“I should break free by six-thirty.  I could meet you at seven o’clock.  How does the Bristol sound?”

“Sounds like you’ve got yourself a date, Counselor.”

Ben laughed.  “Of course I do, it is date night after all.”  Since they’d met, he’d spent Saturday night with her and with the kids, after they’d moved.  But, Friday had been Ben’s date night.  He’d just wasted three years spending it with the wrong women.  Now, he spent the night with Lane.  The unspoken rule was that it was their night alone.  Saturday was family night, but on Friday, he got her to himself.

Lane parked and opened the door.  She stepped out of the SUV completely oblivious to the stares she received.  She was over six feet tall in her heels and there was the impression that she was completely color coordinated from the tips of her cream and black shoes to her purse, her dress, and her SUV, which was cream, colored with black pin stripes.  She’d left her hair down and it hung loosely around her shoulders.  She approached the double carved wooden doors and thought nothing of the man who stepped forward to open one of them for her.  It was twelve-fifteen so she hadn’t expected to see Babs waiting near the bar.

She leaned close to the bartender.  “Enzo, we’re meeting Uncle Vinnie.  Has he come in yet?” The bartender shook his head.  A tall, distinguished looking, man with salt and pepper hair approached her.  He placed his hands on her upper arms and pulled her into an embrace and kissed each of her cheeks.  “Bambina.  It is good to see you.”

Lane motioned to Babs.  “Papa, this is my friend Mrs. Edwards.  Babs, this is Dante Bellini.”

Mr. Bellini took Babs’ hand and kissed her knuckles. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Edwards.”  He took Lane’s hand and tucked it in the crook of his arm as he escorted the women toward the Board Room.

Lane whispered to him, “We’re meeting Uncle Vinnie, and we were hoping to have some time to talk before he arrives.”

“Don’t worry, Bambina.  The Board Room isn’t crowded today and I’ll seat you in the corner.”

Much to Lane’s surprise, there was no one in the Board Room.  She and Babs were seated in the corner and glasses of water were quickly placed before them.  A waiter took drink orders.   Both ordered iced tea.  When the waiter returned with warm bread, he poured olive oil on a plate, and added herbs.

Babs explained the finer details of trusts so that Lane could now decide what to do.  She could take distributions from the trust, dissolve it completely, keep it as is, or convert all or a portion into a charitable trust.

It was still a lot to take in.  Lane remembered Ben said that some people would be happy to find they had ten million dollars.  Yes, she supposed some people would be, but this was going to take a lot of thought.  A man, now deceased, set up the trust, to do what, ease his conscience about the damage his son had done to her family. Uncle Vinnie had said Aunt Marta called it blood money.  Lane didn’t need the money.  Her parents had provided well for her.  Her father was in life insurance sales and her parents had set up their own trust for her; when she turned twenty-five, control of the trust had passed to her.  She hadn’t needed the money for her support.  There was a sizable life insurance policy that supported her and Aunt Marta and dependent social security benefits that paid for college.  And, the money in the trust established by her parents had just sat there.

Lane made the introductions between Vinnie and Babs.  They ordered lunch and chatted.  Lane explained that she still hadn’t made any decisions and that she planned to discuss it with her children over the weekend.

The three of them chatted as they enjoyed linguine.  Why had Uncle Vinnie asked for this lunch meeting?  It was true that he’d brought a folder with him containing additional documents to those he’d faxed.  But, he could have messengered those to Babs’ office.  Lane tried to discern why Uncle Vinnie had asked for a lunch meeting judging from the conversation there was absolutely no reason for it.  Lane rubbed her temples.  A throbbing had just begun behind her right eye.  She would be so glad when the weather changed both figuratively and literally, because she was sure it would signal the end of her headaches.

Just before two o’clock, Babs said she had a meeting and needed to leave.  For the second day in a row, Lane found herself sitting at a table in Bellini’s alone with one of the secretive Luciano twins.

Vinnie told Lane how lovely she looked.  He asked about her plans for the rest of the afternoon.  He suggested they return to Gardner automotive.  Perhaps that explained his reason for wanting to meet her for lunch.  What the heck was this old man up to?  Luckily, Lane’s phone rang.  She excused herself and stepped away from the table. She knew from the ring tone who it was.

“Ben?”

“Hey Red, how was lunch?”

“I’m still sort of at lunch.  Babs left half an hour or so ago, but I’m still here with Uncle Vinnie.”

“I tried to warn you about my uncles yesterday.  They’ll charm the sox off you if you aren’t careful. At least Vinnie won’t try to steal you away from me.  He’s married.”

Lane laughed.  “There’s no need to be jealous.  You’re the only tall good looking Italian lawyer I’m interested in.”

“You have no idea how happy that makes me.  Listen, it looks like I’m going to finish up here much earlier than I thought.  There’s something I want to talk about and I was hoping I could pick you up at your office around five-thirty.”

“Okay, that fits with my package pickup plan.”  She wanted to talk with him too. She needed to figure out a way to keep the kids safe.

Chapter 15

All families have secrets

Lane managed to get out of another round of car shopping with Uncle Vinnie; but she still didn’t leave Bellini’s until nearly three o’clock.  That left only a couple of hours for her to drive to the Royals stadium to pick up tickets for a baseball game next Sunday and then swing by the Power and Light District to pick up a special order at the Garment District and make it back to her office to meet Ben at five-thirty.

Like every place in the USA, summer is prime road construction time in Kansas City.  Lane shook her head, sometimes no matter where she wanted to go; it felt like she couldn’t get there from where ever she started.  It was just after five o’clock and traffic was at a standstill as she approached the College exit and headed toward the office.

Telco had a policy in the summer, which allowed employees to work 30 minutes extra Monday through Thursday and then leave the office at 3:00 on Fridays.  Most employees took advantage so they could get on the road toward their lake house destinations early Friday afternoon, so she wasn’t surprised to find the parking lot almost empty.  Still she parked at the curb.  After all, she was just going to take the elevator to the fifth floor, unlock her office, and grab the package.  She’d park when Ben got there so they could use her ID to get them both into the underground lot.

She was surprised that there was no one at the guard station as she entered, but she scanned her ID and walked through the turn style.  She was feeling anxious as she waited for the slower than usual elevator.

She unlocked the door to her office and was greeted with the fragrance of roses.  She smiled.  The roses Ben had sent on Tuesday were still beautiful.  She’d better take them home.  They wouldn’t last through the weekend.

The package from Evie was sitting on her desk along with a note from Meg.  She read the note.  “I’d have taken your roses home myself except I knew you were coming in today and thought you’d want to have them with you.” Once again, she and Meg were on the same page.  There was no way she was going to be able to carry the roses and the package.