“She assumed I was married.”
“Yes, well, that’s because I told Mr. Morgan you were.”
“That was a lie. Didn’t you remember? I told you Alex…Mr.…Dr. Cruz was my neighbor.”
“Yes, well, Mr. Morgan would look more favorable on a solid marriage, not a divorced, single mother.”
“Look more favorable?”
“Yes. He’s considering leaving this house to you. And by the looks of your current situation, it might be just your ticket to turning things around for yourself. And Rose.”
“Leaving the house to me? To me?” I was taken aback by the thought. Yet I was more irritated with the assumption my life sucked by being a single mom. It wasn’t all bad.
“I’m sure you’d like Rose to go to college when the time came, wouldn’t you?”
“Well, yes. And she will.”
“Yes, well, if you sold this home, you could send her to college and pay for another, more modest home for yourself. You have to think of her, dear.”
“Her father is more than capable of sending her to any college she wants.”
“Oh, you know who her father is?”
Okay, she was getting under my skin now. “Yes, I do. Remember, I’m divorced.”
“I didn’t know if that was the gentleman outside of your marriage who you procreated with.”
Procreated?
“Does he provide alimony for you? Did you have proper legal counsel when you—”
“I declined it. The alimony, that is.” Stupid, I know now. But I didn’t want anything but to be rid of him. Any connection would lead him to Rose and that wouldn’t do.
“Dear, who was your attorney? Or could you afford one? I swear, those public defenders are terrible at their jobs.”
“I didn’t have a public defender. I wasn’t on trial. I simply signed the paperwork and mailed it to him.”
“Oh dear.”
I was approaching Aunt Heidi’s road to turn onto. “Pricilla…Mrs. Morgan, I’ve got to go. Please just sell your house. I didn’t know about it, or you for that matter, a couple months ago, and I will be very little affected either way.”
“How does 2.1 million dollars sound to you?”
I hoped the gulp my throat made wasn’t as audible outside of my own ears. Did she say 2.1 million dollars?
“That sounds high. Have you gotten an appraisal done?” Was this a trick? I looked at the phone screen to make sure someone was really talking to me. 2.1?
“Yes, it came in at 2.5 million. I’m sure it will depreciate over the next couple of years, though.”
I stared ahead. Seriously—2.1 million dollars? Is this what every good person feels when talking to the devil? All my financial woes and problems began to gravitate from the pit of hell and float toward oblivion. What a nice feeling.
“Still, even if I wasn’t extremely offended by you…my own grandparents denying my very existence…abandoning my mother when she needed you the most, I wouldn’t want anything to do with that house. Or the ill-gotten money that came from it.”
“Dear, we all make mistakes. I loved your mother. I raised her, for goodness’ sakes. Raised her to be better, to do better with her life. Mr. Morgan made it clear that if she married your father, he would disown her. We knew her life would be much harder than if she met and married someone from college.”
“Exactly. Who does that? Who disowns their child for any reason?”
“He regrets it.”
“I bet.”
“I know him better than anyone, and he does. Trust me. And I do. But we get better. And we learn from our mistakes. Meeting you that night was our chance to do better. To leave you something that can be of use, to maybe make your life better, less hard. Give us that chance.”
“But I don’t come as you painted to your husband. I am divorced and single. If you all haven’t learned one thing, it should be to accept people the way they are.”
“As wiser as we’ve become, Mr. Morgan has maintained his dignity. And a granddaughter who’s destitute isn’t something he is willing to accept. I know.”
“Then I can’t come to your dinner. I can’t be the recipient of this good deed wrapped up in all this red tape of dignity, as you call it. It’s shallow, and to deny who I am for something I knew nothing about a week ago would be selling out. I’m not a sell-out, Mrs. Morgan. I’m Jeffrey Keller’s daughter. I’m Rose Keller’s mother. Nothing less and nothing more.”
“Call it what you will. Shallow, did you say? Your grandfather is a fourth-generation Morgan. Each Morgan has lived up to a standard. You are the sixth generation. He needs to know you have stability and a legacy worth leaving to the next generation to come.”
“I’m working on it. Do you think I want to be a single, divorced mom?”
“Dear, work on it fast. We leave Saturday to return home.”
“Rose leaves Thursday. And have we forgotten? I’m still single. I can’t change that by Friday. Leave your estate to someone else. Sell it, whatever. I’m not who you all need me to be.”
“Figure it out by tomorrow and be here by six o’clock sharp. Ms. McClintok will send you the address. I hope you don’t let me down, Sarah. I need to do this to right the wrong way I treated your mother. We both do.”
I shook my head. “Then accept me the way I am.”
“Six o’clock. Just for dinner. Have someone here just for dinner. Tell Mr. Morgan what he wants to believe and change your world, dear. You’re a woman—find a way. Do this for you and Rose.”
“I can’t make any promises. You don’t make it easy.”
“Life isn’t, my dear.”
I turned off the car and looked at Rose waving at me from Aunt Heidi’s porch. She was my world. I knew Sam would take care of her. No matter what, she had a dad who had the means and shared unconditional love for her. So why was it bugging me to turn my back on this huge opportunity?
“Do you realize this is answered prayers, Sarah?” Aunt Heidi leaned on the counter in her kitchen. I pulled some glitter out of her hair. She’d helped in a craft a mother had sent home with Rose to do over the holiday break. It didn’t take long to get that out of the way.
“Yes, I do, Aunt Heidi. But does God answer prayers by passing them to you through Satan and his wife?”
“Shut your mouth.” She tapped my lips.
“I’m just saying. She’s evil. Pure evil.”
“She couldn’t be that bad. I mean, Jeff hated her, and Rose felt numb to how she never stayed in Denver or ever called to check on her. But the woman is reaching out to you now.”
“With stipulations. Did you hear the part where I have to be settled, with a perfect husband and a yearly income to put us in a bracket they’d only shudder to have. I’m in that lower one, Aunt Heidi. With no husband. My grandfather might keel over the minute he finds this out. Forget about drawing up paperwork—it’d be too late.”
“I know, I know.” She nodded her head.
Rose was at the table, coloring in a new book Aunt Heidi picked up for her. I tried to lower my voice.
“Here, take a drink of this and see what you think. I’m serving it at our get-together Saturday night. Will you be coming?”
I took a sip, bracing myself for the eggnog. Not my favorite. But Aunt Heidi could stir Elmer’s glue and cinnamon and somehow it would taste good. “Yep, it tastes good.”
“Oh, brother. Just good? I need Pete’s mother to wish it was something she made. You know that woman gets me still.”
“Yes, I know. And that’s how you can appreciate Pricilla Morgan. It would be like eating crap and smiling while taking the check to the bank for having just done so. Have I sunk that low?”
“Are you coming, or not?”
“Where?”
“My party.”
“I’m not sure. Liz’s party is that night. And I sort of promised her. She claims she has someone for me to meet. And I don’t like all the tension here with Uncle Pete’s mother. You get all weird.�
�
She put her hands on her hips. “The woman grates my nerves. I wish they’d just leave her in the nursing home.”
“Aunt Heidi!”
“Well.” She wiped the counter and put the eggnog back in the fridge. “Have you paid off the heat pump you had to get last winter?”
“No.” I traced the top of my glass and wondered how I was going to drink the rest. “I do good to make the monthly payment. After the roof repair this past spring, I don’t have a card without any balance on it. I thought about taking a second job, but I don’t want to sacrifice any time with Rose.”
“This is your answer, Sarah. You don’t have to like these people to take their money. If you ask me, they owe it to you and your mother. And your dad, for that account.”
“Dad wouldn’t want me to have anything to do with them.”
She came closer. “Sarah, your dad would want you taken care of. This is going to save your life. You have nothing saved, no safety net if God forbid something happens. This is your golden opportunity.”
I sighed. Rock and a hard place. If I ever imagined what it looked like, this was it. Of course it would solve problems. And it’s not like they needed it. “But I don’t have a husband. If I did swallow every sip of pride I had, the fact remains I am divorced and no man is on the horizon.”
“So get one.”
“Get one?”
“Yeah, ask your neighbor out for dinner. Explain the deal and he gets a first-class meal and all he pays for is a kiss on your cheek and a few nods to being in matrimonial bliss with you. Easy peasy. If Pete weren’t so old, I’d send him to go with you.”
I swatted her on the arm. “Aunt Heidi!”
“I’m just saying. Pride is one thing, security is another. And you never have to see these people again.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll ask Alex.”
“That’s my girl.”
“And after the house sells, I’ll buy you that breadmaker you’ve been wanting.”
“With the different controls?”
“With as many controls as they offer.”
“You better get to that dinner!” She shoved my arm, jokingly.
“I will, I will.” I walked over to Rose. “Come on, sweetie. Time to go.”
She packed up her little bag and slipped on her coat. “Bye, Aunt Heidi.”
My lovely, intelligent aunt kissed my little girl and winked at me. “Good luck. You’re doing the right thing.”
“Uh, huh.”
I put Rose’s things in her backpack and we loaded the car to go home. I had to practice what I was going to say to Alex to plead and grovel for him to go along with this plan to secure my and Rose’s future.
“Rose, calm down. I didn’t see Carter. I told you, he went to lunch. We’ll get him the present, I promise.”
Rose was beside herself about me not giving him his gifts. She swore he’d never get them. And Christmas was in a few days. It’s amazing how numbers was a difficult concept for children. One time I made her eat a million thousand beans, she told Liz. Christmas was Sunday. I get it; she was leaving in two days. She needed to know what he thought of her drawing or the world would rip to shreds.
“What do you want me to do, Rose? I tried.”
“Go to his house, Mommy. Go now.”
I looked at the time. I didn’t realize I’d stayed so long at Aunt Heidi’s. It was almost dinner. “What if he isn’t home? Why can’t we try tomorrow? I’ve got gifts to wrap and dinner to make. Not to mention cleaning up that pinecone craft you did and left all over the kitchen floor.” She made Sam something she saw on my Pinterest account. I don’t know who was utilizing that application more.
“Please? With extra honey on top, Mommy? I worked so long on his drawing. Do you still have it?”
“Of course. It’s in the back.” I weighed my options: drive by Carter’s house or suffer the nag fest for the rest of the night. “Okay, you win, missy. I’ll drive over there. But no pouting if he isn’t home, deal?”
“Deal.”
I took the road over to Carter’s. I drove slowly down his street, looking at all the lawn blow-ups the neighbors were setting up for the night. I loved the Yoda Santa one. We got to Carter’s and surprisingly, his Jeep was in the driveway. Even more surprising was the wreath on his front door.
“Yay!” Rose shouted, bouncing up and down.
I parked on the street and looked in the backseat. “We can stay all of ten minutes, Rose. I forgot, I’ve got to get all your clothes packed for your trip. And I got some things for Sophie for you to take. They still need to be wrapped.” She flipped off her seat belt and began to crawl in the back for Carter’s bag. “Ten minutes, Rose Marie.”
“Okay, okay.” She jumped back across the seat and waited for me to let her out. There was a death grip on that bag.
We got to the door and Rose rang the bell. She was doing the pee-pee dance, excited for him to open it.
He slung it open. “You’re early.”
I looked at him, bewildered. “Did you know we were coming?”
Rose squeezed his legs and pushed the bag that had Santa wearing a tropical shirt into his stomach.
“Oh, I didn’t…I thought…” He took the bag and picked up Rose. “Looky who’s here!”
“Carter! We brought you something. See what it is. Hurry, get it out. I want to know what you think.”
He moved aside and ushered me in. Obviously I knew he was waiting for someone else. It sort of made me feel completely unwanted. “We can come back. I told Rose I wasn’t sure you’d even be home.”
“Yeah, no problem. I’m home.” He grabbed her nose and seemed enthralled to see her. “Come in.” He motioned for me to step off the platform in front of the door.
I stepped in.
“Let’s see here.” He placed her on the ground and inspected the bag. “First of all, let me just say I love the bag. Who picked it?”
Rose tucked her chin and giggled. “Me and Mommy. We know you’re crazy. Look, Santa has birds on his shirt.”
“Crazy? I’ll show you crazy.” He put the bag down and flung Rose upside down. She was so tickled she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Okay, okay. Let’s not give her an aneurysm, Carter.”
He placed her back down and grabbed the bag. “Mommy’s no fun.”
She did that sheepish look to me. “It’s all fun until the ambulance is called.”
He dove into the bag and pulled out Rose’s picture first. He stumbled backward, holding his chest. “Oh my goodness!! Don’t tell me, it’s an Oscar de la Renta original.”
Rose hid her laugh. “No.”
“Is it a van Gogh? How did you have the money for this, Rose?”
“It’s me, silly. I did it.”
He held it out at arm’s length. “It can’t be. Look at the fine lines…the use of color. It’s amazing!”
Her dimples must’ve hurt with all the grinning she was doing. This made her day. The decision to come now was completely satisfying. I’m glad he wasn’t in his office earlier. Now she could go to bed and dream of this very moment. Carter was amazing with children. With Rose.
“Now Mommy’s. Open Mommy’s.”
Carter felt around in the bag and pulled out the slender box wrapped in red wrapping. He smelled it, looked at it, and shook it once or twice. “Is it…a horse?”
Rose shook her head and laughed.
“A lion? No, it’s too small to be a lion. I know!” He held up his pointer finger. “A baby lion!”
Rose doubled over laughing. “No, silly. It’s one of those things for your neck.”
“Rose!” I exclaimed. “Don’t tell someone what’s in their present.”
Carter grinned. He knelt close to Rose. “Help me see what this neck brace looks like. Here, grab an end.”
After they’d stripped it of the wrapping, he took it out and held it up to the light. “It’s the most handsome neck thing I’ve ever seen.” He slung it around his neck and posed.
“I like it. It looks good on you.”
He smiled and tousled her hair. “Now it’s my turn.”
“Your turn?”
“Yeah, I got you all something.”
“Aren’t you going to come over for Christmas? And we watch that black-and-white movie. And you and Mommy eat waffles?”
“Rose, we did that one year.” I was amazed she recalled that. Carter was separated from Paige and lonely. I told him to come over and spend it with Rose and me. Liz ended up coming later, too. We had a really good time.
“I’m going to be out of town, sweetie. And what’s with Christmas? You came and gave me my gift early, didn’t you?”
“Well, I didn’t want you to wait.”
“Well, I don’t want you to either.”
“But I won’t have as many presents on Christmas morning. Santa only gives me two.”
There with the obscure math that girl knows. Two? In her dreams. I try my best to wrap as many as I can just so the tree looks miraculous when she wakes up. I even wrap her toothbrush and toothpaste separately. Hey, Santa does not put up with gingivitis. And who else gives the coolest toothbrushes with songs that play as you brush? Not Mommy. I get the nasty neon-green ones in the spring.
“Okay, if you want to wait, that’s fine. But I want to give your mother hers. Is that okay?”
“Oh, I’ll wait, Carter. It’s okay.”
“No, I really wanted to see your face when you opened it. Do you really not want to?”
Who could say no to that face? “Okay. But can I use your bathroom? Aunt Heidi gave me some eggnog and I’m afraid it waits not a minute past now.”
“I hear ya, sister. You know where it’s at. Rose and I will get the gifts while you go.”
I came back out to hear Rose yammering on to Carter about something dealing with me. I got the gist of Mommy and death. What?
“Rose, what in the world are you talking about?” I thought she was worried to leave me in two days. She’d been talking about it nonstop. Problem 810 for being the only child to a single parent—the guilt of leaving them behind. I never could go out with friends. Seeing Dad in the kitchen stirring beans and franks broke my heart. It figures that Rose felt bad to leave me at Christmas. I needed to assure her more that I’d be okay.
Falling For Sarah (Sarah Series Book 3) Page 18