes eventually stopped, allowing Mrs. Goddard to resume her speech.

“Please enjoy the refreshments tonight and have a wonderful evening.”

“Thank you, Lily. Do we have you to thank for the unexpected timing of the exterior lighting?”

She smiled, pulling me into a hug. “Tim, I just wanted you to see the house the way I and a hundred other people will tonight. It’s beautiful, but you’ve been too close to the entire project to be able to see it. Hopefully you caught that glimpse as you drove up.”

Her arms tightened even more possessively. “I also wanted to thank you for this opportunity. It’s only been recently that I’ve been able to turn my companies over to a CEO who can handle them. Your house is the perfect showcase to restart my design business, and I don’t know how I can ever thank you or your dad enough.”

I was finally released. “You’re welcome, Lily. Now, aren’t we supposed to get a private tour?”

She indicated that all of us should follow her as she began showing off the house to its best potential. The girls were almost overwhelmed by the manner in which Lily had arranged everything. I, on the other hand, was feeling contentment and satisfaction. The house had turned out even better than I had imagined. Lily’s designer’s eye had found nooks and crannies into which to place the perfect piece of art or other accent work. We wandered through room after room, seeing her genius displayed before us.

I was excited about three rooms in particular: the man cave, my bedroom and bath combination, and the master suite, with its closet, bath and large open spaces. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was personally disappointed when I saw the first of them – the man cave. Lily had set it up as a den, complete with antique desk and comfortable chairs.

“What?” I was looking for the TV, stereo system, recliners – all the things that had been planned, and now not implemented. Lily was watching my reaction as the girls wandered around the room, oohing and ahhing over everything they saw or touched. Paige noticed first.

“What’s wrong, Tim? Isn’t this just perfect?”

“No. It’s not.” There was disappointment in my tone, causing the girls to walk over, beginning to berate me.

Lily finally made it through their harangue. “Girls, don’t be mad at Tim. He didn’t know that I would do this to the room.”

She turned to me. “Tim, I spoke with your dad last week and explained to him what I wanted here for the open house. He agreed that this look would do more toward promoting the design than the man-cave would. Don’t worry, it’s all coming out tomorrow and I have the original technicians scheduled to put the room back together the way you wanted it.”

Well, in that case. “I’m sorry, Lily, you just surprised me with this. The décor you chose really does look great in this space.”

The girls were happy with me again, although now they wanted to know what was intended in this room. “You’ll see. I have to set it up with Dad, but I’ll have a few people over sometime soon if I can.”

Our tour continued, and this time I was expecting something different when I was finally introduced to the bedroom I had claimed as mine. There was a feminine décor where there should have been my belongings.

“Studies show that people react better to a more gender-neutral or even feminine presentation. Don’t worry, all of your belongings are still in storage and we’ll have this cleaned out tomorrow.”

Gloria and Paige found out that this was to be my room, leaving them with ammunition against me for some time to come. Their cameras came out to capture every nuance. Lily took pity on me, finally suggesting we view the adjoining restroom.

She had outdone herself here. It was completed in a tasteful modern style, and was everything I could have desired for it to be.

“This is perfect, Lily,” I finally managed to force past my lips. “It’s what I wanted, even though I couldn’t envision it.” I think those words made her night. “Now, let’s see what you did to the master suite.”

Lily showed signs of trepidation as she led our little group across the hall to the master ensemble. I had a little bet going with myself that she would have decorated it to match the visions she had back in May; the master suite as she would like it to be. The door opened on something I’m sure my dad would never have chosen for himself, and yet a look that fit him perfectly.

There was an overall masculine feel to the room, but it wasn’t any one thing. There were warm tones, a large King-size bed with four vertical posts, looking like rosewood. Just for the showing, since I’m sure that Dad had no need for it otherwise, was a makeup table, exactly where she had pointed on our May, walkthrough. An armoire stood watch over the rest of the furniture, brooding maleness offering protection to the more delicate features of the room.

My eyes were drawn to the French doors, over which was Mom’s stained glass. It was magnificent, adding a splash of bright reds, yellows and oranges to go with the other warm tones Lily had selected. The sun was hidden for the day, robbing us of the full splendor, but I knew I would see it on a regular basis in the future.

I suddenly recalled the built-in closets in each room, sorry now that I hadn’t checked mine first. No matter, we could look in Dad’s walk-in, and then later go back to what would become my room.

The teak finish was magnificent, the closet designer having outdone himself in terms of design and craftsmanship. I almost lost the girls for the evening as they delighted in the ample space for clothing – current and seasonal, shoes, ties, suits, blouses, skirts and anything else one would ever wish to store there. They kept opening doors, drawers and hidden cubbies, only to gush over everything they saw. Lily stood in the door between us and the bedroom, her eyes twinkling at the excitement of the teenagers.