Hey, Good Looking

by Fern Michaels

  “It’s good to see you…son.”

  For a moment it looked like Ben was going to argue over the wordson, but with a nudge from Darby, he simply walked over to a wicker bench and sat down. Darby shook the old man’s hand and went to sit by Ben.

  “We were right all along about the aunts’ involvement. He looks great. I’m glad he’s okay,” Ben whispered.

  The silence was awkward and uncomfortable. The sisters glared at their guest, even Diddy. Marcus stared off into the distance, his thoughts in the past.

  The awkward silence continued until Fred banged the screen door, a bottle of beer in his hand. “Trixie said hello.”

  Diddy looked at the watch on her wrist. “It’s six-thirty. Dinner is at my house this evening. I suggest we all walk over now. Ben, you and Darby put on some dry clothes and bring some for your father. Dodo, get the umbrellas,” Diddy said in a take-charge voice. Everyone gaped at her but hastened to do her bidding. Without a second look at Marcus, she snapped her umbrella open and walked down the steps and across the yard to her own house.

  Marcus looked perplexed.

  Ducky and Dodo looked bewildered but immediately started a search for umbrellas.

  Darby and Ben flew down the steps and raced across the yard.

  “If you were expecting an open-arms welcome, Marcus, it ain’t gonna happen,” Fred said as he handed Marcus an umbrella.

  Marcus looked up at Fred, who was towering over him. “Actually, Fred, I wasn’t expecting anything. I am hoping they’ll allow me to stay on for a few days until I can make other arrangements. Do you think it will happen?”

  “For your sake, I hope so. If it doesn’t happen, you can go back to Rayne with me in the morning. Ben turned into a mighty fine young man. I wish Trixie and I had a son like him. I’m not sure you deserve a son like him.”

  Marcus got wearily to his feet. “I’m sure you’re right, Fred. Don’t worry, I won’t force anything. I’m ready if you are.”

  “Are you feeling all right, Marcus?”

  “I’m fine, Fred. Thank you for asking. I’m just overwhelmed at the moment.”

  A smile worked its way across Marcus’s lips as he and Fred let themselves in a side door. Diddy’s house rocked with sound; the sisters arguing.Some things never change, he thought. Then there was Darby’s laughter and his son’s rich baritone. He thought about Russell at that moment.I wonder where Mary is. Someplace in New York, Bella told me not too long ago. I suppose Ben knows.

  The sound emanating from the kitchen came to a sudden halt when Fred and Marcus entered through the swinging door. Fred sniffed appreciatively. He did love a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. He reached out to accept a pile of clothing from Ben, then handed it to Marcus. He pointed to the bathroom off the laundry room. All eyes followed Marcus’s slow walk down the narrow hall.

  “Everything’s ready,” Diddy said. “You’ve been elected to carve, Fred. Ben, you carry the turkey to the table. Darby, you’re in charge of the wine. Ducky, I don’t want any lumps in those mashed potatoes. Dodo, go easy on the marshmallow in the yams. Dis-perse!”

  “Where is Brandon?” Dodo asked as she craned her neck to see if the detective had arrived in the alley.

  Ducky shrugged. “He said he’d be here by seven. He said he has great news.”

  “He’s here. He just pulled into the alley. He’s looking pretty good from where I’m standing.” Dodo grinned.

  “You should see him without his clothes on!” For the first time in her life Ducky heard Dodo giggle. “What would you think of me living in N’awlins six months and here six months?”

  “If it works for you, it works for me. What do you suppose Diddy meant by too much marshmallow? Guess you found time after all.”

  “Half a jar, not a whole jar.” Ducky smiled from ear to ear when Brandon Lautril walked into the kitchen.

  “I hope I’m not too late.”

  “Right on time.” Ducky smiled as she scooped the mashed potatoes into a fine china bowl that had been her grandmother’s.

  Dodo took a moment to study her sister. She couldn’t remember when she had looked so alive, so happy. Her shoulders sagged as she wondered if she’d ever be as happy. Ducky handed the potato bowl to Brandon and pointed to the dining room.

  “Dodo, I’d love to go to Japan with you if you’ll have me. I always wanted a nephew. Truly, Dodo. Let’s not waste any more years, okay? Let’s bring him and his family back here,” Ducky said.

  Dodo’s heart swelled. “What about…?”

  “Screw them!” Ducky laughed. “We’ll make him president of Lane Beer! Chairman of the board, the whole ball of wax! In this town it doesn’t get any better than that.”

  In spite of herself, Dodo laughed. “Okay,” she said softly. “Okay.”

  18

  The three Lane sisters were in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher and tidying up. The others remained in the dining room, with their coffee and brandy. Ducky hung up her dish towel as Dodo added the detergent and closed the dishwasher.

  “We want to give you a little…pep talk,” Ducky said. “I saw the way Marcus has been looking at you, Diddy. I don’t have a clue as to what he’s going to offer up as an explanation for all those lost years. First chance I get I’m going to strangle Trixie and Fred for not telling us. Theysaid it was Marcus’s place to tell us. Don’t let me forget to do that. What I’m trying to say here is, don’t be easy, Diddy. He alone screwed up his life and the lives of his children. The three of us picked up the pieces. Just you remember that if he tries to sweet-talk you.”

  Dodo cleared her throat. It seemed to her all she’d been doing of late was clearing her throat. “Memories, Diddy, are just that, memories. You and I have been living with them way too long. We can’t go back to that time in our lives. All we can do is go forward and hope we make the right decisions. Marcus is an old man now, just like we’re old women. We’re all looking at our mortality, and there’s nothing wrong with that even though it’s on the scary side. It’s the order of things. If you want to forgive Marcus after he tells us whatever it is he’s going to tell us, fine. It’s Ben and Mary who really count. And don’t forget for one minute that he has to answer for Russell. I don’t want to see you get schnockered again, Diddy. We have things to do and places to go. Are you getting any of this?”

  Diddy squared her plump shoulders, her eyes shooting sparks. “I’m gettingall of it, Dodo. You two think Marcus wants my seventy-year-old body, wrinkles, warts, and all. You think I’m going to be sappy and fall for whatever he tells us and drop right into his arms. You don’t have to worry about me, it’s not going to happen. Now, let’s go see what the old geezer has to say.”

  The sisters took their place in the old-fashioned dining room, with its pictures of relatives that dated back years and years. The huge dining-room table sat twelve comfortably, with six extra chairs for special occasions. The china closet and buffet held priceless crystal, exquisite china, and fine linens. Even though it was old-fashioned, the plantation shutters, the green plants, and the ankle-deep carpet made it a pleasant room to break bread with friends and family.

  The coffee cups and brandy snifters were empty, the napkins wadded into balls. All eyes turned to Marcus Gunn. If one were into body language, it was clear his audience did not have open minds, especially Ben Gunn. He stared at the portraits of the Lane ancestors. All the men had high pompadours, their faces grim above their stiff-looking suits and starched shirts. The women wore simpering smiles and high-necked dresses. There wasn’t one thing warm and fuzzy about any of them. It was a mystery as to how Diddy, Dodo, and even Ducky managed to be so different—warm, caring, and loving. He made a note to talk to Darby about having the aunts’ pictures taken so they could hang them in their new house. For when they got married. His heart skipped a beat at the thought of marrying Darby. He swallowed hard and looked across the table at the man who was his father. Such a warm wonderful title. His heart skipped a beat.

  Marcus l
ooked around the table, his gaze stopping on Diddy. She eyeballed him, her eyes cold and hard, colder and harder than Ben’s, if that was possible.

  Marcus took a deep breath and launched intohis story.

  “I think you all know my wife Myrna was my whole life. She gave me three wonderful children. Life here on the shoe couldn’t have been more idyllic. Gunn Industries was performing beyond expectations. I was proud of that because I knew in time it would go to my three children. Then Myrna got sick. You, Ducky, Dodo, and Diddy were Myrna’s best friends. You know how our world was rocked at the doctor’s final diagnosis. We all did everything we could to make her as comfortable as possible. If you remember, toward the end, we had round-the-clock nurses because Myrna said she wanted to die at…at home. She begged me on an hourly basis to…disconnect her life support. The day came when I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t stand to see her suffer the way she was suffering. I waited until the nurse went downstairs for her dinner. I was going to do it. Myrna was watching me, begging me to…do it.I was just about to do what she wanted, but I just couldn’t. I turned around to tell Myrna I couldn’t end her life like that when the nurse, her name was Alice Avery, walked into the room and demanded to know what I was doing. I think I said something incredibly stupid, like I was just checking to make sure things were all right. I’m sure I looked guilty as hell because Iwas going to do it. I could see she didn’t believe me. Myrna backed me up, but she was full of drugs. The next day, Myrna died.”

  “Dad, Brandon Lautril, the PI the Lane sisters hired, knows where Alice Avery lives. He might be able to convince her to recant her story. She’ll clear you,” Ben interjected.

  Marcus Gunn straightened his shoulders. “No need for that, young man. I’m not afraid of Bella any longer. It’s time, way past the time where I step up to the plate and make things right for my family and friends.” He looked over at his son and tried to smile.

  All eyes turned to Ben, who let a wide grin rip across his face. “Good going, Pop,” he said, using the name he’d called his father as a young child. “We’re with you all the way.” He reached down and felt Darby’s reassuring clasp on his hand.

  Marcus cleared his throat and began his story again.

  “My world ended when Myrna died. When the nurse packed up her things she drew me aside and said I killed Myrna. She said I disconnected the life support, then when I saw her standing in the doorway, reconnected it. She said she was going to tell the doctor. At that point I didn’t even care because I knew I hadn’t done anything. For some reason, Alice never did tell the doctor, but she told someone else—Bella—but not until later. It seems Alice went back to work at the hospital where Bella was working as a nurse’s aide. They struck up a friendship of sorts, I suppose. Eighteen months to the day of Myrna’s death, Bella came to Gunn Industries and asked to speak to me. She told my secretary she wanted to see me about Myrna, so of course I agreed to see her even though I didn’t know who she was. I assumed she was a friend of Myrna’s.”

  “Myrna would never have been friends with a snake like Bella,” Dodo snapped.

  Marcus agreed, “but I still wasn’t thinking straight. We were going global, and things were starting to make sense again. The children were being well taken care of by all of you, I was working eighteen hours a day, and my grief was lessening a little, thanks to Diddy, with whom I was slowly falling in love.

  “Anyway, Bella came into the office and got right to the point. She said she had an affidavit from Alice Avery that said I had murdered my wife. She didn’t ask for money. She said she wanted me to marry her, and she’d keep quiet about Myrna’s death. I went crazy. I didn’t want my children to think I was a murderer, but I couldn’t prove I didn’t do it. I saw Gunn Industries, which I wanted to bequeath to my children, going down the drain. I thought about Diddy and the life we’d planned to have together.” He looked at Diddy then, and she turned away so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. “I didn’t see that I had any choice but to agree to marry the witch. It was a marriage only on paper. I hated her, hated myself. I started staying at the office or taking a room at the inn just so I wouldn’t have to see her.”

  “Pop, you don’t have to go on,” Ben said.

  “No, no I have to tell it all,” Marcus explained. “Things went from bad to worse when the good ladies of the town refused to accept Bella. She ranted and raved, threatened me every day, demanding I turn over this and that to her so she could try to buy her way into society. I did whatever she wanted, but nothing worked for her. She was a pariah, and she knew it.

  “This doesn’t say much for me, but I thought Bella was seeing to the children’s care until Russell told me the way it really was. He came to the office one day and told me what he thought of me. It wasn’t good. I wasn’t nice to him, that much I do remember. That was about the same time attorney Bodene got me to go on the wagon. From then on, I took it one day at a time. Gunn Industries remained in top form. I worked round the clock. Bella got more and more demanding. She wanted the houses on the shoe. I refused because they were in Russell’s and Ben’s name. The house in Crowley was in Mary’s name. I did stick to my guns on that because it was what Myrna wanted. Bella thought if she had those two houses, she would automatically become aRougie. That was her goal in life. That and taking over the Gunn Foundation.”

  Ben stared at his father with compassion.

  “That was my life. Then I had the stroke, and Bella stepped in and took over my care. I recovered, but suddenly I had a new doctor, new nurses, new everything. Then I had a mild heart attack. I know it was mild because I heard the doctor say so. All they did was pump me full of drugs. I was in a daze most of the time. Suddenly I had round-the-clock nurses, no access to a phone.”

  “Oh you poor thing,” Diddy began, but Dodo silenced her with a look.

  “I didn’t know about Russell’s death until it was too late,” Marcus continued. “When Bella told me she’d donated his organs I had a ministroke. Then they doped me up even more. I had seen Russell’s living will the day he dropped it off at the Foundation, knew how he felt about donor programs. I told Bella. I honestly don’t think she knew even though she was heading up the Foundation. I can’t be sure, but I don’t think she ever looked at Russell’s will. She thought that if she was this great humanitarian—the town would have to take her to its bosom. Every day she’d regale me with the news coverage, but she was afraid. I could see it in her eyes, but like everything else, she bluffed her way through.”

  Marcus looked at his son, seeing forgiveness there. He turned to Diddy, who stared at him with moist eyes.

  Marcus turned to Fred. “Do you think you could take me to the inn? I’m rather tired.”

  “That’s not necessary, Marcus. You can stay here a few days until you’re really on your feet. Take the room at the end of the hall.It’s Russell’s old room,” Diddy said. She told herself Marcus deserved to have to spend the night in his son’s room.

  Ben disappeared into the kitchen after his father left the room. He got a tray, filled it with beer, and carried it into the room.

  Outside, the rain slashed against the windows. Thunder rolled across the sky. From time to time lightning could be seen through the plantation shutters. Ben felt sick at heart, sick to his stomach. Just plain old sick. Darby reached out to take his hand in hers. It didn’t help.

  Fred stood up, gave his bright red plaid suspenders a hitch, and announced that he, too, was going to bed because he wanted to get an early start home in the morning. “I want to call Trixie to say good night,” he said.

  Then it was just the three sisters, Darby, and Ben.

  The sisters looked at Ben, waiting for him to say something. What he finally said surprised everyone in the room.

  “Now that I know my mother wanted me to have the front house, I’m going to start using my trust fund tomorrow, find a historical contractor, and give the order to restore it. Russell’s house across from mine belongs to Darby since Russell lef
t it to her along with all his assets. She told me what she wants to do with it after talking to Ducky and Diddy this afternoon.” He looked over at Darby, who squirmed in her chair.

  Darby spoke softly and gently. “I’m going to hire the same contractor and it is my hope and Ben’s that a new family might be interested in moving to the shoe.” She looked pointedly at Dodo, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. “It was Ben’s idea, really. He’s the one who asked me about the pictures on your wall, Dodo. Then I asked Ducky and Diddy, and they told us your secret. We’re family, Dodo,” Darby said, getting up and walking over to her tiny aunt. She dropped to her knees to hug the little woman. “Family, Dodo.”

  Dodo struggled free of her niece’s embrace and ran from the room. Ducky held up her hand to stop the others from following. “She’s okay, trust me. She never thought we’d be so accepting. Why she thought that, I have no idea. Keeping that secret all these years must have been terrible for her. Now that the secret is out and the load is off her shoulders, we’re going to see a much happier Dodo. I think it’s time for all of us to turn in.” There was no apology or shyness in her voice when Ducky said she was returning to the inn with Brandon. There was, however, a decided gleam in her eye that matched the one in Brandon Lautril’s.

  Darby and Ben helped Diddy clear the dining-room table, then they, too, left, leaving Diddy alone. She took off her apron, hung it up on the pantry door, checked to be sure she was leaving her kitchen clean and tidy for the morning. She walked through the house, sadder than she’d ever been in her life.

  Fifteen minutes later, Diddy was in bed staring at the ceiling. At three o’clock in the morning she was still staring at the ceiling, the bedcovers in wild disarray. She finally got up, slipped on her robe and slippers, and went downstairs by way of the kitchen staircase, where she made herself a cup of tea. While the tea was brewing she opened the kitchen door. She liked hearing the sound of rain. Somehow it soothed her.