She Left Me Breathless (19 page)

“Uh, hello ... earth calling Sydney,” Caitlyn said, waving her hand in front of Sydney’s face.

Sydney shook her head as if the motion would somehow clear the thoughts from her mind. “I’m sorry. What did you say?” she asked.

“I asked you if it would be okay if I dropped by later?”

“Caitlyn, you don’t need an invitation to come to my house. You’re always welcome anytime you feel like it.”

Caitlyn stood up from her chair. She ran her hands down her slacks. “Thank you,  I appreciate that. Hopefully I will have some info about Allen when I come.”

“Sounds good. I will see you later than.”

Caitlyn walked over to the door. She stopped and turned to look at Sydney. “Tell Mom I said not do anything I wouldn’t do,” she said with a wink and then shut the door behind her, leaving Sydney standing there with her mouth hanging open. “What the hell?” Sydney smiled as she pulled her jacket off the hanger. “Time to face the firing squad,” she laughed as she grabbed her keys and laptop bag off the desk.

Chapter 7

Rachel, having changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in spite of the small bruise on her arm, looked around the home theater room. “This is insane,” she said as she counted sixteen movie chair recliners.

“You have to admit that watching movies on a screen bigger than a highway billboard is awfully nice,” Edna said.

“It’s actually incredible,” Rachel said as she continued to look around the large room. If she had to guess, she would say that the room measured at least forty-feet long by thirty-feet wide and the viewing screen was almost as wide as the room itself.

 The two sidewalls as well as the back wall were completely covered with red-velvet drapes. Hanging on each wall and evenly spaced two-feet apart were lighted movie boxes that contained full size movie posters of various films. At the back of the room was an oak and glass concession stand filled with every type of candy imaginable. Next to the stand was a floor sized popcorn maker and cotton candy machine. On the opposite side of the concession stand was a full service soft-drink fountain machine and hot dog cooker.

“The floor is even carpeted and ramped just like a theater,” Rachel said, shaking her head. “My youngest daughter would fall in love with this room.”

Edna laughed. “Trust me, quite a few adults would fall in love with it as well.”

“My daughter is a huge movie buff, to the point that she can recite the dialogue right along with the characters.”

“Sounds like Sydney,” Edna chuckled.

“She does that, too?”

Edna nodded. “Sometimes it’s maddening.”

“Believe me, I know,” Rachel laughed as she glanced up at the ceiling.

“Pretty amazing isn’t it?” Edna asked as she followed Rachel’s eyes.

“That’s an understatement,” Rachel answered as she looked at the gold-colored octagon shaped boxes that made up the design on the ceiling, giving it the appearance of a giant honeycomb.

“If you like this room, wait until you see the indoor-outdoor pool,” Edna said as she headed toward the door.

“Exactly how many rooms does this house have?” Rachel asked as she followed Edna out into the hallway.

Edna used her fingers to count as she mentally calculated the number in her head. “Twenty-three,” she finally answered.

“How many of those are bedrooms?”

Edna smiled. “Eight with nine and half baths and that doesn’t count the ones in the guest house.”

“Good grief. How do you keep from getting lost?”

“It happened often when she first had the house built. I still have days where I get all twisted around.”

Rachel let out a deep breath. “I think I need a map.”

“Knowing Sydney, she’s probably already laid one out for you,” Edna said with a chuckle. “Come on, I wanna show you the pool. If you think the home theater room was something else, you’ll probably have a heart attack when you see it.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t see it then,” Rachel laughed.

“I think you’re gonna love it,” Edna said as she headed down the hallway and through an open archway that led down another long hallway. She stopped next to a marble column and waited for Rachel. “After you,” she said, motioning with her hand for Rachel to go first.

Rachel’s mouth gaped open as she stepped into the pool room. In all of her life, she had never seen anything like what she was now looking at.

Edna looked at Rachel and laughed. “I take it I was right?”

“You were more than right. It’s beautiful,” Rachel said as she continued to look around the room. The back wall surrounding the kidney-shaped pool was rounded and looked like what you would see in a Greek coliseum. Large marble columns, interlaced with tiny flecks of gold leaf overlays were spaced every four feet and were connected to each other by scalloped archways, which sat directly atop the column. Sitting inside the archways were floor to ceiling windows that offered an exquisite view of the back area of the property, which included a huge lake.

The sidewalls were covered with murals of mountains and the ceiling was painted to resemble a crystal blue sky with clouds so white, they looked like cotton candy. The scenes created were so realistic that Rachel felt as if she were standing in the hills of Tennessee.

Her eyes settled on the pool itself. It was recessed into the floor with one-foot high blond-colored Italian pavers circling it. At the small end of the pool were stacks of various types of rock formations that were shaped to resemble the side of a mountain. All throughout the spacing between the rocks, water seeped out, running back down into the pool, giving it the appearance of natural flowing springs. To the right of the rock formations was a spiral slide that ended next to a large glass window that with a push of a button, rose to allow access to the outdoor pool on the other side of the wall.

The outdoor pool was almost as spectacular as the one on the inside and was a continuation of the rock formation theme. The main difference between the two pools was that the one on the outside also included a low and high set of diving boards.

“Simply incredible,” Rachel said, shaking her head.

“Just wait until you see it at night when it’s all lit up,” Edna said as she linked her arm through Rachel’s arm.

“I can only imagine,” Rachel said as she allowed Edna to lead her out of the room.

“How about we go check out that new design room of yours?” Edna asked.

Rachel smiled at her. “I’d like that very much, thank you.”

Sydney stopped at Karen’s desk. She waited patiently for her to finish her phone conversation.

Karen disconnected the line and pulled the head set off and laid it on the desk. She smiled at Sydney. “And what can I do for you my wonderful, charming employer who has the sun set and rise in her eyes every morning of her esteemed life?”

Sydney laughed as she shook her head. “Just when I think you can’t shock me any further, you—”            

“What do you mean further?” Karen asked, interrupting Sydney before she could finish the sentence.

“Have you ever thought about going into the theater?” Sydney asked.

Karen smiled. “Of course, I make it a regular habit of seeing at least one movie per week. As a matter of fact I saw a classic just this week.”

Sydney ran her fingers through her hair and then laughed. “You are a classic and you’re in a world all of your own.”

“Okay now that we’ve got that all cleared up, my illustrious supreme employer, is there something I can help you with?” Karen asked with a crooked grin on her face.

 “You got me so damn flustered that I can’t even remember why I stopped here to begin with,” Sydney said, shaking her head.

Karen batted her eyes dramatically. “Yeah, I heard that I had that kind of effect on people.”

“I swear you are so not right,” Sydney said and she believed it to be true. Karen was in another world all by herself but that was a good thing.

Karen looked at the laptop bag slung over Sydney’s shoulder and the car keys in her hand. “Um ... are you by chance leaving for the day?” she asked.

  “As a matter of fact I am and if you could find the time in your busy schedule, please forward all of my calls to my home office.”

“I will try my best to fit you in,” Karen said, giving a mock salute with her hand.

“You do that and I’ll see you tomorrow,” Sydney said with a wave of her hand.

“How did she manage all of this so quickly?” Rachel asked as she looked around the design room that Sydney had set up for her.

“She’s very resourceful when she has the right incentive,” Edna replied.

“So I’ve noticed,” Rachel said as she pulled out the high-backed stool sitting in front of the drafting table. She looked at the blueprint lying in front of her. It was a complete layout of the entire house.

“What did I tell you?” Edna asked. She was standing next to a large oak desk that had a computer monitor and color laser-jet printer sitting on it. She picked up a piece of paper lying on the keyboard, brought it over, and handed it to Rachel.

Rachel shook her head and laughed as she looked at it. It was a miniature map of the house. “I’d say you know her pretty well.”

“Yeah, I guess I do but then again, she’s quite predictable when it comes to certain things,” Edna said with a wink.

“How long have you worked for Sydney?” Rachel asked. She hated to admit it but her curiosity was starting to get the better of her.

Edna thought about it for a few seconds. “Going on twelve and a half years now, I’d say, give or take a couple months.”

Rachel’s mind whirled as she calculated the timeframe in her head.
It must have not been long after Sydney and I went our separate ways.
Just what have you been doing with yourself all these years Sydney Welsh, other than trying to take over the world and romancing beautiful women,
she thought to herself.

“Well, if you don’t need anything else from me for awhile, I’ll let you get settled in,” Edna said, snapping Rachel from her thoughts.

Rachel smiled. “Thank you for the tour and especially for your company. I really enjoyed it.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Edna chuckled. “And I enjoyed your company just as much. It was a nice change from Fred Rick’s ramblin’. ”

Rachel frowned. “Who’s Fred Rick?”

“Our flamboyant chef,” Edna laughed. “Oh just you wait. You’re in for a real treat when you meet that one.”

Rachel smiled. “Well, if he’s half as nice as you, then I think I will like him very much.”

“Like who very much?” Sydney asked as she came into the room.

Rachel looked up in surprise and then felt her breath unexpectedly catch in her throat.

Edna looked at Sydney and grinned. “Your chef, that’s who she thinks she’s gonna like very much.”

Sydney met Rachel’s gaze for the first time since walking into the room. For several seconds they just stared at each other, both seemingly unable to break the eye contact.

Edna cleared her throat. “If you two need me, you know where I’ll be.”

Rachel, feeling slightly embarrassed looked down at her hands.

Sydney glanced at her watch. She smiled as she turned to look at Edna. “Yeah, you’ll be kicked back in a recliner getting ready for your soaps.”