Beth’s food truck was parked only about a block away from the school, and as soon as she saw me, she flipped a sign that said out to lunch. She closed up the hatch and locked her door, then came over to give me a big hug.
Her familiar vanilla scent enveloped me as I buried my head in her soft brunette curls. I breathed in deeply, trying not to feel like a creep while at the same time needing the comfort enough to not really care.
Beth’s shoulders shook as she chuckled before releasing me. “I’m happy to see you too, friend, but I’ve got to tell you right now that I don’t swing that way.”
Stepping out of her embrace, I laughed and shook my head. “Seriously? How are you only telling me this now?”
Her soft blue eyes shone with amusement. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew I was into those ugly but oh-so-functional bits that guys have.”
I winked, but I couldn’t quite hold on to the levity of the moment. “It’s your loss. They make plastic stuff that’s just as functional, you know? And a lot more reliably effective.”
“True that.” She nodded at a bench across the street. “Want to take a seat? I’ll grab us some food and meet you there in a minute.”
“Sure.”
She dashed back into her truck and I made my way to the bench.
It was made of concrete that was cool when I sat down. It occurred to me to be grateful that it was in the shade of a giant tree because I hadn’t bothered to test the temperature before sitting down.
“You’re lucky you don’t have a scorched ass right now,” Beth said, echoing my thoughts as she came over carrying two paper plates with hotdogs on them. “Chicago style for you and traditional Texan for me. Let me know if you get over the insanity of eating it that way and are ready for the real deal.”
“How is it the real deal if it doesn’t even have a bun?” I asked, mindlessly rehashing the same argument we’d had many times before. “Mine is iconic. It’s got yellow mustard, chopped onions, a pickle spear, tomato wedges, sport peppers, and relish with celery salt all on a poppy seed bun. Yours is a deep-fried sausage.”
She gasped, pressing her hand to her chest in fake outrage. “How dare you? It’s so much more than just a deep-fried sausage. It’s America’s favorite snack.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” I patted her thigh and took a big bite of my lunch.
Beth didn’t do the same, the humor fading from her expression as she watched me. “How are you holding up?”
I appreciated that she never asked me how I was doing. It wasn’t like anyone was really ever fine such a short period of time after losing someone important to them. “I’m okay, I think. I’m getting along, but it hasn’t been easy. You know how much she meant to me.”
Beth hummed her agreement. “Have you made any decisions yet?”
“About the money?”
She nodded. “The lawyer called me again. Apparently, you’re still dodging her calls.”
“Sorry about that.” Since Beth had been with me all the time at the beginning, the lawyer my mother had hired to handle her estate had taken her number as well.
Because yes, my mother, who had single-handedly raised me and paid for everything for me except for the tuition I’d gotten scholarships for, had also somehow managed to amass a noteworthy estate.
It was pure insanity, but I guessed she’d been trying to get caught up on saving for her retirement over the last few years that I’d been working and studying on a scholarship. It killed me to know that she would never get to enjoy the benefits of having worked and saved so hard.
Unbeknownst to me, she’d also recently put her house, the home I’d grown up in, on the market. Apparently, she’d wanted to scale down and had signed the contracts with a buyer just a few days before her death.
The sale had gone through, adding a hefty amount to her savings. I hadn’t touched the money and my revulsion toward it extended to speaking to the lawyer. I didn’t want to discuss what my mother had left behind with anyone because it was hers. Not mine.
“There are steps that need to be taken, hon,” Beth said quietly. “Avoiding the lawyer isn’t going to bring her back.”
I let out a sigh but nodded. “I know. I’ve been realizing that and I think I’m coming to terms with it.”
Beth had been telling me for weeks now that regardless of whether I felt like the money was mine or not, it had been left to me and I needed to step up and manage it.
“You’ve decided then?” she asked, curiosity and sympathy mingling to darken the light blue of her eyes.
I lifted my hand and dipped it from side to side. “Sort of. I still don’t really want to make too much of a dent in it, but I’m thinking about moving closer to school and really focusing on getting my doctorate done.”
My best friend’s lips spread into a wide smile. “That’s a great idea.”
I shrugged. “I think I need some time away from work anyway. I don’t know how I’m going to help the kids if I’m having trouble helping myself.”
“I can see how that might be a problem,” she said. “Besides, this is only a temporary job, right?”
“Right, but the agency already had something else lined up for me. It’s a permanent position on the staff of a high school somewhere in the city, but I turned them down.”
“It’s for the best.” She nudged my arm with her elbow. “Want me to help you shop for a place to move into? I love going to open houses.”
Despite the melancholy of the moment, I chuckled. “I think I should be fine. For some reason, I think that it’s important to try to do this alone. Can I let you know if I change my mind?”
“Of course,” she said, slinging her arm over my shoulders to give me a side hug. “Whatever you need, girl. Just remember that I’m here if you need me.”
“I know.” I smiled at her as she released me, watching as she finally tucked into her own lunch. “Thanks for everything you do for me. I think they’d have locked me away in one of the very institutions I might end up working at if it wasn’t for you.”
It was true too.
Little by little and day by day, I was trying to reconstruct the world that had come crashing down around me when the doctor had given me the news. It looked a lot different from what my world used to look like, but at least it was starting to look familiar again.
A bit battered, a bit skewed on its axis, but familiar nonetheless. What I needed now was a new place to live, a place where I could bask in the familiarity of the things I could while not being caught up in memories of a past I could never get back.
Chapter 4
Taydom
“You should’ve fucking been there, my man. It was epic.” Andrew spread his arms open wide and grinned. “I don’t know how you can keep passing up the opportunity to come out with me. I’m a good time.”
“You are, but if I keep coming out with you, I’m going to develop liver failure or catch something that’s going to make my dick fall off.”
A couple of ladies eating lunch at the table beside ours on the patio at the country club gave me the stink eye. I flashed them my most charming smile and pulled my aviators off my face.
“I’m so sorry. Please excuse my language. Let me buy you all a drink to apologize for my lapse in judgment. My mother would never forgive me if I didn’t.”
Crow’s feet deepened as all three of the older women gave me smiles in return. They wore wide-rimmed sun hats, even underneath the broad umbrella over their table, but at least they didn’t seem to be as uppity as it made them appear.
“We’ll have a bottle of bubbly, son,” one of the old birds said. “The good stuff, or we’re getting your mother’s number out of you and calling her ourselves.” She winked at me before exchanging a look with her friends. “Also, I’ll have you know that no appendages have been lost as a result of any one of us.”
Andrew choked on his craft gin with some kind of flavored tonic, and I nearly did the same on nothing but spit, but I managed to catch mysel
f just in time. “I’ll get you a bottle of the finest Champagne the club has to offer.”
When I turned back to Andrew, I mouthed, What the fuck?
He lifted his big shoulders in response, then shot me a smirk. “I swear you could get a wall to drop its pants for you.”
“Too bad walls don’t wear pants.”
He rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean, and it’s exactly why you should’ve come out with me last night, dude. The women were fine, and they lose their panties when they even hear your name.”
I risked a glance at the ladies, but they seemed to be too absorbed in their own whispered conversation to have heard him. Since Andrew had lowered his voice some, it didn’t look like they’d even been able to hear him.
“Please tell me you didn’t test that theory.” I kept my volume at the same level his had been, and since I didn’t hear any snickering and no one had threatened to call my mother again, I figured we were in the clear.
Andrew’s chest swelled with pride and his smirk became a smug grin. “I did actually. I used your name to get a girl to come home with me. She was extremely disappointed when she found out I wasn’t the billionaire of the hour. Did you know that since Hannah’s article came out, you’ve got this whole mystery-man thing going on that chicks apparently dig?”
“What?” I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”
I’d been sent a copy of her article, but I’d only scanned through it, and even that had been weeks ago. Andrew swallowed the sip of his drink that he’d taken, then nodded. “I know, but apparently, you’re the billionaire bachelor of choice around these parts now. Every girl wants to be the one who gets to, and I quote, ‘break through the handsome yet ice-capped exterior’ that you apparently portray to the world.”
I laughed and pointed at him with my beer bottle. “You know, you could be a billionaire yourself if you’d only work.”
“I’m fine with being a regular old millionaire, thank you very much. You know I don’t have your drive. I just want to live in a nice house, drink whenever and whatever I want, and fuck pretty things, all of which I can do without a bank balance the size of an island.”
“Your ambition astonishes me,” I said dryly, but if I was being honest, I kind of envied Andrew’s approach to life. He was a laidback guy who never took anything, including himself, too seriously.
He was one hell of an agent and one of the best I had, but he had no intention of progressing any further than he was now. Being able to live off the commission he earned and doing it well was more than enough for him.
“My ambition is to have as much fun as I possibly can while I can still enjoy it.” He wagged his eyebrows at me. “What were you doing last night that could be better than that?”
“I was looking over some properties on the housing market that will be good for us to sell. Get us the right kind of exposure in the right neighborhoods to remind people we don’t only deal in commercial property.”
“I don’t know why you’re still messing around with residential properties. We make more money on one commercial deal than we do on ten houses in some of the neighborhoods around here.”
“It’s about the people.” I took a sip of my beer. “Meeting people that buy the kinds of houses I was looking at can lead to bigger sales later. Besides, I enjoy dabbling in the residential market. It’s relaxing.”
“You know what else is relaxing?” he asked, and I knew from the tone of his voice that I was going to have to order two bottles of bubbly once the waiter came back our way. “Drinking, dancing, and then ending the night with a good ol’ fuck before passing out.”
Sure enough, I heard a prim throat clearing behind me. I twisted in my seat to face the old birds again before pressing in the corners of my mouth and shrugging. “Sorry. How about two bottles? Will that do the trick?”
“Just order them already,” one of them grumbled before they stuck their heads together and started clucking again.
I motioned to the waiter and asked him to bring our check after adding the champagne to it. Andrew and I nodded goodbye to the ladies, then made our way through the club and waited at the valet station for our cars to be brought around.
“I’ll be back at the office in about an hour,” he said when he was handed the keys to his brand-new low-slung Italian sports car.
“Where are you going?” I narrowed my eyes then laughed and shook my head when I saw his lids lower. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. Enjoy your afternoon delight or whatever the fuck it’s called these days.”
“I’m planning on it.” He tossed me a wave before getting into the shiny black beast he’d had imported. With the rev of his engine, he tore out of the lot while the valet stared after him with longing in his eyes.
“Might want to wipe the drool off your chin, buddy,” I said, laughing as I gave the guy a tip for bringing my car out after Andrew’s. “Thanks for not getting a scratch on either of them. He would have bawled like a baby if anything had happened to that thing, and I just don’t have the time to take mine to the shop.”
The valet looked surprised that I was talking to him at all. Then he nodded and hurried away. I sighed as I climbed into my own vehicle, an equally ostentatious but, in my opinion, far more sexy Mercedes Geländewagen.
I had hardly settled in behind the wheel when my phone started ringing. I smiled when I saw who was calling, a genuine smile that only one woman in the world elicited.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Taytay,” her warm voice said through my speakers. “How’s my baby boy doing?”
“Thirty-two and at the helm of a massively successful company, but she still calls me her baby boy,” I teased.
She tutted, laughing softly. “You’ll always be my baby boy. I don’t care what in the world you achieve or how old you get. One day, you’ll have kids of your own and then you’ll get it. Now answer my question. How are you?”
My mother still liked to believe that I was going to get married and make her some pretty grandbabies someday. I’d tried to shatter the delusion countless times, but she clung to it like an addict to their next hit.
“I’m good, Momma. How about you?” I laid my head back against the sinfully soft leather of the seat.
“Everything is going well here. You know how it is on the farm, always busy.”
“True.” I closed my eyes. “How’s Dad?”
“He’s doing well. He asks about you.”
She was lying, but I loved her for trying to make my father look as if he cared. “Yeah? Tell him I said hi.”
“I’ll do that. Listen, sweetheart. I don’t want to keep you. I have to go soon anyway. I just wanted to check in to say hi and make sure you’re still breathing. You really ought to remember that a phone works both ways.”
“Sure, Mom. I will.”
She sighed. “You know what else works both ways? An airplane and a car. You should come visit us sometime soon. It’s been too long since I’ve hugged my baby.”
For a good fucking reason. “I’m sorry, Mom. Things are crazy around here right now, but maybe soon, okay?”
When she brought it up again in another month or two, I’d have another excuse ready. I always did.
My mother didn’t question me, though. She knew better than that. “Okay, sweetheart. I’ll look forward to it. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I really did.
If there was one thing I wished for that all the money in the world couldn’t buy, it was to be able to spend more time with my mother. It really was too bad that she was married to my father, and there wasn’t enough money in the world to convince me to go to the home she shared with him.
Chapter 5
Elsie
Using two fingers on my dresser to balance, I stood on one leg and pulled on my shoe as I cradled my phone between my cheek and my shoulder. “I’m actually on my way to an open house right now.”
Beth squealed into the receiver. “Really? Wow. You’re not wasting any time. Here
I was, calling to find out if you wanted to drink wine and shop for a place online later just to get a feel for where you want to be, but you’re way ahead of me.”
After pulling the strap of my kitten heel through the loop, I straightened out. “That’s the thing. I haven’t been in the Bishop’s Hollow area for years, so I do want to go to get a feel for the place.”
“Bishop’s Hollow?” she asked after a beat. “That’s expensive. Can you really afford something there?”
“If it’s small.” I chuckled as I smoothed out my turquoise shirt dress and grabbed a brown leather belt from the rail in my closet. “There are a couple of open houses in the area and there’s one property with a few smaller places on it that I’m particularly interested in.”
“Okay, but why there?” I heard the surprise in her voice. It didn’t come as a shock to me that she would be surprised. I had been surprised myself when I’d first started opening links to look at properties in that area.
The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense. If I was going to buy a property, it would have to be somewhere I could live long term, and Bishop’s Hollow checked all my boxes.
“It’s close enough to school for me for now and there are good opportunities for a career around there once I finish. Some of the best schools in the city fall within that district, and since I’d like to keep working with children, that’s something I need to consider.”
“I hear you, but I’m still not sure I follow. Why not just rent a place close to school for now and take it from there?”
“I don’t want to waste any money, and buying property is an investment. If I find a nice place to rent, I’d consider it, but the price would have to be right.” After cinching the belt around my waist, I applied another sticky layer of gloss and smacked my lips at myself in the mirror. “Anyway, I have to go. I want to get there with enough time to take a walk around before the open houses start.”
Give Me The Weekend Page 3
