Patty took my hand as if we used to be lovers, and led me to the front door. Pearl joined us there, and when Patty opened it, pushed in ahead of us. Paul was in the living room with a guy that looked like a People magazine cover boy. The living room was what I expected it would be. Knotty pine paneling, big fieldstone fireplace. Beams, wooden furniture with colonial print upholstery, a braided rug on the floor.
"Rich," Patty said, "I'd like you to meet someone," and gestured me toward him like I was the ambassador from Peru. Rich put out his hand and I took it. He didn't seem very pleased.
"Coffee?" Patty said. "A drink? Paul, do you drink now?"
Paul said, "Yes, I do, but not right now, thanks."
I shook my head. Rich was leaning against the wall near the fireplace with his arms folded. He was probably my height, which made him 6' 1", sort of willowy without being thin. He had thick dark hair which he wore brushed straight back, and longish so that it curled over his ears. He had a mustache that was just as black, and a tuft of black hair showed at the vee of his shirt, which he wore with the top three buttons open. It was a lavender dress shirt. His jeans were stone washed and designer labeled, and his lizard skin cowboy boots were ivory colored and would have been a nice match to Patty's sweater. Except for the mustache his dark face was cleanshaven, with the shadow of a dark beard lurking. His nose was strong and straight. His eyes were dark and moved a lot. If you had told him he was the cat's ass he'd have given you no argument.
"Paul says he was worried about his mom," Patty said and dazzled me with her even smile. "And I want to thank you for looking out for him."
"I wasn't looking out for him," I said. "He does that himself. I was helping him look for you."
She smiled again just as if I'd told her that her hair was looking lovely.
"As you can see, I'm fine. Rich and I just wanted to"-she waved her arms a little-"elope."
Paul said, "Did you get married?"
Patty smiled even more beguilingly.
"Well, not exactly, if you mean all that foolishness with organ music and somebody saying a bunch of words. But we love each other and wanted to get away and be alone."
I was quiet. My size made Rich uncomfortable. I don't know how I knew that, but I knew it.
There was something about how he looked at me and shifted a little on the wall. But it wasn't a total setback for him; he still managed to look contemptuous.
"And you didn't think you needed to tell me?" Paul said. "Where you were, or even that you were going?"
"Shame on you, young man," Patty said. "Using that tone with your mother." I could see Paul lower his head a little and shakeit as if a swarm of gnats were bothering him. I shut up.
"It's the tone that this calls for," Paul said. His voice was tight, but it was clear. "I am your son, your only child, I should know where you are.
Not every minute, but if you are making any moves of substance you should tell me. Do you realize what we've been doing to try and find you?"
"Paul, honey, Rich and I needed to get away, not tell anyone, Rich was very clear about that. Weren't you, darling?"
I've never heard anyone call anyone darling without sounding like a fool, except Myrna Loy. Patty wasn't close.
"Your mother and I wanted a kind of a honeymoon," Rich said. He had a great voice. He sounded like William B. Williams. "You're a big boy, we figured she could go off for a bit without you."
"So you went away for a bit and bought a house?" Paul said. He wasn't going to flinch.
Rich shrugged. Patty looked a little confused. "Paulie," she said. "Paulie, did you come all the way here to argue with your mother? Do you care if I'm happy?"
Paul shook his head again and plowed ahead.
"For cash?" Paul said. "Under another name?"
"Jeez," Rich said. "You got some nosy kid here, Patty."
Patty's eyes were bigger than was possible. "No," she said. "No, no."
"Does my mother know what you're running away from?" Paul said. There was a rasp in his 209
voice now. I was perfectly still, near him, and a little behind. I looked at
Rich Beaumont. But I said nothing. This was Paul's, not mine.
"Hey, kid, you got some kind of bad mouth," Beaumont said. "For crissake lighten up. We went off and didn't tell you. So let's not make a big fuck ing deal about it."
"Richard!" Patty said and put the back of her hand against her mouth.
"Do you know?" Paul said.
"Paulie, you stop this. I was glad to see you, but now you're spoiling everything."
"Ma," Paul said. He was leaning forward a little as he talked.
"Listen to me," he said. "Do you know who you're with? Do you know why he doesn't want anyone to know where he is? Do you know why he bought the house under another name? And where he got the money?"
They both spoke at once. Rich said, "Hey-"
And Patty said, "Damn you, Paul, I don't want to know! I'm happy, don't you understand that? I'm happy."
Everyone was quiet then for a moment until Paul said, "Yes, but you're not safe."