Page 7 of Locke

“You won’t.” He asked him how he knew. “Because big brother, you’re one of the smartest men that I know. And you’ve worked harder at being independent of the money that we all won more than the rest of us. I bet if I were to ask you, I’m willing to bet that you still have the original money and haven’t touched a dime of the winnings. Have you?”

“No. I started to do that at first. It was there and I thought that I might as well use it. Then, when Martha started paying us weekly, I made a promise to myself that I’d only use the winnings when it became a dire emergency. Nothing, until now, I guess, has come up that I was willing to crack open the safe to get into it.”

He really had a safe in his room. Locke was sure that they all had one in their houses somewhere. They’d been broke and poor before becoming rich, and the need to save every penny had stayed with them even though they were all multibillionaires at this point. Not that he didn’t donate his time and money where he found a cause worthy of it, but he owned nothing that he could live without, and he liked that just fine and dandy. He asked Dusty what he was going to do now that his home was paid off and he had extra money.

“I’m going to finish my own doctrine and become a financial wizard. At least with my own money, that is. Also, I’ll gladly help with you guys’ money as well.” Locke thanked him and told him that he’d really like that. “I’m glad. I’ve already been approached by the others, and I believe that will be a full-time job just keeping us in money. Do you think that Zander and Knox will finish up their education and become partners in law?”

“Yes. Zander seems to enjoy the courtroom aspect of being a lawyer. He loves talking to the jury and pointing the finger in the right direction. Knox is really good at research. He has all his facts lined up before he needs them in order of importance. I love to watch the two of them cooking. Martha told me once that she could watch them over television some nights.” Dusty laughed and told him that he recorded him so that he could watch him over and over. “I never thought of that. I’ll have to borrow one of them from you sometime. I do love watching him sum up.”

They talked about the other brothers. August was fast becoming the one to call on when they needed information. He could quote facts about just about anything. And you didn’t have to go see if he was right. He was. And for as smart as he was, he never made you feel as if you were stupid because he knew a great deal more than most people around the town. More than likely, the world if it came to that.

“And Demetrius? What do you think he’s going to be doing. In all the years that we’ve been here, he’d been the most unsteady about a place in the world.” Dusty said that he was going to be cooking for someone or someplace special. “Yes, I never thought of that. He’d make a wonderful chef. As long as he can use fresh over frozen. I’ve never seen a man so obsessed with fresh ingredients when he was cooking.”

The two of them laughed. It was fun for them both to guess what they’d be up to in a few years’ time. They had done that with Martha, too. He knew now why she’d had such big ideas for the lot of them. When they were joined in their fun by Alexandra, he asked her what was wrong. She’d been seemingly in a down mood since the reading of the will.

“Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought that she’d give me money, too, so that I could move on. I had no idea that she was going to have me stay in this house until I was flush again. What the hell is flush? If it means money enough to have fun, that’s not something that I strive for. I like having food on the table and warm in the winter months. Not too much. But she did provide me with a roof over my head.” She looked at him. “I guess until I wear out my welcome. That’s what scares me so much. What you’ll do when you’ve had enough of me.”

He looked at her and smiled before answering. “I don’t believe there is a time when I’ve had enough of you. In the last few days, I’ve enjoyed having you around as opposed to all the males of my family. You don’t stink, and you don’t seem to have any really terrible habits. I could easily live with you for the rest of my life.”

He knew that he was scaring her even more than she’d been, but he really liked having her around. Telling her again how much he was enjoying just talking to her, it made them both blush.

“Yes, but when you’ve gotten over the excitement of having a woman around, will you—that didn’t come out right. When you…just let me know in advance if you’ve changed your mind and have decided you no longer want me as your roomie. So, starting tomorrow, I’m going to make myself indispensable around here. I don’t know what that would be. The place runs like a well-oiled machine, but I plan to find something you’re laxing on and take that as my job.”

“You can help me out.” She smiled at Dusty when he spoke. “I have this dinner thing that I have to attend. It’s for some charity event that Martha set me up with. If you could be my date that night, I’d consider myself honored. It’s black tie, and I’ll pay for you a dress and all the things that go with that.”

“I’m not even put off by you thinking that I can’t afford it. I can’t unless you’re wondering. Yes, I would love to be your escort to this dinner thing. I could make a living off that, you think?” They all three laughed, but Locke was a little put-out. It was his roommate, after all. “All right, you let me know when I have to be ready, and I’ll do my best not to embarrass you by being a clumsy idiot.” When she left them, talking to herself about what color she should wear, he looked at his brother when he said his name.

“You like her.” He started to tell his brother that, of course, he did, but he spoke again. “I mean, you really do like her. Like, are you going to have to kill me kind of liking her?”

“I don’t know. But I do what you to…no, don’t do this. She’s much too excited to be going, but I want you not to take her at the same time.” He said that he could break it to her gently. “Please don’t. She’s just the first woman that I’ve talked to under the age of eighty since…well, for a very long time. That’s more than likely what it is. I was asked to protect her, and that’s coming out in the form of jealousy. I’m just jealous that you asked her first.” Dusty asked him if he thought that was true. “I don’t know, to be honest with you. But you take her Dusty and forget that I’ve said anything. Perhaps I just need to get laid or something.”

All of them had gone on dates. Not so much when they were home, but since moving to this home they were in. In fact, it was rarely a Friday or Saturday night that any of them were stuck at home.

It wasn’t until he was in his last year of med school that women became…he thought they’d become greedy. They wanted him for themselves, and he was too busy to make himself exclusive to any one woman. And studying had been first so that he could care for Martha. Maybe, he thought to himself, he’d seen the best, and all other women had paled in comparison to Martha. He didn’t know if that was true either, but that’s what he was going to tell people if they asked. He’d been too busy.

Locke made his way to his office and began clearing up some of the things that had been left when they all knew that Martha was in the last stages of her life. It had taken its toll on all of them, but especially him, as he saw her daily. She told him that he’d better marry and have lots of children. He would fob her off when she spoke of him getting married.

“No, I want you to promise me, Locke, that you will go out more after I’m gone. I want you to see people as young as you are. You’ve taken such good care of me that I’ve outlived my usefulness in being around men and women my age. They only want to talk about their ailments and pains when all I want to talk about is how I’d taken first prize with me roses this year. My home was on the cover of a fancy magazine. And what I had for dinner last night. Without telling everyone that I had terrible gas pains after it and needed a good poop.” He had laughed when she had. “Will you at least be open to finding someone to love you, son? It’s all I want in the world.”

“I will make you a promise that I can live with. I will date more and perhaps go on a date with the same woman more than once. All right?” She told him that was fine and dandy. Then, the following week, she caught a cold, and it debilitated her to have to go on bed rest. And after that, pneumonia set in, and she was just too old to fight it.

Chapter 4

Alexandra felt beautiful tonight. The way she was being stared at was nerve-wracking because both women and men stared at her like she was a slice of chocolate cake. Dusty had kept his promise to stay by her side throughout the dinner engagement, and she couldn’t have been more happy. Well, she could have, but Dusty asked her out first.

Alexandra knew that she was in love with Locke. She had been there from the moment he first opened the door to her all those weeks ago. Had it only been three? She couldn’t believe how lucky she’d been to have to stay in the mansion with him, but she honestly didn’t know if she could stay around and be so much in love with him at the same time. It was killing her not to be able to tell him her thoughts and feelings. She needed to know what he felt about her. Was it love from him, too? Did he find her to be a pesky woman? Nagging at him, she’d caught herself doing it so that he’d care right for himself, but was that what he saw?

“Are you all right? You looked sad there for a few minutes.” She told Dusty that she was a little overwhelmed. “Yeah, I can understand that. I usually go to these things by myself or with one of my brothers. Not that I don’t love having you here with me; it’s been nice to have you at my side, but I never realized what one of these things could look like to someone new.”

“There are so many people here.” He nodded, and he pulled two glasses of champagne off a tray as it moved by them. “You’re very handy to have around. I couldn’t get anyone to stop for me at the start, and now I’ve just given up on eating anything. How about you find one of the food staff and get me a couple of those green and black things.” He told her what it was. “Never mind. I don’t do caviar.”

Like all his brothers, Dusty was a nice man. Even when one of the guests had nearly leapt in his arms, he was able to get her to behave herself as he handed her off to her husband. Smooth, she thought. A smooth worker.

The two of them had no trouble finding food that they could both enjoy. It was fun asking each other what color appetizer they wanted to try next. He reminded her again that dinner was going to be served in small portions, so they tried to fill up their bellies with what they started calling pre-food. When they were finally called to dinner, she was thankfully seated next to Dusty and not across from him like a lot of other dates and spouses did. Mimicking his every move to get the napkin out of the ring, she wanted to yell to the table and ask them why they had to make that so complicated.

“Dinner is seven courses.” She looked at the woman next to her and smiled. “Seven courses to have a meal. I’m more of a put it on my plate and leave me to pick what I want next on it. My name is Madam Gloria Roseville. And who might you be? Before you answer that, I want to know how you got that young man to come here with you as a date?”

She wasn’t sure how to answer that, so she was truthful by telling her that he’d asked her. Gloria laughed, not at all dainty-like like, and told her she was sorry. It took her a few minutes to tell her what she’d meant by saying that.

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