Never Too Late (Resetter Series Book 1)

by Brenda Barrett

  She sighed and took a generous amount just to avoid the eagle eyed stare she was getting from that side of the kitchen.

  It just struck her that this summer was not entirely trouble free for her parents as her earlier recollections had been. Her mother seemed worried about something. Maybe her ex-boyfriend who was coming to visit.

  Addi would not dare ask her now.

  Instead, she broke the silence by asking about the sewing machine.

  "It's in there. I haven't used it in years." Her mother shrugged. "It was your grandmother's. She gave it to me when she migrated."

  "Can I lend it to Myrna next door." Addi asked.

  "Who is Myrna?" Her mother asked puzzled.

  By the time Addi finished explaining her mom was nodding vigorously. "Yes that's a good idea. I even have some of my mom's supplies, in the music room somewhere."

  "Thanks, Mom." Addi smiled happily.

  Her mother nodded. "Imagine that. I had no idea that her name was Myrna. If she is really good with the sewing thing maybe I can be her first customer. I have to change some of these curtains in here."

  "I already asked her to do some curtains for my room and a bed spread."

  "And how are you going to pay for this?" Her mother raised her eyebrows.

  "I am going to do some betting like Uncle Stan," Addi said quickly. "The US vice presidential pick is coming up."

  Her mother opened her mouth to protest, her father came into the kitchen at the same time.

  "Who are you betting on? There is Kerrey, Hamilton, Graham, Gore, Wofford..."

  "Are you serious?" Her mother gasped. "Nate you can't encourage gambling!"

  "When you ask me to buy a raffle ticket for the mothers union at church what is that?" Her dad snorted. "And your Lions club fund raising ticket for the car of my dreams and your horticultural toaster raffle?"

  "It's for a good cause!" Her mother almost squealed. "A noble cause!"

  "And so is Addi's thing. Don't tell me gambling is bad only when it's not church or established charity?" Her father sneered.

  Her mother shook her head. "I can't argue with you...I can't..."

  She left the kitchen.

  Addi pushed over her plate to her dad.

  He grinned at her. "She's right you know you shouldn't be gambling."

  "It's not a gamble if you know who it is," Addi said simply. "I know who he is going to choose."

  "Really now, you are that sure?" Her father tucked into her eggs. "Had no idea you were into US politics."

  Addi suppressed a laugh. She had a doctorate in Sociology, a masters in political science. She was the youngest tenured professor in her field at her university...well she would be if she took that route again.

  Maybe she could use her knowledge of the future and make some money and make this second time around more about learning things she had always wanted to learn.

  Or maybe this time around she could write a book or two or ten.

  "So who is it?" Her father broke into her little reverie. "Who is the certain pick?"

  "Al Gore." Addi grinned. "You betting?"

  "No." Her father reached into his wallet and extracted four fifty dollar bills and gave it to her." Five to one odds on Gore. I should get back a thousand by this evening if you are right. We can split it."

  Addi grinned. "Thanks, Dad."

  "If you are wrong." Her father winked, "we never talk about this again, at least not in front of your mother."

  ****

  She was right, as she knew she would be. Randy solemnly gave her a stack of hundred and fifty dollars tied up in rubber bands. He carried it in his knapsack and laid them out beside her in the settee. She had just finished the really juicy story of Miss Gwen's meeting with her husband Captain Charles Donald Campbell. They got married when she was sixteen.

  Addi dragged her eyes from the pages and looked at the piles and piles of money and felt like the Grandfather.

  "How much is it?" She whispered as she saw the stacks of money that wouldn't quit.

  "Fifty one thousand." Randy said. "I gave them ten thousand. So that's five times ten and your dad's two hundred which is now a thousand."

  "Wow," Addi put away the book and looked at the money feeling slightly dazed.

  "Yes, wow." Randy didn't look at all happy. He sat down heavily beside the money.

  "You wanted me to be wrong?" Addi asked him puzzled.

  "Yes." Randy sighed. "Addison, this just confirms that your claims are not as off the wall and crazy as I had thought that they were in the first place."

  "I thought I had cleared that up." Addi got up and stretched.

  "Well, I had doubts." Randy shook his head. "When the announcement was made today on both TV and radio because the guys had to be sure, I had this urge to run out of the building and hide."

  "Why?" Addi looked at him sharply.

  "Because my future," he swallowed, "you know my future. I've been skirting the issue of my future with you. I have a feeling that I don't want to know. And yet, I do. Makes sense?"

  "Yes." Addi nodded. "I really went absurd on you the day I met you and then declaring that we were lovers. I can understand the reluctance."

  "So why weren't we married?" Randy asked cautiously.

  "You married someone else," Addi said simply.

  Randy opened his mouth and then closed it. "I did? Who?"

  "I am not going to tell you anything else about her," Addi said simply. "It would be wicked of me to try to influence your life like that."

  "Well...did I love her?"

  "I don't know. I didn't want to know." Addi sighed. "You stayed with her. That's enough."

  "I had an affair." Randy shook his head. "Nah, sounds wrong. Doesn't sound like me."

  "It doesn't have to be. You can be faithful to your wife, whosever she is." Addi started to count the money. "You won't be cheating with me. I know for myself.

  "I am going to find a nice guy. It shouldn't be hard. There are a couple of candidates that I know of, both in Jamaica and the US, who are faithful to their wives and totally sweet. I'll just see who I can snatch before they meet their significant others."

  Randy looked at her incredulously and then he started to laugh.

  Addi ignored him. "I am going to get married by I am twenty-three or so, and then I am going to have at least three children. I want them early. Last time I got pregnant when I was..."

  She stopped moving.

  Randy too.

  "Who was the father?" Randy finally asked.

  "Only one candidate. No other man in my life. Ever." She shoved a stack of money back into his bag. "There it is fifty-fifty."

  "We had a child together?" Randy asked weakly.

  "No we didn't. He died." Addi sniffed and then looked at him. "Losing a child is the worst pain ever."

  Randy sighed. "How did I handle it?"

  "You had a lot on your plate at that time," Addi sat back in the settee. "Your wife had a baby too."

  Randy winced.

  "And you had a junior pastor who wanted your post. He was getting the necessary backing of your church board to oust you because you were coming to the US so much, you wanted to be there for me. And your wife, she wanted you around too. You were pulled in a million and one directions and I needed you the most. I think I almost went mad."

  "I was a minister?" Randy shook his head, "that's how I know that this is fiction. Accounting is my first love. Construction engineering a close second. Working with your dad and uncle, I am unsure which one to pursue in the future. I am definitely not going to be a minister.

  "You were good at it." Addi shrugged, "Your people loved you."

  "How did I manage a moral dilemma like the one you just described, though?" Randy shook his head. "And for twenty years? Why didn't I just leave my wife if I was that into you?"

  Addi inhaled raggedly. "We tried to end it. We really did. Every year we had this final and complete severance speech but we were to each other like opiates."
r />   "Drugs?" Randy snorted.

  "Yes but we had a relapse every summer. Every single summer. Seems as if summers were our thing." Addi laughed mirthlessly. "Except for the first time."

  "The first time?" Randy murmured.

  "Yes, the first time we kissed. Made love. You found me at university. I was living off campus in an apartment near the school. January 1996. I'll probably never forget it. Ever. And I shouldn't be telling you any of this."

  "No, go on," Randy said huskily, "it's kind of fascinating."

  "You got married two months before. I hated you for it. I begged you not to do it. So when you showed up at my door, I was not pleased with you. Not one bit. I fondly thought you'd wait for me, you know, like one of those epic love films where the guy and girl waited for each other despite the odds?"

  Randy nodded.

  "So anyway, you show up. You tell me you missed me, you complained that I wasn't answering any of your calls and then you told me that you can't do any of this without me. Then contrarily you ask me to send you away. You wanted me to tell you. I could have ended it then but I didn't. I stepped into your arms like a homing pigeon and we spent two weeks together mostly naked. You missed the conference you came to the university for. I missed a couple of my classes."

  Randy ran his hand over his face. "Future Randy sounds like a person I wouldn't like."

  Addi was silent and then she smiled. "I loved Future Randy. Crazy. Totally. Deeply."

  Randy looked at her contemplatively. "How did it end?"

  "You thought enough was enough and you ended it. Future Randy was a thousand times better than Future Addi. You did what you had to do."

  "Twenty years later," Randy said softly. "For what it's worth, Addison Porter, I am sorry."

  "You haven't done anything to be sorry for." Addi handed him back his knapsack. "Here is your half. Maybe next week we can go and get supplies for Myrna while we stake out Ellie. Kill one bird with two stones."

  Chapter Fourteen

  They were all invited to Aunt Ivy's for Sunday dinner. Josh declined. He had a date with Ellie. Her mother insisted on taking something to contribute to the meal and had volunteered to make bread pudding. A dish that was Aunt Ivy's specialty.

  Addi watched her for a while as she flitted around the kitchen driving herself crazy trying to perfect the dish and only then did it dawn on her that her mother had a low key competition going with her sister-in-law that Addi had not appreciated before.

  It made sense.

  Ivy had the expertise in home making. Ivy as a master chef and decorator had taught scores of top chefs in the industry.

  It was almost suicidal for her mother to compete with Ivy. Her mother had confessed to her several years in the future that she only knew how to cook the basics when she got married and had leaned heavily on her own mother for culinary support.

  But now here was Victoria Potter, regular home cook, going up against Ivy Porter, a culinary genius with a dish Ivy could probably bake in her sleep and have people swooning over.

  Addi couldn't watch. She made one paltry attempt to get her mother to stop in her quest.

  "Mom, Aunt Ivy usually has desserts and she is the queen of bread pudding."

  "What did you say?" Her mother spun around. Still in her pearls from church. She had removed her hat and had put on an apron over her pink lace dress.

  "Aunt Ivy is better at bread puddings than you," Addi said refusing to back down. "You are out of your depth here and it shows."

  "Get out!" Her mother screeched pointing the spatula at her. "Out! Only come back when you have confidence in your old mother to get this right for once."

  Addi grinned. "Okay but the truth is..."

  "The truth is..." Vicky snorted, "is that I have been privately practicing. Now, if you'll take your negativity far from this kitchen I can get on with this in peace."

  "I am gone." Addi called as she headed to the veranda.

  Randy and her father were reading the newspaper. They had a small pile of it between them. She couldn't see their faces.

  She sat across from them and pushed out her tongue in a juvenile gesture.

  She picked up the Sunday magazine from the pile and skimmed through it. It was interesting to look in the Social Pages and on the fashion in '92. Shoulder pads were in.

  Her father grunted and lowered his paper.

  "Addi, what's going on?"

  "Nothing," she looked up at him and smiled. "Just thought I would join you out here. Mom is in the kitchen going crazy trying to outdo Aunt Ivy with bread pudding."

  Her father laughed and picked up a next piece of newspaper. "Your moms bread pudding is better than anybody else's in the whole world."

  "You are biased," Addi muttered.

  "Hey ho," Uncle Stan walked on the veranda and sat down next to Addi, "I am supposed to tell you all that dinner will be at three-thirty promptly."

  Her father grunted.

  Addi looked at her uncle and nodded. "We heard."

  Stan shrugged. "What's interesting in the news?"

  "Jamaica getting ready for the Olympics." Randy lowered his section of the paper and handed it to Stan. "I know you want to read this."

  "Oh yes." Stan was on the verge of salivating."Oh yes. I can't wait for the Olympics. I am putting all I have on Merlene Ottey to win the hundred and two hundred meters."

  "Don't forget Juliet Cuthbert." Nate piped in. "She is looking good."

  Stan shrugged. "I don't know. Ottey for me."

  "Who are you betting on to win in the track events?" Her father looked at her seriously.

  Randy was looking at her too, no expression on his face.

  Addi looked at the men. "Why are you asking me?"

  "Because you made us all a boat load of money last time." Her uncle said widening his eyes. "I had no idea it would have been Gore but Randy here said you were a 100 percent certain so I followed him. And bam, I made a hundred thousand just like that. Thanks, Addi."

  Addi teased them. "Glad I could help. Hope you are putting some of that money into Sky's college fund. My daddy said I shouldn't gamble."

  "But you said you were sure," Her father muttered, "and you ended up being right. So, who are you liking for the events?"

  Addi closed her eyes and tried to remember results. In the time before she had watched the events with her uncle, Randy and Josh.

  At least now she knew why her uncle and father were so devastated over some of the results. They had been betting over the outcomes. She had been quite oblivious to that then.

  The two of them were waiting with bated breath now as she wracked her brain.

  "Okay," she finally said, "for the men 100 meters, the winner is Linford Christie, Great Britain, Frankie Fredericks, Namibia, after and Dennis Mitchell United States third.

  Her uncle dragged out a pen out of his pocket and a small notebook and started jotting down information.

  "Wait, are you sure?" Her father was looking doubtful. "How can you be so sure?"

  "Because I am a time traveler," she said it seriously, "I've lived this life before. I know all of this. I especially know this because you had me writing down results for you before. I tend to remember things I write down."

  Her uncle nodded. "That's a good reason. Time travel. If I could time travel I would write down the lottery numbers for every big year. And Sweepstakes. Not to mention horses. And I would definitely invest in upcoming stocks.

  "What about the women 100m?"

  "Gail Devers, US, Juliet Cuthbert, Jamaica and Irina Privalova, from The Unified Team."

  "What on earth is a unified team?" Her uncle asked her puzzled.

  "It was a joint team consisting of twelve of the fifteen former Soviet republics." Addi said, "They were the top medal finishers too."

  "Wait!" her father held up his hand. "Stan, Addi does not know any of this for sure. So please, if you lose any money please do not blame my daughter!"

  "I won't blame her." Uncle Stan was busy jotting
down her information quite oblivious to her father's caution. "I will do my own calculations based on the semifinals but this is a good start. Never hurts to hear other people's predictions especially because she is a time traveler."

  Randy looked at her and smiled, shaking his head. "The Unified Team was in today's sporting section."

  "Oh," her father who was more perturbed about her story than she had given him credit for relaxed and sighed. "For a minute there, I thought Addi was a real time traveler!"

  Addi smirked. "I am dad."

  He picked up another piece of paper. "No you aren't. There is no such thing. He got lost in another piece of newspaper effectively shutting her out.

  Uncle Stan looked at her contemplatively. "You don't happen to know about horses do you?"

  "No." Addi shook her head.

  "Lottery numbers?"

  "No," Addi said again.

  "What about stocks?"

  "Technology." Randy was the one who answered, "You would be half blind not to see that this is where the world is heading. Apple, Microsoft are two names to keep in mind."

  He remembered that from their conversation. Addi opened her mouth in awe and looked at him.

  Randy winked.

  She looked across at Uncle Stan who was jotting down the names.

  "Uncle Stan, you seriously believe that I am a time traveler?" Addi asked incredulously.

  "Yes." Her uncle winked at her, "why wouldn't I?"

  She didn't know if she should take him seriously.

  ****

  As usual Aunt Ivy had cooked up a scrumptious meal quite devoid of any imperfections.

  She had the atmosphere just right. It was overcast so she turned on the chandelier, which sat directly over the exquisitely set table. She obviously had a theme, white and gold. And in pure Ivy style she was not doing anything in half measures. Everything was elaborate and looked like it belonged in a five star restaurant.

  Addi saw her mother shudder with jealousy when they entered the house. She couldn't resist a grin at her mother who pointedly ignored her. She had the still hot bread pudding in the tin with thick oven mitts holding it slightly away from her body.