Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (18 page)

Meaghan went off to her house
to see her mother, looking forward to dinner. Her mother could
cook
.
Amanda Leonard was waiting for her as she came through the door.

“
Meaghan? Is that you?”
she called from the kitchen and Meaghan hurried in that direction
pulled by the delicious smells emanating from there.

“
Hey mom,” she
called as she hurried.

Amanda turned to look at her with a delighted
smile as she walked in. 

“
Well look whose here,”
she said.

Meaghan spread her hands out. “Ta da! Mommy
I’m home,” she sing songed.

Amanda opened her arms and Meaghan came into them.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you for three years,”
Amanda said.

“
I know mom, I’ve
been MIA what with the job and the boyfriend…I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be sorry.
You’re supposed to leave your parents behind,” Amanda
said.

“
Never,” Meaghan
replied vehemently. Amanda chuckled and went back to her stirring and
Meaghan pulled out a chair to update her on everything in her life.

*****

After dinner she went over to the shop to visit
with Mr. Henley and do his books. The garage bay was full of muscle
cars and ‘Back in Black’ was blasting from the speakers.
Meaghan walked in with a smile and greeted the various mechanics as
she passed. A group of beat boys were clustered near one of the cars,
talking and laughing loudly and drinking beers. Sometimes it happened
that neighborhood boys would use the garage as a hang out. They
thought it was cool and Mr. Henley wasn’t averse as long as
they didn’t cause any trouble.

She took the stairs up to the office and knocked
slowly. She could hear voices inside and wondered if maybe Mr. Henley
was dealing with a client.

“
Come in,” he
called in his hoarse voice, affected by all the nicotine he’d
consumed over the years.

She opened the door ready with her professional
smile and it dropped off her face when she saw who was in the office
with Mr. Henley.

“
Dean,” she said in
surprise.

“
Hey Meaghan,” he
replied.

“
What are you doing
here?” Meaghan asked Dean who was sitting at Mr. Henley’s
desk with his feet up.

“
I called Jefferson here
and he told me that you might be coming by later and that I was
welcome to come by and wait,” Dean said.

Meaghan almost asked who Jefferson was but
realized in time that Mr. Henley’s first name couldn’t be
Mr.

“
Oh, so you came to hang
out at a garage I may or may not have come to just on the off
chance?” she asked Dean.

“
There really was very
little risk that you wouldn’t come. After all you promised
Jefferson right?” he said.

“
Mr. Henley. I promised
Mr. Henley,” she replied supremely uncomfortable with the
familiarity. Her mother had always emphasized respect for older folk
and that included not calling them by their first names as if they
were age mates. Mr. Henley had always been old to her, even when she
was very young.

“
Anyway, the point is
moot because here you are,” Mr. Henley said standing up. He
pointed toward a pile of books.

“
There is your work,
waiting for you and if you perk your ears up you will hear the sounds
of For Those About to Rock blasting through the speakers. Very
apropos don’t you think?” he said.

Meaghan saluted him and he smiled back and then
left the office to them.

“
Wow, you really can’t
resist me huh?” she teased.

“
I can resist you; I just
don’t want to,” Dean replied smiling. He picked up one of
the accounting ledgers and leafed through it.

“
Hey! I’m supposed
to do the books not you,” she protested pulling it out of his
hands.

Dean shrugged. “Okay but I just thought it’d
go faster if we helped each other. Jefferson is cool with it if
that’s what’s bothering you,”

“
Okay then,”
Meaghan said tossing him the first ledger. She was doing her best not
to grin like an idiot at the fact that Dean came to hang out with Mr.
Henley so he could see her tonight…despite the fact that they
would see each other tomorrow.

“
How is your dad doing?”
she asked.

“
He’s taking to the
robotics really well,” Dean said with a smile. “He’s
able to feed himself now and articulate his needs. You can really see
how much happier he is.”

“
That is wonderful,”
Meaghan said.

“
You should come visit
him sometime, I’m sure he’d like to express his gratitude
to you personally,” he suggested.

Meaghan shook her head. “I didn’t do
anything but suggest an idea. It was his doctors who did the rest.”

“
Yeah, after you put us
in touch with the right ones. Come on Megs, take the credit where the
credit is due,” Dean said.

“
The amount of backlash
that got me though…I hardly like to think about it,”
Meaghan said.

“
That lawsuit was bogus,”
Dean scoffed. “There is no way the Medical Board or a court of
law could have taken it seriously. And my father’s doctors
wouldn’t even have filed if my mother hadn’t been on
their asses about it.”

“
Another thing I don’t
like to think about…”Meaghan said wryly.

Dean leaned forward and covered her hand with his.
“This too shall pass,” he said with a small smile.
Meaghan made a non-committal sound and went back to her books.

*****

They were still asleep when Meaghan’s phone
went off. They were sleeping in; it was Saturday morning and they
were both without commitments for the morning. Meaghan reached
sleepily forward groping at the bedside table without opening her
eyes. She grasped it and brought it to her ear, making an incoherent
grunting sound that the caller could take as he would.

“
Babe, are you coming
over here so I can get you ready for the ball or what?” Bain
asked.

“
What are you my fairy
godmother now?” Meaghan replied grumpily.

“
I thought we’d
established that over ten years ago. Now when are you getting here?”
he asked.

“
I don’t know. Late
afternoon probably?” Meaghan said.

Bain made a dissenting sound, “that’s
cutting it pretty fine. We might not be able to work in a full facial
with that time frame.”

“
Are there half-facials?”
Meaghan wanted to know still with eyes closed.

“
Not for us darling. Make
it early afternoon okay? So go have sex with that boyfriend of yours
now so you can get away in time,” he replied and hung up.

Meaghan giggled, dropped her phone on the night
stand, swept the covers over her head, turned around and went back to
sleep. She could feel Dean curling into himself in front of her and
placed her hand gently on his back as she drifted off to sleep again.
He leaned into her hand but didn’t wake, snoring away
contentedly.

It was the baked goods delivery guy that woke them
finally. Carmen did not come in on Saturdays so there was no-one to
get the door but one of them. Dean ignored the doorbell but Meaghan
couldn’t. She fished out his house coat and ventured downstairs
to answer the door. The delivery guy greeted her familiarly –
she was a well-known face by now – and handed her the breakfast
basket before taking off. She took it upstairs and put the coffee on,
quite at home by this time in his kitchen to not hesitate over using
his stuff. She made herself some coffee and then retired to his tiny
patio with a muffin and the day’s paper.

“
So boogie of you
Leonard,” she murmured to herself as she settled in the wicker
chair with her coffee, crossing her legs as she scanned the paper for
news. It was the same old, same old as far as she could tell so she
turned to the comics section to get her hit of Boondocks and
Marmaduke – a much better way to start the day in her opinion
than all the bad news and negativity.

She was just settling down, feet up on the guard
rail and about to start in on her coffee when Dean ambled over,
kissing her absently on the forehead before going off to get his own
cup of coffee.

“
Morning,” he
mumbled as he came back, flopped down on the other wicker chair and
gestured for her to hand over the sports pages. Dean was not a
morning person.

“
G’mornin,”
she replied with a small smile.

“
How’d you sleep?”
he asked.

“
Like a drunk baby,”
she said grinning at him. He smiled back at her, leaned back and
drank his coffee as he scanned the pages of the New York Times.

“
How would a drunk baby
sleep anyway?” Dean mused. “Wouldn’t they be like,
in danger of dying?”

“
Convulsions, drowning in
their own vomit, CNS depression – it’s not just babies
though…anyone could suffer any of those.” Meaghan
informed him.

“
Good to know,” he
said with irony standing up to go get another cup. He’d inhaled
the first one as if it was a glass of cool water. Dean was like that
with coffee. It was his drug of choice.

“
Bain tells me I have to
leave here by early afternoon if he’s to turn me into
Cinderella in time for the ball,” Meaghan said and Dean
grimaced. He always grimaced when Bain was mentioned.

“
He knows that you’re
going with
me
right?” Dean said. Meaghan laughed in resignation.

“
He’s just trying
to make me all pretty for you,” Meaghan said.

“
You’re already
pretty for me,” Dean protested.

“
Aww, I’d say
you’re so sweet if I didn’t know where that compliment
was coming from.”

“
What do you mean?”
Dean asked.

“
Don’t be obtuse,”
Meaghan replied.

Dean was silent, polishing off his muffin. “I
do think you’re going to be the most beautiful thing at this
ball. Right now, in this moment, before Bain has laid a hand on you
or you’ve put on your finery.”

“
Thank you Dean, you say
the nicest things,” Meaghan replied impassively but she was
smiling impishly and giving him side long glances as she did so.

Dean glanced at her as if to gauge her words and
then went back to his newspaper. They read in silence for the rest of
the meal.

*****

It was a full house; Daniel had taken the day off
from work, Bain’s phone was off and even Bella was invited for
the beauty primping session. Or rather she’d asked to join in.
Meaghan wondered why, considering that she had friends who were going
to this shindig that she could prepare with.

“
I don’t know, you
guys seem like a lot of fun,” she’d said with a shrug
when Meaghan asked. Meaghan decided to shrug it off too and take it
all in stride. What’s the worst that could happen after all?

Mei and her colleagues all converged at Bain’s
house with every implement known to man or woman to enhance their
beauty. They began with full body massages followed by combination
facial/mani-pedi. A specialist was brought in for Meaghan’s
hair, the Asians not knowing exactly how to style it.  After
hair was make up and then the beauticians left so that they could
prepare their outfits. It was just going on 7pm by then and Meaghan
was expecting Dean to pick her up by eight. She wouldn’t have
thought it would take the full hour to put on a dress and some shoes
but somehow when Dean drew up at the house, she wasn’t ready
yet. At least not to Bain’s satisfaction.

She had selected elegant couture dark purple one
shoulder evening dress made from imitated silk with kitted lining and
beaded embroidery. She paired with six inch strapless sandals
made of pink velvet and a black Chanel handbag. Dean walked into the
room and stopped short as if he’d hit an invisible barrier. His
mouth opened but nothing came out for several minutes.

“
I stand corrected,”
he said looking her up and down. She was checking him out too; his
tall elegant form was encased in a black tuxedo which fit him like a
glove. His blinding white shirt contrasted nicely with his velvet
black bow tie. The result was James Bond in his prime, a glittering
Adonis that was blinding to behold.

“
Wow,” Meaghan said
checking him out. “You look…”

“
So do you,” he
replied. It was like there was no-one else in the room for a moment.

Meaghan shook her head as if waking from a doze.
“What do you stand corrected about?”

“
That you could possibly
look better? Did I say better? Not the right word. But you’re
dazzling,” he said.

Meaghan laughed, “I get it. I clean up
pretty good,” she said smugly.

“
That you do,” Dean
agreed. He held out his arm to her.

“
Shall we go?” he
asked. Meaghan started, she wanted to ask about waiting for Bain and
Daniel but she knew what the answer would be so she just hastened
forward to take his arm. He smiled at her and then looked up at Bain
lounging in the entrance to the hallway. He lifted his hand in salute
and actually smiled at him. Meaghan took that as a positive thing and
then they left.

“
I thought we’d
have dinner first,” Dean said as they were driving. “The
food at these events can be a bit dodgy.”