“It’s time. The place is too big for us. It was home and wonderful memories are here. But they’re mine now, your grandmother is losing hers.”
Noelle blinks until the tears are almost gone, then she narrows her eyes on Tink like she’s accusing and blaming him. “You are okay with this?”
“I wasn’t at first, but after I saw the place, I think it would be good for them. It was your mother who dug in her heels.”
“Isn’t there a way you can stay here?” she asks her grandfather.
“Noelle, I don’t want to stay here. It’s too much.”
“But me and Kaden are here.”
Is she worried about where she will live? This is her home. Is she going to be left without a place? My brain immediately goes to the basement I’m finishing off. I’d let her and Kaden rent it before moving in myself. Hell, I’d sleep on the living room couch before I’d let her be left out in the cold.
“We can all be together,” she insists.
“No.” Mr. Dempsey thumbs his cane. “You have your brother who you will now be mothering. You are not taking on me and your grandmother too. You are only twenty-three and I’m not going to have you waste your young life on us.”
“But, you’re…”
“This is a good place,” he cuts her off. “We’ve visited and have stayed there. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to move.”
“Right time?”
“For the trial to be over and for that to be behind you.”
Noelle grasps the edge of the couch, her knuckles turning white. I’m not sure if she’s about to panic or break down.
“I’ve been paying for our place ever since a spot opened so we wouldn’t lose it.” He leans forward. “I’ve taken your Grams up there several times and she likes it.”
“When?”
“Over the past year. Your mother hated the idea,” he grumbles
“I live here,” Noelle argues.
“You haven’t even been here a week.” He takes a deep breath. “I want this Noelle. I’ll be able to relax because your grandmother will have more freedom. I won’t have to worry that she’ll wander away while I sleep, or get lost, or get hurt because I wasn’t there. I need that.”
All argument deflates from her body language at her grandfather’s plea. “Where is it?”
“By the Compound,” he laughs. “One of your second cousins works there and she’s got us all set up.”
“And you’ve been paying for that for almost a year.”
“Yep.”
“Aren’t those places expensive?”
He reaches over and pats her hand. “Don’t you worry about that.”
I glance between Noelle, her grandfather and Tink andwonder why the hell I needed to stay for this conversation. However, I’m glad I did because she’s just had the rug pulled out from under her again and someone needs to be there for her.
Where the hell am I going to live? I don’t have money to get another place. I just got a job and don’t start until tomorrow. What if it doesn’t work out and nobody else calls for an interview? I only have about three hundred in the bank and that isn’t going to last long. Not in a place like New York.
With any luck, my grandparents won’t sell the house right away and if I promise to get it ready to sell, maybe they’ll let me continue to live here.
Breathe deep and don’t panic yet. This house isn’t ready to sell. Hell, you can’t even get in the front door.
That’s what I’ll propose. That they let me and Kaden stay until there’s a buyer and pray I get a job.
“Now that that is out of the way, this is for you.”
I reach out and take the documents, afraid of what I’m going to learn next.
“The house has been paid off for years so you don’t have to worry about a mortgage, just the taxes and utilities.”
What is he talking about? I unfold the paper. It’s a deed to the house. Deeded to me. This can’t be right. Surely, I’m reading this wrong.
“We were going to leave it to Russell and your mother, but you need it more.”
I push the papers back to him. “No, you can’t. Uncle Tink shouldn’t lose out…”
My uncle laughs. “I don’t need this house. I don’t need anything. You do, as does Kaden. The two of you need a home, more for Kaden than anything else. He needs stability.”
He’s right, but I thought we were going to get that here with my grandparents.
“Look, Dad and I have already talked about this. I’m the one who told him to give it to you.”
“I can’t take a house.” It solves the problem of rent, but what are the utilities on something like this?
Of course, I don’t voice that because then I just sound ungrateful.
“Yes, you can, for your brother.”
I wish I could. I really do, but, “I can’t afford this even if it is paid off.”
“Yes, you can.” Gramps hands me another piece of paper. “Your mother had a trust fund, and still does, but some of it has been released to you to help with the cost of raising Kaden. That’s what’s in the account right now.”
I open the bank statement and my eyes pop open. Ten thousand dollars?
“For food and utilities and to get you back on your feet.”
Uncle Tink sits forward. “My mother had a huge trust fund, one Dad didn’t ever want to touch because he wanted to support her. She set it aside but we get portions throughout life. First to pay for college, then at twenty-five and then every five years. The contingency is that at least thirty-percent of those funds must be used for charity.”
“So, I need to do that?” I don’t like to be stingy but this money could go a long way in paying the bills so I can save.
“That won’t start until you’re twenty-five. Most everyone is on their feet by then.”
“That is what the other side of the family does. The ones that run Baxter.”
Sean stiffens and looks over at Tink.
“I thought you knew,” my uncle says.
“Knew what?” Sean counters slowly.
“That the Baxters are family. Mom is a Baxter.”
Sean shakes his head. “No. You never mentioned that.”
Uncle Tink just shrugs. “Well, now you do.”
“You know about Baxter?” I ask Sean. It has a website and all so anyone searching for an artsy high school will find it. But, the students aren’t your typical high school kids.
“I went there. Your uncle got me in.”
He holds my eyes, studying me. I know he’s probably wondering if I’m going to distance myself from him. A lot of people would if they knew as much about the school and the students as I do. “And you said your ceramics weren’t good enough.” I wink at him, trying to lighten the mood and hoping this doesn’t come between us.
I don’t know the background of each student. Any of them. That isn’t for us to know. What we do know is that they had a crappy life, some horrific, but have an artistic talent. I already know how Sean got there. His dad killed his mom. He saw it. That was his hell and he was good at ceramics.
Then it slowly sinks in. The things he’s said about his friends. “You all went to Baxter?”
He slowly nods and I’m sure he’s wondering if I’m going to make an issue out of it, or if I’ll even say anything. Privacy is number one when it comes to a Baxter student. What happened before and then at the school stays at the school. Just like Vegas and Fight Club. It’s all in the past.
“I will never, ever say anything.”
“All of you did?” Gramps asks in surprise.
“Yes, sir.”
Then my Gramps grins. “I always knew it was a good place, but it’s really nice to see the success. You’re a good man, Sean, and so are your friends.”
“Thank you, Mr. Dempsey.” But he’s still watching me.
“What?”
“What?” he returns.
“You think I’m going to judge you?”
He shrugs.
/>
“I get it. I’ve been educated on the importance of Baxter since I could crawl. The first lesson is to never judge someone on their past so I hope you aren’t judging me because I share blood with the Baxters.”
He blinks at me. “Sorry. It’s just well…”
“A shock,” I say.
“Yeah.”
“It changes nothing.” In that it doesn’t change my feelings for him, whatever they are developing into.
“You two can talk about whatever it is that is going on between you later,” Gramps says.
I have a funny feeling that we will be discussing whatever it is in length. I just hope Sean doesn’t get weird around me because of who my extended family is because that would suck balls and I could really use a friend right now.
My Gramps can’t be serious about moving. This is his home. Somehow I’ve got to talk him out of it.
“Back to the Foundation,” Tink says. “They control all the funds and trusts and anything related to Baxter money whether it is going to the school, one of their various charities, or the trusts set up for kids, grandkids, et cetera.”
I thought it was the other side that was making and had the money. Not Grams.
“Your mom and I started the Art Center as our part of giving one-third. When she quit, half of the heart was gone and it just got harder and harder. Now, I support my chapter and help the kids.”
“I had no idea that it belonged to you and Mom. Nobody ever told me.”
“She never wanted you to know. Just like Doris didn’t tell your mom and Russell until they graduated college,” Gramps says.
It is so weird to hear Uncle Tink called Russell. He hasn’t been Uncle Russell to me since before the bikers gave him the nickname.
“Your school was paid for,” Uncle Tink reminds me.
“I thought Mom got a loan or something. She said she wanted to take care of it.” I really hadn’t questioned her since Mom always wanted to help when she could. We’d argued about it and I told her that I could get my own student loans, but she refused and I finally gave in.
“Moira’s scholarship came from your mom too. She knew the two of you wanted to do the same thing and since Moira could never afford to go, she made sure she could, plus she was glad you wouldn’t be in a foreign country alone.”
“Mom had that kind of money?” She never let on. “And Gary let her do this?”
Uncle Tink snorts. “Your mom never told him. It wasn’t an issue when they first married and she’d only used a little bit, intending to have it as a fallback, future emergency, your college fund, leave to you kids, whatever. But, then she saw Gary’s greed, after it was too late, and he was asking about the rest of the family and how she should get her relatives to invest with him because everyone knows the Baxters are rich.”
My stomach churns. “Did she?”
“She got him a meeting so he’d leave her alone. The Foundation wasn’t impressed. They’ve managed on their own for decades and they weren’t going to let him waltz in and take over.”
“Thank God, because it could all be gone now.”
“That’s pretty much when things turned bad for them, I think. At least, that’s when she started pulling away. She only confided in me once that she was pretty sure Gary targeted her all along because of her family and expected to get richer because of it.”
I’m going to be sick. “He never really loved her?”
“Maybe in the beginning, but it was the money he was attracted to first.”
Everything, based on a lie? Not that Mom was all that honest with us either, and I’m not talking about the money. That’s not important. Except, I would have liked to have known that she had paid, out of pocket, for college, then I wouldn’t have been worried about any loans she might have taken out, that may catch up with me. One of the many things that worried me when I returned, but when no bank contacted me, I figured she had some kind of insurance or something, so it was paid off.
“I think he was attracted to her when they first met. Finding out who she was made her more attractive,” Uncle Tink says with disgust. “Before any of us caught on, she was already married. She told me that Gary was never to find out about the trust.” Uncle Tink shakes his head. “She even lied to him about your college. She claimed she didn’t want you to go and refused to pay for Paris culinary school so your Gramps paid for it.”
I look at my grandfather and he shrugs in agreement.
I look over at Sean, wondering if I’m dreaming this whole thing.
He just shrugs too.
I also don’t get why he needed to be here for this.
“So, now that you explained all of that,” Gramps interrupts. “There is enough in an account to fix this place up.”
He can’t be serious. It would take a small fortune to do that. The ten grand will only replace floors, if that, and I need that money for utilities.
“My only requirement is that you have Sean oversee the work.”
That is why he’s here.
Sean’s eyebrows rise in surprise.
“He’s done real good by us. He and his friends have fixed up their house really nice. I also know that he wants his own company one day. Renovating houses and this is a good one to start with. He knows what work is needed, but it’s good enough to live in and he can take his time, or work it around his other schedule. Sean’s not going to take advantage and he can make this place nice and safe again.”
Gramps looks over at Sean and slides an envelope to him. “If you need more, just let me know.”
My jaw drops. More money? So renovations are not coming from the ten grand.
Sean slowly takes it and opens. His eyes about bug out. “Unless she decides to tear the place down and start all over, this is more than enough.”
“No skimping. Do what she wants.”
“I promise, I will.”
“What you don’t spend is yours.”
His eyes get wider. “I’ll give you a complete accounting as we go along. Once the work is complete we’ll discuss any compensation.”
“Union wages.” Gramps bangs his cane against the floor. “Hire who you need. There’s more if you need it.” He grins. “Besides, I’m getting old and I can’t take it with me.”
Sean is getting really uncomfortable. I have no idea how much money Gramps just gave him but the house can’t need that much work, except a new kitchen would be nice. But that isn’t even necessary. I just need a working stove and oven to make me happy. Besides, there are more important matters to think about. My brother for one. “I’d rather use the money for a conservatory.” Even though I have no idea how much money there is, ever since Kelsey mentioned a special music school, I’ve been thinking about the possibility and investigated a few yesterday while I was doing my job search. Kaden being talented enough to get in isn’t the problem. Paying for the school was another matter.
“What’s this about a conservatory?” Gramps asks.
I tell them how Kaden plays, how good he is and that Mom insisted he was a prodigy, but Gary didn’t want him to play, and the schools Kelsey recommended.
Gramps looks over at Uncle Tink. They stare at each other for a few minutes.
“We know about his talent,” Uncle Tink finally says. “And Gary’s opinion.”
“So you know why the conservatory is so important.”
Uncle Tink nods. “I’ll look into it. The tuition shouldn’t be a problem.”
I nearly choke. Their tuition is about the same as I paid for culinary school. Well, not me, but Mom. I don’t know how much is in that trust, but I’d still sacrifice updates to the house and any money that I’m supposed to get, short of being able to pay the basic bills, as long as Kaden was in a place where he could be happy.
“You know, if we just use the money to update the kitchen and child proof it for Grams, there is no reason why you guys can’t stay here.” Ideas start rolling in. “We can add a kitchen door, with a lock so she can’t wander in when we aren’t her
e or sleeping. Oh, and we can have an elevator installed, then you guys can be comfortable in your old room. A nurse can sleep across the hall, then you and Grams would have everything you need.”
I can’t let them move. This is their home. Not mine. I can’t just take it and send them off to a retirement community. It’s wrong on so many levels.
Uncle Tink looks at Gramps. “We’re moving Mom and Dad this weekend, when we go up for the Foundation meeting.”
My pulse picks up. “You are moving this weekend? As in tomorrow?”
“It’s time,” Gramps says. “It’s been time for a long time. We just needed to get through the trial. Now all we need to do is pack.”
“What about your furniture? Your things?” This is happening way too fast.
“We have a truck coming in the morning, but we’re not taking much. Your grandmother will want our bedroom furniture. She doesn’t like the bed that is there, and I want my chair, but other than some dishes, coffee pot and toaster, we already have what we need at the new place.”
I look around. That’s all they are taking? What I am supposed to do with the rest of it? I’ll keep some furniture, but there is enough in this living room for a dozen people to sit.
Panic rises. I was just getting used to this situation and now it’s going to change instantly.
I rub my temples as a headache starts to form. I thought I had a few days before I needed to face my next hurdle.
“This is too much. I need to bake something.”
17
“Is Dylan using his kitchen?”
I shouldn’t be surprised by her question but it also came out of nowhere. “I’ll check.” I grab my phone.
Me: Are you cooking?
Dylan: Not at the moment
Me: Noelle needs to cook
Dylan: Why?
Me: Shit just got real and it’s her thing.
Dylan: Kitchen is hers.
“He’s not using it.”
“Good.” She stands. “I need to let all of this sink in,” she tells her family. “And think.” She stands and heads out the door.
I get to my feet. “I guess I should go too.”
Mr. Dempsey comes to his feet. “You will make this house exactly the way my granddaughter wants it,” he orders. “She’s lost her mother, she’s left her career back in Paris, will be a mother to her brother, and now me and Doris are leaving her. Renovating this heap will help keep her mind off her losses. It won’t heal her heart, but it will occupy her mind.”
Rattling Around: The Baxter Boys #5 (The Baxter Boys ~ Rattled) Page 14