“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not dying,” he said. “I’m moving to Arizona. I have a hot young side piece there. She’s in her fifties.”
I smiled slightly.
“I have to get out of here,” he whispered, motioning me closer. “But I need you to do something for me, though.”
“Anything.”
He sighed. “I always wished you and Meg would have gotten together. She needs a man in her life to take care of her.”
“She seems like she has it under control,” I said. “She’s smart and resourceful.”
“Still,” Barry insisted, “I would feel better if a man handled the finances. Especially since…” He sighed. “Well… you’ll see once the documents are sent to you.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “Shouldn’t Meg be in here?”
“No, no, she can’t know. The girls can’t know.”
I nodded, and Barry rested back on his pillows, eyes closed.
Meg was glaring at me when I walked out of Barry’s room.
“What did he want?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I told her.
“Stop lying to me.”
I didn’t want to scare her about the finances since she was already so stressed out. Besides, maybe it was nothing. But still, I had always been suspicious. Meg had told me that Barry was very secretive about money. That was never a good thing. Besides, he was constantly traveling and eating at nice restaurants, and he was always dressed very fashionably in custom suits. I knew that wasn’t cheap.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said soothingly.
“You’re lying to me,” Meg said, trembling. “You’re always lying to me.”
“I’m not,” I lied.
3
Meghan
“Idon’t understand,” I said to my uncle three days later. “You’re moving where?”
“To Arizona!” he boomed. “My love is there waiting for me. She lives in a spiffy retirement community.”
Numerous members of the townspeople were gathered in the hospital lobby, gawking.
“You have a girlfriend in Arizona?” Ida said, crossing her arms. “What are you going to do there?”
“Play golf?” Barry said with a shrug.
Ida snorted. “Who is going to be the mayor?”
“I now renounce my mayorship, good people of Harrogate,” he said as I helped him sit up on his wheeled bed. “The deputy mayor will step in to fill my role.”
The crowd politely applauded.
“Don’t worry, girls,” Barry said to my sisters and me as the medical transport technicians wheeled him into the ambulance. “I already talked to Hunter. He’s going to be taking over control of the finances.”
