Chapter Three

Kenton must have left for Knoxville right after the party last night. He didn’t come to bed, which wasn't unusual. He rarely slept in their bed when he was home. Emily couldn't remember exactly when that had started, maybe when Walter Chase took over Morgan Investments. Kenton's workload seemed to have tripled around that time, and he started being at home less and less.

She wasn't really upset that he hadn't come to bed. He'd been drinking quite a bit last night, and the last time they had sex when he had been drinking, he had been very rough with her. For that matter, the last several times they had sex had been increasingly rough. She wasn't sure what was going on with him or with them for that matter. But, she did know that they were drifting farther and farther apart.

The early morning sun was warm as she padded out to the patio table with her cup of coffee. She couldn't believe she woke up so early this morning. It had been after two by the time she went to bed, but her internal alarm had gone off at six just like it did every morning.

Emily wasn't sure if work was really what was keeping Kenton away from home, but she didn't want to become like Carol and start accusing him of having affairs. Kenton had been rumored to be a player before they started dating, but she had never had reason to suspect he was cheating on her. She picked up her cup and took a sip of the coffee that was quickly becoming cold. Looking around at her beautiful garden, the pool, and the huge house, she realized that she had become content with their life despite Kenton being less and less a part of it. Did she really want to confront Kenton about why he was gone all the time?

Sonja came out onto the patio carrying a carafe of coffee. "I didn't know how long ago you made that pot of coffee, so I made a fresh one," she said and poured fresh coffee into Emily's cup.

"Thank you." Emily took a sip of the steaming coffee and moaned. Sonja always made the coffee better than she did. With that thought, she decided that she was not going to rock the boat with Kenton. Life could be worse. All things considered, her life was pretty sweet, and she was going to try to keep it that way, even if it meant continuing to ignore the fact that Kenton might be having an affair.

Sonja set the carafe on the patio table after pouring a cup of coffee for herself. "Last night went pretty well, I think,” she said, sitting across from Emily

"It did," Emily agreed. "Thank you for bringing in your crew to help on such short notice."

"No problem." Sonja took a sip of her coffee and said, "So Mr. Jenkins already gone?"

"Yes," Emily said. She sipped her coffee. Looking off into the distance, she said, "He said he had to go to Knoxville today. I guess he left right after the party last night."

Sonja nodded. "Everyone, except for the Butlers, left right after you went to bed. Mrs. Butler was still passed out on the sofa and Mr. Butler, and Mr. Jenkins had gone into the office by the time we went home."

Emily shook her head. "I don't know how he does it. I am exhausted. I can't imagine having been up all night entertaining people and then flying to Knoxville. I guess he slept on the plane."

"Probably," Sonja said. She touched Emily's hand. "You seem a little sad this morning."

Emily squeezed Sonja's hand. "I was just reflecting on my relationship with Kenton. It's a bit dysfunctional."

"You think?" Sonja said with a slight laugh.

Emily nodded. "But I've decided I like it that way. I haven't enjoyed his company much when he's home, but I love this house, this pool, and my gardens. I love you and Fernando. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you two in my life."

"We are fond of you as well," Sonja said. "You are very much like a daughter to us.”

"That is so sweet of you," Emily said, giving Sonja's hand another squeeze.

"Okay, enough of the mushy stuff," Sonja laughed. "It's too early for all that."

Emily laughed too. "It is early. What are you doing up so early? I would have thought you would sleep in today."

"I would have thought the same of you, but I guess we are both creatures of habit. I woke at five like I normally do and couldn't go back to sleep."

Emily smiled. "Me too, so what should we do today? Volunteer for some charities?" Emily laughed at Sonja's sour face.

"Oh yes, let me call my good friend, Carol Butler. I'm sure she could find a charity or two for us to give our time too," Sonja said in her best uppity American accent.

"You've almost got her down pat," Emily said.

"I know she's your friend," Sonja said. "And she's okay as far as rich, snooty people go, but sometimes she can be a bit annoying."

"You know what? Let's do some shopping. I need to get some plants for the vegetable garden, and we'll get some dog and cat food for the animal shelter. Now that's a charity I like to put money into," Emily said, getting up from the table.

"That sounds like fun," Sonja said, getting up, too." I love to play with the cute little puppies and kittens."

"Me too," Emily said, putting her arm around Sonja. "And I think that is just what I need to cheer me up."

* * *

The following Friday, Emily, and Sonja were sitting at the table by the pool having their traditional afternoon margaritas when Carol stepped out onto the patio.

"What did I tell you about the key?" Emily said.

"I've been beating on the door for fifteen minutes, and I rang the doorbell six times. I was afraid you'd drowned or something." Carol said, swinging her purse into an empty chair and plopping down in another.

Sonja raised an eyebrow. “I’ll get Fernando to look at the doorbell. We didn’t hear anything out here.” She got up to leave, but Carol reached out and touched her arm. "Bring out another pitcher for the three of us, okay?"

Sonja nodded, stunned at Carol's demeanor. She put the last of the margarita in Emily's glass, and then went into the house to make another pitcher.

"What's wrong?" Emily turned her gaze to Carol.

"What do you mean?" Carol said, looking away.

"You have never been nice to Sonja, what's wrong?"

Carol sighed, "It's been a really bad week. Damon left the morning after the party. I insisted we have sex, well, I said I wanted to make love but having my skirt thrown up and being plowed into was not what I had in mind."

Emily made a face. "EWWW! I really did not need to hear that."

"He hasn't been home since. He won't take my calls and barely responds to my text. He says he's too busy to talk to me."

"Where is he now?"

"I'm assuming in Knoxville."

Sonja came back with the picture of margaritas, a glass for Carol, and chips and salsa. She set them on the table and started to leave, but Carol reached out and touched her arm.

"Sit. I need all the women's support I can get right now."

Sonja gave a questioning look to Emily, who nodded toward Sonja’s chair. She filled everyone's glasses as Carol went on. "I was just telling Emily about Damon sexually abusing me."

"Oh my," Sonja said. She got up and went back into the house.

"Too much information?" Carol asked, looking at Emily.

"Maybe," Emily said.

Sonja returned a few minutes later with the bottle of tequila and shot glasses. "I think you need something stronger than just a margarita," she said and poured the shots. She lifted her glass and said, "To no more women being abused by men."

"Amen," Carol said touching glasses with Sonja and Emily.

"But Sonja, Fernando has never been mean to you, has he?" Emily asked.

"Oh no!" Sonja exclaimed. "Fernando is an angel, but I have a sister whose husband abuses her all the time. She won't leave because she's a devout Catholic and doesn't believe in divorce." She sighed. "I have been blessed with a good man." She crossed herself.

Carol motioned for Sonja to give her another shot. "I wouldn't know what a good man was if he ran me over with a truck."

Emily and Sonja laughed.

Mario suddenly appeared. "Mrs. Jenkins…”

All of the women jumped. "Where'd you come from?" Emily exclaimed.

"Sorry," he chuckled. "I didn't mean just to pop up like that."

Emily smiled up at him, noting the amused look in his dark brown eyes. "That's okay. Are you helping Fernando in the gardens today?"

"Yeah," Mario said. "I'm helping him rototill the new plot. He said that you wanted to change places for growing tomatoes because you were having trouble with hornworms.”

Emily nodded, “Those ugly monstrosities just about cleaned out my tomatoes last year. I didn’t realize Fernando needed help, though. I could have had him wait until tomorrow, and I would have come out there to help him.”

“He doesn’t need help,” Mario assured her. “I needed something to do. I was just talking to Uncle Fernando about your garden, and I wanted to talk to you about putting the cilantro next to the tomatoes."

"That would be an excellent idea. What if we put the cilantro next to the Beefsteak tomatoes and basil next to the Romas?"

"Okay," he said, smiling at Emily, "I better get back to it and let you ladies get back to your margaritas.” He turned with a wave and headed toward the back yard where Fernando was working on the rototiller.

“Is he having trouble finding a job?” Emily asked.

“Yes,” Sonja said after taking a drink of her margarita. “It’s quite sad. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in horticulture and field experience from when he was in Mexico, but most of the jobs he’s applied to want to pay minimum wage.”

“Well,” Emily said looking out toward the back of the yard where Mario was using the rototiller to make a new plot for her tomatoes. “I don’t know if he would be interested, but Fernando and I could use help reworking the gardens this summer. I have been planning a major overhaul, and I was going to have Fernando find some people to help him. But if Mario knows what he’s doing, I’ll let him help Fernando and me with the designs for the garden. If we need to, I can hire some high school kids that live around here to do some of the grunt work. I can’t pay him as much as he might make as a supervisor for a landscaping company, but I can pay him more than minimum wage. Plus, if he does a good job, I have a lot of connections around town, as does Kenton. We might be able to hook him up with a good job with one of the bigger landscaping companies. You know, a lot of getting a good job around here has to do with who you know.”

“That is very true,” Carol agreed. “And I want to do some work with my yard as well. Between the two of us, we could keep him pretty busy this summer.” Carol winked at Emily.

Emily knew she really wanted to hire Mario so she could have the handsome young man working in her yard, preferably in just shorts with no shirt. Emily had to admit that she wouldn’t mind seeing Mario in a pair of cut-offs herself.

“That would be fantastic,” Sonja said.

“Okay then,” Emily said.

Carol’s phone went off with a loud country song blaring. “Sorry,” Carol said with a laugh. “That’s my new ringtone for Barbara.” She answered the phone. “Hey, girl! What’ya up too?” She waited for a moment and then looked at Emily, “You don’t care if Barbara joins us?”

Emily looked at Sonja, who shrugged. “I’ll go make some more,” Sonja said, getting up, picking up the mostly empty pitcher, and heading to the house.

“Yeah, tell her to come on over.”

“Emily said it's okay. Where are you?” Carol listened for a minute, nodded, and then said, “Okay, see you in a minute.” She ended the call. “She’s almost to your road. She’ll be here in a minute.”

“Cool,” Emily said. “She cornered Kenton last week at the party. I wonder if he was able to answer her questions.”

“What was she asking him about?” Carol said and sipped her drink.

“She invested a bunch of money in a real estate buyout that Kenton was overseeing. The deal was that they were going to buy the land for dirt cheap, put a strip mall on it, and then sell it for triple what they paid for it,” Emily explained. “I have no idea how the deal is going. Kenton doesn’t talk to me about business, but Barbara was really pressing him about it. I’m curious to see what she learned. The deal really should have been done a while back. I wonder what the holdup is.”

“I’m sure she’ll know. She is very much about the details. If she invested in something, she would have had to have all the details up front. If it’s not going well, that can’t be a good sign. I’m sure she’s pretty pissed if she hasn’t seen some progress by now,” Carol said.

“I agree. I know enough about investing in property to know that if it’s been close to a year and your investment still hasn’t turned, there must be something wrong with the deal.”

Sonja came back with Barbara in tow. Barbara was carrying her already half-full margarita glass. "It is gorgeous out here, Emily." She looked toward the end of the yard where Mario was rototilling. "Oh my, no wonder you all are sitting out here. The view is fabulous."

Sonja laughed, "Mario would be so embarrassed if he knew you three were ogling him."

"The handsome young man down there is Sonja's nephew," Emily explained to Barbara.

Barbara took off her oversized sunglasses and looked at Sonja. "Is he single?" she asked with her thick southern accent. Emily suspected the accent was part of the persona Barbara portrayed rather than a real accent from the Deep South.

"Yes, but he's not interested in getting involved with anyone," Sonja answered.

"He's not interested in anyone or not interested in anyone my age?”

Carol laughed, "Barb, you don't look a day over forty-five. He would have no idea how old you are if you don't tell him."

Barbara smiled. She knew she looked younger than her sixty-two years. "Thank you, dear. That's so sweet of you. So what brings the three of you together out here?"

"I was telling Emily and Sonja about the way Damon had treated me before he left to go on some business trip. I wanted to have sex, and so he gave it to me, very roughly, and then left. No apologies. And now, he won't take my phone calls."

"Well," Barbara said indignantly, "that's rude."

"Exactly," Carol said. She turned to Sonja and pointed at the bottle of tequila. "Please pour me another one."

Sonja poured one for everyone but herself. She was probably going to have to take someone home or put them to bed depending on how this little get together went, so she needed to stay somewhat sober.

Emily, Barbara, and Carol drank their shots with one swallow in unison. Barbara chased hers with a sip of margarita. "Whoo, we needed some salt and lemon with that."

"If you all decide to do another shot, I'll run in and get some," Sonja said.

Barbara sat back in her chair and pursed her lips thoughtfully. After a few moments, she said, "So let me get up to speed here. Damon has been distant and won't have sex with you unless you push him into it. And he's become more and rougher, and this time, he just did his business and left. You thought that he was having an affair with this Ashley woman who turned out to be gay. He's on a business trip and won't take your calls." She took a drink of her margarita. "Well, I definitely think he's having an affair, but I have to wonder if he hasn't gotten hooked up with someone who's into S & M and liked it."

"So what does he say when you accuse him of having an affair?" Emily asked.

"He says he's tired and busy. He's not in the mood."

"How old is he?" Barbara asked.

"Thirty-six," Carol answered.

"He's too young to be going through a mid-life crisis. How long has this been going on?"

Carol thought about it for a few minutes, "Well, he never has been that into sex but he would usually want it at least once a week until about two years ago after he got the job with Barker, Bennett, and Hardin and we moved up here. Ever since he got that contract with Morgan Chase to be their lawyer, he seemed to be working all the time. The busier he became, the less sex we had, and the more often he was gone. After about a year of it, I started thinking he was having an affair, and that was why he didn't want to have sex and was gone all the time. Of course, he said it was just work. That’s why I decided to bug the phones."

"That's interesting," Emily said. "Kenton became busier when Walter bought out Morgan Investments. I knew that Damon was doing legal work for them, but I didn't realize he had become their official lawyer."

"Oh yes," Carol said. "He's hired at least three lawyers to help with the caseloads since Morgan Chase keeps him so busy. It makes me really wonder about the company. And then, of course, he brought this Ashley person on because of her expertise in dealing with eastern Tennessee land issues."

"Hmm…" Barbara said. "The money I invested in that strip mall deal with Kenton is part of a land deal that Morgan Chase is involved with."

"You're friends with that Ashley woman," Carol said. "Maybe you can ask her about the company and find out what the hell is going on."

Barbara looked at Emily who was drinking her margarita. "That's a thought. Do you know her well enough to ask her about the company?"

"We were close in college but after I got married and she moved to Knoxville we lost touch," Emily said. "But I would love to get together with her. I can mention it and see what she says. She did say she wanted to get together so I could meet her partner.”

Barbara took a drink of her margarita, sipping it thoughtfully. "Emily, you said that Kenton had also been busier since the change in the company." She patted Emily's hand, "This may be a bit forward because I don't know you as well as I do Carol, but has Kenton followed a similar pattern sexually with you?"

Emily raised an eyebrow, surprised by the question, but it was true. Kenton's change of behavior in the bedroom had started around the same time Walter Chase took over Morgan Investments. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, Kenton and Damon are good friends, they may both have gotten into a group in Atlanta that is into S & M," Barbara suggested.

"That may be true," Carol agreed. "They do just about everything together. Kenton was the one who talked Morgan Chase into making Damon their lawyer."

"I think it's interesting that Damon wanted to move back to Nashville after he got hired by Chase Morgan. The company's headquarters is in Atlanta, isn't it?" Barbara said.

"Humph, that's right," Emily said. "If we are both here, they can go out and party in Atlanta and tell us they are working." The liquor was settling in, and so was her righteous indignation. "Those sons of bitches are probably going to those S & M places together." She looked at Carol, "They are probably not having affairs with one individual woman. They may be having sex with several women. I've heard about those sex clubs where people go just to have anonymous sex."

"Ewww," Sonja said. She got up and went into the house, coming back a few minutes later with salt and sliced lemons. She poured more shots and included one for herself this time. "That is just nasty, nasty, nasty."

The four women touched glasses. "Nasty ass men," Barbara said.

After taking her shot and putting her glass down, Emily said, "I think I'm going to call my gynecologist first thing tomorrow and go get tested for STD's."

Carol nodded, "Me too."

Mario came up on the patio, his shirt was off and sweat trickled down his face. "Aunt Sonja, would you mind making Uncle Fernando and me some lemonade."

"Of course," Sonja said. She got up and went into the house.

Mario looked at the table with tequila, shot glasses, a pitcher of margaritas, and the women sipping from their glasses as they stared at him. He smiled. "Having a party, ladies?"

"We're having a bitch session about men," Barbara said. "Of course, I don't think you would cause any woman to have anything to bitch about."

Mario blushed and laughed. "Well, I'm not perfect by any means."

"You don't have very much of an accent. Are you from here?" Barbara asked.

"I'm from Texas originally. I'm a third-generation Mexican-American," Mario said. "My great-grandparents moved to the States in the Forties. My grandparents were both born in Texas; my parents were both born in Texas, as was I. We still mostly speak Spanish at home as a way to hold on to our heritage."

"And what brings you to Tennessee?" Barbara wanted to know.

"My mother lives here, and she’s in bad health, so I’ve come up to take care of her," Mario said. “Plus, I’ve missed Aunt Sonja and Uncle Fernando.”

"That’s very sweet of you,” Barbara said.

Mario smiled and shrugged. “It’s what a good son should do.”

Sonja came back with a pitcher of her homemade lemonade with lemons and ice floating in it. She gave him two glasses. "Make sure you bring all of this back up here."

He kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you, Tia." He lifted the pitcher toward the women at the table. "Time to get back to work. It was nice talking to you, ladies.”

All three women at the table let out a sigh. "Wow, he is so dreamy," Carol said. "You must let me borrow him to work in my yard so that I can sit and watch him."

Emily laughed. "Well, that will be up to him."

"Is he working for you now?" Barbara asked.

"I'm going to talk to him about doing some work here this summer. He's trying to find a job working in the landscaping business," Emily said.

"Well, I could use someone at my place too," Barbara said. "The landscaping company I've been using is about worthless. They let my yard get too high before they mow it and they don't trim my bushes regularly. I've been thinking about getting a new company to do it, but I'd let that gorgeous young man take care of my yard."

Emily turned to Sonja. "Well, there you go. I think we just helped Mario create his own landscaping company."

Sonja laughed, "He'll be thrilled."

Emily, Carol, and Barbara finished the pitcher of margaritas and another one as they watched Mario and Fernando work in the yard. Sonja went in and fixed a burrito dinner for everyone. Later, Mario and Fernando took Carol and Barbara home.

Emily was still sitting on the patio when they came back. Mario came out and sat at the table with her. "Has Aunt Sonja gone home?"

Emily swung her head slowly in his direction; it bobbed a little as she tried to keep it upright. "Yep," she slurred.

He laughed. "How about I help you up to your bedroom room so you can crash?"

"That would be lovely," she said and tried to get up.

Mario rushed over and caught her before she fell forward out of the chair. "Let's get you upstairs," he chuckled. He put her arm around his neck and slipped his arm around her waist, "Nice and slow, okay."

She nodded and leaned into him. They made their way slowly up to her room. Mario turned down the bed and sat Emily on it. He slipped her shoes off her feet and laid her back. "Do you want some water?"

She nodded again, "Some aspirin too."

He went into her bathroom and came back with a cup of water and three painkillers. He helped her sit up and take the medicine. He helped her lay back down. "Do you need anything else before I go?" he asked.

"No," she mumbled. "I think I'm good. Thank you for taking Carol and Barbara home."

"No problem."

"You're a good man, Mario."

"I try to be."

"I think I helped you start your own company today, did Sonja tell you?"

"No, but we haven't had a chance to talk. We'll talk about it more tomorrow after your headache gets better."

Emily reached out and took his hand. She looked him up and down. "I just wanted to make sure I wasn't dreaming that I had a good-looking man in my bedroom."

Mario laughed, "You get some sleep, and we'll talk tomorrow."

She nodded and passed out.