“Griffin will go back tonight but I’ll join him two days from now.” He mumbled and started eating.
“What’s left to do with Gram’s estate?” I looked at my mother and then at my dad.
“We need to go to the lawyer’s office for the will and then we need to finish cleaning out the house.” My father said with a heavy sigh.
“We also need to decide what we want to do with her house.” My mother whispered.
“Can we afford to keep it?” I asked. The house had so many happy memories attached to it and had been in the family since Gram was a little girl. I knew that the house was important to us all.
“Unless there are some alarming surprises, yes.” My father nodded.
“Of course we can.” Kyle rolled his eyes. “You guys forget that I have a very successful company.”
“Afford it was bad wording.” I amended, “Honestly, the last time I checked the investments I made for the company were doing really well and there should be plenty of money. We just can’t put anything in my name until the divorce goes through.”
“Do you think Ben is going to make this ugly?” My mother looked so sad.
“Right now, I don’t feel like I know Ben well enough to say if he will or not.” I admitted, “Penelope says that anything Gram left will be well protected because Gram took precautions.” I shrugged at their confused expressions. “Penelope hadn’t been able to elaborate beyond that.”
The rest of breakfast was filled with small talk and lighthearted jokes. Afterwards, my mother went with me to the grocery store to pick up a few odds and ends, while my father went to work and Kyle went to Gram’s house to continue working on the clean-out. We all agreed to meet at the lawyer’s office that afternoon. We even invited Griffin to tag along since he was spending most of the day catching up on work back at the house.
“Do you ever miss living in a smaller town?” My mother asked as we strolled up and down the aisles.
“There is a certain nostalgia but no… I can’t picture living here full time.” I glanced at her expression as her smile dropped. “Mom, have you ever thought about moving closer to me?”
“I’m not sure we would like the big city life.” She rubbed her hands together nervously and chewed on her lip.
“I wasn’t thinking in the city… I was thinking that maybe we could move to the beach near the new pharmacy… I know dad has mentioned it.”
My mother pursed her lips. “Yes, he has mentioned it…” she scowled a little, and I couldn’t help but start laughing.
“Mom, you can’t be mad at him for wanting to live closer to his daughter… or wanting to be near an ocean again.”
My father had grown up on the East Coast, in Maine; North Dakota had never been his idea of the perfect place, but my mother had always loved it, and she was his idea of the perfect woman.
“He spent the first thirty years of your marriage living where you wanted… maybe it’s your turn to follow him…” I said gently.
“I know.” She sighed. She had never lived far from home and rarely ventured outside of the state, and I knew the idea was terrifying to her.
“Can we have spaghetti for dinner?” I asked suddenly. “With garlic bread?”
She looked over at me, surprised by the randomness of my request, and then laughed at the serious expression on my face.
“I take it you just had your first official craving?”
“Is that what just happened? I suddenly could almost taste the spaghetti dinners we used to have with Gram on Sundays.” I blinked back tears again and huffed. “These damn hormones are turning me into a big crybaby.”
23-Ben
“I want to know where my f- wife is.” I hissed into the phone.
“Mr. Landon, my client has not given me permission to share that information with you.” The bitch of a lawyer that my wife had retained sounded delighted to refuse my demands.
“I need a number to contact her, I’m not signing this divorce agreement, and especially not simply based on your word that it’s what she wanted!”
I had never expected to go home and find the flowers I had ordered sitting on the front porch, a ‘Dear John’ email from my wife, and a hot woman serving me with divorce papers on the walkway. While I had been giving her space, my surprisingly clever wife had been executing a perfect exit plan. Her downfall would be that she had clearly underestimated how dedicated I was to my marriage.
“Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to tell you anything more than what I have already told you.”
