Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
But back to where the elevator always took us. It would whoosh up like a rocket and stop on the second floor. The door would slowly open, and there was first a foyer of black and white marble tile, and then, farther in, if you looked straight up, you could see the clouds above you during the day and the stars at night. The atrium had a glass roof, like a giant solarium, and if you kept walking straight, you would hit a wide white marble staircase leading up to the third floor, where the library went around on four sides, like you were in a really fancy bookstore. Up again would put you on the top floor, the fourth, where there were double glass doors that opened to an outdoor area where there was a pool and a pool house, a garden, a tennis court, and a breathtaking view of the Bean and Millennium Park.
Was it jaw-dropping? Yes, it was. But like anything, after you’d been there a few times, the wow factor went away and it was simply Aaron and Duncan’s home. And of course, there was Dane.
Always, as soon as we walked off the elevator, Dane’s right eye would twitch like he was having an aneurysm. My brother was a fan of clean lines. All the commercial buildings he designed, as well as the residential homes, had that in common. There were no flights of whimsy. The Baroque, classical style of the architecture in Aaron’s home gave him hives. He didn’t like all the double doors on the second floor. Aaron’s office, the reading room, their bedroom, or the guest suites. What was with the stupid frou-frou doors? And why did every room need a gas fireplace? Why weren’t there more windows? Floor-to-ceiling ones, especially on the second floor? These things made Dane murderous, as did the enormous crystal chandelier downstairs that looked like it belonged in Phantom of the Opera, and the narrow marble staircase with a wall on the left and a thick balustrade on the right that you had to take to descend to the first floor from the second. Why wasn’t there a single staircase that connected every level?
“Because you don’t want people going up and down through your whole house,” I told him the first time we were there years ago. “You want them to stay on the first floor, and you can put one security guard on that single set of stairs and dissuade gawkers.”
Dane found that a waste of space. Aja tried to get him to see the beauty in the architecture from the gilded age, but he was not moved. He much preferred his own two-story penthouse, their ski lodge in Vail, or our house, Sam’s and mine, for its efficient use of space.
That meant small. “He means our house is small,” I told Sam.
“It’s better than living in this museum,” Sam assured me.
“Well said,” Dane agreed wholeheartedly. And it always had to be remembered that our house had been Dane’s first, so clearly there was something about it he’d liked.
I did suspect that the fact that it was a Queen Anne had, after a very short period, started to grate on his psyche. The house was a bit too quirky for him.
But back to Aaron’s home…
The first floor, where everyone else got off, opened outside the penthouse, in an opulent vestibule where there was white marble tile with veins of gold running through it, a lovely seating area that was done all in oxblood leather, with gorgeous million-dollar pieces of artwork on every wall. The only time I saw the vestibule was when I dropped by unannounced, which wasn’t often.
Now, Sam took off his blue blazer and left it draped over a Chesterfield leather couch in the reading room. Dane, in a not-at-all-Dane move, took off both his tie and suit jacket and left both with Sam’s.
“What’s happening right now?” Aja asked me.
Dane then jogged out of the room.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
She shook her head as Sam darted out of the room to catch up.
Aja put her purse inside the hidden compartment in the end table, keeping only her phone, just like me, and we headed for the balcony that overlooked the first floor leading to the staircase Dane hated.
People always looked up to see who was coming down, which was funny because it was just us. We weren’t remotely interesting. There were various politicians in attendance, socialites, captains of industry, some local celebrities, and other people who I had never laid eyes on in my life. The only thing I could say for certain was that all the men were wearing suits, and my husband and brother stood out like sore thumbs. Aja and I still looked pretty good. I noticed almost immediately that Duncan did have a tie on, but it was thrown over his shoulder, which looked ridiculous, he wasn’t wearing a jacket, and his sleeves were rolled up. He was also drinking a beer from a bottle.