“I'm Jason Friedman.” The boy looked like he was shaking, and he dropped the skateboard with a clatter, which made them both jump. “My father lives in the guest wing.” He had arrived the night before from New York, with his sister. And he loved the place. He had spent all afternoon exploring it, after he got back from school. The night before, Mark had introduced him and Jessica to Jimmy, and they'd had dinner with him. Jason had only heard about Coop from his father. And Coop was in Mexico for the weekend when they arrived. And to add insult to injury, Jason looked at him, and added, “And now I live here too, and so does my sister. We got here yesterday, from New York.” All the boy wanted was not to get arrested. He was willing to offer name, rank, and serial number, and any information Coop wanted to prevent that from happening.
“What do you mean, you ‘live’ here? How long are you staying?” He wanted to know how long he had to endure the presence of the enemy within his borders. He vaguely remembered Liz telling him that Mark had children who would come to visit from New York occasionally, but only for a few days and very rarely.
“We left our mom in New York, and we came to live with our dad. We hated her boyfriend.” It was more information than Jason would have offered normally, but Coop was more than a little daunting.
“I'm sure he hated you too, if you took a skateboard to his marble steps. If you ever do that again, I will personally whip you.”
“My father wouldn't let you,” Jason said fiercely. He had decided the man was crazy. He knew he was a movie star, but first he had threatened to have him arrested, and now he was threatening to whip him. “You'd end up in jail. But anyway,” he backed down slightly, “I'm sorry. I didn't hurt them.”
“You could have. Have you actually moved here?” That was the most horrifying piece of information he'd had so far, and he hoped the boy was lying. But he had a gnawing terror that he wasn't. “Your father didn't tell me you were moving in.”
“It was kind of a last-minute decision, because of the boyfriend. We just got here yesterday, and we started back at our old school today. My sister's in high school.”
“I don't find that reassuring,” Coop said, looking at him with anguish. This couldn't be happening to him. These two children couldn't have come to live in his guest wing. He was going to have to evict them. As quickly as possible before they burned the place to the ground, or damaged something. He was going to call his lawyer. “I'll speak to your father,” he said menacingly, “and give me that,” he said, reaching for the skateboard, but Jason took a big step back from him, unwilling to give it up. It was his prize possession, and he'd brought it with him from New York.
“I said I was sorry,” Jason reminded him.
“You said a great many things, mostly about your mother's boyfriend.” Coop was all aristocratic grandeur as he looked down at him from the top step. He was a tall man, and Jason was standing on the marble which led to the steps. From where he stood, Coop looked like a giant.
“He's an asshole. We hate him,” Jason volunteered about the boyfriend.
“That's very unfortunate. But that doesn't mean you can come to live in my house. Not by a long shot,” he said, glowering at him. “Tell your father I'll speak to him in the morning.” And with that, he walked back into the main house and slammed the door, as Jason skated hell-for-leather back to the guest wing, and recounted a modified version of the encounter to his father.
“You shouldn't have skated on the steps, Jase. It's an old house, and you could have damaged them.”
“I told him I was sorry. He was a real shithead.”
“He's a nice guy actually. He's just not used to having kids here. We have to go a little easy on him.”
“Can he make us leave?”
“I don't think so. That would be discrimination, unless you do something awful and give him reasonable cause. Do me a favor, try not to.” Both kids had loved the place when they saw it. And Mark was thrilled to have them with him. They had been beside themselves with joy when they saw their old friends at school. Jessica was already on the phone, with everyone she knew. And Mark had been cooking dinner. They had met Paloma in the courtyard that afternoon, and she loved them. But her employer was significantly less enchanted. He still didn't know that Paloma occasionally did laundry and some minor housekeeping for Mark in her spare time.
Coop had poured himself a stiff drink the minute he slammed the door, and sat down to page Alex. She called him five minutes later. She could hear in his voice that something terrible had happened.
“My house has been taken over by aliens,” he said in a voice that was so shaken it didn't sound like him.
“Are you all right?” She sounded worried.
