“Well, uh…”
“Because I’m not,” Celia smiled and took another bite. “This isn’t the lottery.”
She stared at her sons while she chewed.
Their faces got red, and they moved to leave the table. I narrowed my eyes at them, then pointed back at their seats. Silently suggesting they remain seated.
They wisely obeyed.
Celia tilted her head in thought. “I’m not giving you money outright. You won’t appreciate it. And you certainly don’t know how to work for it.”
“Said the woman with a trust fund,” Logan grumbled under his breath.
“Watch it!” I warned.
Celia laughed. “Yes, I do have a trust fund. One that Ibuilt myself. The trust fund protects my assets. The same assets your father tried to steal when he divorced me. Those same assets sent you to the best private schools and now to the best colleges so that you won’t have student loan debt. But I can certainly yank back my funding of your education if that trust fund is too much for you.”
Their eyes cast downward with a chorus of “no ma’am.”
“Great,” Celia clapped her hands together. “So, here’s how it’s going to go. Flint and I will figure out who murdered your father. Then, I will settle up with his victims. Whatever money and property are left over, I will decide what to do with it at that time. But, I can tell you right now, you’re not going to get a blank check to be ungrateful members of society. Your great-grandparents snuck into this country with only the clothes on their back. They scrimped and saved to make a better life for their children. Yourgrandparentsworked their way through college and got jobs making their communities better. Your aunts and uncle continue that tradition today.”
“As does your Mama,” I added.
She winked at me. “Everything we created in our lives, we built ourselves. There were no handouts. No cushion. Maybe I made things too soft for you boys, but I didn’t want you to struggle. Now, I can see that was a mistake. One that I will correct. Starting right now.”
Her sons looked at her like she was crazy. And to them, it probably seemed that way because I believed this was the first time she set them straight. Pride swelled through me as she laid down the law with her grown-ass sons.
“I suggest you take a few days and think about the direction of your lives,” Celia pushed back her chair to stand. I followed.
“Figure out how you want to make a difference in the world and what that difference will look like,” Celia stared at both of them. “If you want any part of your father’s inheritance, I want to see a business proposal in my email by five p.m. on January 31st. That gives you almost three weeks to put something together.”
They started to complain, but she cut them off.
“I’ve been too soft on you. It’s time for tough love. That means I love you, but you need to toughen up,” Celia kissed both of them on the cheek. “As Flint reminded me the other night. You’re grown men. It’s time you start acting like it. I look forward to your proposals.”
With that, Celia linked her arm through mine and whisked me out to the parking lot. I already thought she was the sexiest woman on the planet. Watching her put her sons in their place made me so hard, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to walk to the car.
I knew then - I would follow her to the ends of the earth if she asked.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for us. And that caused a tightness in my chest that wouldn’t go away.
