Wildest Dreams (Thunder Point #9)(5)

“He told me,” Blake said. “I’m so sorry to hear it. Lou Gehrig’s disease, how bloody awful for you. You look positively wonderful. How are you feeling?”

“Until I try to pick up a glass or stand, I feel just fine,” she said, adding a small head shake. “Speaking of glass, what can we get you?”

“Nothing at all, Mrs.... Winnie. I just wanted to meet you. I was shocked to hear two famous athletes were living next door.”

“Yes, but we’re not competing anymore,” Winnie said. “What in the world are you doing here in Thunder Point?”

“I’m still training, but I fell in love with the quiet of the place.” He glanced around. “If you can find a way to move this house to Boulder you can get three million for it.”

“I can’t believe the price was what attracted you,” she said.

“The town did, as a matter of fact. The size, the simplicity, the building around the bay. That’s a great place for me to swim. The hills and lowlands are great bike and running trails. The air is perfect.”

“What’s your next event?” Winnie asked.

“Tahoe,” Charlie answered for him, sitting down again.

“He seems to know as much about me as I do,” Blake said. He stood and extended a hand toward the short Russian coach who had come in from the deck. “How do you do, sir. I’m your neighbor, Blake.”

“An honor,” Mikhail said.

When everyone sat down to visit, Lin Su drifted off to the master bedroom. This was the time of day she put it right for later when Winnie would settle in for the night.

After a nap and a little refreshing, Winnie would spend some time in the living room or on the deck, have dinner with whoever happened to be around—sometimes the entire family, sometimes just Lin Su, Charlie and Mikhail. If Winnie’s daughter, Grace, wanted to help her settle in for the evening, Lin Su and Charlie would go home. Most nights Lin Su would stay for the evening ritual and then take herself and her son home.

Her present home wasn’t exactly a welcoming place. Lin Su and Charlie were renting a small fifth wheel that had been left behind at a rather scurvy trailer park, but it was completely adequate and she had gotten it antiseptic clean. This job with Winnie, while demanding, was also accommodating and paid well. Lin Su was working on a solution to that fifth wheel, but it had been all she could afford at the time—she’d been laid off from the hospital and bills had accrued while she was between jobs. There were also old loans like tuition, moving, some medical expenses that hadn’t been covered by employers. She finally had some savings but she didn’t dare touch it. She was very cautious and the most important thing in the world to her was that Charlie get a good education.

It was all working out, for now. It was Winnie, in fact, who had suggested Charlie come to work with her every day and therefore attend school in Thunder Point. Winnie’s son-in-law, Troy Headly, taught history there and Winnie’s next-door neighbor, Spencer Lawson, was the athletic director and football coach. She wouldn’t have to worry about Charlie being picked on by bigger, tougher kids, and for that she was so grateful.

She drew back the comforter and smoothed out the sheets—six hundred thread count—fluffed the pillows and made it inviting. She shook out and refolded the throw that Mikhail used when he slept in the big leather chair at Winnie’s bedside. He thought no one knew. That made her smile. Mikhail was so devoted, but he disappeared before Lin Su arrived in the morning so no one would know he was that protective. Lin Su dusted the room, removing the water glass from the bedside table, tidied the books and magazines Winnie kept nearby. The bathroom just needed a lick and a promise plus fresh towels and facecloths. Tomorrow she would change the sheets and wash some linens. She would love to sleep in such fine bedding but she wouldn’t trade places with Winnie for the moon.

By the time she returned to the kitchen and dining room, Grace and Troy had come home and there was a great deal of chatter. They had brought dinner from Carrie’s deli and Grace was putting out place mats.

“Please, won’t you stay?” Grace asked Blake. “I can assure you it’s healthy and nutritious. Carrie is very particular.”

But to the disappointment of all, Blake declined the invitation, heading home for some concoction of kale, squash, beef, chicken, quinoa, oil and... Lin Su might not have caught all the ingredients, but he was in training—there was another race in a month.

“Sounds delicious,” Grace said doubtfully.

“Sounds excruciating,” Winnie said, making everyone laugh.

Blake laughed with them. “After the next two races I’ll have a little downtime. I’ll exercise and eat well but the strict training and diet regimen is relaxed a little bit. I’ll eat and drink like a regular person,” he said with a grin.

“Well, when you’re done with the next race, I’m buying,” Troy said, lifting his beer in Blake’s direction.

Two

The size of the Banks household had grown, if only slightly. Now there was a cleaning crew headed by a woman named Shauna Price. There were three women who swooped in twice a week and applied a devoted two hours to cleaning the house, top to bottom. They were friendly without having much to say, charged a lot, carried their own supplies with them and vanished without saying goodbye. Once a week Shauna dutifully asked Lin Su if everything was all right. She didn’t ask Winnie; Lin Su believed Winnie terrified her.