Page 53 of Damaged Billionaire Daddy
“George Butterman,” he answered the phone.
“Hi,” I said. “It’s Kandy. How’s Mom?
“She’s somewhat better,” he said. “They’ve got her hooked up to tubes and monitors and I don’t know what all, but she’s breathing on her own and she ate some soup. She’s asking for you all the time, Kandy.”
Then I knew what I needed to do. Mimi and Pops would help me, I was sure of it. Maybe they could even help me come up with some sort of remote work. But it was as plain as anything that Mom wasn’t taking good care of herself, and someone needed to see about her.
Since she was in the hospital, she couldn’t disappear into the street before I could get there.
I got up off the bed and went to look for my grandmother.
“Mimi?” I call to her.
“In the kitchen, dear,” she answered.
I went into the kitchen. Mimi was drying a cup. The tea kettle was bubbling merrily on the stove. She turned and took it off the stove. “Chamomile,” she explained as she poured it. “Supposed to be good for both stomach and nerves. Why don’t we both have a cup?”
“All right,” I said. “Mimi, I think I should go see about Mom. With her in the hospital, I think I might be able to get a judge to give me custody of her.”
Mimi was completely silent for a few minutes as she placed a tea egg in each cup, and then poured hot water over them. “Sweetheart, are you sure? That’s a big job.”
“I know,” I said. “But Aunt Martha doesn’t like her, so she can’t stay with Uncle George. I’ll see if I can get a job online or something so I can stay with her all the time.”
Mimi seemed to think about it for a few minutes. “We’ll help,” she said. “I never did feel right about not trying to take care of her, even if she wasn’t our daughter. But you’ll need to control the money, and that means not giving her any chance at all of handling even so much as a penny.”
“I know,” I said. “But I realized that I always wanted help from her, even when she wasn’t able to give it. I don’t think I ever really thought about what it must be like for her.”
“Call George,” Mimi said. “Ask him to see about findingyou a place to stay. Your pops and I will see to plane tickets. You are in no condition to drive across the country, even if the weather is decent.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Mimi.”
“Child,” Mimi said.
I looked up at her.
“Do you really want to keep this baby? There are still places you can go . . .”
I nodded my head. “I want it. If things had been different, I think I could really go for Richard in a big way. But not if it means letting him take over the business you and Pops worked so hard to build up. And not if that’s all he wants.”
I took a swallow of my tea. It had honey and milk in it, and it soothed my throat and unhappy stomach.
“Why could you go for him?” Mimi asked. “Is it his money or that he used to be a football hero?”
I shook my head no. “I’m not sure how to put this. But when it was just us, he helped clean up the kitchen. He made popcorn. The cabin in the mountains…it wasn’t just any old cabin. It was his favorite childhood retreat place. He’d saved kid games from when he was little and had stored his favorite movie DVDs because you can’t count on getting good Internet reception.”
“What did he save?” Mimi asked.
“Oh, a lot of the usual stuff. Terminator, Airplane, football hero videos . . .but he also had Goonies, Princess Bride, and It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“Three of your favorites.” Mimi smiled. “Interesting, but hardly the basis for starting a life together.”
“But enough to go for a second date,” I said, “If it were not that he let slip he was still after the vineyard. He’s a goddamn handsome bastard and a cold-hearted asshole.” I felt the tears beginning to slide down my cheeks.
Mimi watched me cry for a minute. I took another sip of my tea, trying to get myself together.
“Tell you what,” she said. “I think we need to make those plane tickets round trip and find a way to bring your mother back here. We tried before, but maybe things will be different now that you are older. There’s a cottage where we usually house a temporary harvest worker. You could stay there.”
“Thanks, Mimi. Not worrying about rent would help for sure. And I’d have Mila for moral support, as well as you and Pops.”
