Page 18 of Melbourne
“You’ve already told him that we’d take it, I assume.”He asked her why they’d give up something that they could live in over being in an abandoned home.“I’ll have to see it before I decide to move in.And if it’s not up to my standards, what will he give us to go someplace else?”
“There isn’t anyplace else to go.I asked him about the place and he said we could stay there.And I’m going to even if you decide that you don’t want to.”She asked him what he’d said.“You heard me.I’m sick of living here and sleeping on the floor.I’m going to go to the place tonight and sleep there.I think it will be nicer than staying here and sleeping on the floor, don’t you?”
“I’ll have to see it.But if it’s too small or dirty, he’ll have to get us something better.I’m not taking something that’s going to need a lot of work to make it livable.”He asked her if she wanted to go now.“Now?Why are you in such a hurry?There isn’t any reason for us to go tonight.I’m betting either the rent is going to be too high or the place is going to be infested with some kind of bugs.I won’t have it, Allen.We might as well stay here if he’s going to be unreasonable.Just tell him we want something bigger than just a couple of rooms.That’ll be all right with me.”
“I’m going back over there tonight so I can have a warm shower in the morning and sleep in a good bed.”She told him he was not.“I am.You just want to complain about everything.Remember what our parole officer said, we needed to establish ourselves in a residence, or we’ll be put in the halfway house somewhere else.I like being here, where I have a job and get to see my daughters once in a while.”
“What are they going to think when we invite them over and don’t have enough room to turn around in?I’m sure that will make them want to not help us.”He told her that he didn’t want his daughters to bail them out.“Why not?They’re the reason that we were in prison in the first place.The least they can do is take care of us.”
“You mean like we did them?I think we’ll be lucky if they want anything to do with us after the way we treated them.”She said that they’d paid for their crime.“Only if it isn’t something that we do again will they have anything to do with us.I’m sure of it.”
“You’ve been talking to them, haven’t you?”He admitted that he’d had lunch with them today.“Lunch again?How dare you?And how dare they want to have lunch with you and not me?”
“I didn’t set it up.Melbourne did when he bought me lunch; he invited them over to have lunch with us, too.It was a very tense meeting.And Justine is so afraid that I’m going to hurt her again, she could barely eat her lunch.I promised them that I’d never hurt them again.”She asked him why he’d do that.“Because I don’t want to hurt them either one again.They’re good women with a job and education, too.I enjoyed just learning about them and what they’d been up to.Did you know that Sammy went to college and got a business management degree?And Justine works from home doing stuffing mail envelopes for companies.We should be proud of them for what they accomplished.”
“You bastard.”He didn’t understand where that had come from and stepped back when she looked as if she was going to hit him.“First, you tell them that you’re not going to be hurting them anymore to make me the bad guy.What if that’s the only way we can get anything out of them?Did you ever think of that?Then secondly, you want to shame us by living in a too small building on someone else’s mattress while they’re no doubt living the high life.Did you even bother to demand money from them, did you?”
“Why would I ask them for money when I have a job on my own?Also, there is one for you, too, if you want to take it.”Belinda said that there was no way she was going to take a job out of pity.“There’s something wrong with you.I’ll ask you this again: we have to have a place to live before we see our parole officer again, or they’ll take us out of here.That’s including a job each.What are you going to do if you don’t have a job and he makes you go to a halfway house?Because I have a job and I like it.I’m not going to do anything that I’m not supposed to do to keep seeing my daughters.”
“Well, laud dee da for you.”He asked her what that was supposed to mean.“It means that if I have to go to a halfway house, then so will you.You’re my husband, and I demand that you get money from our kids so that we don’t have to work anymore.You must look like a fool walking up and down the street marking things on a map.I won’t do anything.I’m not working either.If you’re so cozy up with our daughters—not just yours but ours—then you get money from them before I have to beat you too.”
“They’re not going to help you at all if you don’t behave around them.”She said that she would make them pay for sending her to prison.“Then I wish you luck with your life, Belinda.I’m going to go live in that place because it’s better than living here with no roof over our head and no running hot water.”
He turned to leave and felt her move rather than see her.When she shoved him down the stairs, he was headed down to go away.His last thought was that he was going to die, and he’d never gotten his daughters to trust him.Christ, he didn’t want to die.
Chapter 6
Sammy liked this house, but she was bored looking at houses that were bigger than she could afford.When she’d offered half of the amount they’d be paying for the house, Melbourne had said he had it covered, but she insisted.Now she was regretting not just letting him pay for the whole thing.And they’d have to start from scratch, too, in order to move into a house rather than the condos that both of them had.
“It has six bedrooms, not including the master suite, and five full baths as well as three half baths.”That was a great deal of house, she thought to herself, but the relator continued.“There is a family room as well as a living room that is set up for large families.The pool out back is nice too and has been used until recently.”Melbourne asked her what she thought.
“It’s very large.”He said that he had a big family.“They’re not living with us, are they?I mean, they have their own homes, correct?”
He laughed.“Yes, they do.I just meant that when they come over, we won’t have to crowd up in one room where we can watch sports on television.I never asked, but do you like fall sports?”She told him that she loved football.“Good, so do I.We usually meet at my parents’ home and watch it there, but I think I’d like to have them over here sometimes to watch and pig out on snack food.Do you like to cook?”
“I’ve never been one to cook, no.But I can if pressed.I usually get my meals from the restaurant, so I don’t have to mess with it.”Instead of being mad like she thought he would, he told her she was brilliant at working around that way.He would, too, if he owned a place that served food like they did there.“Does anything bother you?I said I don’t cook, and you took that as it was all right.I mentioned that I don’t like to keep house, and you said it would be all right because we’d have staff.Do you ever get upset?”
“Not since I met you, I don’t.I don’t see the reason for getting all tied up in bunches just because you’d rather not cook.There are more important things than getting pissed off because you don’t like to dust.I don’t either.For either one.I can cook too when I have to, but I work full time and so do you, so there isn’t any way that we’re going to have time for cooking us a meal at the end of a busy work day.”She blurted out that she didn’t have enough money for a house that big.He pulled her aside and into a dark bedroom.“As much as I’d like to kiss you right now, I have to make something clear to you.I have more than enough money for us to have whatever we want and have enough left over to give every man, woman, and child in town a million dollars.I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I’ve been around for a very long time and have been able to save billions of dollars since I was old enough to get out of the house.And the thing about dragon tears is true.I have, in addition to money, a great many gems that I’ve saved over the years, too.I want you to be happy.That’s my sole purpose in life: to make you happier every day that we’re alive.And that’s going to be for a good long time, too.Understand?”
She nodded.“I’m still worried that you’ll find someone else better than me to hang on your arm.”He laughed and told her that he’d have to be a dead man if he were to find someone better than she was.“You’re serious, aren’t you?You actually believe that we’re going to be together for the rest of our lives.”
“The rest of our lives and beyond, love.And in all those days, I’m going to do my damndest to make you happier every day that we’re together.Also, to tell you how much more I love you today than I did yesterday, and will love you more on the morrow.And if you want to have children with me, they’ll be just as happy as you because I will make sure they are.They’ll also know that they’re loved, too.”She told him not to spoil the children.“Never that.We’ll raise them to know value.Of work and of money.I swear that I’ll only spoil them a little when they come along and that will be enough.”
The rest of the tour of the house they were in went much better.But they didn’t put an offer in on this home.It was too small in the yard.He wanted a large yard so that he could shift and lay about in the grass.She couldn’t wait to see his dragon.It didn’t matter to her how big he was; she was going to enjoy seeing her first dragon of her life.
The next house, they both liked, but held off on making an offer.It was all right with its six bedrooms again, but it was the yard again that kept them from buying the home.The realtor said that they should buy some land and have a house built on it.They might consider that if nothing else was coming to them.
The last house they looked at was the winner all the way around.It had seven bedrooms in it and six full baths.They were talking about putting a half bath down the hall from the kitchen, but they were just looking for now.The yard was tremendous, and it had a high-fenced backyard with a pool and plenty of room for him to shift if he wanted.He loved that most of all.Sammy liked that there were two offices on the main floor, and they didn’t have to share one.She didn’t have an office in her condo and wished she had.Even the kitchen had been updated recently, and they both appreciated that as well.
Just as they were going over the specs of the house with Ms.James, the relator, his cell phone rang.He was surprised to be hearing from Allen because he thought he’d be in the house by now.Instead, there had been an accident.
“She pushed me down the stairs.”He asked him if he was all right.“I don’t know.I hit my head hard on the stairs.I don’t know where Belinda is, but I’ve called an ambulance.She pushed me down the stairs, Melbourne.Why would she do that?”
“I’m on my way to see you now.Actually, we’ll meet you at the hospital.You just hang in there.”He told Sammy what was going on, and she was ready to leave right then.“I just have to take care of one thing, and we’ll meet you in the emergency room.I’ll pick up Justine on the way.”
“Thank you.I don’t know what was in her head.”He said that they’d take care of it.“All right.Just tell the girls that I’m all right.I have a lot of blood on me from the head wound, but I think I’m going to be all right.”The ambulance arrived just as he was telling him that they’d be careful.
They put an offer in on the house because they didn’t want to lose it.After signing the papers, Sammy called her sister to be picked up, and they made their way to her house.She lived in the condo units where Sammy did, but Justine didn’t know that she owned the area.When she got into the car, she looked like she’d been crying, and Melbourne decided to just drive and let them talk between themselves.He had a lot on his mind anyway, with Belinda shoving Allen down the stairs.What was wrong with her head in doing something like that, he wondered too.
