owned.
A little nervous, and a little irritated that she should be, Riley rang the doorbell, and
shivered and hunched further into her light raincoat. It was a clear night, but there was a decided
chill hanging over the city.
A butler opened the door and greeted her very formally, “Good evening,” and gestured
for her short trench coat.
As she handed the coat to the butler, there was a low male whistle. She turned and saw
Tanner coming towards her, dressed in a gray suit.
“Hello, darling.” He surprised her with a kiss on her cheek. “You look incredibly
delectable. I might consider making a go of repeating my brother and your sister’s pattern of
nuptials.” He stood back, looked her up and down, and gave another appreciative whistle. “You
are about the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, Riley.”
She was dressed in a black silk jersey sheath with long tight sleeves and a mock turtle
neck. It’s was short, a tad shy of raising eyebrows, showing off her bare legs that were tightened
by the four-inch black paten sandals that had a wide strap around the ankle with a silver buckle.
The knit dress outlined her very shapely body, especially her large breasts. She had swept up her
black curls high atop her head so that curly tendrils fell around her head and face, the pile
secured with various jeweled sticks and combs.
“Do you think it’s too much for an engagement party,” Riley asked. She wondered when
she had chosen the dress if it were appropriate for a formal family gathering, but she had always
loved it and felt good in it, because it made her feel sexy and confident, and knew how good she
looked in the dress.
“Yes. Maybe,” Tanner said, reminding her that for a man who was born with a silver
spoon in his mouth, he could be just as forthright as she. “But for you, it’s perfect, because that’s
who you are. Too beautiful, too sexy, too intelligent.”
Riley tilted her head back and looked at his handsome face. “With smooth lines like that,
and with your looks and your money, why hasn’t some smart girl caught you, yet?”
Tanner put his arms around her waist and guided her to the parlor room where everyone
else was having drinks. “Because my mamma taught me better. So, I’m too smart for the women
who get caught up in the exterior trappings. And women like you won’t have men like me.”
Riley stopped and looked up at him. “What do you mean by women like me?”
Tanner draped a brotherly arm around her neck. “Oh, I don’t know. You know how some
people just know that there are those who are way out of your class. I’m not saying you’re some
femme fatale, not by a long shot. I’m just saying you need a man who can go head to head, toe to
toe with you, inside and outside of bed. I know I could never be that man.”
She gave him a long look. “We can certainly have fun finding out.”
“Behave yourself, vixen. Remember, this is a respectable gathering of future in-laws.
Besides, I like my heart to be kept intact, and I’ve a nasty suspicion that you would leave me
high and dry once the fun ended.”
“You just said that I wasn’t a femme fatale.”
Tanner tapped his finger on her nose. “Perhaps I should have qualified that with you
don’t mean to be a femme fatale.”
He opened the door and announced to the room with a flourish, “Here she is.”
Everyone in the room came rushing to meet the newcomer and introductions were
exchanged. Only Heron remained where he stood across the room, coolly detached as usual,
sipping his scotch, watching his family admire over his future sister-in-law.
Out of the corner of her eye, while shaking hands and offering greetings, Riley saw him,
holding back, and felt the chill in his gaze every time he glanced her way, and she knew he had
not forgiven her for her words. She was beginning to fear that Heron was the type of man who
did not give up his grudges once he had them.
Thankfully, soon, she was lost in the pleasure of meeting the rest of Heron and Tanner’s
family. She was relieved to find that Mr. and Mrs. Wait, the father as tall as his sons and the
mother just under six feet, were as unpretentious and down to earth as their younger son. And
she instantly saw that they were very pleased with the match that Heron had made with her sister,
and that made her very pleased with them. The sister, Beth Anne, was in between Heron and
Tanner in age. It turned out that she was not only unpretentious, as well, but also had a worse
habit than Riley to shoot from the hip.
Beth Anne, who had inherited the family’s height and large stature, was a professor of
English at San Francisco State University. She herself had married a man who had little money
and position, and who was a professor of Astronomy doing research and teaching at the
California University of Berkeley. He had the romantically incongruous name of Ovid, chosen
by his mother who had loved reading the myths. He was also quite tall, but was more thinly built,
gawky, having more of the appearance of a giraffe, with straight mussed up blond hair that fell
over his eyes, eyes that looked out at the world through thick glasses with shy wonderment. In
keeping with the traditional appearance of a true geek, he wore an ill-fitting suit that looked
cheap and over ten years old in style. His wife didn’t seem to mind, which was appropriate, since
she herself was badly attired in a heavy wool gray plaid skirt that ended at her calf, a bright pink
cashmere sweater that revealed a few moth holes upon closer inspection, thick, wool knee highs,
and flat loafers that needed re-stitching.
The couple had two children, a boy and a girl, ages ten and eight respectively, who ran
rough shod over their parents, their keen intelligence inherited from their parents enabling them
to find all sorts of ways to aggravate every adult that they encountered.
When he was first introduced to Riley, Ovid took one look at the small, dazzling woman
before him, and became so tongue tied that all that would come out of his moth was a croak,
which caused his face to turn bright red.
“Oh, dear,” Beth Anne said mildly to Tanner as they watched poor Ovid staring stupidly
at Riley as she smiled up at him. “I wonder if he’s going to be able to find his tongue at all this
evening. –Ah, looks like she’s experienced with this sort of reaction from men,” she observed
when Ovid suddenly found his speaking ability and gave an answer to a question that Riley had
asked, a question that more than like had to do with astronomy.
“I told you she was incredible,” Tanner said. “By the way, where are your two unholy
monsters?”
Beth Anne glanced at her mother with irritation. “They weren’t allowed to be here by
Mother.”
“Well, this is hardly a gathering for children.”
“It’s not that. It’s just I had a devil of a time getting a baby sitter for them. I was on the
phone for six straight hours, calling up ten baby-sitters and twelve nannies before I finally was
able to bribe one at thirty bucks an hour.”
“I’m surprised that you were able to find someone who was willing to take the risk of
being torched for that small of a price.”
“Well, the last sitter was stupid to let herself be tied up like that. And they didn’t exactly
put a torch to her. Her clothes and hair only got singed.”
“Hmmmm. And, also, I think mother would like to be able to keep the last of her antique
collections intact, seeing that your two hooligans have destroyed a good portion of the valuables
in this house.”
“Oh, stop it. You make them sound like they’re ready for the penitentiary.”
“Well, they’re certainly on their way.”
Beth Anne slapped at his arm. Then she sighed. “I guess I better check in with those two
hool…uh, children, to make sure no one’s dead.”
“The children?’
“No, the baby sitter.”
“Maybe you should call the hospital first. It would certainly save time.”
Beth Anne gave him a dirty look then took out her cell phone and dialed.
Riley found Alana and Roy Wait, the parents to be quite friendly, open, and ready to
welcome the new additions to their family without prejudice or reserve. It was obvious that Beth
Anne very much took after her mother in many ways. Both were quite tall but Alana had a much
slender build than her daughter who inherited her large frame from her father side of the family.
In temperament, however, they were very alike. Like Beth Anne, Alana was very direct, was
quite free with her opinions, and didn’t believe in standing on ceremony with her family. Her
manner towards her family was that of a loving dictator who only issued orders because she
believed they were in her family’s best interests but which were generally ignored by her
children.
Roy proved to be the more of the diplomat of the two, a bit fastidious, rather courtly, but
welcoming and warm. But when it came to his family, he could also be quite direct.
“Your sister tells me that you run a club up in Santa Rosa,” Roy said gruffly, looking
down at her from beneath snowy white eyebrows. “Tanner said that you run a sex club upstairs.
That’s quite extraordinary.”
“Yes, it’s a private sex club.”
“What do we need a sex club for?”
“It’s where people can feel comfortable exploring their sexuality when they can’t explore
it in their own lives.”
“Do you conduct orgies there?”
His wife pulled him away. “That’s none of your business, Roy. Why don’t you go and
make yourself another pitcher of martini. You make the mix better than anyone else.” To
sweeten the order, Alana kissed him on the cheek.
Roy jauntily made his way to the bar.
“I must apologize for my husband, my dear,” Alana said. “He thinks as head of this
family he has to act a part.”
“Well, you can tell him that orgies are not allowed. The club is not a free for all. And it’s
not a place where sex is trafficked.”
“As long as it is a safe environment for the physical and emotional well being of people,
and the adults are consenting, I think it’s a good idea.”
Riley blinked at her in surprise. “You do?”
“Yes. Society is too rigid about sex and makes people go underground in their lives to
meet their sexual needs.”
Riley glanced sidelong towards Heron who was talking on his cell. “If you don’t mind
my saying, Mrs. Wait, I would have a thought a family with your connections and position, you
would have minded that one of your future in-laws operated a sex club.”
“Why? Because we’re rich and the society pages keep tabs on us? Why should the fact
that we have money and position and most others don’t make us leaders of social mores and that
should allow us to dictate them? We’re no better than any working family. I know so many other
wealthy people feel that because of their money, they have the right to dictate to others without
money how they should live.” Alana hooked her arms around Riley’s companionably and led her
towards Heron and Roberta. “That’s why I’m so glad that yours and my family will be together.
You’re real people, and don’t think of yourself high and mighty.”
“You mean we know our place?”
Alana stopped and looked down at Riley. “Dear me, was I being so indelicate? I’m
usually not so clumsy. No, Riley. I meant that you and your sister and your parents know the real
value of things. I think you and your family if you were suddenly rich tomorrow, it wouldn’t
change you one bit.”
“I’m sorry. I’m usually not this sensitive.”
“I don’t blame you. I know how nerve racking it can be to meet new in-laws.”
“Could I ask you a question, Mrs. Wait?”
“Please, call me Alana. By all means.”
“Is Heron adopted by any chance?”
Alana looked surprised but not offended. “No. Why do you ask?”
“If I may say so, he’s not a bit like any of his family.”
Alana looked at her oldest son’s profile as he stood by the window, talking on the cell
phone, noting how severe and detached it was. That detachment only made him even more
striking. If she ever worried about her children, it was him, because he seemed to expect so much
of himself and of others and, yet, held himself apart from people and the world.
“I’m afraid he is a bit of a throw back to earlier times in our society. He has an energy
that isn’t really ours. I guess I’m saying I think none of the rest of the family, including me,
really understand him.” The older woman then gave Riley a shrewd look. “Has my son been
giving you a hard time?”
She kept her face pleasantly bland. “No. I get the impression that had his birth been
different, he might have been a priest.”
“Yes, Heron can be rather Calvinistic.”
Several minutes later, everyone was summoned to the large dining room, where an oval
elegant table was set. All around the room candles were lit, giving a cozy effect to the formality.
Standing ready were two male servants. When Caroline saw the expensive setting of the table,
the gold plated rim of the dishware, the silverware that included three forks, three spoons, and
butter knife, the Waterford crystal glasses and goblets, the linen napkins, and the nameplates, she
cast a nervous look at Riley, who whispered to her, “This engagement all hinges on you using
the right fork, Mom. So, be careful. If you use the desert fork for the salad, then the games up.”
“You’re certainly no help,” Caroline hissed back as she sat down in the chair that one of
the servants pulled out for her.
Despite the elegance of the table, the two efficient servants, and the elaborate meals,
dinner turned out to be a raucous affair, with plenty of humor, story telling, and bringing up past
childhood squabbles that were mostly engaged between Tanner and Beth Anne. She revealed that
Tanner was a malicious prankster who tormented his sister to no end with tricks, and he accused
her of being a tattletale, which often got him grounded.
“You deserved every punishment Mom and Dad meted out on you, including the time
they wouldn’t let you go to that coed slumber party that Diana Hartford threw,” Beth Anne said
with satisfaction. “Serves you right for putting that lizard in my bed.”
“It was in heat,” Tanner explained, all innocence. “It was in desperate need of a mate.”
“Don’t be disgusting, Tanner,” Alana reproved mildly. “We have guests.”
It did not help that the guests were laughing at Tanner’s stories.
Caroline said, “It’s good to hear that the rich go through the same disciplinary process
and trials as any other family go through.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, my parents were such an embarrassment to my brothers