Kiki had witnessed a Teddy Duncan dressing-down, but she’d never been on the receiving end of it.

“You and Peter should know better than to discuss a project in front of people outside the development team, Katherine. “

“I didn’t think he’d bring it up in public,” she interjected.

“Totally unexpected, Mr. Duncan,” Peter added.

“And yet you knew where his sympathies lay.”

“Teddy. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“It better not. Now we have to discredit the alternative. And by that I mean for environmental as well as economic reasons. Do you think you can do that, you two?”

“But what if it is better?”

“Katherine, we don’t have an option on the Enright building and it is not the legacy project we’re looking for. That we’re all looking for, do you understand?

Teddy looked at her over his glasses. He knew damned well this project could catapult her professionally. “I understand. We’ll do our best, won’t we, Peter?”

“Kiki, we’ll have to pull in more help, Gene’s not going to be happy.  Fridays . . .”

“That’s another thing. The extracurricular interests have to stop.” 

She looked at Ted, who was smirking at his father’s remarks. “It was part of the deal that the house restoration came first.” She tried to keep her voice calm, even though her heart had started to pound. It had only been an hour before that she’d signed the change order for the addition and had submitted the paperwork to liquidate the rest of her 401(k). “And it’s not done yet.”

Teddy looked at her sternly. “I understand. But what’s this I hear about a web site? The documentary with that Morrison guy? We didn’t agree to any of that. You’re not in college anymore, you can’t just flit from one interest to another. You’re going to be a Duncan; you need to be able to commit to your obligations.”

“The web site is run by volunteers now; it doesn’t take much of my time. And the Friday filmings?” She drew in a deep breath. “Those are done.” She felt Peter’s hand pat her shoulder.

“So you’ll have nothing more to do with Morrison and his partner?”

Kiki felt her jaw tighten and her shoulders rise. “Easy, Kiki,” Peter whispered to her.

“You don’t need to worry about them. I’ll do my job, Teddy. That’s all you should worry about.”

“That’s what I am worrying about. You’re being headstrong again, Katherine. Is this going to be a problem?”

“It won’t be a problem.”

“Good.”  He stood up and looked at them all. “Come, Ted, let’s go. We’ll meet again next week and you two will have something to show me.”

“Yes, Mr. Duncan,” Peter replied for them both. 

As Teddy started out the door, he waved Kiki to him. “Katherine, you’re not wearing your engagement ring?”

Kiki flashed a look at Ted before answering. “It kept falling off, we need to get it resized or I’ll lose it.”

“I see. Carolyn’s jeweler can take care of that. Arrange it.”

Kiki felt her cheeks warm as she gave Ted a quick peck goodbye. “Sorry, baby.”

“He’s noticed now, sweetheart, better take care of it,” Ted replied before following his father to the elevator.

“Jesus, now I know what it’s like to be Teddy’d,” Peter said wryly. “You get this often?”

“Like that? No, thankfully. Oh God, why did I ever agree to this?”  Kiki took her place at her desk and put her head in her hands.

“Love makes us do foolish things.”

“Ego makes us do foolish things.” Kiki sat back in her chair. “Oh, shit, look at this, my house drawings are all over this desk, Teddy must have seen them.”

“Don’t let it interfere, Katherine.” Peter teased as he picked up a drawing. “Hey, this is the restored room? When did you have time to do these?” 

“I didn’t,” she giggled. “It’s Jason! He scored a copy of our new CADD program – don’t ask – and taught himself, can you believe it?”

“Not bad, but who’s checking?”

“They’re all my details and redlines. He just put them all in like that – he’s amazing.”

Peter whistled low. “We should hire him to help us out.’

“I’ll talk to him, but I need him for a little while longer.”

“Okay, okay. So this is a picture from that woman, huh?”  He held up a small four by six photo showing a man with his back to the camera, gesturing to something on the house. “Damn, this looks familiar.”

“It should, it’s my house.”

“No, this picture. Like I’ve seen it before. Never mind, let’s put this away.”  They cleaned up and Peter went back to his office. Kiki tried to get back to work when her phone buzzed. She was surprised to see who it was from.

“Hey Kiki-cat.  You fired yet?”

She smiled, and looked around to see if anyone was watching before texting back.

“Got Teddy’d, but survived. I’m not supposed to be talking to you.”

“K. See you.”

“Just kidding! Just can’t mention you-know-what.”

“Can you talk now? On the phone.”

“For a few.” Kiki scrambled for her headpiece and waited for him to call.

“Hi.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s me.”

“Hi me.”

“So who says you can’t talk to me?”

“Teddy wasn’t happy about last night. I’m to refocus and cut back on the ‘extracurriculars’.”

“So you have to cut back on me?”

“We talked about that already, so it’s nothing new, right?”

“Yeah sure. But I can I still film, right? On the weekend? ”

“I thought you had Olivia this weekend.”

“I do, can I bring her? She can help.”

“We can find a job for her, sure,” Kiki giggled. “Oh, you might want to talk to Mia, she’s coming this weekend too.  So, is that what you called about?”

“Yeah. And to see how you were after last night.”

“I’m okay, considering,” she chuckled. “How about you, Mr. Rabble-Rouser?” 

“I’ve gotten some calls, actually, from CGA. They want me to get involved.”

“Jesus, Steve, if you do that then I can’t have you over to the house filming.”

“Why not? What does one have to do with another?”

“Because it’s a conflict!”

“It is not! Fuck, you’ve been listening to the Duncans too much.”

“What are you saying? That I’m being brainwashed?”

“I’m saying what I’m saying.”

“No joke, this is a problem, Steve!”

“Let’s work it out then, we’re grownups.”

Kiki sighed. She didn’t want any more complications, but she didn’t want to be told what to do, either. By anybody. “Okay, how can this work? No talk about Duncan Gardens?”

“Right. And I won’t try to convince you to come back from the dark side, I promise.”

“Just the documentary, and the house.”

“Can we talk about the weather? The Mets?”

“That’s okay too,” she said softly, as she saw Peter come back into the room. “Just a second.”  She reached for a button on her earpiece and stood to speak with her friend. He handed her the latest drawing set that was ready for her review. He’d already redlined several drawings, but wanted some direction on some of the details from her. After agreeing to meet after lunch, she fetched a new cup of coffee and hunkered down to work. It was then she realized Steve must still be on the line.

“Oh! Steve, you still there?”  There was no reply. Embarrassed at hanging up on him, she almost called him back, but realized there was no point, he’d just distract her.  Instead, she went straight to work, pouring over the drawings to make corrections and clarifications.  It was actually relaxing to have a few minutes to work without interruption, and she started to hum to herself.  It must have been a half an hour or more when she realized that she wasn’t humming alone.

“Hey, I thought you hung up!”

“I went to the bathroom when you had me on hold.”

“Were you listening to my singing?”

“It was nice, it was like we were working right next to each other.”

“What are you doing?”

“Reviewing some footage, seeing what we have. How about you?”

“I’m working on that-which-cannot-be-named, and I better get back to it.”

“We haven’t settled on the other things we can talk about. Books? What do you like to read?”

“Not much time lately, but mysteries I guess. The gorier the better,” she giggled.

“Interesting. Music? Movies? Wine, you like wine?”

“I gotcha, there are plenty of things we could talk about besides it.”

“How about what you’re wearing?”

“Now you’re being bad,” she giggled.

“Just making conversation, not like we’re having phone sex or anything.”

“No, of course not! I’m at work.”

It was his turn to laugh, and his giggle sent shivers through her. “So if you weren’t at work you’d have phone sex with me?”

“I didn’t say that!”  She felt herself flush. Did he know what images his words inspired? How it made her think of how soft his hair was or how warm his lips were? And his hands, how he could cradle his hands around his camera with his fingers nimbly working the buttons and lenses.  What else could they do?

“You’re not saying you wouldn’t.”

She took in a deep breath to collect her thoughts. “I’m saying I can’t.”

“But not that you wouldn’t.”

“I should get back to work, I see Peter coming back.”

“I understand. I’ll wait.”

“I mean I’m hanging up now.”

“Then I’ll see you on the weekend?”

“Yes.”

“Later, Kiki-cat.”  She carefully made sure her headphone was shut off and put away when Peter came back to join her for lunch.  Not that she wanted to hide anything from him, but she’d had enough chiding for one day.

~*~

Steve loved his Saturday mornings with his daughter. He’d take her to tend her little patch in the Community Garden. She watered all the plants carefully and talked to them about growing up to be big, juicy tomatoes and yummy nummy carrots. She was even happy to go to Kiki’s house, even though he told her he’d be working part of the time. It made him smile to see how enthusiastically she embraced life, although as a father, it also made him nervous to think what that might mean when she was older. But that was years away, if he were lucky. He hoped he and Beth could keep her from growing up before her time. Ripening on the vine made the fruit that much sweeter, after all.

Steve hadn’t managed to scrounge a ride out, so they took a cab.  He wondered sometimes if Livvy felt it odd that he didn’t drive, but if so, she didn’t show it, she was just excited about their destination.

“So we’re going to see Kiki-cat, Daddy?”

“I know you heard me call her that, honey, but she doesn’t like others to hear it.”

“Why not? I like it.”

“She just doesn’t,” he shrugged, thinking Olivia was a bit too young to understand why.

“Okay. So I can call her Kiki then? Not Aunt Kiki, I don’t like calling grownups Uncle or Aunt who aren’t.”

“Who makes you do that?”

“Mom. When Mr. Wilder comes over to dinner, she wants me to call him ‘Uncle Bob.’ Ew.”

“Mr. Wilder? The gym teacher?” Livvy nodded. “How often is this?”

“A couple of times.”

“Does he have any other meals with you guys?”

“Sure!”

Steve stared at his daughter. Surely Beth wouldn’t have someone over when Olivia was home.

“Dessert!  What other meal did you mean?”

He laughed at her answer. “That’s what I meant. Dessert. Can’t have dinner without dessert, right?”

As they drove up he saw that Kiki’s place was crazy full with people again. The volunteers still kept showing up, even though the house wasn’t a Parrish house; the project had developed a life of its own.  Ajay greeted them and steered them to the kitchen where they could see Kiki standing on the newly built floor of the “conservatory”. 

“Hey, you’re here!” She grinned and welcomed them. For Olivia, a hug, for Steve, a quick peck, although she drew her hand across his cheek as well. “You shaved,” she said with a small smile.

“I’m working today,” he replied.

“Oh, is that why? Nice.”  Steve drew in a quick breath. If only he could get her alone for a hour. A day. A night. He could get through to her, he knew it.  She knelt down to speak with Olivia face to face. “Do you like to paint, Olivia?”

“Yes!”

“Good. You can help us in a very important way. We’re picking the colors for the bedrooms and are going to paint several colors on to see how they look. Sound like fun?”

“Oh yes! But my clothes! Dad?”

“We have something to cover, don’t worry.  Mia will show you up.” She pointed to Mia, who had entered the room. After some quick introductions, Mia held her hand out to Olivia to take her upstairs.

Steve touched his daughter on her shoulder. “Go ahead, Livvy, this sounds right up your alley. Daddy’ll be right up.”

Kiki watched them go. “Mia’s helping match the original paint color, that’s one area where it doesn’t cost much more to be authentic. So, what do you think, Steve? Isn’t it cool?” She walked into the kitchen and then back in from the other door. “I love the circulation!”

Steve smiled to see her so excited, such a change from the weary look he’d seen the other night. “It’s looking good.”

“Isn’t it? I’m so glad I’m doing this,” she said with a smile. “So want to interview Mia?”

They found Mia in the master bedroom, holding Olivia’s hand to show her how to apply the paint.

“Mind if I ask you questions while you paint, Mia?’ Steve asked, pointing the camera in her direction. She was a lovely Hispanic woman with rich brown eyes and shiny dark hair that was pulled back in a pony tail. She had an air of quiet confidence about her which Steve thought would serve her well in the nursing profession.  She agreed to the interview and signed Steve’s release forms before they started.

“What do you think about when you think of living here?

“That’s easy. Family. This is where my Dad, Mom and me were a family.”

“How old were you went it was built?”

“An infant. So I don’t remember that.  Just that even when my Dad was away it felt like he was still here, that this house was him, you know?”

She directed Olivia to brush on some of the samples. “Not too thick, Little One.”

“My name’s Olivia.”  Steve chuckled at his daughter’s insistence.

“I heard your Dad call you ‘Livvy?’

“Only my Dad can call me that. He’s good with nicknames, like Kiki-Cat.”

“Kiki-Cat?” Mia asked with a chuckle.

“Livvy, remember what Daddy said,” Steve admonished.

“Oh, sorry Daddy, I’m not supposed to say that.” Steve shot a look at Kiki, who thankfully looked more amused than annoyed.

“That’s enough, honey,” he patted his daughter on her head. “So, Mia . . . you were saying your Dad was away a lot?”

“Nice save,” she chuckled. “Okay, my Dad? Sure, he was a salesman; he was away for months at a time.  We’d talk on the phone, of course, but we missed him.”

“You sound like you still do.”

“It’s been years since he’s passed.”

“You think it’s the house?”

“Sure! Seeing it like this, and now we’re getting the walls the same color. Oh, that one, Olivia. I like that. Paint that one more!” 

“And the room off the kitchen? What happened there?”

“Oddest thing, we never knew.  He didn’t come back from one of his trips; even the phone calls stopped. Then one night we woke up to the smell of smoke and there was a fire in the room.  The rest of the house made it fine, but the room was destroyed. We knew then, somehow, that he was gone.”

“Did you ever find out what happened?”

Mia sighed and knelt down to put the lids back on the cans.  “A friend of his came by to talk to my Mom.  He was out with a client on a boat, schmoozing or some such, and he drowned.  They never found him.”  Steve realized Olivia was listening to this and looked at her. She’d stopped painting and was looking wide-eyed.

“Your Daddy died?”

“Yes, Olivia, he did.”

“Daddy?”  Olivia went over to Steve, who put the camera down to hug his daughter.

“It’s okay baby, I’ll always be with you. You heard Mia, she still feels close to hers, right?  And Kiki, to hers.”

Kiki knelt to address Olivia, touching her softly on the arm. “We both do, Olivia. Your Daddy’s still young, he’ll be around for a long, long time.”  Steve wasn’t sure who he wanted to hug more, but Olivia had clung tight to him.

“That’s right, honey.”

“Okay.” Revived by the reassurance, she ran into the next bedroom. “Blue! These walls should be blue!”

“How about a pale green?” Mia replied, leafing through some pictures in her hand. It’s not here, but I think I have a color picture of this room, do you have it Kiki?

“It’s downstairs, let me look.”

“Did you have any more to ask, Steve?”

“For now, maybe later without the peanut gallery,” Steve chuckled.  He watched Olivia attack the wall with blue, then headed downstairs after Kiki.

“I can’t believe I pegged how the room was even before seeing the pictures. Look!”  She pulled out some of Mia’s snapshots.

Steve examined the photos, one in particular caught his attention “Hey, this one’s on your site.” He held one out to her.

“Really? Peter said it looked familiar too. Let’s ask Jason.” She turned to the young man who was sitting sprawl-legged in front of his laptop. “You put this picture up on the site?”  She held out the snapshot to him.

“Months ago, Kiki.  Where’d you get this? My collection’s at home.”  He clicked to the residential section of the page, and sure enough there it was. Unlike most of the others, it was uncredited.

“This is my house!  This is a picture of Mia’s Dad, not mine! Where did you get it?”

“I don’t know, when I first got hooked on your Dad’s work, I didn’t always track where I found stuff.”

“You can’t see the face, Kiki,” Steve observed.  “Maybe it is your Dad. Maybe Mia is wrong.”

“Wow, that could be . . . you know Jameson had a chip on his shoulder about architects. Maybe he lied about the house, and Mia’s Dad just bragged thinking no one would know.”

“That’s bullshit.”  Mia stood in the doorway, her arms crossed. “Frank Richardson built this house. I have more than that one photo.”  She walked up and peered at the laptop. “Where did you get that? Why’s it online?”

“You haven’t seen Kiki’s site?” Steve asked.

“I didn’t know there was one, I just saw the contractors trucks here. Why do you have my Dad’s pictures up?”

“That’s the point, his back’s to the camera, we can’t tell.”

“No, not that one. That one! She pointed to the photo of a man with a hat standing in front of a house.

“That’s Walter Parrish.” Jason asserted.

“No, it’s Frank Richardson.”

“How can that be?” Jason looked between the two women then at Steve as if to ask for help.

“I know my own father when I see him!” Kiki and Mia spoke at the same time, their voices in unmistakable harmony.

“Look, my other photos.”  Mia held them out. Kiki didn’t take them at first, so Steve did and he leafed through them, Kiki looking over his shoulder. He could see the same man was holding hands with a small dark-haired girl; another dancing with her; a third helping her ride a bike.

“Jesus,” Steve said with a low whistle.  “When did your father disappear?”

“Fifteen years ago August.  August 15th is when the room burned.”

“August 15th fifteen years ago is when my Dad died of a heart attack.”

Steve stepped back and let the two women appraise each other. Kiki started to circle and Mia turned with her.

“When’s his birthday?” Kiki asked.

“September 1st.” When Kiki drew in a sharp breath, Mia added, “How old are you?”

“Thirty-one. You?”

“Thirty-one. May 27th.”

“July 23rd.  He traveled a lot, you said? Long periods of time?”  Mia nodded. “So did my Dad, he was off at job sites, Mom said.” Kiki stopped circling and put her hand over her eyes. ‘Frank Richardson. Architect’s names. Middle name wasn’t ‘Lloyd’ was it?”

“No . . . it was Walter.  Could it be, Kiki? That we have the same Dad?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t . . . “ Kiki’s eyes flew open wide in a panic. “Jesus! Steve! The cameras! Turn them off! Off!”  Jason jumped and checked where the webcams were pointing and Steve scrambled to shut off the one in the living room.

“Off now.”

Kiki collapsed on the floor where she stood and covered her face with her hands.” It’s too much, it’s all too much.”  She looked up at Mia with a desperate look in her eyes. “What do we do now?”

“I don’t know what to think. There was a lot that didn’t make sense after he died, but at the time I didn’t know any better.”

The room fell very quiet.  Steve looked from Jason to Ajay, who had run in when he heard Kiki scream about the cameras. He was about to sit down with Kiki when he heard a child yelping from upstairs. “Oh shit, she’s up there alone!” 

He rushed upstairs to find Olivia covered in paint. She’d tipped over a can and had tried to clean it up with disastrous results.

“Oh, Livvy, what a mess!” Steve didn’t know whether to clean her or the floor first.

“I’ll get the floor Steve, you clean her up,” Ajay said softly. He made a quick call and more help magically appeared from other parts of the house. Steve got Olivia as cleaned up as much as he could and headed back downstairs.  Kiki and Mia both had left.

Steve asked Jason what happened.

“They looked at each other for a bit, then Kiki kept saying ‘it’s too much’ and ran out. Mia left right after her.”

“Jesus.”

“A-fucking-amazing. Oops, sorry.”  He covered his mouth when he saw Olivia.

“Did it broadcast?”  Jason nodded. “Yeah, but what are odds people are watching at that exact second!” 

Jason brought up his message board and the subject “OMG Did you see THAT’ had been started ten minutes prior. 

“Can you delete it?”

“It won’t stop people.  Don’t worry, we’re a small group, it’ll stay here.”

He felt a small hand tug his shirt. “Daddy I’m hungry.”

“Okay, Livvy honey, we can go now.” He looked around for some of the others. “Anybody else leaving, you think?”

“I can give you a ride.” 

Steve gathered his things and helped Olivia into the car before falling into the front next to Jason. He fingered the phone in his pocket, debating whether to call her.  He knew he couldn’t talk to her with the others in the car with him. He texted instead, “Sorry. Call me.”

His heart fell when he got her reply: “Can’t”  It jumped again when another reply came. “Driving.”

“Later?”  He gripped the phone tight, hoping to feel the first vibrations signaling a reply. It didn’t come until they’d pulled in front of his place.

“Maybe. gtg.”

She had run home to Ted, he imagined. Would he be sympathetic? Hold her like she deserved to be?  He hoped so, for her sake. 

For his, he hoped not.

Chapter Seven

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