The Land Whore - 18. Chapter 18

June 16, 1973

We breezed through customs and immigration and found Rafael waiting for us with the limo. I was so happy to see him I hugged him, which made him very uncomfortable, but also made him smile. It seemed like we were back in Escorial in no time, and it felt good to be home.

After the hubbub of our greeting the family, JP, Sam, Roger, and I went out to the deck to smoke a joint and find out what had been happening.

“No bodies,” JP joked right away, which made us all laugh. If only Roger knew. “It seems that Phillipe was here on an expired Visa. Normally they don't track those things too diligently, but when they are pointed out, they will act on it. Especially if it comes with a little pressure. So Mr. Carbonneau was summarily deported to Canada, and his visitation rights have been revoked, at least for the time being, for violating US immigration laws.” I shook my head in amazement at JP's resourcefulness.

“In a similar vein, it seems that your brother Bobby had some outstanding warrants for his arrest in Oregon, one for violating probation. Again, normally they wouldn't come looking for him here, but when they found him, they felt compelled to act. He's been extradited back to Oregon.”

“It also seems that during the time that all of these arrests were taking place, someone broke into their apartment and rifled through their papers. Unfortunately all of them were destroyed, but rumor has it there were copies of some very sensitive documents from your company there.” JP looked at me meaningfully. I'm not sure what they found, but whatever it was, they had been scheming up something.

“I had an opportunity to talk to your brother before he was hauled off to Oregon and I put forth a proposal for him, your mother, and your father,” JP said to Roger. “I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds, but I thought it might be best to be rid of them.” Roger just nodded.

“Anyway, I suggested that you would be willing to pay $20,000 to settle any potential claims they may have against you. In other words, they may not come after you over your inheritance of the vineyard. They all readily agreed, and I made sure the contract included a clause where they all promised not to contact you. You will have to talk to them if you want them in your life. This is not enforceable, you realize, but I thought they might find it to be a deterrent.” JP kind of slipped into legal speak when he talked about stuff like that.

“So Bobby and my worthless parents are out there with twenty grand of my money, huh? I guess that's a small price to pay. Pretty much wipes me out though,” Roger said, thinking out loud. “You really did an amazing job of cleaning up my mess for me JP. I don't know how to thank you.”

“I did what I did for Stefan,” JP said firmly. “If you owe anyone, you owe him. And by the way, your relatives don't have the twenty grand yet. The lawyers have it in a money market fund. It isn't going to be distributed until the three of them agree, in writing, as to how it's going to be split up. I gather from the attorneys that they have been unable to come to such an agreement.”

Roger burst out laughing. “JP that was genius. They'll be arguing over who gets what for years.” He got somber. “I'm really sorry, sorry to all of you for the crap you had to put up with. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

JP smiled. He'd forgive Roger as long as I liked him, but that was it. Sam was more demonstrative. He stood up and walked over to Roger and gave him a big hug. “We all make mistakes, buddy.” It was a touching macho moment.

JP handed me an envelope. “I had Cecile take care of that other matter for you.” I opened the envelope and smiled, and handed the envelope to Roger.

“What is this?” he asked.

“It is the deed to your vineyard. It is yours,” I said. He just stared at me, stunned. And speechless.

“Excuse me,” he said, and headed inside. I followed him to my room.

“What's the matter?” I asked.

“Why did you do this?” he demanded.

I was a little surprised. I was expecting gratitude, not anger. “I reviewed the numbers and decided that your brother was probably right. You could have gotten a better price as things turned out. I'm just making things right.”

“You’re doing this to see if I'll still love you after you've given me the vineyard? If I was sincere, I'd still be with you and it wouldn't matter? You're testing me.” He was angry.

“That is definitely a fringe benefit of doing the right thing. I assumed that you would be happy that the land was yours. I assumed that you would be grateful that I'm not a mercenary and I was willing to make things right. I figured that you'd be happy that I love you enough to make sure the land you love is yours.” I was pissed.

He got up and hugged me. I fought him, but he was stronger and I gave in and finally hugged him back. “Baby, I wanted half of the vineyards, not the whole thing. I wanted to be your partner in the deal.”

I just stared at him, speechless. What a sweet guy. His mouth met mine; our arms squeezed us together trying to make us one. “I love you Roger,” I said.

“I love you too,” he said with a big grin.

“You know, maybe I will have to buy my own winery and then we can merge,” I said playfully.

“I'd like to merge with you right now,” he said, and he made love to me. Long, slow, passionate love. It was glorious.

June 17, 1973

Rafael drove me to work so Roger could take my car down to the vineyard. I sat in the back of the limo reading the morning paper. Nixon had started talks with the Soviets, with Leonid Brezhnev directly. I grimaced. He was probably looking for another foreign policy coup to dazzle the people enough to distract them from Watergate. Good luck with that one Dick, I thought.

I assumed that things at the office would be sheer chaos, but they weren't. My office was organized, my schedule was lined out perfectly, and all of the things I needed to review were neatly laid out in a coherent order. Cecile was the first one in to see me.

“Stefan!” she said and gave me a big hug. “It is so good to have you back. You missed some fun around here. You should have seen everyone freak out when they hauled Phillipe out of here.”

I smiled, but I felt sad about it. Phillipe had been a good lover, a really good lover. I couldn't help but feel there was more to our romps than just sex to manipulate me, but then again, that was me just being vain. “So what's with the organization?” I asked.

“I took the liberty of hiring a new assistant for you.” A young woman, very pretty with a tall and slender figure, appeared behind Cecile as if by magic. “I figured you hadn't done too well with men so I'd hire you a lady. This is Jenny Brooks.”

I shook her hand and smiled at her. She oozed organization and efficiency. “It's nice to meet you Jenny. Thank you so much for getting things so organized. I was dreading coming in today, but you have made things much more bearable.”

“It's nice to meet you to Mr. Schluter. It has been fun getting things put together around here. I'm looking forward to working with you.” She was so pleasant, I liked her immediately.

“Well, we are going to have a problem if you do not call me Stefan. Can you do that?”

She giggled. I didn't think she could do that, she seemed so professional. “I can, Stefan.”

“Quit flirting Jenny. He's gay,” said Cecile, joking.

“I know that. They're the best guys. You can go out with them, they pay, and you don't have to sleep with them.” We all laughed.

“Well, according to my schedule, I'm supposed to meet with Luke.” As if on cue he came in and brought me up to speed on his projects. Then Cecile came back and did the same thing. It was almost lunch time and I had a nice break in my schedule before I had an afternoon of minutiae to deal with.

“You have a call on line three,” said Jenny through the intercom. “Pretty pushy broad, says her name is Tonto.”

I laughed. “That's my grandmother.” I pushed the button. “Tonto! Great to hear from you!”

“I finally got through. You're so important now I can't even get past your secretary,” she said in her mock-grumpy mode. “Can you pick me up at the airport?”

“Sure! You're coming to visit! That's fantastic! When do you get in?”

“I'm here now. I've got my bags and I'm waiting.”

I laughed. “Tonto, go outside and hire a cab. Tell him to bring you here.”

“You can't be inconvenienced to pick me up?” she joked.

“I can, but this will be faster, and I'm sure everyone at the airport is trying to get you to leave.” She laughed at that.

“Alright. I'll see you as soon as I can, assuming I'm not abducted by a cabbie.”

“I think he would return you after not too long.”

“Humpph,” she said, and hung up to get a cab.

I called JP and told him she was here. He just laughed and sent Rafael to pick us both up at my office.

“Jenny, looks like I will need you to clear my afternoon, and tomorrow if possible.”

“You have a meeting to negotiate a property purchase tomorrow. Cecile says it's really important. Two hundred acres in Woodside.” That was the new venture, a foray into high-end custom homes.

“All right, I will make that meeting. You got all the information?” She handed me a folder, of course, with everything I'd need.

“I don't need a tour guide. That's my name on the door too, for Christ's sake!” Came a booming voice from the lobby.

“That would be Tonto,” I said to Jenny with a grin. I rushed out to meet her. I hugged her warmly. “You are making a lot of noise out here, ruining our productivity,” I joked.

“What do you mean? That lady just sits there and talks on the phone.”

“That's her job Tonto. She's the receptionist.” Shelly was the receptionist on duty, and rather than get upset she just smiled and introduced herself to Tonto. I had a great staff, and they treated her like she was the Queen. In no time at all, they'd won her over.

“Well what a nice group of people. No wonder you are doing so well, with such good helpers.”

“Thank you. And now we should get you to Escorial. By now the kids will know you are coming and they will be going nuts waiting for you.”

“You just want to get me out of everyone's hair,” she said obstinately, and let me usher her out to the limousine. “This would have been a lot easier if the limo had picked me up at the airport.”

“Rafael would have been happy to do that if you'd have told us you were coming to visit.”

I saw her grin. She liked being a grumpy, contentious old broad when in fact she was nothing of the kind. “So what brings you out here to visit?”

“I'm planning to die,” she said.

I looked at her alarmed. “Are you sick? You look healthy.” God, I couldn't stand to lose Tonto.

“No, I'm fine, but it's going to happen someday, so I have to prepare for it. After Barry died we'd managed to dodge estate taxes, but they're pretty high now and the lawyers tell me I have to start setting things up so Uncle Sam doesn't take you all to the cleaners.”

“Thank God it's just money,” I said. “I thought it was your health.”

She patted my knee. “Thank you Stefan for caring about me. I think Nick and Bitty, that's what we call Beatrice, I think they are just staring at me waiting for me to die.” That made her laugh.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“They're at camp for the summer. They finally pissed me off enough that I shipped them off. You should have heard them complain.” She started laughing hysterically. “I sent them to separate camps so they could learn to talk to other people, and I picked the kind where you have to rough it.” We both started laughing. Serves them right.

“What about next year?”

“I've got them enrolled at a couple of high-brow schools back east, like you suggested. And I told them that if they get tossed out, the alternative is military school. They're not happy right now, but I'm running out of time to get them shaped up.” She seemed to be feeling her age, at least in her own mind.

“Tonto, you're only 70. You've got lots of good years left.”

“Bah. What do you know? You're still young and handsome. Probably had sex with the whole state by now.” I just shook my head and laughed at her.

“You give me too much credit. I'm working on it, but have not gotten there yet.”

We pulled up to Escorial and Tonto breezed from the car into the house like a whirlwind. JP was there to greet her. “Tonto! It's so good to see you!” He hugged her and kissed her.

“JP! My favorite nephew. It's good to see you too.” She brushed her hand over his face affectionately. “You're nice to me and you don't even have to be since I'm not leaving you any of my money.”

He just shook his head. “Come on in and let me show you to your room.” As she left, I found myself laughing. That was how Tonto was. A balls-to-the-wall laugh machine. What a spitfire.

JP came out and found me in the Great Hall. “What's she doing here?”

“She says she has to talk about her estate. She's planning to die.” He just rolled his eyes.

“How long is she staying?”

I giggled. “As long as she wants. You want to be the one to throw her out?”

“Not me,” he said, and we stood there laughing until Tonto materialized.

“When you two are done giggling like a couple of high school girls, can you show me where I can find the kids?” JP led her off to the pool.

Roger was supposed to pick me up at work tonight and we were supposed to drive down to the winery so we'd both have our cars. I'd left a message for him at the office but he didn't get it, so he tracked me down at Escorial, not a little bit irritated. “Why are you home?”

“My grandmother arrived in town unexpectedly. You will meet her at dinner. Brace yourself.”

“Why, does she hate me or something?”

“No, nothing like that. You will see what I mean. In the meantime, we have about an hour, and I know just what I'd like to do.”

He smiled now, his bad mood gone, and we headed to my room and made love. I thought that he had learned all the tricks to tweak my body and drive me crazy, but just when I thought his repertoire was complete, he'd surprise me with something new.

“So you didn't stop loving me during the day?” he teased.

“No, but I did get a new assistant.”

“What's his name? Is he another pretty boy?”

“Jenny.”

“His name is Jenny?”

“No you idiot, she's a woman. And wonderfully efficient.”

He nuzzled my neck. “I like her already.”

We took a shower together and cleaned up for dinner. As we walked down the hall we ran into Sam. He looked at Roger. “Brace yourself.” I giggled. Roger was well on his way to being paranoid.

Tonto saw Sam first. “Your muscles got bigger,” she said as she squeezed his biceps. “How much is enough?”

“I like his big muscles,” JP said, and I giggled.

“And who it this big strapping guy?” she asked, turning to Roger.

“Roger Burton,” he said, extending his hand. “Pleased to meet you ma'am.”

“Ma'am? What am I, old enough to be Methuselah? Christ! Call me Tonto and you are with my grandson?”

“Yes ma, uh, Tonto,” he responded, almost blowing it. “I love him.”

That raised some eyebrows in the room. “Well, he's my second favorite after Brad, so you be nice to him.” I saw Brad grin over in the corner.

“I'll do my best.” And with that she moved on to bug Isidore, who was great with her. “Wow,” he said in my ear.

Dinner was a blast, an absolute blast. Tonto livened things up and I almost couldn't eat I was laughing so hard. After dinner, the kids vanished and we all sat around talking.

“So what's all this concern about your money Tonto? I didn't think you had any left,” JP teased.

“I'm richer than God,” she said. “I'm supposed to set up a trust for each of my grandchildren and start gifting assets into them. Before I do that, I need to talk to Stefan about it.”

“Tonto, you can talk about it now if you want. I have nothing to hide from these people.”

“Well, the proper way to divide things up would be to give you half, and then split the other half equally between Billy's kids. On the other hand, if I gave each grandchild an equal share, you'd only get 25%. I think the first option is fairer, but you have built up substantial wealth of your own. If you were planning to leave some of your money to Brad, it may be better for me to do that directly.”

I saw her point. She was saying that rather than give me half of the money and have me then turn around and leave it to Brad, she could bypass me and leave it to him directly. Of course that would give Nick and Bitty more too. “It is your money. You should give it to whomever you want.”

“I inherited most of this money, and it's a legacy, not mine to do with what I want. Anyway, you think about it. I'm also getting rid of my house.”

“What?” That was JP. He hated her house, called it the monstrosity. It was this big Victorian thing, and not to his taste.

“I'm donating it to the city. That's part of this whole estate plan thing, taking the write off. Your parents agreed to donate some money to help fund it, and they're going to turn it into the Claremont Historical Museum.” We all digested this.

I spoke up first. “I think that's a great idea! It is one of Claremont's oldest and grandest houses, and that's a perfect use for it. None of us needs it.” She smiled at me to thank me for my support. This couldn't have been an easy decision for her. “So what will you do?”

“I haven't decided yet. I'm thinking of getting something smaller and easier to maintain.”

“Nonsense,” said JP. “Your place is here with us.” We all stared at him, stunned. All except Isidore.

“JP is right. You should be here with us, with your family. We would love to have you.” She was right on cue after him. JP must have known about this. They'd already planned this. Sam looked shocked like me, so at least I wasn't the only one left out.

“I don't know. She's kind of loud,” Roger said. We all stared at him and Tonto started laughing.

“That I am. I like you. And you're nice to look at.”

“Then it's settled,” JP said.

“Now you just wait a minute,” Tonto said. “I can't come in here and upset your lives. I'm a pain in the ass.”

“That's true,” I said. “But I think having you around would be one of the best gifts you could give us.” Everyone else agreed and tears poured down her cheeks.

“Well, you all make me feel so loved, and so welcome...well I'll have to think about it, but it's a good idea.” And with that our family had grown yet again.

June 18, 1973

I left the negotiating session with close to the deal I wanted, but I had lost my mercenary edge. In the past I would pin down a seller for every last penny. I guess I'd seen the human side of things, and it didn't hurt to give people a good price if we could still make a good profit on the deal. And this deal, the Woodside project, had the potential to be very lucrative. All we had to do was put in roads and utilities and then sell lots. Fast, easy, and really profitable. We were set to close on another deal like this in Hillsborough next week.

I needed to go down to the winery and get my car, and unfortunately it was the Porsche. I asked Tonto if she wanted to ride along and see Roger's place, and she agreed. She'd probably give me a bunch of shit for not buying a Chrysler. So that's how we found ourselves in the limo with Rafael dutifully heading down to Almaden.

“I like Roger. He reminds me of Jeff.”

Leave it to Tonto to state the obvious yet most uncomfortable fact. “I like him too, and he does have some similarities to Jeff.”

“Do you love him?”

“I do.”

“Is he the man for you?”

I thought about that. “There is no one man for me Tonto. I'm not a 'get married and settle down' kind of guy. Roger calls himself the king of my harem. That's probably not a bad description.”

“That doesn't sound very fair to him.”

“Well, he has his freedom to be with other people if he wants to.”

“How are you going to feel if he wants to?”

What was she trying to do, drive a javelin through my soul? “I do not know. I will have to deal with it. If he fell in love with someone else, it would hurt badly. If he just had a fling, it would not bother me.”

“He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that has flings. You may find out that he's got someone else after it's too late.”

I sighed. “It's a chance I have to take. I am who I am. So when are you going to move all of your things out here?”

“You're changing the subject, which means that I'm hitting too close to home. That's fine. I'll probably have what I want of my things moved in the next month or so.”

“So you've made the decision to stay out here. That's fantastic!”

“I want to spend more time with Brad and JP's kids. They're such a good bunch, and I'm so weary from dealing with Nick and Bitty.”

“They will like that. What will happen to Nick and Bitty? I guess they will come here for the holidays.”

“They will, and if they don't behave themselves, we'll all have to kick their butts. I am so disgusted and annoyed with them. If they weren't my grandkids I'd have written them off a long time ago.”

“Maybe their experiences this summer will change them. If not, boarding school may. And you know, if it does not, at least they will not be around much.”

“Humph.”

Tonto loved the winery. I was ready for her to leave as soon as she got there, or at least my hormones were, but she wasn't having it. She wandered around the whole place. Roger was in heaven, showing off his vines and his winery. I didn't trust them alone together. She was just too much of a loose cannon.

Finally she had seen all there was to see. “Well I think I'd better let Rafael take me back.”

“You're welcome to stay as long as you want,” Roger said.

“Stefan is waiting impatiently to get into your pants, so I need to get out of the way.” I felt myself blushing three shades of red while she laughed all the way to the limo.

“So you want to get into my pants?” he asked.

“She's a mind reader.” And Roger made love to me in his small house, the house that was simple and functional and smelled just like him. Afterward we lay there side by side, staring at the ceiling. I knew what was coming.

“So you're going to LA this weekend?”

“Yeah. I need to go down and check on Jake and Armand.”

“And see Peter?”

“Yes I will probably see Peter. And I will probably have sex with him. But he is only a friend to me now.”

“I thought you had feelings for him?”

This was kind of pissing me off. He was making me sound like a real asshole. So I decided to tell him the whole story, with all the gory details, including Vance dancing around with cum dripping down his leg. I was hoping to shock him so he'd leave me alone, but it didn't work.

“I'm sorry he hurt you,” he said.

“I'm worried that I'm hurting you now.”

He rolled over and put his big leg over mine and played with my chest. “I'm sorry Stef. I'm not so upset that you're going down there, and I'm not even upset that you're going to fuck Peter and whoever, I'm just going to miss you.”

God he was playing me so well. If this was a game, he was going to hurt me really bad. If he was sincere, he may end up taming me in the end. I kissed him and showed him how much I loved him in the best way I knew how. I fucked him till he saw stars.

“I have to head home,” I said afterwards. “When are you coming up?”

“I don't want to intrude on your family time.” Suddenly I started to understand. He was down here by himself. When I was gone he was alone. And unless I invited him up to see me, he was alone.

“You are part of my family. When I'm at Escorial, I want you to be at Escorial. And when I'm gone, you can be there too. JP is fine with it. He likes having you around, and so do the kids.”

“You asking me to move in with you?” he asked, teasing me.

“Yes. I am,” I said seriously, staring into his eyes. He didn't say anything. “That requires an answer on your part. Preferably a yes,” I said with a smile.

“Will an 'OK' be alright?” I smiled and kissed him, not to initiate sex, but to be close to him.

“Get your stuff together and meet me there in a little bit.” Escorial was going to get really crowded at this rate.