We walked out into a plush little hallway that had anarmchair and a table with a lamp on it over which was a mirror, all this forreasons I didn’t know since you needed a code to get to that floor so Isuspected no one would be hanging there waiting for Marcus to get home.
It also had a big, gleaming wooden door that had to be afoot bigger than normal doorson every side.This had a shining brassdoor handle that would fit a manor house, except it was snazzier.
Marcus walked us to it, but didn’t fit a key into the door.He slid aside the door over a panel on the wall I hadn’t even noticed andentered another code.
I heard the lock unlatch.
He opened the door and positioned me to move through it withhis hand at my back, saying to the boys, “Tomorrow.”
“Yes, boss,” I heard Brady say.
Ronald wasn’t a big talker, apparently, since he again saidnothing.
“Later, boys,” I called, looking over my shoulder at them asMarcus pressed me in.
Brady grinned at me.Ronald just stared at me through hisapparently ever-present sunglasses.
Marcus shut the door.
My gaze went to Marcus and I saw Brady had handed off my bagto him.
“Does Ronald not like me?”
He got close.“Ronald likes beer, brats, Broncos, and bustywomen, not in that order.He hasn’t shared, but if I had to guess, my guesswould be he loves you.”
That was good but I wasn’t sure it was true.
“Brady seems friendly,” I noted.“Ronald, not so much.”
“Brady is friendly because that’s part of Brady being Brady.Ronald is old school, and as far as he’s concerned, he isn’t paid to befriendly.Especially not to any woman I’d bring dinner to or have sitting nextto me in my car.”
I tipped my head to the side.“How many of those are there?”
“In my car, enough.Bringing dinner to, one.”
I smiled.
He smiled back and got closer.“I’m going to change.ThenI’ll show you around.After that, I’ll start dinner.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Make yourself at home,” he invited, lifted his hand,touched my nose, then turned and sauntered up some stairs, carrying my bag withhim.
That was when I noticed the stairs.
They swept at a curve off to the side of the entry and theyhad an elegantly carved bannister the likes I’d never seen.All whorls andswirls, it was amazing.And the treads of the stairs were covered with a thick,opulent carpet in the color of the palest mushroom.
Beyond that, I took in floor-to-ceiling windows with anuninterrupted view of the Front Range.Uninterrupted except for the elegantdrape of oyster-colored curtains pulled back at the sides.
And in the space just beyond the staircase, on gleamingparquet floors, sat a table with a massive spray of delicatebutterscotch-colored flowers, the type I didn’t know, these rising up from ahuge crystal vase.Two curved, elegant chairs sat at angles to the table for noreason whatsoever, except to look posh, seeing as no one would sit there unlessMarcus was throwing a big party.
I hadn’t even walked in and I knew his place wasn’t class.
It wasclass.
He had all this.
He could come from living a life that was close to squalorand build a life where this was what he saw when he got home.
