“It’s not too far from here.It’s within walking distance of the downtown area as well.And it has a bit of land that goes with it.”He asked for the address and was told it.Howard did wonder if she would have told Debra if she asked, too, and decided that she wouldn’t.She said that she didn’t trust her mother, and with good reason.He didn’t think that she’d be that forthcoming of her address if Debra was threatening them with shooting them.“You’ll have to come and visit us when we get moved in.The other couple, the Monroes, said that they’d be out in a few weeks.They’d already started packing their things up since they put it on the market.”
“I’ll be happy to see your new home.”He found that he was delighted that she wanted to spend any time with him, and he was going to take it when he could get it.“I will have to move closer to you so that we can have a relationship now.I’ve been living in a rental since my divorce, and it’s time that I got myself something else to live in.”
“I have a condo if that’s the way you want to go.It’s two bedrooms and a nice kitchen.I’d gladly let you have it if you want.”He said he’d think about that, knowing that he’d take the condo over having to look for a house anytime.“My brother lives not too far away from the one that I had.But he’s looking for a house now as well.I think he figures that he’s going to need a house when his mate comes along anyway, he might as well find one to start with.”
“That’s wonderful news.”He told him that the condo wasn’t too far from their house, either, so he’d be able to walk there when he wanted to visit.“That’s even better news.I love to walk.I keep getting my steps in every day so that I can keep in shape.No point in my getting out of shape this late in my life.”
They talked about her childhood, and he told her how he’d paid for her school.She seemed to think it was her uncle, and he was all right with that.She’d been such a good student that when she’d gone to college like she had, there was money for her to use as well.He also showed her the pictures that he had of her from a baby to adulthood.
“Robert was really good at making sure I knew a lot about you.When he’d get your school pictures, he’d share them with me.I have a box full of things that you did while in school that he gave me.He was a good man and one that I’m going to miss a great deal.”She told him how she had loved them both and that she, too, was going to miss them.“They were a great couple, the two of them.And they provided me with enough information over the years that I knew more about you than I think your mother ever did.”
“Once I was sent away to school, she never had anything to do with me.Never once did she visit me at the school, nor did she come to any of the plays I was in.”She smiled, such a sad smile that he wanted to hold her in his arms.“Uncle Robert was there for everything.Aunt Cindy, too, when she didn’t have plans.Her work kept her on her toes for a long time, I guess.”
“Your aunt was devoted to her job.She was good at it, too.”She asked if she’d been able to retire from working as a nurse for the emergency department at the local hospital.“I don’t think she planned on ever retiring.She always said that she’d die first.I guess she was right.I miss Cindy so much as well.”They didn’t say anything for a while, and then they were called to dinner.He had only noticed then that the two of them were the only two in the living room where they’d been talking.Heappreciated the time alone with his daughter.“Do you suppose we bored them by talking about our lives apart?”
“I heard from Ivan, and he told me that they were enjoying themselves in the kitchen.He told me that it was the place where they met when they had things to talk about.It’s going to be the heart of our home, too, I hope.We’re going to have to hire staff to keep up with the house; it’s bigger than I thought when we started touring it.”He asked her if they were taking the furniture from her other home.“Most of it.I really like the things that they collected over the years, and I want to tell any children that we have about their great aunt and uncle.The memories were hard at the house, but I think I’ll be fine with a place of my own.Besides, as I said, the house wasn’t meant to be for a family.It was just too hard to get around.”
“I agree.”They went into the dining room together, and he was surprised to see that the family was all there.They must have come in while he was getting to know his daughter, and he was delighted to be able to meet all of Ivan’s family.They were a big group of men, and he liked them immediately.“My goodness, it must have been hard on your family to feed the six of you.You’re hard to feed now, I’m betting.”
He didn’t know what he’d said, but it was Ivan who told him how they’d come from an abusive family.He was also told how their mother had killed their father and an officer when she’d been trying to blame them for his murder.They each had a story to tell about their parents, and he was sorry that he’d said what he had.They assured him that he was all right; how was he supposed to know, but he did feel bad for bringing the room down a little.However, it wasn’t long before they were in a great mood again, and he enjoyed himself.
When it was time for him to leave, they’d begged him to stay later, but he had things to do; he made his way back to the hotel that he’d been staying in since hearing that Robert and Cindy had been killed.Getting to the desk before going up to his room, he was handed several messages, and all of them were from Debra.Since they were time-stamped with the time that she’d called, he knew, as the notes gathered, she was getting angrier and angrier as she left each note.The last one only said for him to call her, and she’d talk to him, but he wasn’t going to do that.He had his own memories that he wanted to have with his daughter, and Debra wasn’t going to mess those up with her demands.
Going to bed that night, he was amazed at how much he’d enjoyed himself this evening.He’d not been able to speak to Serenity before like he had tonight, and he had learned a great deal about her.As he rolled to his side to sleep, he wondered if he’d ever get enough of his daughter before she got bored with him and laughed.His daughter was something else, and he couldn’t wait to spend time with her now.He doubted that would ever change.
Chapter 8
The movers had brought everything over in two large semi-trucks.Once the furniture was set in a room, they’d move it around once, but that was all.He’d been moving furniture in their bedroom for the past hour.Without Sen’s help, it was going slow.Deciding that it was fine for now, he made his way down to the living room, where Sen was directing furniture.The living room looked great, and he wanted to sit down on the nice, comfy couch right now.Ivan found her in the kitchen getting glasses of tea lined up on a tray.
“Here, let me take that.I’m assuming it’s going to the movers.”She told him that he was right and followed him into the vast room that they were in.“How did you get finished so quickly?This looks amazing.”After the tray was emptied, he set it down on the coffee table that he had loved at the other house.“It looks like we’ve lived here forever instead of just moving in.”
“They were very helpful once I knew where the couches were going to go.After that, I just set things up like they were at the house.I think it looks great, too.”He picked up one of the lap blankets that he knew had been on the couch in the other house and folded it up.Putting it on the back of the couch, he sat down while the men enjoyed their drinks.“I’m having trouble deciding where to put the bed in our room.I was thinking against the wall where the window is, but that seemed like a bad idea when the sun came up.”
“That’s where I would have put it.We’re both up early anyway, so what does it matter that the sun might wake us?”He told her she had an excellent idea.“Good.One less thing that we have to worry about.The dining room is finished.It was touch-and-go there for a little while.I didn’t think the table was going to fit.But once I got the corner cabinets put in and the table set up, it looked really good.We will have to have dinner in there some night.I love how the sun shines in through the stained glass windows that are in there.”
The rest of the house was put together quickly because he did what she’d done and set up the bigger furniture first, then put the smaller things around it.It didn’t hurt that the rooms here were larger than the rooms at the other house, and there were more rooms as well.Once the last truck was emptied, the movers tipped their hats at Sen, and they were on their way.He was going to give them a good review about how they’d helped move them in today.His family showed up right after the last truck was pulling away.
“We thought we’d come and help you move stuff around, but it looks like you have that handled.Gracious, this looks great.I’d never know that you’ve been living here all of ten minutes.”The rest of his family teased them as well, and he found that he didn’t care.Things were being set up, and that’s the way that it should be.Lica continued speaking when they were sitting in the living room.“I’ve heard from my source at the police station.Your mother has been arrested, Sen.She wasn’t paying her bill at the hotel she was staying in, and the credit card that she’d given them had been canceled by the company that it was issued from.I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.”Sen leaned back on the couch they were sitting on and smiled.“You’ve just given me the best news.I was sick of looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for her to pop out at any moment.”
“She had a gun on her, too.It wasn’t registered to her, and it’s been taken away.She seemed more upset about that than she did the fact that she was in jail.”Sen asked Lica if they knew where she’d gotten the gun.“No.And she’s not talking either.I’m assuming that she bought it from the back of some car or something.But when they asked her what she was going to do with it, she said that she had some people that needed to learn their place.She never mentioned you, but I know for a fact that she’s been saying that she was going to kill you for the money anyway.”
“I didn’t want to believe that she’d kill me, but I guess she really would have.When she leaves the jail, will they give it back to her?”It was Devlin who explained that she’d not get it back because it wasn’t registered to her.“Good.I’d hate to think that they’d give her a gun as unstable as she is.Maybe she’ll cool off now that she’s in jail.”
“Do you really believe that?”She shook her head and took his hand into hers.“I think that she’s going to cause trouble no matter where she is.The boys at the stationhouse are complaining about her wanting to speak to you.I told them that there is no way that you were going to go down there and have anything to do with her.I hope that was right on your part.”She nodded at Lica.
“It scares me to no end that she was able to get a gun in the first place.I mean, she’s my mother, why on earth does she think that killing me is going to get her anything?”Edmond told her that he’d heard that she was still going on about her brother leaving you everything.While she doesn’t know, he told her what the amount is, Debra has a feeling that Sen got a great deal more than she did.“That’s true.I did.A great deal more than she did.However, I was told not to tell her that.She’d drain me dry if I were to tell her the things that were left to me and not her.I have a feeling that Uncle Robert knew what she’d do if she found out.I worry now about my father, too.He has money too and has taken her house and car from her.”
“I heard about that.I also heard that it’s the reason why she beat you so badly when you were a child.She kept you from asking about him again by doing that.”Sen said that was why she’d never even asked if the Howard at her uncle’s house was her dad or not.Because she knew that she’d get hurt again if she asked, so she never did again.“I thought as much.So this thing with your parents should have ended long ago instead of just now.You were probably lucky in that you didn’t ask again.She seems like she would have killed you even back then.”
“I never thought about that, her being unstable.I guess I thought that every parent was like her.I had no one to compare her to growing up.All the kids that I went to school with were from divorced parents and had lots of money.I just assumed that everyone had been treated the same way that I had been.”Guy said that was very sad to be treated that way.But it might not have been so bad had she been able to live with her father.“I’ve thought about that.My mom was never really a part of my life until I got out on my own.And even then, it was just for things that I could give to her.She was never good with money and never worked.I had no idea she was getting the money from my father until years later.Even then, she tried to lie to me and said that it wasn’t that much.She was making one hundred twenty grand a year, and she was broke by the end of the month.That’s truly sad to me.Then she’d come around and want me to take her out to dinner or pay for her nails to be done.Things like that.”
“I wonder what she’s going to do now that all her extras are gone.”Sen told Ayden that she was trying to move in with her.“I’m sure that wouldn’t work.The two of you don’t get along on the streets.I can’t imagine it would be any better in a house with the two of you.Someone would be dead for sure.”
“You got that right.She doesn’t know that we bought a house yet.I don’t plan on telling her, however, she might well see the moving vans outside the house.But she might not have because it was while she was in jail.”Sen said that it would be great if that had happened that way.But she didn’t believe she had that much luck.“I know that feeling.It seems like when something goes right, ten things go wrong.Like at the office yesterday.I thought I was going to have a good day when all of a sudden everything went wrong.It’s why I was so late getting out of the office.Because I had to clean up one mess after another.A dog and a cat threw up in the office, which had to be cleaned up.Then I broke a tube that I was using, full of urine all over my lab coat.It was a day from hell.”
“I’m sorry that it happened that way.But we have the house finished up, so we have that going for us.We only need to go to the storage unit and get what you have there, and everything will be done.Yay for us.”Ivan kissed her on the nose and told her that with his brothers there, he’d go get it now.They fussed a bit, but he knew in the end that they’d go and do what he wanted.He’d helped them out enough when they had moved in.The only person who wasn’t there was Guy because he had adeadline coming up and had to get his book finished.
