by SUE FINEMAN
Maybe not ever.
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Al took a custom house plan to the Max and Company offices the next morning. He didn’t care for the style of the house, but he’d done what the buyers wanted. “Hey, Nick. I finished this plan, but I don’t know if they’re going to like it.”
“This is the industrial loft house?”
“Yeah. It’s a cold atmosphere to live in, but that’s what they wanted.”
“Yeah, I know. I don’t think they can get approval from the neighborhood architectural control committee. The other homes in that area are craftsman style or French country or traditional. This thing will stick out like a sore thumb.”
Al put the plan on the round table in the conference area and then unrolled another one. “This is a hybrid of sorts. It looks more traditional on the outside, but it has the more streamlined, modern look they’re looking for on the inside. They might not like either plan, but it’ll give them something to think about.” These clients were building in a high-profile development with strict building codes. They knew that when they bought the property and hired Max and Company to build them a house. It was doubtful that the first plan, the one they’d requested, would be approved.
“I don’t want to build something they won’t be satisfied with,” said Nick.
They’d had that discussion many times. Some clients thought they knew what they wanted, but when it came right down to it, they didn’t want something so radical that they’d never be able to sell it down the road. Homes that were too different were hard to get rid of. Nick built mostly traditional homes with all the modern conveniences, like five piece master bathrooms, walk-in closets, kitchens with all the latest appliances and granite countertops; and they were all wired for high speed Internet access, intercoms, vacuums, and sound systems. The buyers didn’t have to put those things in, but it was easier to plumb and wire when the walls were open than to try to add it later.
Nick studied the new plan. “Hey, I like this. We could change this around for other clients, put in a more traditional fireplace in the family room, close off the dressing room off the master, change the exterior a little, and—”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. They wanted the master all open, but most people want a door on the bathroom and dressing room. The sitting area could be a separate room they could use as a nursery or private study if we put French doors on it. I’m thinking this might be hard to sell down the road without a door in there somewhere.”
An hour later, the clients had accepted the second plan, with a few small changes. As soon as Al got it revised, they’d take it before the neighborhood committee for approval. This one might actually have a chance of being accepted.
The clients left happy, and Nick asked, “How’s Katie?”
“She’s having nightmares and taking care of Callie, the kitty who fell. The cat’s leg is in a cast, so she stays in the kennel most of the time, where she can’t jump around.”
Nick leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs. “And Katie’s mother?”
Al stared at his cousin. “You know I never discuss women.”
Nick laughed a little. “Yeah, I know. You could do a whole lot worse. Aunt Sophia thinks she’s great, and so does the rest of the family.”
Ma probably had her rosary beads clicking away, praying for another wedding in the family. Sex was one thing. Trusting a woman enough to make plans for happily ever after was something else. And trust was definitely an issue between them. When they were fifteen, she’d come on to him and then jerked his emotional legs out from under him.
“She said any woman who can put up with Mattie Worthington is worth hanging onto, and I agree. The old woman is a real piece of work. While everyone else worried about you and Katie hanging out over the rocks, she groused about Jenna not being there to make her a cup of tea.”
Jenna deserved better, but it wasn’t his place to tell her to put Mattie in a nursing home, even though that was where she belonged. The more Jenna did for her, the more she demanded, and then she complained because Jenna wasn’t doing more. It made him wonder what it was like for Jenna when she was growing up. Did the old lady treat her like this back then?
“Mattie is more demanding than Katie. Jenna can’t please her.”
“So what’s going to happen when the cast comes off her arm?”
“I don’t know, Nick. The bones aren’t healing. They could put a pin in it, but Mattie refuses to have surgery, so they’ll probably have her wear a splint of some kind. It should be more comfortable than the cast, and she might be able to feed herself, but it puts Jenna in a bind. She was planning to move back to Seattle and look for another job when the cast came off. Mattie doesn’t pay her anything, and that jerk Brian Baxter has stopped paying child support. She’s worried about money.”
Nick walked Al out to the car. “If she needs work, send her in to see me. We’ll find her something to do.”
Nick hired everyone in the family who needed work, and now he was extending that offer to Jenna. It shouldn’t be necessary. If anyone else was taking care of Mattie, she’d have to pay them. He’d given her a lot of money for the inn, so she could afford to pay, but aside from necessities like groceries, Mattie didn’t give Jenna a nickel.
Maybe Jenna was right about Charlie being her natural father. It would explain Mattie’s impatience with Jenna.
“Did Aunt Sophia tell you she’s walking around the harbor with Phillip Collier three mornings a week?”
“No. This is Mattie’s attorney we’re talking about?”
“Probably. He’s an attorney. His son, Chip, used to date Gina.”
Al nodded. “I remember Chip.” So Ma had a new friend.
Good for her.
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Jenna was helping Aunt Mattie out of the tub when she slipped a little on the wet floor. She caught herself before she dropped her aunt, but Aunt Mattie blasted her, calling her stupid and worthless. As soon as she sat on the toilet lid, Mattie pinched the tender under side of Jenna’s upper arm.
“Ow! Stop that.”
Jenna dried her off and helped her dress. As soon as she got her settled in her chair with her cup of tea, Jenna said, “I can’t do this any longer. I’m leaving, and you’re going into a nursing home.”
“You ungrateful little—”
“Ungrateful? I’m breaking my back trying to lift your dead weight out of the tub because you won’t help yourself even a little. I feed you and bathe you and dress you, and clean for you, and all I get is nasty remarks, and now you’ve pinched the skin off my arm. I don’t have to put up with this, and I can’t live on nothing. If you won’t pay me to take care of you, I have to find a job, because Katie needs clothes, and she needs to go to school in September.”
“Nobody paid me to take care of you.”
Jenna knew she should shut up and walk away, but she couldn’t. Not this time. “Then what happened to Mom and Dad’s savings and the money from their house and their furniture and their retirement accounts? Where did all that money go if it didn’t go to support me?”
Instead of denying that they’d taken the money, Aunt Mattie’s thin lips pressed tightly together.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because you’re a bastard just like that little girl.” The old woman almost spit the words at Jenna. “My parents left me this place, and you and your kind—”
“My kind? You mean my mother?”
“She was a slut, too, hanging around here where she wasn’t wanted, throwing herself at another woman’s husband.”
Jenna stared at her. “Was Uncle Charlie my father?”
“He wasn’t anybody’s father,” she yelled. “Now get out of my inn. Take your little brat and get out. I don’t need you. I don’t need anybody.”
Stung by the venom in Mattie’s voice, Jenna backed out of the room. Katie stood by the kitchen door rubbing her eyes. She’d heard. Jenna hugged her. “We’ll be all right, Katie Bug.”
&n
bsp; “Do we hafta move?”
“I don’t know yet, honey.”
Until she figured out what Uncle Charlie had done with her parents’ money or until she found a job, they couldn’t go anywhere. She should take Brian to court for child support, but he couldn’t pay anything when he wasn’t working. The judge surely wouldn’t order his parents to pay it. She’d insulted Brian’s parents, and they weren’t likely to give her anything now. She didn’t want Katie around Bruce’s cigar smoke anyway. She didn’t care if she never saw Brian again, but he was Katie’s daddy, and child support or no child support, she couldn’t deny him the right to see his daughter.
She cleaned the wound on her arm. It stung like crazy. Taking this kind of crap from a vindictive old woman was out of the question. They’d probably tie her down and sedate her if she acted like this in a nursing home.
<>
Al returned home to find Mattie in her room fussing up a storm. Jenna was in the attic with Katie, and papers were spread on the floor around her.
“Jenna, what’s with Mattie?”
“She threw me out, but I can’t go anywhere without money. I can’t even fill my gas tank. I should take a couple thousand out of her bank account, but if I do, she’ll probably have me arrested.”
He didn’t want her to leave. “So stay here. What do we do about Mattie?”
“Whatever you want. I’m finished with her. I wrenched my back lifting her out of the tub, and she pinched the skin off my arm and called me a few choice names. She hates me and my child and my mother, and right now I’m not any too fond of her. I left a message with the doctor’s office that she’d need a nursing home, and I’ve called three homes here in Gig Harbor, but since I don’t have her power of attorney, I can’t put her in a home. I can’t legally do anything with her or for her without her consent, and she’s not about to give it.”
“I’ll call my attorney and let him handle it.” He sprinted downstairs to the nearest phone and called Gerry Merlino, the Donatelli family attorney. “We had a verbal agreement that she could stay as long as she could take care of herself, but that time has come and gone. Jenna has been trying, but the old lady isn’t cooperating. It’s time to send her on her way, either willingly or unwillingly. I don’t have the time or the patience to take care of a surly old woman.”
Gerry groaned. “Can you get Jenna out of there until we take care of the problem?”
“Sure.” Mom would take her.
“I’ll speak with her attorney. We’ll get her out if I have to have her declared incompetent.”
“Today, Gerry. I want her out today.”
After he called his mother, Al walked up to the attic, where Jenna was putting the papers into stacks. “Jenna, I want you and Katie to go to my mother’s house until we get Mattie out of the inn.”
Jenna gazed up into his eyes. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “You can come back after we get Mattie settled in a nursing home. That’s where she belongs, Jenna. I thought she’d settle down with you taking care of her, but if anything, she’s getting worse. I don’t want her here any longer.”
She stood and stretched her back. “If she hadn’t asked me to come back and help her, I would’ve stayed in Seattle. Now I’ve lost my unemployment, my child support, and I don’t know what Brian did with my apartment or my furniture.”
Al ran his hand down her arm and took her hand. “This place is filled with furniture, and you can take whatever you need, but I don’t want you to go, Jenna. I need you, honey.”
She gazed up into his eyes. “Are you asking me to stay with you?”
“Yes, I am.” For now.
“I’d like to stay, if I can find a job, but I want to pay my share of the household expenses.”
She was a proud woman, and she wanted to support herself. That was fine with him, but he didn’t want her in Seattle if he was here. He’d talk with Nick and see what they could come up with. Maybe they could find her a job in the Gig Harbor area.
He’d wanted to be alone, to live and work in peace, and now the thought of actually being alone didn’t sit well with him. No more little feet pounding up and down the stairs. No more going downstairs at six and finding dinner on the table. The thought of not having Jenna down the hall, of not having her blue eyes smiling at him over coffee or sharing long looks with her over the dinner table left him with an incredible sense of loss.
Chapter Six
Without a word to Mattie, Jenna strapped Katie into the backseat and followed Al to his mother’s house. She thought she could hide out in the attic, but Al’s attorney was right. If she’d stayed at the inn, they’d delay the inevitable and she’d still be expected to take care of Aunt Mattie.
Mattie’s behavior today ended it for Jenna. She’d done her best, but in Aunt Mattie’s eyes, her best would never be good enough. How could anyone live with so much hate in her heart?
Uncle Charlie had always been good to Jenna, and he was the one who made life tolerable when she was growing up. He taught her to drive, took her to the doctor and the dentist, went to school events and parent-teacher conferences. He praised her when she got good grades and thanked her for helping him with tasks at the inn. He encouraged her to get a good education, but her first year away at college, his health started to decline. It was the beginning of the end for him.
Al said the inn belonged to Mattie Jensen Worthington. It had been passed down in the family from father to son, and then when Mattie’s father died, it came to her and Uncle Charlie. Mattie and Charlie had spent their entire married life at the inn, and after he died, she had his name removed from the deed. Getting her out of the inn now would take an act of God or a crowbar, because she wasn’t likely to walk away without a fight.
Jenna pulled into the driveway of a little house at the end of the cul-de-sac beside Alessandro’s car. His mother stood at the door with a big smile on her face. “Jenna, welcome. Katie, come give Grandma a big hug.”
Katie grinned and ran into her arms. “Are you gonna be my grandma now?”
Sophia looked up, eyebrows raised in a question. Was she asking if Jenna and Alessandro had a future together? They’d been thrown together by circumstance, and the one night they’d spent together was the best night of Jenna’s life, but she couldn’t count on it lasting beyond one night. Right now she couldn’t count on anything.
“You can call her Grandma if you want, Katie Bug. She’s Sophie’s grandma.”
Sophia took Katie’s hand and walked inside. Jenna and Al followed with a cat kennel, cat food, and kitty litter. Katie had refused to leave her injured kitty behind.
Alessandro winked at Jenna, and she smiled. He was a great guy, and his mother had everything to do with that. She was a warm and loving woman.
“Thank you for taking us in, Sophia. I hope we won’t be too much trouble.”
She flapped her hand. “Nonsense. It’s so lonesome around here I can’t stand it.”
While Sophia took Katie into the kitchen for a cookie, Jenna turned to Alessandro. “I don’t know what to say. Your mother is—”
“She loves company, loves to cook, and she’s crazy about kids. We’ve had an assortment of animals around here, so the cat is no problem.
“Jenna, I made an appointment for you to see our family attorney this afternoon at two. My mother will watch Katie while you go. His name is Gerry Merlino. He may have to have Mattie declared incompetent, and you’re her closest living relative.”
Jenna shook her head. “I’m not related to anyone but Katie.”
“But she claimed to be your great aunt when you were a kid, and she took Social Security payments on your behalf, so it’s on the record. A judge may give you the responsibility for her and her affairs.”
She groaned. “Can’t the judge appoint an attorney to do it?” If she had charge of Mattie’s affairs, especially of her money, Mattie would no doubt accuse her of stealing.
“Ask Gerry. I have to get back to the inn. I know she’s n
ot my responsibility, but I can’t leave Mattie alone too long. I’ll be back for dinner.” He grinned. “Ma thinks I’m too skinny, so she wants to feed me.”
A little giggle slipped out. “I love your mother.”
“Jenna, everyone loves my mother.”
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When Al arrived at the inn, Mattie’s attorney, Phillip Collier, was inside, and Mattie groused about Al and how he’d cheated her on the sale of the inn. “He said I could stay, and now he’s sending me to a nursing home. I want my inn back, so I can stay here.”
Al stood in the open doorway and tapped lightly on the door. “I said you could stay as long as you could take care of yourself or have someone here to take care of you. Jenna tried to help you, but you chased her off, and I gave you a fair price for the inn, especially for the shape it’s in.”
Mr. Collier nodded. “I agree with that, Mattie. We checked the value of surrounding property and deducted a percentage because of the shape the buildings were in. If the county had taken it for taxes, you wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much as Al paid you. You have enough in your bank account to get a private room at the nursing home. It’s the nicest one in the area. I know, because my wife’s sister lived there for two years, and they took real good care of her.”
“I don’t want to live in a nursing home. I want to live here, in the inn. He said I could live here.”
“It’s nearly impossible to find good people to come into your home and care for you, but if you want me to try, I can put an ad in the newspaper and interview people. In the meantime, you can’t stay here. Al isn’t equipped to take care of you, and there’s no one else here.”
“Oh, all right, but I’m not staying in a home with a bunch of old people. You’ll find somebody to live here and help me, won’t you?”
“I’ll do my best.”
Al hoped his ‘best’ would be to leave Mattie in the nursing home. He’d made a mistake agreeing to let her stay in the inn. She’d come across as a nice old lady, but the more he got to know Mattie Worthington, the less he wanted her around.