Trials and Tiaras (Untouchable #7) - Heather Long Page 0,86
has changed some, but they quartered by year when I was here, so all my neighbors were in my class. Facilitating cooperation and closeness. Not that it worked. They were just kids who went here, not my friends.”
My heart twisted.
“Nana and Grandpa lived about twenty-five minutes from here. Pretty close to where your grandparents live. Grandpa sold the house after Nana died.” He’d told me that.
“You spent weekends with them.”
“Every chance I got,” he told me as he turned in a slow circle. “This room though, was basically my world for four years. I spent a couple of holidays here when Edward and Muriel were too busy to make it back. That was the first year. After that, Nana always came to get me.”
“Did you go to boarding school before here, too?”
He nodded. “A couple of different ones. Jeremy would collect me at the end of terms and bring me back in the spring. He always made sure to send care packages too. I never ran out of contraband. But it was easier when I decided on public school.”
Pivoting, he faced me and grinned.
“Best decision I ever made.”
I laughed. “I don’t know if I can even imagine going here.” Our parents had. Was that why they were so messed up? Had Maddy saved me, inadvertently or not, from this life? Had Archie saved himself by leaving?
What if his nana hadn’t died?
What if…
There were too many of them.
“I’m glad you came to Texas,” I told him, and I really was. When he dragged me into a hug, then glanced at that kid’s bed, I whacked him.
Laughing, he kissed me before leading the way out and locking the door behind us. “Can’t blame a guy for being turned on around you, babe. You’re everything and more.”
“Smooth talker,” I teased, even if I was grinning. We finished our sneaky tour and had just made it back to the car when we got busted by security. Unsurprisingly, Archie talked our way right out of the trouble, particularly after the security guard recognized him. After a handshake and a flash of cash vanishing from Archie’s palm to the security guy’s, we were back in the car and on our way to the Grayson Estate.
Estate.
Ugh.
A chill raced through me, but I did my best to cover it as we left Archie’s old school behind. I really couldn’t picture him there. Or maybe I just didn’t want to. When he talked about that time to me, all I heard was the loneliness in his voice. Reaching over, I covered his hand on the gear shift, and he glanced at me with a grin. The sunglasses and ruffled hair gave him a rakish edge, but did nothing to hide his inescapable charm.
Never lonely again. Not like that.
Despite the fact I’d done an internet search on them, I wasn’t prepared for their house when we arrived. It really was an estate with a fountain in the front. The brick work was brighter here than at the school, but the building was equally imposing. It looked easily as big as our high school. Holy crap.
“And Maddy has no siblings?” I hadn’t found any in the search. Archie parked in the circular round right in front of their main doors.
“Nope,” he told me. Granted, Archie lived in a huge house too, but that seemed almost cozy compared to this museum. “Still time to bail, babe. No questions, no judgment.”
No, I had questions and a lot of judgment. I wasn’t doing this for Maddy or for Patience and Eugene, whoever they might be, I was doing this for me. I needed to know. I needed to put these questions to rest so I could move on with my family.
I tugged off the knit cap and stuffed it into my pocket before checking my hair in the mirror in the visor.
“You’re beautiful,” he told me, waiting patiently for me to step out, and I grinned up at him.
“You’re biased.”
“Absolutely,” he winked. “I’m also right.”
Blowing out a breath, I gathered up my courage and stepped out the door he held open. We didn’t even make it to the door to ring the bell before it was opened by a stately looking elderly gentleman wearing a suit. He didn’t look like the picture of Eugene Grayson, I’d seen.
“Miss Curtis, Mr. Standish, please, come in. You’re expected.” Well, that confirmed it. He stepped back to allow us inside and then closed the door behind us. “May I take your coats?”