Into Fall
At
The House of Four Seasons
by Atonia
Part 2
Terry parked the jeep in the garage and turned to Toni, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m okay; don’t pay any attention to me.” She unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door
“Now that would be impossible,” he got out of the jeep
“It's past dinnertime, are you hungry Terry?”
“I am, why don’t you leave that to me tonight.” He opened the front door to the house.
“You’re going to cook?”
“I know my way around a barbie, how would you like a steak?” He tossed the keys on the hall table.
Toni smiled, “I would love it.”
“I suggest you find a bottle of wine and have a seat” Terry removed his jacket and went to the fridge for the steaks.
Toni found her bottle of wine in the wine cooler and a glass. He opened it for her and poured it out handing her the bottle. “Keep your glass filled.” He advised.
“Are you suggesting a wine drunk?”
“Why not?”
She sat at the kitchen table watching him going through her spice rack pulling out this and that and seasoning the steaks. “You’re a man of many talents.”
He smiled, “I have a few up my sleeve.” Finding two baking potatoes he gave them a scrub and placed them in the oven and then pulled a beer from the fridge and opened it.
“Terry,”
“Yes?”
“I think I love you.”
“You think?” He raised a brow.
“Yes, I think I do.” He passed by her running his hand over her head and went outside to get the grill started. She sipped her wine; having fallen into him she found there was no bottom, he was very deep and she wondered if she would ever know all there was of him. She picked up her bear, Morris, that she’d laid on the table when she came in, “you know all my secrets don’t you, I have another,” she whispered something in his ear and sat him on the table against the wall.
He came back in and washed his hands, “You should come outside, it’s nice out.”
They finished their steaks on the terrace and Toni poured the last little bit of wine into her glass, Terry was on his third beer. “That was wonderful, Terry. Thank you.”
“Ah sure luv,“ he lit a cigarette and leaned his head back watching the stars coming out.
Toni gazed at him a moment, “Terry if I took you out of here what would you do? Would you really want to go?”
Terry brought his head back down and took a drag of his cigarette, “I would go with you, no worries there. I guess I’d find a job so I could take care of you. There are outfits that do the same kind of thing I know how to do,” he looked over at her, “you aren’t ready yet.”
“I…I don’t know.”
“I do, and I know it’s not time I wouldn’t let you do this now, as much as I want it, I won’t let you.”
“Are you Terry Thorne admitting to wanting something?”
“I’ve wanted you since the first day I saw you.”
Toni looked down and turned her gold wedding band, it felt warm on her finger. “You should do something about that want.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to take me upstairs, I want you to drown me, Terry.”
“That’s my line.”
“I stole it, I want to be drowned in you, I want to come up gasping for air and have you pull me down again, I don’t want it ever to end, take me to the edge and don’t let me have it, take me there, take me with you.”
Terry subbed out his cigarette and stood up knocking the chair backwards, “We aren’t going to make it upstairs.”
It was the middle of the night when they finally did make it upstairs, covered in dirt and grass they went into Terry’s shower and bathed each other before falling into bed.
Toni slept late the next morning and after a cup of coffee to wake up with she went in search of Terry and found him in the pool. “What time did you get up?” she asked.
“Late, the sun was already over the horizon.” He wiped the water from his face. “you’re a sleepy head.”
She sat cross legged on the side of the pool, “You make me that way.”
He pulled himself out of the pool and sat beside her taking her coffee cup and drinking from it. “You should get in, it will wake you up.”
“No thanks, I come awake slowly, I’m not ready for…Terry please don’t throw me in.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” He handed her cup back. She watched his hands for a minute and relaxed.
“Did you ever hear from the lawyer about your grandmother’s estate?”
“Yes I got a packet in the mail at the post office. He had the house cleaned and closed for me. There was quite a lot of money, I had no idea she had. So it’s all just sitting there, waiting.”
“So you have a place to go.”
“Yes, I have a place…” She finished the coffee.
Terry thought about his own money, he had quite a lot of it himself stashed in banks and wondered if there was a way he could transfer it, was it real enough, could he draw it out and hand it to her, what did he need it for anyway? It was something to consider whether she took him out or not, he could do that for her. He thought he’d quietly look into it.
He turned and looked at her tilting his head slightly, Toni caught his look, the light teasing in his eyes and started backing up away from him, “No, you said wouldn’t, no…” she was on her feet running back to the house, a splash behind her as he dove back into the pool.
He’d asked if he could see the papers from the lawyer and Toni brought them to him in the library, “It’s all legal talk I’m not sure what it all means except I have the house and her bank account.”
Terry read over the papers and looked up at her, “Did you show these to Max?”
“No, they came first part of August, I just never thought to.”
“This is quite a large sum of money but he could invest it for you, Toni, you’d never have to worry about another penny, that’s what he’s good at, making money. I think you should show it to him and let him do it.”
“I will…next summer, seems a long time away.”
He glanced up under his lashes.
“There’s a picture in there somewhere of the house, looks quite grand but it’s where I grew up, it was just home.”
Terry found the picture and studied it, “This is where you were a little girl in pigtails.”
“Pony tail.” She smiled watching him. “You like pictures, I have a photo album upstairs, one of the things I kept.”
“I’d like to see it.” He put the papers back in the big brown envelope and handed them to her. He followed her to her bedroom where she pulled two albums from a drawer in her dresser.
“This is one my Mamam kept when I was growing up and this one is mine, silly pictures I took when I was in school, friends, birthday parties, vacations.” They sat on her sofa and she opened her Mamam’s book first. The first few pages were of her parents and Terry looked at them a long time but when she showed him the picture of her Mamam and grandfather he pulled it carefully from the album and studied it closely. “He was very handsome and Mamam was beautiful, that was taken before he went on a trip, he never came back he was killed in an auto accident.” Terry handed her the picture back and she inserted it back in the album.
“This is you?” it was her baby pictures, “chubby little thing weren’t you.”
“Oh it gets worse, freckles, strange teeth.” She laughed.
“Did she ever tell you anything about your grandfather?”
“Not much, he was gone a lot I gathered that over the years, I remember her saying one time that he was very special, I think they were very much in love, it was tragic for her when he died, she was pregnant with my father and my grandfather never knew. He bought her that house, the one I grew up in so he must have had a good job.”
“I’m sure he did. Do you know how they met?”
“No, she never told me anything about that.”
He wasn’t going to tell her, if her grandmother wanted to keep a secret so could he, but the picture was proof of what her Auntie had told him. Her grandfather was in fact James Dean. As she turned the pages and pointed out pictures, laughing and telling him about them, he was building a file on her in his mind, every little thing was important. He would know, he hoped, all about her, the way her mind worked, the way she thought and what she might do when it came down to it.
“I’m getting hungry and thirsty,” Toni closed the last album.
“Let’s go out and eat.”
“Sounds good to me.”