Nick sighed and took a drink. After he swallowed, he said, “For your mother and probably for you as well, I think this is about respect—self-respect and the respect of your family members.”
Well, of course that was what this was about for her, but why would he say that was what her mother wanted? “I don’t understand,” Thea told him.
“Look, I don’t know all the details here,” Nick said, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if your mother wants to see herself as having been the one taking care of you all these years you’ve been living with her.”
“Taking care of me?” Thea repeated. Outrage radiated in her voice. “How could she possibly think that she’s been taking care of me all these years?”
“Slow down, take another drink, and think about it,” Nick suggested.
Thea reluctantly did as he asked, but try as she might, she couldn’t think of any reason her mother could possibly have that justified the idea that she had been taking care of Thea for the past twelve years. It wasn’t just the bills. Thea carted her around everywhere, took her shopping, got her to Church, and made sure she had some pretense at a social life. Thea was the one who’d put everything on hold trying to make certain her ungrateful mother wasn’t completely miserable after her father died. The very idea that the responsibility had flowed the other way was simply offensive. “I just don’t see it,” she told Nick.
Nick took another drink. “I would guess that your mother thinks she’s been taking care of you all these years because if she admitted you have been taking care of her, she might have to face the fact that she’s getting old.”
“But…” Thea stopped and thought about that for a moment. Of course Mom was getting old, but that wasn’t the problem here. Mom had never taken care of herself. First Daddy had done it, but then Daddy had gotten sick not too long after they bought the house.
“When my Dad got ill—he had cancer and it got into everything—he had to stop working,” Thea told Nick. She didn’t like thinking about those days. There was so much pain and everything had been bad. “There were a lot of bills and with Dad on disability, Mom and he couldn’t make their payments. So I stepped in. Mom couldn’t take care of him and frankly, couldn’t take care of herself then either. She had no skills. She couldn’t support herself.”
She thought about that for a moment. It had been a genuine family crisis. They had sacrificed so much to buy the house and they were about to lose everything. “They should have signed over a share of the house to me right then,” Thea realized. “But we were all pretending that Dad was going to be back on his feet again soon. If we’d signed over the house that would have been the same as admitting he didn’t have a chance.”
Nick slipped his free hand into hers. “And then when he died, you were probably planning to move out again but there was always one more thing that you had to do first.”
“That’s right,” Thea said. That was exactly the way it had happened. “Mom was going to sell the house and get a small apartment. Even then I don’t think she was getting enough cash to support herself. I didn’t think Dad had good insurance like Becka said. I thought it covered the funeral with just a little bit left over.”
Nick squeezed her hand more tightly. “Maybe that’s all it did. Just because Becka thinks there was a lot of money doesn’t mean there was. Did she tell you she saw the policy? Or saw the check?”
“No,” Thea admitted.
“You’d be surprised how many people talk to me about this stuff at one in the morning,” Nick told her. “Most people aren’t comfortable talking about death. Most people don’t make adequate preparations for it. And most people have no idea what the real state of their parents’ finances are until after the funeral when they start sorting through the paperwork.”
“So we’re not that different than everyone else?” Thea asked.
“Money usually brings out the worst in people,” Nick said, “but again I don’t think that’s the whole picture here. What did your sister first say to you when she called? I caught a few of the words but I want to be certain I’m right before I comment.”
Thea thought for a moment while she took another sip of her drink. “I think she said—Mom says you’re moving out and she’s going to lose the house—or something like that.”
“That’s what I thought,” Nick said. “Does that sound like the sort of thing a woman who had a lot of insurance money tucked away would say?”
“No,” Thea said. “No, it doesn’t.”
Nick took a moment to sip his drink, so Thea asked him another question. “So why do you think Becka told me that?”
“Told you what?” Nick asked. “You mean the insurance?”
Thea nodded.
“Well, remember that I’ve never met your sister so I’m just speculating here, but I’ll bet that money is very high among your sister’s concerns right now. Her divorce was just finalized, right?”
“It’s been about a year now,” Thea told him.
“That’s what I thought,” Nick said. “Divorces are very expensive, but in addition to legal costs, they also result in a serious deterioration of income.”
“What do you mean by that?” Thea asked. But even as she asked the question, she knew what Nick meant. Sure Becka was getting alimony and child support, but anyway you looked at it, she was still trying to run her household on less money than she had had when she and Wilson were married.
“The income that used to support one household now has to cover two,” Nick explained. “So Becka is probably very worried about making ends meet. And if you move out and stop supporting your mother, then it’s possible that your mother will either ask Becka for help or ask to move in with her—neither of which are possibilities that Becka would want to deal with.”
“All right,” Thea agreed while Nick took another drink. “That all makes sense. But why would Becka make up something about the insurance?”
Nick shrugged. “Maybe she wants to believe it. Maybe she and her husband needed help over the years and your mother gave it to her, claiming it was from this insurance fund. I don’t know. What is important is that Becka clearly feels threatened by the idea that you might be finished taking care of your mother and that that means it’s her turn. She’s just gotten out of one bad relationship. She’s probably just starting to enjoy her independence. The thought of having your mother move in is probably overwhelmingly depressing to her.”
“So she yells at me?”
“You know your sister best. Is yelling the way she deals with stress? Or does she usually manipulate you through guilt trips?”
“Yes to both.” Thea gulped down the rest of her drink and picked up the phone. “Thanks for helping me see straight on this. Now I’m going to call her back and give her a piece of my mind.”
“Thea,” Nick said. His voice was little more than a whisper. “What good would that do? You need to figure out what you want to do for you first. Then you can sit down with your mom and your sister and discuss how your decisions affect everyone else and how as a family you’re going to resolve them. Maybe your mother will have to sell the house. Maybe she won’t. Maybe—”
“If she sells the house, she could give me my money back,” Thea cut in.
Nick shook his head. “Is the money really what’s important to you?”
The idea offended Thea. “No,” she said a little bit more harshly than she should have.
“I didn’t think so,” Nick said. “I suggest you find another way to keep score in this fight. If your mother can’t afford to keep her house, she’s going to need every penny she makes from selling it to support herself.”
“But…”
“It’s not fair,” Nick said, “but it’s best to keep your expectations low here. If you build them up to include what’s fair, you’re going to get very disappointed and that’s going to utterly ruin your relationship with your mother and your sister.”
“You don’t think Mom is going to make things right here, do you?�
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Nick shrugged. “I don’t really know your mother. We’re just speculating here based on the kind of things I’ve heard the people in my bar complaining about over the last few years. But I think you’ll be happier in the long run if you start with the premise that you’ve spent the last twelve years giving a very special gift to your parents, and that any part of that gift that comes back to you is a bonus.”
He finished his drink and got to his feet. “If you stop to think about it, most of the unhappiness in the world results from unfulfilled expectations. If you build up your hopes on this too high, you’re likely to be disappointed and that’s going to spoil your relationship with your mother and sister.”
“But shouldn’t they be worried about spoiling their relationship with me?” Thea complained.
He extended his hand to Thea. “Of course, they should, and maybe they’ll pleasantly surprise you. But since ultimately you can’t control what they do, you need to figure out what the minimum is that you can accept from them in this situation and what you’re going to do if they refuse to give it to you. Now come on. Let’s go.”
Thea took his hand. Her head was spinning around the subjects of the house and her greedy mother and sister. And that wasn’t even taking Dwayne into account. Knowing him, he probably thought he was getting all of Mom’s stuff when she died. That Becka and she deserved nothing. “But—”
“No, buts,” Nick told her as helped her to her feet. “You and I are going to put our coats back on and take a walk in the snow.”
The idea came at Thea out of left field. “We’re what?”
“This is our evening,” Nick reminded her. “Let’s put down the phone and start enjoying it.”
Thea considered for a moment. She could see the large flakes gently falling outside of Nick’s window.
“When’s the last time you walked in the snow just to enjoy yourself?” Nick asked her.
Thea suddenly realized Nick was right. Whatever happened with the house, if she let Mom and Becka ruin this day with Nick, both of them had already won. The whole impetus to secure some privacy and respect would disappear if Nick got frustrated and broke up with her. She needed to put all of the family crap to the side for twenty-four hours and learn how to have a little fun again.
“You know something?” Thea asked Nick. “It’s been so long since I’ve done that that I can’t remember the last time.”
She tossed her phone on the couch and let her boyfriend help her on with her coat.
Chapter Five
Snow
There was already an inch of snow on the ground by the time Nick and Thea reached the sidewalk outside of his apartment building. They walked arm in arm. Thea was bundled up in her long coat with a scarf around her neck and a knit hat on her head. Nick had on his parka, also with scarf and hat. Both wore gloves, which was probably why Nick had offered Thea his arm instead of his hand. Well, that and the fact that walking arm in arm brought them a little bit closer together than simply holding hands did.
“It’s beautiful out,” Thea told him. “This is a really good idea!”
“I like the snow,” Nick confided. “I know it makes life difficult now that we’re all adults. But I loved it as a kid and I like watching the kids run around and sled in it. I—”
He broke off, making Thea wonder what he’d been going to say.
“You what?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said.
A car rolled past them driving a little too fast for Thea’s tastes. Certainly the street wasn’t bad enough yet to argue that no car should be on the road, but that didn’t mean it was safe to go speeding up the street.
“I’m serious,” she said, lying her head briefly against his shoulder as they walked. The snow falling all around them made the day seem far more peaceful than it had up in Nick’s apartment when she was fighting with her sister. “I’d like to know what you were thinking.”
“I was going to say, that I also love the thought of playing in the snow with my own kids one day,” Nick said.
Thea lifted her head off Nick’s shoulder to look at him. “And you were afraid that if you mentioned having kids, I would freak out and run screaming into the storm?”
Nick smiled.
“For the record, it is usually the guy who runs off screaming when kids come into the conversation,” Thea said.
“I didn’t think you’d run off screaming,” Nick defended himself. “But I did wonder if perhaps it was a little bit early to bring up the idea—no matter how weakly—that we might have kids one day.”
“Oh,” Thea teased. “So now these children you enjoy imagining are our kids, are they?”
‘Who else’s would they be?” Nick asked.
Thea stopped walking grabbed him by the front of jacket and pulled him forward for a big kiss.
Nick was clearly happy to comply with her demands. His hands went to her sides, pulled her closer to him, and he thrust his tongue against hers.
“That was a good answer,” Thea quietly observed when they finally broke for air.
“So does this mean you haven’t thought about having kids with me?” Nick asked as he offered Thea his arm again.
“You are a little focused on having children this afternoon, aren’t you?” Thea said.
“I hope we’ll be practicing making them quite a bit this evening,” Nick teased.
“You do realize I’m on the pill now,” Thea told him.
“I do indeed,” Nick said. “That’s why I said we would practice making them. And before you ask, no, I’m not ready to stop practicing and start trying for real. We’ve only been dating a few weeks.”
“That’s good,” Thea told him, “and still sweet.”
As they talked, they rounded a corner on the sidewalk. Thea saw a large park open up across the street. Inside the park, children were running around throwing snowballs at each other.
Thea glanced up at Nick and found him watching her closely, a speculative expression on his face.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Thea asked him.
“Nothing at all,” Nick told her. “Want to go join the snowball fight?”
“If you join that snowball fight, you’ll probably get arrested,” Thea warned him. Unfortunately, she was only half joking.
“That’s probably true,” Nick agreed. “Why don’t we just go and watch for a while then?”
Together they crossed the street and spent fifteen minutes slowly strolling around the park. The snow had covered their hats and brightened their coats. It felt very cold landing on Thea’s cheeks and nose.
“You really want to join in, don’t you?” Thea asked Nick.
“I had a pretty good arm growing up,” Nick said, “and this looks like great packing snow.”
To illustrate his point, he recovered his arm from Thea and made a large round snowball. Then he let loose with it, throwing it a hundred feet or so where it flattened itself against a tree trunk.
Thea took advantage of Nick’s distraction to make her own ball.
When Nick turned around asking, “What did you think of that?” she hit him in the face with her snow weapon.
Nick froze and then a huge grin formed on his face.
Before Thea could move, he ducked down and came up with a huge armful of snow—not packed, just lying loose in his arms—which he flung in her direction, catching her chest, covering her scarf, and getting a little bit on her chin and mouth.
“Hey!” she shouted as she belatedly twisted about so that her back was to him. She tried to brush the snow off her scarf before any of it managed to penetrate to her neck.
Nick ran over to Thea, scooped her up in his arms and dropped with her down into the snow. She squealed with delight, wrestling with him when his hand appeared filled with more fluffy white coldness. As she succeeded in pushing his hand away, Thea unintentionally exposed herself to Nick’s second attack as he leaned down over her and kissed her.
His lips and tongue felt good, but if he th
ought this would get him out of a return salvo, he was sadly mistaken. As she thrust her tongue deep into Nick’s mouth, Thea let go of his arm and filled her right hand with snow. Her left she snaked around his head so she could hold him in place as she forced the snow down the back of his coat.
Nick’s back arched in reaction, but Thea had underestimated him. Even as he rolled away he pulled at her scarf with one hand and stuffed his own handful of snow against her neck with the right. Cold fire burned against the hollow of her throat and fell inside her shirt against her breasts as she sat bolt upright, shoving Nick away from her.
As Thea clawed at the freezing material inside her coat, Nick rolled back to his knees and came at her again with more snow.
She fought him off, laughing hilariously, until she found her lips against his again and started kissing, even as the cold snow melted on her neck and the top of her breasts. “That wasn’t very nice,” she whispered.
“I just wish,” Nick told her, “that I could open you up right now and observe the effect of all of that snow on your nipples.”
“Perhaps, I should respond by stuffing snow down your pants and seeing how your dick likes it,” Thea threatened.
They wrestled playfully together until Nick let her roll on top. There she got more snow in her gloved hands while he seemed content to hold her about the waist. “And here I thought you liked making me hard,” he told her. “I’m not sure how much fun we’re going to have tonight if you’re intent on seeing how small and shriveled you can make my dick.”
“I’ll make you—”
A large snowball splattered across her chest, spilling snow down onto Nick’s face. Both Thea and Nick looked over in surprise in the direction the snowball had come from.
“Sorry about that!” a high school teenager yelled. Then he and his friends ran off in the other direction.
Thea and Nick started laughing again.
Chapter Six
Playing Scientist
Thea was shivering by the time she and Nick got back to his apartment, but she was also laughing, really enjoying herself. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a snowball fight, much less wrestled in the snow between bouts of making out. If the sky had been darker—if genuine night had already fallen—she might have let Nick go further in their game and open up her coat and pull up her t-shirt to play with her nipple with his tongue.
Snowbound Games Page 4