“I went to public school. It wasn’t bad. There were a lot of kids in my neighborhood, so we all watched out for each other.”
“At least you didn’t have to grow up with a fear of Nuns. To this day, I shake when they enter a room!”
“Are you both only children?” Vanni turns towards her and takes the lead.
“Yes, our parents always said, ‘one and done.’ I’m sure we gave them a run for the money.” Our laughter fills the room. Emma seems to get a faraway look on her face right before she gets up.
“Well, ladies, I’ve got to get going. I’m only in town for a short amount of time and I promised my best friend I’d pop in for a visit. Thank you for including me today. I’ll let you know if my mom says anything about the profile.” She’s grabbing her purse and pushing the strap up her arm before pushing her chair in. She waves as she heads out the door. Something tells me that going forward, we are going to see a lot more of Emma.
Emma
I catch an Uber to head back home. I know I could have asked them to drive me, but I didn’t want to interrupt their evening. Besides, the more I think about the profile, the more I think it was a bad idea. I agree with Brook that there was something there, but I don’t think it’s any of our business. I’ve seen my mom have some casual dates in the past, but she never seemed too enthusiastic about any of them. Maybe there was a reason, one that I’m not privy to. I get home to find all the lights are on. No doubt she’s waiting up for me. I open the door, and she’s not around.
“Hello, anyone home!” I shout out as I go room to room. Finally, my mom comes up from the basement. “There you are. I was worried when you didn’t answer me.”
“Where could I possibly have gone? I got an order for a piece, so I was in the basement working on it since it was too cold in the garage. Did you have a good time? Brook seems nice, what about Vanni?”
“I had a good time. They were both very nice. I need to talk to you about something.”
“Oh boy, am I in trouble?”
“No, I am. Brook made up a profile for her dad on one of those dating sites for older people. We also made one for you.”
“Why would you do that? Do I seem desperate or something?”
“No, it’s just that Brook felt there was something between you and her dad, you know, sparks or some shit like that. I thought maybe you could use a little push, so I went along with it. Afterwards, I realized I was wrong, but I didn’t know how to get out of it. Your life, your business—not mine. I’m sorry.”
“First of all, I knew about his profile from Chloe. Does Mitch even know he has a profile on there?”
“He does, and apparently, he wasn’t too happy about it. I will take it down, if you want.” She walks into the kitchen and puts up the kettle. When she’s deep in thought or upset, she puts up tea. Me—I grab the Ben and Jerry’s.
“Let’s see what happens if you leave it up. If it gets too weird, I’ll have you take it down. Now, tell me what else happened tonight.”
“It was strange. Not bad . . . just different. I grew up not too far from them and, yet, we are very different. Our fathers were best friends, but I could never see us as best friends. I know that sounds strange. You brought me up making do with whatever we had. I don’t need some designer’s name all over my handbag. I guess I choose function over fashion.” The tea kettle whistles, and she fixes them with a shot of brandy, or as my mom always refers to it, as the poor man’s cognac. She brings the cups in and curls up on the couch across from me.
“I think I raised you to utilize whatever you had. Rely on no one but yourself. But most of all, adjust your own damn crown.”
“Were you really happy with Daddy? I mean, were you with him because of me or were you really in love with him?” These are the questions I’ve never felt ready to ask because I wasn’t ready for the answers. Suddenly, I think I am.
“I met your dad and he introduced me to his friends. We all hung out together. I think I was closest to Mitch. It’s also how I met Chloe. She was dating Doug on and off. One day she got pissed and told him to fuck off. She walked out and never came back. Till this day, I don’t know the whole story. I figured if she wanted me to know, she would tell me. Anyway, I always enjoyed Mitch’s company and I think he enjoyed mine. We seemed to be getting closer and then, out of the blue, your father started showing up everywhere I went. We got closer, and Mitch backed away. Then one day, your father asked me to marry him. Since I grew up in foster care, I had no family. His family had passed away. So, we got married at city hall. A month later, I was pregnant with you. I loved your father, and I’m grateful to him for giving me you. Since Mitch came back into my life, I have questioned some things but, at the end of the day, you can’t go back; time waits for no one. He moved on and so did I. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I would start anything with him. Too much baggage. Chloe always says everyone has baggage but make sure it’s only a carry on. Does that answer your questions?”
“Yes, I think maybe you should dip your toe in that pond and see what happens. After all, you never want to go through life wondering what could have been.”
We finish our tea. I’m so tired, I think it’s time for me to go to bed. “I’m going to turn in. I’ll see you in the morning. Love you, Mom.”
“Sweet dreams. Love you, too.”
Mitch
It’s another night of pacing the floors, wondering what I should do. The more I think about telling Amelia everything, the more I think, on so many levels, that it’s a bad idea. I know if she went to the police, they wouldn’t believe her—that’s not even my main concern. I just think it would ruin any shot I have at getting to know the woman she is now and not relying on the memories from all those years ago. A shot at being a part of her life again. I wish the past was not going to bite me in the ass. If only there were another way around this. Maybe I should tell her how I really feel. How I’ve felt all these years: I loved her, and I never stopped. Not only did I never tell Amelia how I really felt, I never had the balls to admit it to myself. To own it like a man. Now that I’m at a point in my life where I could take things to the next level, I fear it’s too late. Maybe the best thing for all of us is to help her sell the house so she can move away. Why is everything so difficult? Maybe it’s become more difficult with age. It was so easy back in the day to throw together a plan. When you’re young, you don’t dwell too long on the consequences. It seemed like it only took Peter minutes to put together the plan for the heist. Hell, it took us longer to figure out how to get the money for the trip than the actual heist. Thinking back, I really believe Peter started to formulate the plan during the summer of love. That summer changed all our lives. I have to remind myself to forget the past and stay focused on the present. I grab another cup of coffee and fire up my laptop. Time to check in on this website and make sure Brook took down my profile. Low and behold it’s still there and on top of that, someone poked me and left a message. I should just get Brook’s sorry ass down here now to delete the whole thing, however, my curiosity is getting the better of me. I open it and it’s a simple hello from Amelia! That’s not so simple . . . How the hell did she find this? She must think I’m looking for a hook-up. Oh, wow, why is she on here? She’s beautiful; she doesn’t need this. It can’t be safe.
“Good morning, Daddy, I see you found your profile. Oh, and look, Amelia has one too. What are the odds?”
“Exactly, what are the odds? You might as well tell me what you did. I’ll find out sooner or later.”
“I know you will. Emma helped Vanni and me make a profile for Amelia. Honestly Dad, it was written all over your face yesterday that you care about her. Maybe this will be the push you need to finally do something to help yourself. Emma thought maybe it was the push that her mom needed, too. In the meantime, just deal with it. Now, on to another subject. When do you want to come up to school and meet Benjamin? I thought long and hard about it and I think I’m ready for that to happen.”
“Firs
t of all, does Amelia know about this?”
“Probably. Emma seems really close with her mom, so I venture to say that she’s told her by now. What’s secondly?” She smiles and cocks her head to the side. She knows she’s got me.
“Why the turn around on Benjamin? The other day you were hiding him and everything about him from me. Now you want me to meet him. What changed?”
“I did. After meeting Emma, I realized I’m lucky to have a dad that’s still part of my life. I want that to continue for a long time. Whomever I end up with needs to get along with you and vice versa. It’s a joint effort.”
“You’re becoming wiser with age.”
“Dad, I’m not fifty for Pete’s sake.”
“Okay, point taken. As soon as I get everything settled with Amelia’s house, I will come up and meet Benjamin. Happy?”
“Immensely.” She throws her arms around my neck and I nearly fall out of my chair. My baby girl is not a baby anymore.
I gave Amelia the entire weekend to digest everything and to figure out where she wants to live. Tomorrow evening, when she gets home from work, I’ll head over to see what she decided. In the meantime, I want to talk to Doug again. He’s going to think I’m nuts. Maybe I should tell him the truth—that is—if he hasn’t figured it out already. Today is trash pickup day; I can hear him putting his garbage pail out to the curb. I head out to catch him before he goes back inside.
“Hey, Doug, come in here for a minute. I want to go over some stuff with you before tomorrow.” He nods and makes his way over to my steps, huffing and puffing while walking up them. I wish he would quit smoking and drinking, but that’s beating a dead horse.
“Don’t tell me—you changed your mind again. Am I right?”
“Yeah, you’re right; I did. Look, I think telling her everything is a bad idea. I think we should just buy the house using our holding company. This way she will have no idea who the buyer is. After she moves away, we flip it, but not before looking for the jewels.” The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a great idea.
“This is all because you never got over your hots for Amelia. You can close your mouth now. I knew about it for a very long time. I’m just surprised when Becky walked out that you didn’t go running to Amelia.”
“Was I that obvious?”
“From day one. Honestly, I think that’s why Peter married her. He was jealous of you. He always felt that you got the best of everything, that he always came up second. That’s why he was so thrilled that summer when you both worked on the yacht where he was in charge of the entire crew, and that meant you too.” I’m trying to let what he’s saying sink in.
“How could I have been so blind to all of this?”
“Look, Mitch, you’re my best friend, but you always see the good in people. You want to help those who can’t help themselves. If you weren’t so conservative, you would make a great bleeding-heart liberal.” He laughs, but I don’t see anything funny about this.
“What if we do all of this and there are no jewels? What’s our next move?” I ask.
“If we come up empty handed then we should just call it a day. The whereabouts of the jewels died that night with Peter.” He shrugs.
“Are you prepared to do that? I mean, we took the chance of a lifetime and won. Are you ready to walk away?”
“Yes, we won, but we lost too. They say hindsight is twenty-twenty and, in this case, it’s true. We should have put the jewels in a safety deposit box. That way they would have been safe, and it would take the three of us to get access to the box. We shouldn’t have trusted Peter as much as we did. When he planned the heist, we thought he was crazy. After we actually pulled it off, we thought he was a genius. See what being young and stupid got us? We made a stupid mistake that costs us big time. I think going through every inch of the house is the end. Do we have a deal?”
“Yeah, we do. I’m ready to get on with my life.”
“So, does that mean you’re going to get your balls out of your ass and try to have a relationship with Amelia? I mean it’s only been twenty-somewhat years.”
“How could I have anything with her knowing I have a big secret that involves her husband?” I throw my hands up in disgust.
“Here’s what I think you should do. Let’s do the house deal. Afterwards, if we don’t find anything, you go to her and tell her the truth. Chances are she won’t believe you and she got top dollar for her house.”
“And if we find the jewels, then what?”
“That’s easy; you tell her the truth and give her Peter’s share of the bounty.” He makes it sound so easy.
“What if she goes to the cops? What if she doesn’t believe me? What if she hates me?”
“That’s a lot of what ifs. Look, you won’t have a clue until it happens. Just follow the program.”
“Well, I don’t really have a choice. I guess we are buying her house,” I blurt out in a strained voice. He gets up and whacks my shoulder in agreeance before heading out the door. I’m left sitting here, wondering how the chips are going to fall.
Mitch
As I head to Amelia’s house, my heart is in my throat. Aside from the big heist, everything else we stole to make that trip possible was just pennyante shit. Besides, it was in my younger days. I’d like to think I’ve turned my life around. I’m a much different man now, and what do I have to show for it?—nothing, I pull up just as she’s walking up the street. She’s beautiful. Her chestnut hair bounces with every step she takes. I was such a fool, a fool for her. I should have spoken up twenty years ago. She sees me, smiles and waves. With my heart in my throat, I get out of the car and meet her by the steps.
“Mitch, I’m so glad you came by early; there’s something I want to talk to you about. Let’s head inside, please.” My mind should be on my job, instead, it’s on the sway of her ass.
“Have a seat at the kitchen table while I put up the kettle.” She sets everything up, and I’m taken back that she remembers my love for earl grey tea.
“I can’t believe you remembered my favorite tea.”
“A good life is made up of a million little things, things that make us feel loved and special. It’s never been about the big stuff with me.”
“Thank you for being who you are. Now, what did you need to talk to me about?”
“Our children were up to no good. It seems they made us each a profile on a dating site. They even had me poke you and say hello. I just wanted to let you know it wasn’t me. I will have Emma take it down.”
“I found out about it probably around the same time you did. Although, would it be so bad if it was true?” She blushes and I feel bad I put her on the spot. Maybe I’m assuming too much, or is it hoping?
“So much time has passed that we really don’t know each other; we only remember the past. Sometimes, when I look back, I forget the bad stuff. It’s like a fade-to-black sex scene in a good book.”
I nearly choke on my tea. “Not exactly the answer I was expecting, but I get it. Let’s just take one day at a time. In the meantime, have you come to any conclusions as to what you want to do about the house?”
“I did. I spent the weekend going over everything with Emma. I’ve decided I would like to sell the house and move to Asheville, North Carolina. There’s just one thing I want to do before I do it. I want to make a trip to Asheville, and I would like for you to go with me.” Again, I nearly choke on my tea.
“Why do you want me to go? I would think you would take Emma with you. I mean, I don’t mind, just surprised, that’s all.”
“You are a professional, so I would like your help on purchasing a home. I’ve researched the area and pulled up some stuff I found interesting. I have a lot of vacation time before I retire, so that wouldn’t be a problem for me.”
It’s not what I was expecting. I’m trying not to act excited, but the thought of going away with her to the mountains is making my cock spring to life, yet again. “I would be honored to help you through the nex
t step in your life. I suggest we get the work on the house done this week. After that, we can go and find you something suitable. I have a feeling once we list this house, it will sell right away,” I surmise. She has a huge smile and it’s beautiful.
“That sounds great. I’ll email you over the houses that I found, and I’ll make a reservation for us at the bed and breakfast in town. Is this weekend good for you?”
“Yes, that sounds great. So, tell me how you settled on Asheville?”
“You’re going to laugh but I first saw it on an episode of House Hunters. When I started researching it, I found it’s an artsy type of town. Plus, I think Rusty is going to love living in the country.”
“Okay, today I’m going to line up the workers to get started. I’m going to need a key.”
She’s swirling her spoon in her tea, never raising her eyes toward me. “I only have one key.”
“I can take you to the hardware store to get another key made. It will be safe, I promise you. Plus, let’s not forget about Rusty. He will put the fear of God into anyone that tries to come through the door.”
“Okay, this is a big step for me. I’m putting my trust in you, which is not something that comes easy for me,” she says. I have to try to remember she’s been alone all her life with only herself to answer to.
“I get it. We can take this slow, but once the house goes up for sale, you will have strangers coming in here. On top of that, you can’t keep Rusty here while there are people coming in and out. I’m surprised your insurance company didn’t give you a hard time about him. So many insurance companies are putting on breed restrictions.”
“They don’t know about him. Since no one’s complained, I didn’t think I had to notify them.”
“Well, all the more, we will keep him out of the house when anyone is coming. I’ll put in the listing there is a dog, that you need an hour’s notice. If need be, I can take him to my house while people are here.” Her smile is huge. I know if I want to get on her good side, I can focus on Rusty. I pull the contracts from my attaché and pull my chair closer to hers.
The Heist Page 7
