watched the whole time I was there, and they could not, I repeat, could not, wait for me to leave. They have a hate on for you right now. They said you had no loyalty. I tried to defend you, but they didn’t want to hear it. I wouldn’t go out there for a while if I were you. Maybe never!” Barney said dramatically as he stomped in a puddle and ruined a second pair of shoes. “C’mon, let’s go in and get some fresh coffee. They were baking pies at the farm. Among other things,” Barney said through clenched teeth.
“What should I do?” Gus asked as he held the door open for Barney.
“Hope for a miracle, would be my advice. I told you not to marry that gold digger.”
“That’s what Granny called Elaine. Well, they all did,” Gus said as he followed Barney through the house and up the stairs. He, too, had to change his clothes and shoes again.
At the top of the steps, Barney bellowed to Maggie, his housekeeper, to make fresh coffee. Gus hoped she heard from wherever she was, because he was chilled to the bone.
Gus was the first one down to the kitchen. He marveled at the place setting Maggie had laid out. He knew he could get used to being waited on like this in no time. And he liked the roly-poly little housekeeper with the laughing eyes. He wondered if, in the days to come, he’d ever be able to afford a housekeeper. By the time Elaine got through with him, he’d be lucky to eat at Burger King five days a week and starve the other two days. His eyes burned then when he remembered his grandmother telling him that God never gives you more than you can handle. That was easy to tell a little kid who didn’t understand that his parents didn’t want him because he was a burden. They’d just dumped him at his grandparents’ when he was four years old and took off. He’d never heard from them again. God must have been out to lunch that day, because it was more than he could handle, just like now.
Gus was finishing his first cup of coffee when Barney appeared in the kitchen doorway with a pile of papers in hand. “The first report from Phil Ross. It is not pretty, Gus, so be prepared. There’s a fax from Jill, too. She’s coming out here later this afternoon. I invited her to dinner on your behalf. More casual that way, and you two can get to know one another.
“I’m going to gulp this coffee and head out. I have meetings right up until it’s time to head to the airport, so this has to be good-bye for now. Man, I hate leaving you like this, Gus. I really do. But, the good thing is, I’m leaving you in good hands. That much I do know. I’m just a phone call away, and if you really need me, I can be on the first plane home. I mean it, Gus.”
Gus nodded, his eyes on the papers lying on the table. He wondered exactly what was not pretty and what he needed to be prepared for. What could be worse than his wife claiming his house and stealing his car? And being mean to Wilson—that was the biggie for him. He looked up at Barney, waiting to see if his friend had more to say. He did.
“Phil said he is going to drop your Porsche off in the parking lot behind Gilligan’s, and you can pick it up later, or he can have someone bring it out here. He had to hot-wire it, but he did get your car back. If I were you, I’d drive one of the cars in my garage and park yours in there, at least for now. Elaine still has a key to it, so if you take it into town, and she spots it, then it’s gone again. By the way, Phil also said that her Beetle was taken to the impound lot, and she hasn’t picked it up yet.”
“Damn! He actually got my Porsche back! That’s great. Good idea, too, about me not driving it, as long as you don’t mind me driving one of yours.”
“What’s mine is yours, you know that, Gus. So we’re good here, right? At least for now. I can go off knowing you’re in good hands and not worry too much.”
“I don’t know what to say, Barney. I