Page 13 of Weston

The others ordered pie, too, and when it was brought to them, she could hear the moans all around the table.Who said you have to eat a meal before you had your dessert had never had a day like she had.Dealing with the living or dead was enough to make anyone upset enough to have a carb-filled luncheon date, too.

She did make herself eat a nice lunch when she ordered.Figuring that the salad would make her feel better after the sugar rush was fun.She didn’t even mind that she got a little heartburn from it.But she might well order her another piece for when she was finished.Carrie simply didn’t care who stared at her either.

~*~

Danielle looked around the house.It was a great deal bigger than she remembered it being from when she was a child.Of course, she’d never been allowed to be beyond the living room or the kitchen.The dining room was no place for a brat, she’d been told.The first thing she was going to do when she got moved in was have a sloppy meal in the dining room and get food all over the table.

She wouldn’t.She knew better than to be a mess anyplace.Her mother and grandmother had been the same type of person as her Grandma Helen had been.Mean.She wasn’t sometimes mean either; she was just mean all the time, and she couldn’t believe how much she’d hated to come here.Now, it was all hers.

“Ms.Pine, there are a couple of things about the house that you need to be made aware of.Your father lived here until he was killed, so there are things still in his room, as well as the others that called this their homes.”She told the attorney that she could deal with it.Mr.Sheppard had been talking to her all along since she’d been notified that her family was all gone.“Also, while there is enough moneyin the estate to take care of the matter, there are still a few outstanding bills that will need to be paid.”

“You told me that there was money in the estate, correct?”Jameson told her that there was plenty of money, and that was hers as well.“Good.I don’t want to sound greedy or anything, but I don’t think I could be here without that money.What else should I need to know?I feel like you’re holding something back.”

“No, I’m not.I swear.But you have been told that your great grandda and your grandparents were killed in the living room, and that is why the couch is missing.”She said she’d been told.Danielle turned to him, almost fearful that he’d leave her now that she was here.“It’s going to be fine, Danielle.You’re going to be just fine.”

“Thank you.I didn’t know how much I needed to hear that until just now.”On impulse, she hugged him.When tears filled her eyes, she didn’t release him until she said what she needed to.“You’ve been kinder to me than any member of my family had been.I wanted to thank you for that.”

When she pulled away, he handed her a handkerchief.Danielle hadn’t known anyone to carry one of those in all her life.After wiping at her eyes, she told him she’d get it back to him as soon as she could, and he smiled at her.

“You have my number, correct?”Nodding, she told him that she had him on speed dial.“Good.You remember that if you need anything.I’m here for you.I feel…well, I’ve never had a little sister before, but I’m betting she’d be just like you.I know I keep saying this to you, but you’re going to be just fine.I know it.”

“Thank you again.”She was just ready to grab him again to hug him when someone rang her front doorbell.It was the sound of running elephants, she thought, and she was going to change that as soon as she could.Her grandmother would have done that.She just knew it.Going to the door, she was surprised to see a man standing there with a pizza box and a huge smile.“Can I help you?”

“My brother said you were moving in tonight, and he thought you could use some company for your first meal.”When the man entered, she looked at Jameson.He told her it was his brother Archie and his wife, Carrie.Then, before she could close the door, another brother entered, and Nash and Sunny arrived.“Come on honey, where did you want to eat this meal?”

“In the dining room.”She thought it fitting, too, that they were going to eat pizza of all things in her grandmother’s formal dining room.Never would she allow any pizza in her house, much less in the dining room fit for a queen of the castle.“Oh good, you have soda too.She’d hate every minute of this.”

It was by and far the most fun she’d ever had in this house, and she told them so.Archie said that he’d known her grandmother and had never cared for her at all.Even Sunny, who had lived here all her life, had said that she’d never liked the old bitch and often time felt sorry for her son Harold.She felt like they were her friends by the time they left her later that night.Jameson told her once again that she’d be all right.The thing was, when he left her then, she really did feel like she was all right.

Wandering through the house, she found things that she’d noticed as a child and had never been able to touch.Her grandparents’ closets were still filled with things that they’d left behind.Jewelry in her jewelry box and powder that she had worn were still there as well.Of course, the bed was made up, a habit that she picked up here when she’d been allowed to visit.There were things like lined-up shoes on the floor in the cupboard.Hats of her grandfathers hanging on the hooks by the door, just waiting for him to return.

The house and its belongings were left to her by her dad, who, since he died last, had gotten it from his parents.There were no taxes to pay up, no mortgage for her to keep up with.Every part of the house was hers so long as she wanted.And if she didn’t, then she could sell it and move on with her life.But she wouldn’t.It was hers now, and it meant a roof over her head and a place for her to sleep.Something that she’d not had in the last few months of being on her own.

Eight months ago, she’d lost her job and her apartment.Not on the same day, but close enough that she couldn’t believe it.The place where she had worked had decided that it didn’t want to be open any longer, and the complex that she’d been living in had sold out to a larger company, and they weregoing to tear the place down.

Jameson was looking into that for her.There should have been something for her to move into when they took her home from her.But no, they’d given them fourteen days to move out, or they’d find their stuff, furniture, and lives stuck in the dumpsters that were on the property the next morning.Luckily for her, she’d been able to sell everything and get out in time.There were families that were in the process of getting out when the big bulldozers came along and crushed their dreams of homelife right into the dirt.

Finding her dad’s room in the house wasn’t difficult.He’d been raised to keep things nice, and his room showed it.Everything in its place, he’d tell her when she was a child living with her now long gone mother.Debra, her mom, was the exact opposite.Nothing had a place unless it was on the floor.

Some of the things she came across while going through his things brought back memories that hurt her.He’d saved every card that she’d sent him, filing them in a large box marked with her name.There were drawings of hers, too—she’d forgotten that he enjoyed drawing.He’d been good at it too.

His clothing smelled as he did.A little bit of baby powder that he’d put under his arms and the cologne that he would wear on his cheeks.Inhaling deeply, she wondered if she’d miss the scent of him.He’d been out of her life so long that she knew that she’d not miss the man himself.And that she blamed on her grandmother.

Grandma Helen was a terror.She hated her mother and, in turn, hated her too.The handful of times that she’d been to her home had been wroth with fear and anger.She wouldn’t allow her to have anything nice in the house because she thought of her as beneath her.Look now, she thought, it’s all mine.

Tomorrow, she was going to box up all the clothing and donate it someplace.Then there was the matter of the food and things in the cupboard that she was going to get rid of as well.There had been staff when her family was alive, but Danielle didn’t need it.She’d live in her big house and do for herself.If she couldn’t get to a couple of the rooms, then no one would know but her, and that’s the way she liked it.

Going to bed that night, after stripping off the covers and linens off the big bed, Danielle lay there thinking about her luck.The house she’d been told by Jameson was worth a great deal, in the millions she’d been told, but again, she had no desire to sell it, at least for now.There was a bit of land, too, that she’d been told was bringing in some income, enough to pay the taxes yearly that was rented property.There was also a trust set up by her great-grandda for her too that would ensure that she would have money to keep her in food and beds, he’d said in his will.

He’d been the only person that she’d ever want to be alive if she could.Her father hadn’t been around all that much, but her great-grandda had written to her faithfully monthly.He’d been sending her money, too, little bits at a time that would show up just when she needed it.Which was really all the time, but it was nice to have.

Getting up when she knew she wasn’t going to sleep, she decided to start her purge in the master suite that had belonged to her grandparents.By the time the sun was coming up, not only had she cleaned out the closets, but she’d been able to box up the items around the room that she’d have no use for.Those things were set aside so that if she decided to have a garage sale, she’d make a bit of cash off those as well.

At noon, she decided to have herself a treat.Walking to the little ice cream shop, she was able to have a shredded chicken sandwich and fries.Never one to like ice cream all that much, she did have a frozen Snickers bar and loved every bit of it.Danielle was just headed back to the house when she saw Jameson and another of his brothers.While she didn’t know his name, she knew that they were related for sure.

“I was just coming to see you.”Smiling, she told him how much work she’d gotten done already.“Good for you.Oh, this is my brother Wrangler and his son Wills.They were going to help you out if you need it.Moving full boxes would be too much for you, I think.I saw the size of the boxes you had, and I’m betting that you’ve filled them to the brim.”

“I did, actually.But I was on a roll and thought that if I had any boxes left over, I could divide up the stuff in them.They didn’t have much, did they?”Jameson told her that he’d never been in the house until last night with her.“Oh.I thought that you would have been invited, being that you have money.She only associated with people with funds, she told me once.”

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