Page 62 of Made for You
I pulled back, gaping at her. “No way, Gram. Sell it. I’ll get something smaller and—”
“Sell this house I spent years painting and styling into the majestic wonder it is now? Sell the little walkway with my hand-tiled design? The bejeweled staircase and the personalized everything?”
Her humorous outrage had me smiling. “I think there are a lot of people who would fall in love with this house, but I see your point. If you want me to keep it for you, I will.”
She shook her head. “No, honey. I want you tohaveit. It’s yours. And if at some point in the future you don’t have use for it, you can sell it and make off with the millions like a bandit.” She winked.
My mouth dropped open. “But how will you… I mean, I don’t want to seem disrespectful, but isn’t Silverton Springs very upscale? Won’t you need a fair amount of capital for your stay there? Between us, I’m hoping you live atleastanother two decades. That’s a long time for a residency.” Numbers slotted into a cube in my mind, pieces into a puzzle and best guesses on what she paid for things at this house and what it might cost to move.
The smug little smile stopped me before her words did. “I don’t think you ever realized it, but I was a bit of an artist in my heyday.”
“I knew that. Obviously,” I said, gesturing to the bursting colors around us.
She chuckled softly. “Well, yes, I went mad in my own home like a toddler with fingerpaints, but I am also a decently successful painter and tile artist in the public sphere. I had a shop here, but in my younger days, I had pieces in galleries in New York and LA.”
“That’s… awesome.” I supposed I’d had the sense she’d made a living from her art, but she’d always been so modest about it. Or, if notmodest, then at least unwilling to relive the artist glory days for me.
She laughed, pressing a hand to her chest, then shaking her head and gazing at me with this look that said I was such a sweet little ignoramus. “Oh, child. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t need the money from this house. I have more money than I know what to do with. I could spend the next half century at Silverton Springs and still have enough to leave you a tidy nest egg. Please don’t worry about me.”
At this, my jaw dropped. “You… you’re… okay. Wow.”
She laughed again. “Don’t act like it’sthatmuch of a shock. If you think back, I suspect you’ll put some pieces together. But for now, what this means is you needn’t worry about my finances. And for that matter, you really shouldn’t worry about your own, but I know better than to expect you to cooperate when I try to give you money.”
I frowned at her. My brain had started flipping through little moments from over the years—noticing the Chanel tag on one of her jackets, seeing one of her bracelets in a Cartier box, one of her friends mentioning a trip they’d taken years back that’d struck me as shockingly luxurious. Andholy crap, I’d totally missed the signs, but Gram was rich. She was intriguing tax bracket rich.
But she lived simply. And knowing her, it made sense. She had a small house—a three bedroom on a decent plot of land that she’d cultivated into a little paradise. She lived how she wanted to live.
“Were youoff the gridwhen my parents died because of the money?” I asked, the suspicion creeping in on me.
She frowned. “Ah, my nephew and his wife, your parents, had gotten to where they wouldn’t stop asking for handouts and while I loved giving to them, I’d seen how it’d hurt them. By the time you came along, we weren’t speaking—they’d decided I was the devil because, once I found out the kinds of things they were spending the money on, I refused to continue funding their habits, and I told them I wouldn’t hesitate to call the police if I ever found out they were dealing or stealing or anything else I’d become concerned about. Once they cut me off, in a move I’ll never stop regretting, I let them. I secluded myself in this place, and I didn’t leave a trail they could follow, although frankly, it couldn’t have been that much of a mystery considering I still had a house here and they knew I loved Silverton. I never imagined they’d haveyou. That I’d be missing out on you. If I’d known…” Her voice shook.
I didn’t need her regret, though. We’d been over this before. At first, I could hardly stand to hear the truth—that she’d been here all along and it was ultimately no one’sfault.Courts wouldn’t be looking for next of kin in a great-aunt who had no verifiable attachment to my parents in years and who didn’t especially want to be found. We’d covered that ground, and I didn’t want her looking back with regret. I clutched at her hands and squeezed them gently. “We can’t go back. The point is, you were there for me as soon as you found out, and I benefitted from that. I’m not sure you did, but—”
“I did, and I’ll never be convinced otherwise. You might’ve given me a few more silver hairs, but you brought so much joy, even in the hard times.”
Our gazes hung together, the memory of so many good and hard times while I processed the reality that I did have family and that I’d missed out on her, on the woman who had shifted from an unknown great-aunt to my Gram, for so long, even as I processed losing my parents.
The ache in my chest and sense of loss made me think of Kiley. My face must’ve changed, because Gram shook my hands lightly before she dropped them.
“What is it?”
“Bruce dropped me off and went home to talk with Kiley. She’s having a tough time, and I was just thinking about how hard it was to accept the changes life threw my way when I was her age. I’m marveling at how healthy she is—reaching out to Bruce and talking with him.”
Her mouth curved into a pleased grin. “She’s lovely. Just like you were, for the record. But you had some sharper edges. I think Kiley… I think she has a little more people pleaser in her than you. I think in some odd way, being in the system for a few years made you unwilling to stop and do anything for anyone else—not in a bad way. Probably in a way that kept you safe. But Kiley…”
She trailed off, but I finished the thought. Because I recognized the truth as she was speaking. “Kiley doesn’t know she’s safe already. And as amazing as Bruce is, she’s still waiting for him to leave her.”
Gram’s grim nod sent an arrow to my heart. I hated this confirmation—hated that this amazing child would feel unloved at any moment of any day. And then feeling so deeply grateful she had Bruce, because he wasn’t going to give up on her. Whatever had happened yesterday wouldn’t shake him.
That was the kind of love everyone deserved. The kind thatstuck.Bruce’s love for Kiley would stick. Gram’s love for me and mine for her stuck, whether she moved to Silverton Springs today or next year or never.
And what Gram was giving me the freedom to do was to keep sticking with her, and also to find more people to love and ways to stick.
“She’ll learn just like you did.”
Gram’s eyes pinned me, reminding me how hard it’d been to learn the lesson that she wouldn’t kick me out or stop loving me, even when I pushed her away.
“She will.”
