Cornero's Gold by Larry O'Brien

Author:Larry O'Brien [O’Brien, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: River Grove Books

CHAPTER 18

When we arrived back at the Hideaway, the evening was still young. We decided to light a blaze in the firepit and sit outside around the pool.

The house was originally built in the late teens or early ’20s by my Grandpa Harry and had some definite personality. Grandpa had moved to the area after retiring as Sheriff of Beatty, Nevada. He got the land cheap and built a little horse ranch that he named Harry’s Hideaway. Over the years, it just became the Hideaway. The house was built in the Santa Fe style with some art deco features. When Grandpa died in 1950, Pop took over and started to renovate and bring the house up to mid-century standards.

Then, in 1958, when they started buying land for the new La Quinta Country Club, Pop made a killing selling off the bulk of the ranch property to the developers. Pop used a good portion of his profits to turn the house into a small, private family resort. One of the nicest lots, the one right next door to the Hideaway, he sold to Jacquie’s dad, who, for whatever reason, perhaps sheer gratitude, built a smaller version of the Hideaway, also in the Santa Fe style.

Since she grew up there, she loved the style of her own house, but Jacquie simply adored the Hideaway, with its warm adobe color and for contrast, window frames and doors painted turquoise blue. It was a great place to get away from telephones and office buildings and LA traffic and spend a few days kicking back.

“I always loved that blue trim around the windows,” Jacquie said. “My dad should do the same to his house.”

“You don’t want him to be too much of a copycat,” I said, poking her gently. “After all, your dad’s place is laid out pretty much exactly like ours.”

“I know,” she said. “But this place is so much more of a party house.”

“You do know this is a family house, and by family, I mean all my uncles, aunts, and cousins can use this place anytime they want. Pop may be the primary beneficiary of the place and made all the upgrades, but Grandpa Harry left it to the whole family to enjoy, not just us.”

“Well, maybe I’ll be part of the family someday,” she said with that not-so-subtle “hint, hint” look in her eye.

I just looked at her, smiled, and said, “You just never know. We’ll have to discuss that later.”

“That’s promising,” she said, smiling back.

The Hideaway was laid out in the shape of an H. The main entrance was inset in the little portico created by the feet of the H. Upon entering the front door, the expansive country kitchen extended to the left, the home office and guest bathroom were on the right. The bar of the H constituted the main rooms of the house, principally the dining room, living room, and pantry. The rest of the H was a meticulously designed sprawl of bedrooms, several of them with

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.