She Wanted It All - Kathryn Casey [29]
As Christmas approached, Steve called his secretary, Lisa, into his office. Spread across his desk, he had women’s clothing catalogues. “I’ve got this housekeeper, and I need to buy her a Christmas gift,” he said. “What would a nice young woman wear?”
Amused at her gruff boss stewing over buying the housekeeper a present, Lisa paged through the catalogues. They appeared to be from companies that catered to older women in the country club set, probably places where Elise bought her clothes.
“How old is this woman?” she asked.
“About thirty,” he said.
Lisa flipped through the pages of shapeless dresses and found one that had a youthful flair. “How about this?” she asked.
“That might work,” Steve said, smiling. “I think we’ll give it a try.”
Days before Christmas, Kristina left to spend the holiday with Craig and Jennifer in Washington, and Jimmy drove to see his family in El Paso. Celeste stayed home, saying she had to work at the country club. “When I got home, Celeste had already moved out. She told me she’d found someone else,” says Jimmy. “She was moving in with Steve.”
“It’s for the best,” she told him. “Steve can afford to support me and Kristina.”
Friends would later say that they believed Celeste had broken Jimmy’s heart. “He changed after Celeste,” says one. “Jimmy was just a different, a little sadder, guy.”
Reeling under all the debts she’d amassed during their short marriage, Jimmy didn’t argue and soon after he filed for divorce. “You fall in love, get married, and think it’s supposed to be forever,” he says. “It didn’t work that way.”
On Christmas Eve, Gene Bauman and his wife, Sue, invited Steve to dinner.
“I’d like that, but is it okay if I bring my house manager?” Steve asked.
“I didn’t know you had one,” said Gene. “Who is she?”
“You know, Celeste, the blond waitress from the club.”
“I can’t picture her, but sure, bring her,” Gene said.
“We’ll be there,” Steve said.
At dinner that night, the Baumans’ Christmas tree glowed and they were in a festive mood. Gene, tall, gray-haired, and ruggedly handsome, looked carefully at his old friend. Steve was in high spirits, more buoyant than he had been since Elise relapsed. Understanding what Steve had gone through, he couldn’t help but be happy for him. Celeste was attractive and young, and making it clear that she wasn’t just on Steve’s payroll.
“I needed someone to let in the repairmen and do some light cooking and laundry,” Steve said.
“Except that I don’t cook, and I send out the clothes,” she said, giggling, with her arm through Steve’s. “That’s just not me.”
Gene laughed, and decided he wouldn’t take Steve’s fling too seriously. “He was just having a bit of fun with a girl who was younger than his own kids. I never thought it would turn out to be anything serious,” he says. “I figured, he’d have his fun, buy her some baubles, maybe give her some money—Steve had plenty—and then move on.”
However, Gene’s wife, Sue—pencil thin with short blond hair—was more concerned. From the beginning, something about Celeste Martinez bothered her. She seemed evasive about who she was and where she’d come from. Sue had nothing tangible to pin her fears on. Celeste acted charming, solicitous of Steve and devoted to him. But Sue wasn’t buying it.
“To me, it all looked like an act,” she says.
Chapter
4
From their first days together, Celeste moved gracefully into Steve’s life, artfully filling the void left by Elise’s death. Startled by his age, Kristina asked her mother why she was with him. Celeste didn’t hesitate.
“Steve’s rich,” she answered.
While she was blunt with Kristina, to others Celeste professed her love of Steve. In January she quit her job at the Austin Country Club and brought Anita a crystal vase to thank her for her help during the custody battle. “Sorry I couldn’t have done more,” Anita said, mindful