Educational Experience

Part II--Chapter 13

Hugh is about to "school" them in more ways than one. And there's big news for Wyatt. This chapter may also explain a few legal and other "technical" things about Colton's wealth and power. Enjoy!

Needless to say, the trip back to the big house caused quite a stir. The women, old and young, had just never seen anything like Hugh. So they started tripping over each other trying to get a glimpse as we drove by.

And then the women in the big house started bumping into each other trying to see him as we headed upstairs to the office. He looked back at the top of the stairs with little a wave and smile that damned near made them keel over.

So they were so twitter pated after that, I was afraid to eat anything that day. I mean, who knew what they might’ve put in or left out? They didn’t know if they were coming or going.

But the food kept coming for sure. A cake, then a pie, then some empanadas, then a six layer trés leches cake followed by a tray full of taquitos with three salsas. All just excuses to come in and check him out again. He praised every dish they brought in, and acted like he didn’t even see all the blushing and giggling.

We hunkered down around the food in a little circle of sofas and easy chairs over in one corner of the room where we usually lounge around we’re done with whatever business we’ve attended to. And Hugh turned into the lawyer JJ had trusted more than anyone else in the world.

In fact, when JJ knew his time on earth was finally ending, he gave Hugh absolute power over everything. Even me. Or especially me. So I’d be safe.

He didn’t lord it over me, though—pun intended. Whenever something big was happening, he broke it down in sixth grade language for me. And today, he’d come a real long way to break it down, so I knew we were in a heap o’ trouble.

But he did his best to ease our minds. First, he mixed us up some new cocktail he’d discovered on his travels to “take the edge off.”

I didn’t drink hard liquor in the daytime as a rule, but I loved it when he put on a show with that shaker thing. Not all crazy like those bartenders who throw the thing over their backs and whatnot. But Joie loves going, “Shake that thang, Daddy,” when he gets down to bidness.

Once he’d served us all, he sat down in this wing backed chair that looked like a throne with him in it. And he looked at the kids sitting on Wyatt’s lap like they’d known her forever, and then looked at me and said, “Well done, you.”

At which time Tyler climbed down and walked over to hang onto the coffee table in the middle of the grouping and give Hugh a big four-toothed grin.

Hugh raised an eyebrow and said, “That’s new. She walking as well?”

“We’ll catch up on the kid stuff later,” I said. “Let’s do the rough stuff first.”

And he said, “Right! Cut to the chase,” and sat back for a quick sip before jumping right in.

“It’s something you’ve probably expected, actually. Your judge and his cohorts have shared some rather unsavory information with the Clark County authorities and the Nevada Gaming Commission. You can imagine what that information might be, correct?”

Aisha put both hands on her face and cried, “Oh, Lord, they gon’ shut us down?”

But Hugh raised a palm to stop that from spreading, and said, “It won’t come to that, my lovely, I assure you.”

Mike and Cat had sort of frozen up on their love seat, though. And Joie and Big Man were both watching me, trying to figure out what their roles in this drama should be if the news was really bad.