“Yeah, like you don’t know.”
Jason snickered. “Old faithful strikes again.”
“You’d think I’d remember that, wouldn’t you? Be right back. I’m going to change.”
“If it’s okay with Lydia, I thought we could cook hot dogs on the grill for dinner. Is that okay with you girls?”
Ellery and Annie jumped and bounced around the room. “Yes,” they both cried.
Lydia shrugged. “Fine with me.”
“Well,” Jason said. “I thought maybe you’d like a nice steak.”
Lydia shot him a questioning look. “Steak?”
“I was thinking the Lone Star for dinner.”
“Um, I’m not dressed for the Lone Star. And besides…” She indicated the girls with a tilt of her head. “I love a good hot dog as well as the next girl. Thanks for the offer though.”
“Oh, honey,” Jackie said. “You don’t have to stay here. You two can go have a nice dinner.”
Lydia shook her head. “No. Thanks, but no.”
“Mimi,” Lane said as he rejoined the group. “Did you tell the girls about the new kittens?”
“Kittens?” Annie said. “Where? I want to see the kittens.”
“Me too” Ellery said, jumping up and down.
“They’re in the barn. Do you mind, Lydia?”
“The walk might help burn off some energy, if you know what I’m saying.”
Jackie grinned. “Come on, girls.” She stood and stretched her hands down by her legs. “Grab a hand.”
The girls latched on and Jackie led them out of the house, followed by Lane carrying Levi. They left Jason and Lydia sitting in the living room.
“I think your parents are leaving us alone on purpose.”
He grinned. “Remind me to thank them.”
She stood. “This visit isn’t about you and me finding alone time. It’s about seeing how comfortable my children are with your parents.”
“Are you kidding? Have you been watching? They’re fine.”
“Still…”
Lane stuck his head through the front door. “Um, Lydia. The girls are a little scared of the barn.”
“I’m on my way.” She shot Jason a look. “See? They are still fragile and nervous without me.” She sighed. “Annie cried for hours last night for her mommy. It almost killed me. Luckily, Ellery had already gone to sleep and Annie was crying in the living room and didn’t wake up Elle or Levi.” She pressed her hands to her chest. “It hurt, Jason. Really, really hurt.”
She hurried to the door and turned back. “Well, come on. We need to see the new kittens.”
The rest of the visit went very well, as well as Lydia could have hoped. The girls loved the kittens. They were a little upset when Lydia said they couldn’t take one home. But she reminded them that Jasper might not like a new kitten right now.
Dinner went fine. Hot dogs were one of her never-fail meals for the girls. After dinner, Annie helped Jackie put the dishes in the dishwasher and get out the supplies for ice cream sundaes while Ellery and Jason went with Lane to feed a goat that’d wandered up a couple of weeks ago. So far, no one had claimed him. Never one to turn away an animal, Lane had provided the goat a home while he continued to look for the owner.
Lydia fed Levi and put on his sleeper. Fifteen minutes of rocking him and he was gone. She put him in the portable crib and joined Annie and Jackie. Annie’s eyes were wide as she studied all the toppings Jackie had set out. Chocolate. Caramel. Nuts. Chocolate chips. Whipped cream.
The sundaes were a hit and a huge mess. Hand washing was not going to be sufficient. The girls didn’t want to take baths, but when Jackie put bubble bath into the tub, they quickly changed their minds. When Lydia started to help, Jackie stopped her.
“Let me,” Jackie said. “I want to do this.”
Lydia shrugged. “Okay.” She stayed in the room but remained out of the way. She’d never admit it to anyone, but she wanted to watch Jackie’s interactions with her girls. Were the girls comfortable with her? Did they fight with each other while under Jackie’s care? Was Jackie keeping a close eye on them so they didn’t drown?
She was fully aware that her concerns about Jackie’s abilities were silly, but Lydia hadn’t ever been a mother before. These girls were hers to protect. They’d already been through so much. Anything she could do to make their lives whole again, she would. It was that simple.
Of course, the bath went fine. The girls––with Jackie’s encouragement––blew the bubbles around in the tub. They gave themselves bubble beards and bubble earrings and necklaces and even bubble hats. The girls were laughing, a sound that Lydia doubted she’d ever get tired of hearing.
Ellery and Annie actually used the washcloths to clean their faces, something Lydia had yet to accomplish. Water was splashed everywhere, not that anyone but Lydia seemed to mind.
“I brought some other things for them to put on,” Lydia said. “I’ll go get their bag.”
“Okay, honey,” Jackie said. “We’ll be right here until you get back.”
She’d packed clean underwear, shorts and shirts for the twins, but she’d also thrown in pajamas as a last minute thought. Since it was close to the twins’ bedtime, she pulled out the pjs and fresh underwear.
Jackie had Annie out of the tub and was drying her when Lydia came back.
“First one’s been buffed and fluffed,” Jackie said.
Lydia chuckled. “Pass her over.”
Annie skipped to Lydia and they began putting on her nightwear.
Ellery climbed out of the tub. “I’ll do it,” she said and reached for the towel.
Lydia almost said no but then backed off. Let Ellery see what she could do. In the end, Jackie helped Ellery get dry, but in such a way that Ellery was sure she’d done it all by herself. Lydia passed down Ellery’s clothing and waited as Jackie helped the second twin into her fresh clothes.
When the girls were done, the bathroom looked like a tornado had gone through. Rugs were out of place. Small puddles of water dotted the floor and the wall behind the tub. Lydia didn’t even want to think about the ring around the tub the girls had probably left after the numerous trips to see the kittens in the dusty barn and the sticky ice cream.
“Thanks, Jackie,” Lydia said. “Let me help you get this cleaned up.”
“Absolutely not. The cleaning lady comes tomorrow. Let her do it.”
Lydia snorted. Jackie had no cleaning lady.
“Come on, girls. Let’s go see what Jason and Papa are doing.”
After another thirty minutes, the girls were winding down. Jason and Lane loaded all the kid necessities back into Lydia’s sedan while Jackie and Lydia got three sleepy children buckled into their car seats.
“They won’t make it to the end of the drive,” Jackie whispered over the roof of the sedan with a smile.
“Probably not. Thanks for everything this evening. I know the girls had fun.”
Jackie walked around the hood of the car to stand next to Lydia. “Lane and I will be happy to take care of the girls so you can make a run to Wichita.”
“I know. It’s not that I don’t trust you with them, because I do. But I worry about the girls’ reaction to me leaving them here. They still have some separation anxiety and they may be too fragile emotionally.” She sighed. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Do you want me to go with you to Wichita? I could keep them in a hotel while you take care of what you need to. That way, you can come and go as you need without feeling guilty or rushing to get home.”
Lydia’s eyes teared up. “That is so sweet of you. I don’t know what to say.”
“Make it easy. Say yes and tell me when we leave.”
Lydia hugged the older woman. “Thank you. I’ll talk to Jason and call you tomorrow, okay?”
; “Of course. I’m not going anywhere.”
For the rest of the week, Lydia made plans to be gone to Wichita for a few days. She didn’t know how long it would take to deal with everything. Jackie dropped by every day for a couple of hours and Lydia took advantage of the babysitting to run errands or do grocery shopping to help the girls adjust to her being gone. Initially, the girls cried when she left, and the sound pierced her soul like a dagger. It took every ounce of her strength to walk away. She wasn’t gone long the first time, a little longer the second, and by the time she’d come in and out for the fifth time, the girls had calmed down and didn’t pay as much attention to her leaving.
On Sunday, they left for Wichita. Lane had decided he wanted to come along, so he and Jackie followed in their SUV with Levi in the back seat. Jason and Lydia took the two girls with them in his SUV.
On their first day there, Jason and Lydia met with Sam Wood, her sister and brother-in-law’s probate lawyer. He gave her house keys and a safety deposit box key along with the necessary paperwork to allow her to open it.
They pulled into the drive at the large, two-story colonial house. Lydia sat unable to make herself move. After she did this, her sister would really be gone. Rationally, she knew Meredith was gone, but since they’d lived apart for years, she had been able to ignore reality. Once the house was sold, the cars gone and whatever was in the lockbox removed, all traces of her sister’s former life would be erased from this world.
This was much harder than she had anticipated.
Meredith and Jim had been gone for almost six weeks and, even though the children were a daily reminder of that fact, her emotional mind did not want to accept that she would never see her baby sister again.
Through a watery perspective, she studied the freshly mowed yard, the spring growth of new leaves on the trees, the flowers that were blooming in the bed that lined the walk to the front door. Meredith had always had a green thumb. She could throw a peach pit in the yard and the next year have a tree growing.
“The house looks good,” she said, stalling for time to collect herself. “You had someone mow the yard.” It wasn’t a question. She was sure Jason had taken care of things she’d never thought of, such as keeping the house looking presentable.
“It’s a nice neighborhood. I didn’t want things to get overgrown.”
“I wouldn’t have thought of the grass needing to be mowed.” She finally turned to look at him. “You have done so much for the children and me, probably more than I even know. Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed him. A flutter tickled her gut. Like it always did when she tasted him, her heart flipped over like a fish.
When this trip was over, she had to find a way to let him go. He needed to find his happily-ever-after with a woman who shared his vision for life, and that woman could no longer be her, not with three children. He’d done the honorable thing by standing by her, but he had to be looking for a way out before he got too enmeshed in a lifestyle he never wanted.
“I haven’t done that much. Wood did an outstanding job representing your sister and Jim. They chose well when they chose him. Ready?” He nodded toward the house.
She sighed. “If I have to.”
When they unlocked the door and stepped in, Lydia was overcome by the scent of her sister. Maybe it was her perfume still lingering in the air. Or maybe it was the laundry soap she used and the smell had infiltrated the air ducts. Or, knowing her sister, there were probably automatic air fresheners that continued to scent the air. Whatever it was, the aroma stopped Lydia just inside the door.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Give me a minute.”
He returned her nod and walked on into the house. Jason was her tower of strength, constantly there for her. She could never repay his kindness, nor his helpfulness. With great sadness, she became even more positive that letting him find happiness with another woman would be the best thing she could do for him.
They spent the first hour roaming the house, looking in closets and drawers, setting aside items they believed would be important to the children. Although the will stipulated that Lydia could take anything from the house she wanted, there wasn’t anything here she needed now. Down the road, she would need bigger beds for the girls, but she elected to focus on the here and now.
At noon, they took a lunch break and headed back to the hotel. The children were at the kiddie pool with Jackie. Levi and Lane had stayed in the room. Both guys were asleep when Lydia opened the door, Lane on the bed snoring and Levi in his Pack ’n Play. She quietly shut the door and went back to the pool.
“Both of them are dead to the world,” she reported to Jackie.
“Yeah, I was a little suspicious when Lane said that he and Levi were going to watch Days of Our Lives.”
Lydia laughed. “Yeah, I can’t see Lane getting involved with the daily soaps.”
The girls were splashing and generally having a good time in the pool, so when she left, they waved and went back to playing.
Before heading back to the house, Lydia and Jason stopped at the bank. The paperwork was in order for Lydia to access the safety deposit box as well as all the accounts, but jumping through the bank’s hoops took some time.
Once they had access to the box and Lydia opened it, she found an envelope addressed to her lying on top. She picked it up, recognizing her sister’s handwriting. She wanted to hear from Meredith one last time, and yet, she didn’t because it would be the last time. She opened the envelope slowly, bracing herself for whatever was inside.
Dear Lydia,
It’s possible that you will never read this, and if so, yay. I made it to old age, which means you’re still older than me.
Lydia paused to cry and chuckle at her baby sister’s joke. No matter how old Meredith got, Lydia would always be older. Because Meredith had stopped aging.
“You okay?” Jason asked. He handed her a fresh handkerchief for her tears.
“Thanks. I’m okay. My damn sister is making me cry.”
He put his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug. “Damn her,” he joked.
“I know.”
She wiped her tears and continued reading.
If you are reading this, then I am so sorry. It means I’m gone and you have my children to raise. Know that I have given you my life’s prize. Nothing I ever did could surpass them. I know you’re probably freaked out right now, and probably doubting that you can take over for me, but there is no one I’d trust more. By now, you know we picked an alternative option if for some reason you can’t, or won’t, take Ellery, Annie and Levi, but I only did that at the insistence of our lawyer. Sam is one of the good guys, Lydia, like your Jason. You can trust Sam with anything.
Jim has given me some nice jewelry over the years we’ve been together. Some of it too nice, if you know what I mean. Most of it will be here in the box or at home in the safe in Jim’s office.
Lydia looked at Jason. “Did we find a safe at the house this morning? I don’t remember one.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t. Maybe their lawyer knows.”
If you’ve been in the house and not found the safe, you’re probably wondering where it is. Go to Jim’s office. Look in the closet. On the floor to the left side. You’ll see a box of Jim’s business files. Take those out. There is a release button for the door to the safe. It’s on the right side in the corner near the floor. Push it, and a door will open. The safe is installed in the concrete under that floor. The combination is 12-20-74-84. No one, not even our lawyer, knows about the safe. There some cash in there. Take it. Heck, take everything out of there. And don’t argue with me about this.
I’d like you to keep my jewelry for the kids, particularly the pieces Jim gave me when each of them were born. Diamond earrings and a diamond bracelet when Ellery and Annie were born and a platinum and canary-yellow diamond ring when Le
vi arrived. As far as the rest of my stuff, make good use of it. Wear it. In fact, when you marry Jason, wear my earrings for good luck. Of course, since you’re reading this, maybe my luck wasn’t all that good. (Laugh. That was a joke.) I was lucky in love. Jim is my soul mate and know that he was everything to me.
Lydia paused to wipe a few tears.
The letter went on to tell her that the cars were hers to do with as she liked, but could she please save the Thunderbird for Levi? She smiled. She’d been right on that one.
Meredith had a mink coat that she wanted Lydia to give to her best friend as long as Lydia didn’t want it. Lydia didn’t and would make sure the lawyer was aware of the gift. There were a couple of other items, such as Jim’s golf clubs, that her sister had requested be given to certain people, again provided Lydia didn’t have a use for them. All the items were things Lydia had no problem giving away.
In closing, know that I loved you so much. Growing up, I wanted to be just like you. As a big sister, you set the bar high. Take care of my babies as I know you will. I hope you’ll tell them about us. Make sure Mom and Dad know that I loved them too.
Don’t be sad that I’m gone. I had a wonderful life, no matter how long or short it was.
Raising kids is expensive, but I’m pretty sure Jim and I have set aside enough for their colleges. There are two large life-insurance policies. Make those bastards pay out! They will try to find a reason not to, but I trust between our lawyer and your Jason, you’ll get the money. Those policies are in this box also.
I love you, sis. Thank you for loving me and my kids.
Meredith.
“Damn her,” Lydia muttered. “I was through crying.”
Jason put his arm around her. “Is there anything in the letter I need to know?”
She handed the sheet of paper to him. “Yeah. Take a look while I get the things from here into the tote bag.”
She found everything Meredith had described, plus about ten thousand dollars in cash.
After they finished with the box, she closed the checking and money market accounts and sent the money to a special account that Jason had set up.
Texas Lullaby (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 7) Page 11