Broad Street Goddesses Read online

  “PAIGE!” Her eyes fluttered. He was just inches from of her face, “There you are.” He looked horrified.

  “What happened?” She blinked against the light in the room.

  “You called out and when I jumped up I slammed that door right into your head. You went down like rock, scared the hell out of me!” Relief spread over his face.

  “Let me see the damage.” Gently he brushed the bangs away from her forehead, “Oh not that bad. You were only out for a second or two.”

  The heat of his touch crept into her skin, reminding her how cold she felt, even though the attic had been hot when she walked into it. The dream she had still lingered in her heart and it ached. Confused, she blinked hard trying to focus. The scent of him surrounded her until she realized how close he was. Her eyes were wide and panic hit her hard as she crab walked backwards right out of his arms scuffling to stand on her own, which ended badly as her legs buckled. He wrapped his steady arms around her. Despite her protest, he helped her back to a bench.

  “That’s it, I’m calling it a day for you.” He got puffed up and manly.

  “Who do you think you are, anyway?” Thinking he looked ridiculous, she stood up too quickly and flopped right back down.

  “I’m taking you down stairs. Have you eaten anything today?” He asked.

  “Yes, I had a banana and a box of juice earlier.”

  “Well you’re running on empty, its four thirty.” He was helping her stand and get to the stairs.

  “I’ll make a sandwich or something…” She certainly didn’t need anyone to take care of her.

  “Nope, no PB&J, not on my watch,” He squeezed her arm as she tried to wriggle past him, “tonight you’ll have filet mignon, baked potato and salad.”

  “Jake, there is no way… besides I’m watching my carbs.” She said feeling the steel cold warning in her gut.

  “Ok, I get the potato and you eat half of mine. I know how it works…” he smiled.

  “What about Betty, don’t you have plans with her tonight?” She asked pointedly and started down the stairs.

  Jake followed right behind her, “Let me see, well its Wednesday, so yes I do, we play pinochle on Wednesdays. I’ll call her and cancel… no big deal.”

  “You will not!” She stopped halfway down the stairs and turned quickly, which planted her face right into his chest. He stopped short and grabbed her arms to stop another tumble.

  “Jake there’s something you have to take seriously about me…” She stopped talking and looked up into his face. He lowered with a wince to the step she was on which brought them much too close; she could see the silver flecks in his eyes even in the dark, tight stairwell. Her nose almost touching his chin, electricity built as their breath merged, he lowered his face to her.

  “Get out!” She gasped.

  “What?” he wrinkled up his face, pulling away from her, but he didn’t let go of her arms.

  “You heard me, Jake, just go.” Paige pointed her finger at the door and stood aside, shrugging his hands off of her arms. Jake limped down the stairs and out of her sight.

  She immediately called Etta, “Hey, I need a girl night. You in?”

  “Oh that sounds great, but you’ll have to come to the girls. It’s mahjong night at Auntie Mim’s!”

  “Is there some kind of city ordinance that says Wednesday night is game night?” She felt tired and ill tempered, “I mean, what should I bring?” Paige laughed out loud at the absurdity of a town wide ordinance for game night.

  “You bring yourself, but you have to dress appropriately, Mim’s rules. I’ll bring you something. Red or gold?”

  “Gold.” Paige said without deliberation even though she had no idea what she’d ordered.

  “I’ll be here to get you at six. You’re driving, I’m drinking...”

  “After the day I’ve had that’s probably a wise decision.”

  CHAPTER 6

  All the way down the winding roads Paige weighed in her mind how she could possible start a conversation about her strange dreams and her uncanny connection to the mansion. She couldn’t come up with one. She didn’t want to be branded the crazy new woman in town.

  “Oh, turn in here.” Etta said after they had traveled quite a while on a narrow windy road.

  “You have got to be kidding me! Wow,” Was all Paige could say.

  Between two stone pillars, ornate wrought iron gates stood open to a long driveway lined with crepe myrtle trees. The house, completely made of stone, stood as a testament to all good fairy tales, with its tall chimney and long sweeping ‘A’ framed porch. They pulled into the circular drive and walked up the cobblestone trail to the front door, which was made of heavy wood with big black iron hardware. Etta grabbed the handle and went right in. Sitar music filled the house. Her mouth watered as the delicious aroma of oriental spices welcomed her. Mim appeared wearing pale blue silk pajamas with huge sleeves almost trailing the floor.

  “Paige, Darlin’ welcome to Mahjong night,” She opened her arms and met her with a kiss on the cheek; “You come on in and meet the girls.”

  Mim slipped her arm through Paige’s and led her through the foyer that opened up into a large room lit entirely by candles. Mim had not picked a style and stuck to it in her decorating. She was a collector of interesting things. An antique, eight foot tall carved statue of the Goddess Durga presided over the room. A chaise lounge covered in deep beautiful blue brocade stretched across one corner, anchored by antique green slag glass lamps and pewter candle sticks with well used candles alight and dripping.

  The art was fascinating to Paige and she stopped in front of a huge canvas to examine the details. “Mim, is this one of your paintings? I don’t see your signature.” Paige asked.

  “Why, yes, I call it ‘intermission’.” Mim commented, stopping to check Paige’s reaction to her work.

  “It’s so unique.” Paige stated looking at it from a different angle.

  “It’s from the nekkid years.” Mim said softly.

  Paige turned to her hostess and waited for an explanation, “Well, during menopause, I would wake up in the middle of the night and lay in bed furious that I couldn’t sleep. After a few months of that nonsense, I decided to get up and do something instead of lay there getting madder by the minute. So, I started painting in the middle of the night. While painting this one, I got started getting hot flashes so I stripped my clothes off and painted naked. No one was awake, the whole world was quiet and eventually I moved my easels outside onto the patio.” Mim glanced up into Etta’s face, “Only once did I get found out by my boys. But that taught them to stay in bed if they didn’t want to catch me nekkid in the moonlight, nipples to the breeze.” Mim patted Paige’s hand before turning toward the group. Paige blushed at the knowledge of that feeling.

  “Look here, chickens, our own Paige is joining us!” Mim took her arm and walked her outside onto the magical lanai like a proud mother.

  Paige recognized the group from the barn dance and was charmed at the sight.

  “Paige, this is Addy, She has the little bakery at the top of the hill, not far from your house.” Addy rose from her pillow on the ground, she was tall and lean with long dark curly hair. She was in her late fifties, wearing a red Japanese style jacket with black slacks and no shoes. Abby extended a hand over the table to Paige.

  “This is Della, she owns the dinner theater.” Della was barely five feet tall, rounded in all the right areas and soft spoken. Also in her late fifties and wearing a cherry blossom print robe tied in the front. Her shoulder length big hair had so many colors of blond, auburn and brown it was hard to tell what was original. Della took short quick steps around the table to give Paige a warm hug, waving her tiny bejeweled hand toward the only male at the table, “This is Patrick, we call him Patti, and he’s in charge of tourism in Nevada County.” Patti wore a spring green kimono and had a silk tie around his head with a Japanese character on it. She instinctively smiled when she looked into his beautifu
l green eyes that had been lined with black. His glossy pink lips pouted as he batted his eyes and extended an animated hand to her. She didn’t know if she should shake it or kiss it. She clasped his hand in both of hers thinking it was the safest reflex. He beamed at her, “Oh Honey, you’re all that and a sip of sake!” The women laughed in unison, easily. Paige felt welcome as if she’d always been part of the intimate little group.

  Over dinner Paige listened more than talked to the chatter of women who had known and obviously loved each other forever. They spoke their own language, a kind of verbal shorthand that she was slowly picking up on. Patti’s blond hair framed his face like a sun sticking out on all directions. His eyes flashed mischief as he grabbed the second bottle of Sake with a flourish and said, “Paige, you’ve been so quiet. You look like a woman with a story to me.” He popped the cork on the bottle, “Spill it, Sister, we’re all listening.”

  Paige looked around the room which had taken on a fuzzy glow, “I have friends. But it never felt like this to me.”

  “You mean our grand costuming?” Della asked reaching into her pocket and pulling out a jeweled cigarette case and lit up like a glamorous movie star. Mim rolled her eyes and Patti reached over, snatching the cigarette and sneaking a puff before he handed it back to her with a bat of his eye, lifting his chin to dramatically exhale the smoke.

  “What I mean is I can sit here with you and feel so at ease. I’ve just met most of you.”

  “I bet there’s a story about a man…” Addy said, brushing her wild curls away from her eyes.

  Paige snorted, covering her nose with her fingers, “I’m not sure you’re ready for my man stories.” She blinked apologetically over her hand feeling the effects of the sake.

  “We’ve all got ‘em. We all know ‘em. Your secrets are safe with us.” Della said softly, edging Paige to tell the story they all wanted to hear.

  Paige looked around at the faces surrounding her, glowing in the flickering light of paper lanterns, “My last romance ended badly…” Paige tried to hold back a grin as the women leaned in closer, “I had just broken up with Josh who was seventeen years younger than me.” Nodding heads were all around her and Addy passed the sake bottle again. “The day he showed up on a skateboard instead of his truck the age difference hit me hard. He was getting serious and very comfortable. Coming into my house opening my fridge, you know, expecting me to be an extension of his mother. He mentioned babies and that he wanted a whole house full. I don’t even like children! I am almost forty years old and there is no way I want to have kids now. So, I broke up with him.” Paige said, “I met Carl the next week when my car wouldn’t start at the movie theater. After he jumped the car, he asked me if I wanted to get some coffee. We talked about so many things and the conversation just flowed… no uncomfortable silences. He sent me flowers the next day, Daffodils, dozens of Daffodils. I swear to you I thought I would melt every time that man came around. He had smooth good looks, an investment broker, always in an impeccable suit. He spent money on me, which was nice after Josh. I almost always paid.”

  “Men in suits…how delicious, you don’t find many around here…” Patti placing his chin in his open palm listening for more with a dreamy sigh...

  “So he jumped your car and then he jumped you!” Addy laughed.

  “I did make him wait for about three dates.” Paige said sheepishly.

  “At our age honey if you wait for the third date…” Patti started…

  Mim hushed him. “Stop it Patti, She gonna’ think we are just a bunch of common alley cats here…”

  Paige laughed but continued her story, “So we dated but never in our town. We always went for long weekends, or dinner at my house. I was never invited to his home. He told me I was too pretty to keep home. Then on my birthday, he called forty five minutes before we were going on a weekend trip and canceled. The next week he called and wanted to take me out and make it up to me. He was the king of ‘make it up to you baby’. He wanted to go to the next town over but I made reservations at my favorite Italian restaurant and although he agreed I could tell he wasn’t happy. Anyway, I wanted more of him. I wanted it so bad it became a pain in my chest that never left me. We’d been seeing each other for a little over nine months. I figured it was time to, you know, move forward, or get out!”

  Heads nodded all around the table and Patti sat back in firm agreement folding his arms across his chest.

  “So I bought this incredible dress with peek-a-boo cleavage, four inch red high heels with little straps at the ankles and I dotted on the perfume that drove him wild. When I got there, he was leaning against his black Lexus SUV.” Paige closed her eyes, shaking off the memory, because she couldn’t believe he still affected her. “Can you call a man beautiful?” Paige looked around and they were all nodding with wide eyes in agreement.

  Patti rolled his eyes, held his hands up, “HELLO!”

  “He was dark and dangerous, the most sensuous man I’ve ever known. I knew by the look on his face he was drinking in every detail, gazing over the strappy shoes, the way the silky material flowed over me. I felt, sexy and invincible! His hands reached out, but it was his lips I felt first, he whispered against my cheek, ‘my God you look good enough to eat.’ The feeling of his breath against my skin started the buzz, you know, deep in your belly. I was so dizzy next to him I had a hard time walking in those shoes.

  We sat there in a quiet corner on the patio, in the sunset, the kind that turns from orange to purple… and the candle light, it was one of the most romantic nights of my life. He kept looking around like he was robbing a bank or something, but he ordered wine in perfect Italian,” Paige rolled her eyes at the memory, “Then he looked right at me and said, ‘you look a thousand miles away precious.’ I asked him if he knew how long we’d been seeing each other and I could see a panicked look roll over his face. Then he kissed my hand and told me, ‘I could know you a hundred years and never tire of loving you.’” she shook her head, “So I was looking out at the sunset trying not to tear up at the thought of him always with me” Every eye was fixated on Paige and waiting for the finish to her story.

  “Then he got this look on his face, like, he knew what I wanted and he was going to give it to me. He slid a jewelry box across the table and sat there looking at me. I picked it up and held it to my chest, because I just knew it was the ring I had been waiting for. I said a little prayer and opened the box. It was a necklace… beautiful, diamonds, huge emerald in the middle of an extravagant Victorian design. All I could see was a noose, no promise. So I stared at that damned open box until tears fell on my arms. I closed the box, put it into my purse and walked away. I felt guilty about keeping the necklace. I was almost ready to give it back when I found out he was married and had three kids.”

  The women were silent, caught in the web of Paige’s story.

  “When I threatened to ‘out him’ to his wife and the community of which he was the cornerstone, he threatened me with imminent domain for my sweet little house. The city had been begging me to sell it to them for years, but I refused. Less than thirty six hours after I demanded him to come clean, I got the notice of imminent domain. I fought it but each time I appeared before a judge, who was also his brother, I lost my appeal. It broke my heart.” Paige sat quietly. Reliving the hurt pulled her down. She wiped away an unexpected tear.

  Finally, Mim raised her Sake glass and toasted, “Here’s to Carl, smokin’ a turd in hell for what he did to you, Honey.”

  Every glass was raised, “To Carl, smokin’ turds in hell” they said in unison.

  Paige began laughing hysterically, “How did that just make everything ok?”

  “It’s our witchy way Paige, you’ll get used to it.” Etta cooed.

  “What is it that brought you to Nevada City, Honey?” Patti asked.

  “Well, my mother told me I was born here. I was curious so I did a little research. I found a picture of the mansion online and I fell in love. Well, I don’t think I
fell in love until I got here, but I was obsessed with that house. I looked at it every day for a week. Once I got the notice of imminent domain, I started to think seriously about buying it. Before I really knew what I was doing I owned it! I don’t remember living here; I think we left when I was two.”

  “Of course you remember it, Darlin’, you’re a child of red dirt. You belong here… don’t you feel it? What is your mother’s name?”

  “Maggie Hamilton. She never told me much about this place. We moved to Oregon to be closer to my father’s family when I was two.”

  “What’s her maiden name dear?” Della asked.

  “Oh, sorry, it’s Matheson.” Every eye perked and curious smiles widened across the table.

  “Of course it is,” exclaimed Mim, leveling off a knowing look at Paige,” You’re the great great grand daughter of Hal and Gigi Matheson. There is a strong family resemblance. Your great granddaddy’s picture is hangin’ in the courthouse today. He was one tough judge here. He brought justice back to the town when it had gone crazy, at least that’s how the story goes. He’s a legend around here.”

  “I felt so peaceful when I arrived, like I’d been waiting to get here my whole life.” Paige said quietly.

  Mim reached behind her, plunging her hand into the flower bed and grabbed a handful of earth, holding it out to Paige, “It’s a cellular response to red dirt. Once it’s in you, you long for it always. Your family tree is so deeply rooted here, Paige, it goes back to the gold rush! I moved from here once,” Mim’s eyes dimmed a little, “we all have at one time or another. I thought I’d lose my mind. Tragedy brought me back and I never wanted to leave again.” Mim reached for Etta’s hand on the table. “We’re all waiting for some of our kids to come back. You know they leave for college and get out there in the world that’s all nasty and crowded. They come back eventually… most of the time.” Mim looked away from Paige and gave Etta a quick smile.

  “We can hope…” said Etta.