"A tourist attraction?" Michael seemed uneasy with the thought. "I would be horrified to receive anyone here. The place is dismal if either you or Mrs Wong had even the notion of trying to put that dining room to use. The repairs should be taken care of immediately rather than waiting for what rapture to be upon us?"Henry rolled his eyes. "This is not a house we own with which we may do as we please. It"s Ellie"s childhood home. I can"t just hire a bulldozer to wreck the place. I looked into building codes as well and the government is strict with the upkeep of historic properties. I"m not surprised the previous tenants didn"t want to spare money for such arcane repairs. Can you imagine paying for masonry? A real stone mason in the twenty first century? I didn"t know they still had people who worked without machinery. But I know I can do much more with the insides once my lady gives me her approval."
"Approval? What a strange tradition for a baron"s t.i.tle to be pa.s.sed through the female line or a professional race car driver to come from such high breeding. You know this makes her what makes her what the young people call—out of your league. You"re very lucky to grace the ground that she stands on. But on a more serious note, I paid off some papers saying you committed a crime in self defense? It was a good article, but I wanted to run it by you before the rags tear you to pieces. Is this true?"
Henry sighed heavily. "I know that your skills were never meet to be used that way but I did get an unmanned sniper gun set on the plants next to an escalator leading out. I just wanted to protect my wife. I don"t know what came over me." Henry looked shaken as he recalled this.
"In my old age i probably would not have been so sprightly but I can be rest a.s.sured that the madam can be protected. We should have arranged for a security detail if we weren"t so worried about the press hounding you. It"s a miracle there isn"t a long range camera out here already. Women are more sensitive to that sort of thing. Security is very lax."
Henry looked uncomfortable. "It"s a wonder that we haven"t dealt with any more crazed help, but that could be due to the veterans rehabilitation center on the diagonal to the property. We have firepower if need be."
"They are disabled and rehabilitating. They are deserving of our utmost respect, not an army to protect some upper cla.s.s snot with some notoriety for being American and I don"t know why they even care about us at this point."
Michael without missing a beat reminded him. "You"re a CEO and a baron and a valuable commodity due to having sharp cheekbones and wearing tight fitting swim trunks while showing off your fitness trainer"s hard work and ur ever changing roster of models or actresses or heiresses or the occasional former a.s.sistant named Glenda. The baroness is just a moderate pa.s.sing interest due to her change in stature."
He felt miffed as the coffee trembled in his cup. He knew Michael"s sarcasm was not meant to hurt, just to figuratively poke him in the privates to remind him to be less conspicuous. Henry liked models and mayhem like his father in his younger days. "Glenda was just a friend I wanted to take to Barbados as she wanted to visit some of her extended family. I just stayed around to help."
"That"s not what it looked like from the photographer and reporter"s perspective. Either way you do need to be more mindful of the consequences of how you"re seen and what you do. It will harm you when you"re not paying attention and you"ll get paranoid."
Henry leered at Michael over the meal. "I"m not going to get paranoid when I leave Ellie."
"She"s a fantastic person, can you see that? If I was your age and I had a choice, she would never leave my sight. If you continue along this path you will have a difficulty climbing back up the cliff you jumped off of." Michael"s eyes were dead serious as he looked at Henry as if he was some type of vermin for even considering something other than staying married.
"You are my good friend, but I would appreciate it if you did not babysit me for my lifestyle choices." Henry turned to glare back at Michael as he used his darker undertone. It would have been nice if Michael had really been his servant at that moment instead of a stand in father who had raised him more than his actual father. Michael always knew when his charge was puffing himself up to hide some inner problem.
He was well-trained enough to know when to stop pushing his point. The butler would most definitely be smarmy when Henry had some regrets. This had been their arrangement since his teenage years. Michael opened the closet next to the bed and looked unamused at the suitcase Henry hadn"t bothered to unpack. He made quick work of hanging everything as the servant had packed the whole of the suitcase and knew his folding would make sure that Henry did not have to worry about creases. He fixed everything before leaning back and asking over his shoulder. "What would be appropriate for your planned activities today, Mr. Wong. You"re a baron so I should start calling you your grace or is your previous address sufficient for your change in stature."
"I"d like something medium toned that I can do a bit of work in." Henry knew that he would be a.s.sessing the house after Ellie"s approval so he a.s.sumed that there would be cobwebs and sawdust to move through to really see how the house was fairing. It would be nice to wear something to that would make Ellie"s eyes linger. Michael pulled out a New York Yankees fleece pullover with a zip at his neck before belting on a pair of khaki cargo shorts he didn"t even know he owned. Henry pushed back his sleeves and sank his hands into deep pockets while Michael grinned as he pulled down the zipper to reveal a tease of his sweat soaked collarbones.