Page 22 of Guy
“You get your own.He told me that I would need one, not that we should share one.If you think you need someone to go with you, then I suggest that over the next few days, you find someone.I’m washing my hands of you.”She asked her daughter what that meant.“It means I’m not sharing my attorney, nor am I getting you one.If you need one, which I have no reason to believe you do since you weren’t told to get one, then I’m finished with this conversation.”
“Selfish.That’s what you are is selfish.I didn’t raise you to be this way.”She pointed out that she was raised by nannies and not by her in the first place.“Yes, and look what that got me.A selfish daughter who never learned how to share.I shouldn’t have allowed my brother to but in when you were little.I should have raised you myself.”
“I think I’m well adjusted for someone who had a mother like you.”That seemed to be true, he thought, since the older woman didn’t understand shit.“Now hush.I’m supposed to be meeting Mr.Fraizer here any moment.”
“I’m here.”She smiled at him, but he could tell that she was embarrassed.And he was as well.“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, but you were too into it before you came in here.”He stood up and towered over both women and felt good when the older woman backed up.He didn’t use his height for intimidation often, but today it felt justified.“I believe that our table is ready, Ms.Ranger.”
It was only a two-top and no room for the other woman.But she pulled a chair from another table and tried her best to shove her way into it.The manager of the restaurant had to be called, and they were put at a four-top with a lot of room for him to spread out.Devlin wasn’t going to deal with the mother and her temper tantrum.He let Ms.Ranger deal with her mom.She seemed to be good at it.
After going over the menu, he decided on a nice salad.He didn’t want to eat anything like a burger, where he might get something on his tie or suit.Instead of having iced tea, however, he did have some soda.It was something that he rarely treated himself to, and today seemed like a good day to have some.
“Is it all right with you if we don’t discuss the will reading until after we eat?I’m fearful of getting indigestion, and I think my mom will get bored if we put it off and leave.”She looked pointedlyat her mom.“I don’t know why you have to barge into this with me.You didn’t even care for your brother, and you certainly had no love for his wife.Why do you care anyway what the will says?It’s doubtful that he had much for anyone to leave behind.He was a great man, and I love my aunt, but rich they were not.”
“I was told I was left something and I’m going to be there to get it.”Ms.Ranger said to suit herself, and after ordering, he could tell that the mother was getting bored with the light conversation that the two of them were having.“What kind of attorney are you anyway?”
“I work for my family for the most part.And Judge Rainer asked me to go over this with Sen so that she wasn’t caught unaware.”She asked what that meant.“I’m not sure.He just asked if I’d do him a favor and sit with his favorite clerk, and I said I’d do it.Usually, I just read over contracts and the likes for my family, as I said.”
“So you’re not much of an attorney then.”He let her ramble on about his lack of skills until his lunch was brought.He noticed that she’d ordered a salad too, but it was the kind that had all kinds of add-ons with it, like chicken and cheese.His opinion was that if you wanted a salad, why mess it up with all kinds of extras and not just eat the greens?But it wasn’t up to him today, so he kept his mouth shut.“I don’t know why you came here; they never have the dressing that I like.Why don’t they carry the house dressing at the pizza place that I like?That would be good if all restaurants carried the same dressing, don’t you think?”
“I think it would no longer be the house dressing if everyone carried it, Mom.Just eat what you want and be done with it.”They talked about the weather and how it was a lovely, almost spring-like day.He was telling them about how his brother and his wife were remodeling their home when Mrs.Ranger got bored and tried to liven up the conversation by talking about how her brother had done her dirty on more than one occasion.Neither he nor the younger woman commented, but let her ramble on about things that seemed to him would be better held in a private setting.She really didn’t care for her brother.
Just as Sen, as he’d been asked to call her, said, her mother was bored and decided that she was going to go shopping.When she asked Sen for her credit card, he thought that they were going to get into another fight, but Sen held her ground, and her mother huffed off with her new handbag at her side and nothing more.
After their plates were cleared away, he got down to business.He didn’t mind waiting until they were finished; in fact, he did the same thing with his family, eating first, then talking about things afterwards.He didn’t feel rushed and put out either.It was a nice feeling.
“Did Judge Rainer give you any indication as to why I’d need an attorney?I mean, as much as I’m pissed at my mother, he didn’t tell her to bring one with her.”Instead of answering, he asked her how much she knew about her uncle and aunt.“They were very good people.They paid for me to go to private school.But when I was little, they paid for a nanny too.Said my mom was too busy with her projects to raise me properly.I never knew what projects they were talking about, but I didn’t care.I had a wonderful childhood because of them.”
“Could there have been a great deal of money?”She told him that they lived in a little two-bedroom home that was forever being repaired.When asked why they didn’t move, she didn’t know an answer.“He didn’t give me any indication as to why he thought you’d need an attorney with you, but I don’t mind going with you.I like Judge Rainer and always have.He’s been a good mentor to me since I was in one of his classes in college.”
“He said that he’d rather I was prepared than not.I have no idea why he’d think I need that.Unless it was to hold me up when I get sick of my mom.She can be a handful when she gets something in her head.”He didn’t say anything, but he believed her.“What will you do for me if there is something like a lot of money?I can’t imagine that the house is worth all that much.I’ve not been to it in a few years.For all I know, they might well have gotten it looking really nice and are leaving it to me.That would be great.I hate living in an apartment.”
“If there is a great deal of money or even a little, I can advise you on how you should spend itand see if there are any estates that go with it.There could be another house or something along those lines.”He thought of something else.“As you said, he could have left you the house, and that would take some attorney work to get it in your name and the deeds as well.It sounds like, from what you’re saying, that even if the estate is small, you’ll need guidance on what to do to make it your own.What will your mother have to say if you get the house?Will she be upset?”
“She’s upset about everything that has to do with Uncle Robert and especially my aunt Cindy.She’s misremembering what my childhood was like and taking credit for the way I turned out.If not for the help of my uncle and aunt, I might well have been just like my mom and critical of everything.”She looked away before speaking again.“I sometimes wonder why I was never liked by my mom.She’s been nothing but mean to me since I can remember.My dad was never in the picture, so I’m glad that I had my uncle around all the time.He was a great influence on me when I was growing up.”
After getting things squared away with Sen, he made his way home, telling her that he had a few more things to look into about the estate.He wasn’t going to do a background check like he might well have done beforehand, but told her that he’d take her advice on the couple and they’d go from there.Whatever happened, it was going to be a good thing, he predicted, and he was happiest for the young woman.He and Ivan were going to hang out tonight as the last of the Fraizer men that wasn’t married and have a good time.He was to meet him at six at his house, and then they were going to go bar hopping from there.It was something that neither of them did, and they were going to enjoy it as much as they could.
“You smell weird.”He thanked his brother, then punched him in the shoulder.“I’m not kidding.You smell like…well, I was going to say sunshine, but we’ve not had much of that lately, so I wouldn’t know.”He said that he’d had lunch with a young woman today.Maybe that was it.“You were dressed like you are now?Not too professional of you, now, is it?”
They both laughed, and he told his brother that he’d worn a suit, so that couldn’t be right.After a few more minutes of teasing him, Ivan seemed to have had enough and changed the subject.He was glad; he didn’t want to be pissed off at his brother before they were out the door.Instead, he told him of the puppy he’d seen today.
“Usually I don’t get to see just one puppy, but a whole litter.This little guy looked to be a bit of everything.But the little boy who had him assured me that he was going to be a little dog.However, I know better.Whatever the boy said, he had paws big enough to hold onto a basketball if he was so inclined.”Devlin asked him why the boy thought it was going to be small.“His mom said he couldn’t have a big dog.I was worried about that when he told me.What would she do if the dog were big, but she seemed all right when I pointed out that he had huge paws.She either didn’t know the old saying or she didn’t care.Whichever it was, I hope they have plenty of money for dog food.”
They were on their second bar when they both decided that this whole thing wasn’t what they wanted to do.Getting into a pizza shop that sold beers, the two of them shared two large pizzas along with the salad bar and sat around and talked.The place wasn’t all that busy for a Friday night, so they didn’t feel bad for taking up a table that could have been turned over to others coming in.
“Did you hear about Guy and Amber’s home?They have it finished up, and it looks great.I don’t think that it’s going to be hard for them to have guests want to stay with them over Lica and Brandy’s home.It’s really nice.”Ivan told him that he’d spent a couple of nights with them, too, when the weather was bad.“Then you’ve met their cook?She can cook for me if I thought that I could steal her away from them.Her blueberry lemon loaf is to die for.And she has just enough icing on it to make you drool.”
They both had houses thanks to Brandy having money for it, but they didn’t neither of them care for their home.Ivan liked his a little better than he did, but he wished he’d gone bigger rather than smaller when he’d been looking.The bigger houses seemed to suit his brother, and that was the route that he wished he’d taken.They both regretted buying the first one that they came across.
“Did I tell you that I ordered myself a new Jeep?It’s one of the larger ones that I’ve wanted since I learned to drive.It’s supposed to be coming in next week.I got it without all the bells and whistleson it and spent the money having it with nice seats rather than the cloth ones that it usually had on it.”Ivan congratulated him.“Thanks.This one has four-wheel drive, which I’m looking forward to.I told you that I got stuck in the snow three times this year so far.I love the cold, but not when I have to drive in it.”
Ivan had purchased his clinic from the man who had been vet before.It was a nice little place, but it had a great list of clientele.Not that anybody who met Ivan didn’t like him immediately, but it was nice having a practice where you were busy all the time and had a built-in client list.He had started out on his own with his practice, but he’d had Brandy’s help.And with the way things were going for her and Lica, he’d never be out of work for two of them.They had billions of dollars and more businesses around the world than anyone he’d ever met before.
When the pizza place closed up, they left too.It was still early, only ten o’clock, and they weren’t finished hanging out together.So instead of finding them another bar, which they didn’t want to do, the two of them ended up at Devlin’s place to watch some television and have a good night.And if they ended up staying in the same house for the night, that was fine too.The two of them were as close as brothers could get.
They talked about the upcoming reading of the will and how the mother of the woman was a fruitcake.Then he changed that to mean that she was just too critical about everything.He told Ivan about the salad that she’d ordered.
“You know how I feel about salads.”Ivan laughed and said that everyone knew about his salad preferences.“She orders a salad and tells the waiter that she doesn’t want yellow cheese on it and that they have to take out the croutons.Then she lists off other things that she doesn’t want in her salad, like cucumbers, onions, and spinach.That’s practically the whole thing.She might well have been better off ordering just a lettuce salad and been done with it.But she had him repeat it back to her three times, what she wanted out of it.And here I am waiting for my turn to order just a chef salad without any changes.I think that I wouldn’t have had any changes for the man by the time she was finished, even if I had to pick things out for myself.”They both laughed.“Then she wants things in it, like asparagus and scallops.I’m glad she wasn’t seated next to me when she got it.That does not sound like a good combination at all.”
