Chapter 1
Former Los Angeles police lieutenant, Billy Sharpe, sat on the floor of the bathroom in the nursery of the sprawling thirteen-bedroom estate in Paradise, California. He and his thirty-one year old actor husband, Alexander Mark Richfield had moved from their home in Bel Air, California to Mark Antonious Richfield’s manor. Mark was Alex’s father and the Nation’s Top Male model. Billy had retired at fifty-one after serving thirty years on the police force. He’d done it all; detective, SWAT, and teaching defensive tactics at the police academy, as well as a short stint as the Chief of Police of Santa Monica. Now? He was ‘Gaffadder Biwwy.’ Mark’s son Isaac Milton Richfield had his second birthday on February 1st and Jacob Bentley Richfield, had turned one this past December. Both boys were in the bathtub, playing, as Billy helped them wash. Isaac, or ‘Zak’, looked just like his model daddy and actor brother, Alex, with green eyes and long brown hair. Little Jacob, or ‘Jake’, was the child of an illicit affair between Mark and his ex-fiancée, Sharon Tice. The dysfunctional pair had sex in a church in Pasadena during a funeral mass. Jake with his blond hair and powder blue eyes, looked a lot like his mother. But, Jacob didn’t see his mom any longer. A court had decided Jacob was better off with his model daddy. Isaac was playing with a plastic shark in the bubbles as Billy tried to figure out how to give them baths. This ‘nanny’ business was new to him. He was more comfortable with a shotgun and semiautomatic pistol, than toddlers. He knelt higher and shampooed Zak’s hair. Jake laughed at Billy and kicked his feet in the bubbles. Billy became soaking wet from the splashing and his patience was being tested. Blake Hughes, a retired LAPD firefighter that lived with his husband, Butte County Fire Captain Hunter Rasmussen, here at the mansion, peeked into the nursery bathroom. He laughed at seeing him soaked. “Need a hand?” Blake entered the bathroom. “Unck Bwake!” Zak aimed the shark at him. “Gaffadder Biwwy is wet!” Billy gave Blake a look of exasperation and took off his long-sleeve shirt, since it was indeed, wet. Outside the bathroom, Stan Charles Richfield, Mark’s young second husband, was changing their three-month old daughter’s diaper, Lily Hayden Richfield, at the changing station in the mansion’s nursery. Zak stood up in the tub and threw the shark out of the water onto the floor. Billy used a rubber hose attachment to get the shampoo and soap off of Zak, then Blake wrapped the toddler in a soft towel and picked him up. Billy rinsed Jacob off and drained the tub. “I’m cowd.” Jacob shivered. “Okay, buddy.” Billy took a second towel and dried Jacob to warm him up. Lady, Billy’s loony Saluki-mix dog entered the space and wagged her fluffy white tail as she sniffed around. Both boys squealed at her in excitement and Billy winced at the volume…in stereo. He peeked at Blake who was moisturizing Zak’s arms and legs because the boys swam in their pool daily and the chlorine dried their skin. Then, Blake combed Zak’s long hair and blew it dry. “And I thought the recruits were bad.” Billy stood from his crouched position and held Jacob wrapped in a towel. Blake laughed at him over the noise of the blow-dryer. “Wait until Lily’s running around. Then we’ll be in big trouble.” Once Blake dried Zak’s hair, the little one ran into the nursery naked. “Daddy! Daddy!” Billy set Jacob on the step stool so Blake could do the same to him, dry his hair and moisturize his skin. Lady hopped into the sudsy tub and smiled her toothy grin at him. Billy took a deep breath for patience, and held up his wet shirt, needing to get another one. “Dog? Get out of the tub.” She leapt out and sped into the hallway, leaving foamy paw prints across the carpet.
