7. Means Nothing

7

MEANS NOTHING

“ L aurel,” John Glasgow said when she opened the door to her father’s house on Saturday morning. “I’m so glad you decided to come for a visit. Is everything okay?”

“It’s good,” she said. “Just missed you. It’s been a few months since I’ve been home. I thought it’d be nice to visit and take you and Aunt Helen to lunch. Where is she?”

Her Aunt Helen lived in the apartment upstairs from her father.

Laurel had been a toddler when her mother left and said motherhood wasn’t her thing. Aunt Helen, who had been widowed and said she had no plans of ever getting married again, moved from Texas to Connecticut to help raise her.

Her father had found a two-family home, fixed the apartment upstairs for his sister and Laurel lived downstairs with her father.

It was a good setup and she had what she considered a mother and father in her life, even if her aunt was ten years older than her father and a little on the kooky side. But her aunt was all about Southern charm and style and she’d got that from her, with her own modern spin on it. Because the last thing she was doing was teasing her hair daily as her aunt still did.

“She’s getting her nails done. She’ll be back in less than an hour.” Her father dropped his eyes to her nails. “I see you still do it too.”

“Not like Aunt Helen. Does she have long pointy claws now? I like the natural look,” she said. “They get in the way if they are too long.”

Though she’d had fake ones for years too, she didn’t want to start her job off with them yet. If she thought she’d be chipping and breaking her own nails a lot, then she’d get the fake ones. But a nice gel polish on her natural nails was what she preferred and it was working just fine.

Every two to three weeks she’d get them done again as her little treat.

“I’m sure I’m going to have to listen to all sorts of fashion talk during lunch, aren’t I?”

“You’re used to it, Dad. But we’ve got time. How is work going?”

“The same,” her father said. He was a lineman for a utility company. Or he had been for years when she was younger. Now he was a supervisor. He didn’t do as much hands-on work but still put in plenty of hours.

“When are you going to retire?” she asked. Her father was fifty-five. Her aunt retired five years ago. She’d done administrative work in a school district at a middle school. Got her summers off and knew how to handle a bunch of wiseass kids trying to grow up faster than they should.

“A few more years,” her father said. “I’m young yet. I like what I do. I’d be bored.”

“Go find yourself a woman,” she said.

Her father squinted one eye at her. “You know how that goes.”

She laughed. Her father had dated on and off over the years. Nothing was ever serious enough that someone moved in with them. Most hated her father worked a crazy amount of hours and could be called out at any time. Back in the day, linemen had a reputation for partying and picking up women when they were traveling and out of town.

Her father had said it was true, but nothing he’d ever done. She believed him. But that didn’t mean the women he dated did.

“When you’re not working it might be better,” she said. She turned her head when her aunt walked in. “Hi, Aunt Helen. I was just telling Dad he needed to start thinking about retirement and then maybe he can find a woman.”

Her aunt laughed, her frozen hair moving like a cone on her head. At least she had some of Rose’s bobby pins in, making it somewhat modern.

No, it would never be modern to have your hair teased that high. Not unless it was 1985 again.

“I tell him that all the time,” Aunt Helen said. “He doesn’t listen to me.”

“Like your aunt is any better,” her father said. “We’ll be single together forever.”

“I had love,” Aunt Helen said. “I’ll never find it again. You didn’t have it, and I did. That’s the difference. I’m not looking for something I already had and can hold onto those memories as is.”

She’d heard it before. Aunt Helen had been so in love and so heartbroken over the sudden death of her husband, a man Laurel had never met and only seen pictures of, that she swore you could only have a love like that once and it wasn’t worth the frustration of trying again.

Laurel wasn’t so sure she believed there was only one person out there for someone, but since she’d had such rotten luck finding just one, she didn’t know what to think.

“Then I guess it’s a good thing you two have each other for company,” she said. “Love the color of your nails.”

She was right: her aunt had long pointy nails, in a shade of hot pink. At least her aunt kept up with nail styles. Though she wasn’t a fan of the pointy look herself.

“Need to get ready for spring,” Aunt Helen said.

“Speaking of spring,” she said. “I’ve got products for you.”

She went and got the bag she’d left by the door and brought it in. She handed out some soap and shampoo from the men's line to her father. He liked it and said it was all he’d use.

For Aunt Helen, she got a few lotions, soap, no shampoo because her aunt was fussy with her hair. Then there was a scarf and a few more hair accessories.

“These are great,” her aunt said, picking up the scarf and putting it on. The scarf was bright yellow with a big daffodil on it. It’d been marked down in a bin of leftover pieces from last summer.

It’s not that she was cheap. It was more that her aunt was bold and that just screamed a piece Aunt Helen would love.

With the way her aunt had it on her neck already, she knew it was a winner.

“Glad you love it. How about I treat you both to lunch? It’s a little early.”

“We can go soon,” her father said. “Sit and relax. Tell us about your job and what is going on.”

“Work is great. It’s getting there. I love what I do. Not a lot of staff issues.”

“Not a lot means some,” her father said.

“There are always going to be some. New people are let in slowly, but I get along great with the owners and the key people and that is what matters to me.”

“It does,” her father said. “But it can also put a target on your back.”

She’d been there before. She was used to it.

“It’s all good,” she said. “I’m busy and like it that way.” She debated for a minute and decided to let them know about Philip. “I had a visitor last weekend.”

“Who?” Aunt Helen asked. “I didn’t think you knew many people there.”

“Everyone is new to me but coworkers now. The visitor was Philip. Guess he found me, not that I’m hiding, but I didn’t think it’d be that easy to find where I moved to.”

Her father started to grind his teeth. “I wanted to break him in half months ago and would love to do it now.”

She smiled and walked over to kiss her father on the cheek. He was a big tough man. What she liked in a guy and still couldn’t believe she fell for the fancy soft one.

“He’d wet himself if you growled at him,” she said. “And then his father would sue you to replace the pants. Not worth it.”

“I still don’t know what you saw in him,” Aunt Helen said. “Unless it’s that he was just different.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said. “He came knocking on my door and wanted to talk. I put my finger in his chest and all but shoved him off the porch and told him to get lost. I’m sure his mother sent him. They are probably still pissed at the money they lost when I called off the wedding.”

“I wasn’t happy when you didn’t want me to pay for your wedding, but I guess there was a reason it worked out.”

“I would have been livid if you lost the money they did, but I still wouldn’t have married him.”

“I wouldn’t have let you,” her father said. “Money means nothing. And I want to know if he bothers you again.”

“He won’t,” she said. “At least I don’t think so.”

“I still want to know,” her father said. “I’m not afraid of a lawsuit. No one is going to sue me for talking with him.”

She laughed. “It’s all good. I’ve moved on.”

“That is right,” her aunt said. “You need to move on. Maybe you can find a nice man there. You keep saying we have to find someone, but it’s you we are worried about.”

There was no reason to talk about the date she had with Easton. It’d been a week and no word from him since. It might have been a thank you lunch even though she would have liked it to be more.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m where I belong and love what I’m doing.”

Finding a man she could love would take more time and effort than she wanted to put out.