Private Pleasures (16 page)

"It's okay, honey," Nora assured him, and then she told him about the botch with the room reservations.
J. J. laughed. "Does he know he got kicked out for you?" he wondered.
"I suspect they just told him it was a mix-up because of the nature of the weekend. I was in Carla and Rick's room when they moved him out. He wasn't being very gracious," Nora chuckled.
It would be difficult seeing Jeff, especially knowing what she knew now about the house, Nora thought, but she didn't share her news with J. J. She had promised herself when this all began that she wouldn't build a wall between father and son. Not that Jeff had been a great dad. He hadn't. But he was still J. J.'s male parent. She set her mind on having a good weekend with her child.
And it was good. They all had dinner together that night. The Johnsons, with Maureen, Nora and J. J. They had breakfast the next morning at the inn's wonderful and justly famous buffet. Jeff and Heidi were there. Nora sent her son to sit with them, although he objected. For me, she had told him. At least Jeff couldn't claim she was keeping their son from him.
They went to the football game together, and State won. Nora showed her son the different dorms she had lived in when she was at State. But things had changed a lot over the years since she had graduated. J. J. showed her his dorm, where the soccer team resided. But Pagano's was still there, and they had pizza for dinner that night— Rick, Carla, Maureen, J. J., and Nora.
"And this time I can legally order a pitcher of real beer," Nora said, laughing. "It was only three-point-two percent back when I was here."
On Sunday the soccer teams played. While the varsity lost, the junior varsity won. J. J. was elated that his mother had been there to see him play, and win. They had Sunday dinner at the inn. Then they bid their kids good-bye, and drove home, arriving in Egret Pointe in a dusky mid-October twilight.
"I'll bring over the manicotti," Carla said. "I froze it for you. You can have it for supper tomorrow night."
And when she came with a dish big enough to feed a family, tucking it into Nora's fridge, Nora told her all of her Friday meeting with Rick. Carla sat down, and burst into tears. "No," she said. "You can't move. You can't! I know I said you would be better off without this big house, but I never meant it."
"I don't have a choice," Nora told her friend.
"There has to be a way," Carla wailed. "I'm going to tell Rick he has to find a way, Nora. You can't lose the house."
"Honey, Rick has done his best. I don't want to lose the house, but at least J. J. gets his college money, and Jeff has got to ante up for me for the next five years. That will give me plenty of time to get on my feet."
"A thousand a month isn't much," Carla said. "And where are you going to live? If you spend the money you get on a condo, you won't have a helluva lot left for investments for your old age."
"I'll inherit something from Margo one day," Nora replied.
"What if she gets a catastrophic illness, and runs through the money?" Carla said. "You need the house to be safe. The taxes aren't too bad, but they will go up when the name is changed on the deed. You can still manage."
"Maybe Jeff will die in the sack with Heidi before the divorce," Nora teased her friend. "Then it's all mine."
"From your lips to God's ear," Carla replied fiercely. "Oh, God! I can't bear to think that you won't be next door this time next year." And she cried a little more.
I can't bear it either, Nora thought, comforting her best friend. I'm not going to go. There has to be another way. There has to be!
Rick had said that Raoul Kramer would have the papers for her to sign in a few days. "Get me a few more weeks before I have to sign," she instructed him.
"How?" He knew she was stalling to avoid the inevitable.
"Ask for more alimony! Try for Jill's tuition again. And then say I'll sign after the New Year. I don't want to spoil the kids' holidays. They'll both be home, and I don't want them to know that it's the last Christmas they'll celebrate in this house. Jeff has got to understand that, hard-hearted bastard that he is! Both Jill and J. J. have lived every Christmas of their lives in this house. Please, Rick. Appeal to Kramer, and let him convince Jeff."
"I'm not going to haggle with them at this point," Rick said. "They could withdraw the deal, but I'll speak with Kramer. I can vouch that you've always been a woman of your word, Nora, and Jeff knows it too."
"You're certain she'll do it after the New Year?" Raoul Kramer asked Rick Johnson after the call had been made.
"Look, I've known Nora Buckley almost twenty-five years, Kramer. If she says she'll do it, she'll do it. But look at it from her standpoint. She doesn't want her kids to have a miserable time when they come home for Christmas. Is it really that much to ask? He's agreed not to put the house on the market until April first anyway. Signing after the holiday isn't going to change anything, but maybe this little bit of extra time before she signs will let Nora come to terms with her situation. You know she's getting the short end of the stick."
"Usually I like my business," Raoul Kramer said, "but in cases like this I don't. He's a real piece of work, my client, but you never heard me say it. Relax. I'll get Mrs. Buckley her time. But tell her I want you both in my offices at ten a.m. on January second to sign those papers. Deal?"
"Deal," Rick replied. "And, Kramer, thanks. I owe you for this one."
Raoul Kramer laughed. "What the hell could a little country mouse of a lawyer like you do for me?" he asked.
"Hey, you never know," Rick said, feeling better already. "Remember, the turtle won the race over the faster hare."
Raoul Kramer laughed again and hung up.
Jeff, however, wasn't happy. "I wanted this thing tied up fast. You promised me it would be, Kramer. That's why I'm paying you the big bucks. But instead I've ended up paying a bridge loan, and Heidi has me in debt up to my ears furnishing the place!"
"Look, if you hadn't defrauded your kids of the moneys for their college educations, Buckley, it would have been a done deal. I could have gotten you off almost scot-free. But you got greedy before you hired me, so you're paying for that blunder. When the first Mrs. Buckley signs the papers doesn't matter. The timetable we've set up will remain in effect. Let her and let your kids have one last peaceful Christmas in their home. She isn't going to tell them until after she signs the papers on January second. What the hell difference does it make to let her and your kids be happy? You act as if she's done something wrong, and you want to punish her for it, but if the truth be known, she's the innocent party in all of this. If I were her lawyer, I'd have hung you out to dry."
"Jeff"— Heidi Millar put a hand on his arm—"Mr. Kramer is right. Let Nora and the kids have their last moments in the house. The bridge loan payment hasn't come out of your pocket. I've been paying it. You've got just about everything you want. Be gracious in victory. And I'll stop buying stuff for the co-op, I promise." She gave him a little kiss, and smiled winningly.
Raoul Kramer almost laughed. Jeff Buckley had already lost his pants, and he didn't even know it. "Thank you, Ms. Millar," he said.
"Alright," Jeff said grudgingly. "Alright. But no more delays after this one. She had damned well better show up here on January second, and sign on the dotted line, or you're toast, Kramer!"
"Did you ever know your wife not to keep her word, Buckley?" Raoul Kramer asked his client. And when his clients had gone he picked up the telephone and called Rick Johnson. "I'm confirming. He's agreed, and yeah, you really do owe me." Then he hung up and sat back in his chair, considering what a shit Jeffrey Buckley was and knowing Nora Buckley would be relieved to have just a little more time. Poor faded little bitch. She really didn't deserve what was happening to her. Then he shrugged to himself. It was the law. Or at least that's what he told himself a lot lately.
And Nora was relieved when Rick called. "You've got your extension, but nothing else changes. We've got to be in town on the second of January to sign the papers."
"Thanks, Rick," Nora told him.
J. J. came home for Thanksgiving, and they had dinner with the Johnsons. He and Maureen were full of stories of their almost completed first term.
"He's studying," Maureen announced to their assembled parents. "He's in my freshman English class, and the teacher just loves him. Says he doesn't usually get sports jocks to whom he can give good grades."
"Hey, my sister said the first semester was important," J. J. protested.
"When did you ever listen to Jill before?" Maureen countered, and they all laughed.
Nora bought Christmas cards, and signed them "Nora Buckley and family." She had them out December 10. She decorated the house as she always had with lights and garlands of greens with red plastic apples, pinecones, and red plaid ribbon. There was a large real pine wreath on the front door hung just below the polished brass knocker. Carl Ulrich as usual got his painter friend with the small cherry picker to decorate the large concolor fir on Nora's lawn with colored Christmas lights. Since the Buckley house sat at the end of the cul-de-sac, the tree had always been a centerpiece for the street. When it had become too tall for even a person on a ladder to decorate, Carl had called in his buddy to do it.
"I wonder if the new people will let us decorate the tree," Rina said to Joanne.
Carla began to cry, standing out in the street, watching her husband and Carl up in the cherry picker draping lights while Nora directed from below.
"Don't cry, Carla," Tiffany said, putting an arm about the woman. "Everything's going to be alright. I just know it is!"
"Nothing is ever going to be the same again if Nora goes," Carla replied, and thought they said nothing because what could they say? They all knew she was right.
All the kids on Ansley Court came home for the holiday season, and as they always had, they celebrated together. They were at Sam and Rina's for the first night of Hanukkah, watching as their four-year-old grandson lit the first candle. They went to Joe and Tiffany's for Christmas Eve, eating her traditional cheese lasagna and salad before going off to the local Congregational church to sing carols. On Christmas Day they all went to Nora's for a traditional dinner of prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and all the trimmings. And after dinner they moved to Joanne and Carl's home for a beautiful table of homemade desserts. And finally on New Year's Eve Rick and Carla gave a party for the families on the court.
It wasn't uncomfortable at all for Nora. The kids came briefly, and then went off to their own parties, where they would remain until morning. And Nora had been with her friends so often without Jeff that nothing seemed different this year at all. They ate a wonderful buffet, drank sparingly as people their age did these days, and played board games and cards. They laughed and gossiped, and everyone avoided the fact that this time next year, there would be strangers living in the Buckley house on Ansley Court. Midnight came. They had turned on the television to watch the ball drop in Times Square in New York. They sang "Auld Lang Syne" off-key, kissed each other, and then they had all gone off home again. New Year's was for kids.
Jill had flown back to North Carolina on the twenty-ninth. She had met a young man at Duke, a teaching associate in the doctoral program, and they planned to spend New Year's Eve together. Nora had driven her daughter to the airport, and while they were waiting for Jill's flight to be called, she had told her daughter of the settlement agreement she would sign on the second of January. "You are not to tell your brother," Nora warned Jill. "I'll tell him before he goes back. He and Maureen are taking the bus back up to State on the first, rather than waiting until the last minute. They both have papers due and the dorms are open on the first."
"It all stinks," Jill said bitterly. "How could he throw you out of the house?"
"Let this be a lesson to you, honey. Get as much as you can in your name before and after you marry. Don't be a trusting little dope like I was," Nora said.
"You weren't a trusting dope, Ma. You were innocent," Jill replied.
"Same thing, honey, where money and property are concerned," Nora laughed.
Her daughter's flight was called. Jill and her mother embraced, and Nora hugged her daughter perhaps a little harder than she usually did.
"What's that for?" Jill demanded, suspicious.
"I just love you," Nora responded, "and I don't know when I'm going to see you again. Can't a mother hug her grown kid?"
"I'll come home whenever you need me," Jill said. "Don't be a martyr, Ma. Call me, okay?" Then she turned and was gone.
"I will!" Nora called after her daughter.
Now New Year's Eve was over, and returning to her house, Nora went upstairs and packed up her son's belongings for his return to college. She had promised him she would do it if he would remain at Lily's house overnight and not try to drive home. "Too many drunks out tonight. Come home by eight, and I'll have breakfast for you before you take off. I'll even do your packing. Stick out all the stuff you want, okay?"
"Ma, you're the greatest!" he'd told her.
Nora smiled, remembering the words. She looked at all the stuff J. J. had put out on his bed, and wondered how it was all going to fit in his two duffels. Then she laughed. Wasn't she the world-champion packer? She was. When she had finished, she considered going to The Channel, but decided against it. If she lay down now, she could grab a nice nap before she had to get up, and fix her son a terrific going-back-to-college breakfast. She set her alarm for seven a.m. That would give her an hour.
J. J. stamped into the house at eight fifteen, looking slightly bleary-eyed. "I'll sleep on the bus ride up," he told her in answer to her raised eyebrow.
"Sit down," she told him, and then began bringing out the food she had prepared.
"Oh, Ma! Wow!" He gazed at the platter of fluffy scrambled eggs with both bacon and his favorite sausage links. "French-bread French toast!" He began filling his plate after grabbing first at the tall glass of cranberry juice and swallowing it half down.
Nora refilled it and sat down to join him. She smiled, pleased as he shoveled the eggs into his mouth, his eyes lighting up.
"You put cheese in them!" he exclaimed.
"You like them that way," she replied, helping herself to a teaspoon of eggs, two sausage links, and a piece of French toast. "There's soft butter and maple syrup for the French toast, J. J. Eat, and then we'll talk. I've got stuff to tell you before you take off."