I was once again taken aback. What did I like? I laughed.
"I don't know. What do you like?"
The words seemed to trigger something in Jules. He quickly pulled a notepad from a drawer on his side of the island. He began to make a list of all of his favorite things to make and eat, then slid the list over and described it all to me in detail.
"This all sounds so good. I can't decide. Maybe you should see what Gatsby wants."
"Oh, he only wants what you want. He told me very specifically this morning, that I, and the rest of the staff, are at your beck and call."
I blinked.
"This morning?" I was up before him. I'd left him in bed, fast asleep.
He nodded. "Mister Gatsby sleeps on and off throughout the night. He came down around five, when I was just coming into the kitchen, to give the new orders. You tell me to make it, and I make it."
"You're too kind, Jules. Won't you get busy though?"
"Busy?" His dark, ocean-colored eyes bulged as he scoffed. "Ha! I have nothing to do now that the parties have all been canceled. I have so many ingredients that I need to use before they go bad, in fact. I may talk to him aboutdonating them to something later..." He began to mumble to himself, but something he'd said caught my attention.
"There are no more parties?" I asked.
He looked up from the notepad and frowned. "No more parties. Not for the next two months, he said. He wants to spend time with you."
He stared at me for a very long moment as his words sunk in.
"All of this, you know, all of this is for you."
I smiled softly. "I know. Thank you for being here, Jules. Gatsby needs to be surrounded by kind people like you."
The tender moment was crashed by Jules slapping the countertop excitedly.
"Yes! And I need hungry people like you. So pick something for dinner!"
I sighed.
"A salad, a side, and a meat of Gatsby's choice, and ooh, okay. What about a warm chocolate chip cookie, with ice cream for dessert?"
Quickly, he wrote down my request.
"Chocolate chip cookie, got it." He looked up and pointed at me. "We only have one problem with your selection."
"What's that?" I sighed again.
"Mister Gatsby is a vegetarian."
Chapter 43
Gatsby
Daisy gettingout of bed woke me, but she was trying so hard to be quiet, I found it amusing and let her dress and leave my room. Once she was gone, I got up and into the shower, then changed. Curiosity getting the best of me, I pulled up the cameras around the estate on my phone to look for her. I frowned when I found her and gave Dewayne a call.
"Hey, I need you to go get Daisy. She's wandering where I don't need her to be. Go take her to Jules, please," I requested, and he escorted her downstairs.
I wanted her to get to know my staff, so instead of rushing down to be with her, I went to my office and played around some. I did some more digging on Max and his circle. There was much more to them than the initial things I had found. They were corrupt, hateful, horrible people with too much money. They, along with their fathers before them, paid politicians, police, and anyone else they needed to get what served only them.
Not for long.
Once I felt like I'd given her sufficient time to meetDewayne and Jules, I left my office and took the stairs down to meet them in the kitchen.
