Chapter 8

Axel loved the way things were moving along. His business was nearly finished, just waiting on furniture and some décor to make it look better than he thought it would look if he’d just left everything bare. Thank goodness for his mom, or he might well have never thought of the finishing touches that she put everywhere. Mac helped so she could find the things that mom was looking for, but she didn’t do foo-foo, as she called it.

After getting things in the filing cabinet, not that much right away, he looked around and felt very proud of what was going on in there. He might well never take on a partner, but he thought that the rooms, for one, were just as good-looking as the rest of the place was looking. That’s when his thoughts went to Debra.

She had been done wrong. Not only did she not get the money that had been promised her but the law firm that she was to get wasn’t even there anymore. The building, along with nearly everything in it, had been seized by the courts until such time as a hearing could be set up for Phil—he decided to call him that as well when he figured out that it pissed him off. He’d claimed the building that had been Debra’s uncle and had cleaned it out of every scrap of paper, file, and furniture. Claiming that it was all his before the will could be read seemed like a logical thing because Debra couldn’t be gotten in touch with at the time.

Axel had filed for Debra when she’d been in the hospital and had gotten a judgment against Phil and all parties involved in order for him to not take over the firm. Not that he could. Without at least a law degree, he couldn’t own the firm anyway. There were a lot of things going on that he didn’t care for.

First of all, it seemed that the firm that had been handling the will didn’t work very hard to find out where Debra was. However, they did notify her that the uncle had died. Also, and this one boggled his mind more, the firm handling the estate, which was quite large, allowed Phil to go in and take over the firm’s assets like he’d inherited it.

Then, there was the money as well as the home that she was to inherit. The firm, instead of holding the house in her name, had allowed Phil to not just move in but he’d been able to put his name on the deed as sole owner. Either he had something over the other firm, or they were about as incompetent as he thought. There was no way that he’d allowed any of the things going on to happen had he been in charge.

The past was the past, as his dad was so fond of saying, and put your foot forward and make it right from where you came in. And he planned on doing that. As soon as Debra signed off on him being her attorney. He was hoping to get that done today, as a matter of fact.

He didn’t know why he felt so protective of her. She was a nice woman and seemed to have her shit together. Intelligent too. He liked that they could have a conversation, and neither of them felt like they had to explain everything. It sounded arrogant, he knew, but it was nice. It was much like his own wife. They just seemed to click into place. He answered his phone when it rang.

“It’s Debra Author. I have a question for you. Well, several, but this one will make way for the others. How much will it cost me to have you represent me when I go to court in a couple of days? Remember, you know as much about my finances—more than likely more than I do.” He told her that he was doing this because he liked her. “I’m not sure if you understand this or not, but you won’t make any money by doing things like this for free. I mean, sure, you have all the money in the world compared to me, but I have to pay you something.”

“How about we work on that when you come over tonight for dinner.” She asked him if she’d missed something as she was still in the hospital. “I forgot about that. By the way, you sound so much better than the last time I spoke to you. I’ll talk to you about it when you’re home. Right now, I’m filing judgments against the firm that represented your uncle and his estate, the state as well as your cousin. He won’t be able to do anything else until the hearing is over. Which a part of me hopes is a long time. He’s also been arrested. I think you know that. He’s been moved out of the house by the police as well, and all the locks have been changed. I have the keys here, as well as the judge who is presiding over this. I don’t want you to stress out or anything, but to me, this looks like it’s going to go all your way.” She asked him about the will. “They read the one that Phil had in his possession instead of getting the one that was filed. That’s going to cost them a great deal of money, if not put them out of business. I’ve seen parts of the will. The entire estate was to go to you with the stipulation that you marry within one year before or after his death. I don’t know your personal situation, but I’m having that looked into as well. He can say that you marry, but I don’t know anything about that, as I said.”

For whatever reason, Kahana popped into his head. Shaking his head, not sure why that came to mind, but he wasn’t going to go down that road right now. He could hear the stress building up in her voice and was glad that she started doing the breathing like she’d been taught. He could her stress begin to get to her and she did the breathing like she’d been taught to calm herself.

In through her nose and out through her mouth. She did that several times while she was supposed to be thinking of the most serene place that she could think of. He wondered where it would be. His would be home on the couch with Mac. Then again, Kahana popped into his head.

“Are you better?” After telling him what she was doing, except for the part where his brother was there in his own thoughts, he spoke to her again. “You take your time, Debra. Anything that I have to say to you can wait until you’re better. Just breathe.”

“You’re all so nice to me.” She started to cry then, and he knew that she was embarrassed. He would have been had it been himself in the hospital without anywhere to go when she came out. “I don’t know what I’d do without your family around. I know that you’ve saved my life, but you’ve become so much more important to me than that. Am I making sense?”

“Yes. Believe it or not, I feel the same way about you. Even Mac said she thought of you as her long-lost sister, one that she could love.” They both laughed, and he felt so much better because of it. “There you go. Laughter is the best medicine, or so I’ve been told. How about you rest a little while and I’ll come in and talk to you tomorrow. I do need you to sign off on a couple of things, and that shouldn’t be too much. I’ll even spring for some lunch. Are you on a special diet?”

“Yes, cardiac diet. No salt, no caffeine. Pretty much anything that tastes good is out.” Again, the two of them laughed. “I can have treats if I want them. It’s worse, they said that I deny myself anything. Then I’ll binge on them. But I’m to be careful from now on what I put into my gut.”

“I don t know that I’d survive on a diet like that. I’m too much of a snacker, too. I’m assuming those are out, like chips and dip?” She told him that they were, and that wasn’t going to bother her overly much as she wasn’t much of a snacker anyway. “Good for you. I’ll see what I can bring in for you. I looked up the kind of diet you’re on, and I think I can make that work for something to be brought to you. Do you need anything else?”

She asked him where Kahana was, and he had to hold back his laughter this time. She did like him, he thought, and that might be the best thing for her. When he told her that he was making rounds at the hospital for a doctor who had gotten ill, she told him that she was being foolish thinking that he’d come by to see her like she was his only patient.

“You like him, don’t you?” She wanted to deny it, but in the end, she didn’t for which he was happy about. All she told Axel was that she felt better when he was around. Calmer. “My wife does that for me as well. Makes my temper better, and she holds my hand and I feel like I can conquer the world. She’d smack me for saying this, but sometimes, I want to start an argument with her just to see her temper flare up. She has a good one, too.”

After talking to her about a few more things, he did tell her that the things that were at her apartment were now in his garage. Also, the things that had stickers on them—he thanked her several times for those added notes. They had been distributed to all the places that she’d marked them as going. She then thanked him several more times before she told him that the nurse was in the room and she needed her vitals. After hanging up, he sat at his desk, trying to think of a way that would bring Kahana and Debra together. It bothered him some that her home seemed to be in Tennessee but he thought that with a little persuading, they could convince her to stay around here and make a life with his brother—if it came to that, he thought.

He and Mac were having their families over for dinner tonight. It was too hot out to have anything out of doors but they were able to make it work by opening up the patio doors that had just been installed this morning so that it looked like they were outside. Axel loved their new home and was more than happy that they’d been able to get it all finished up in a reasonable time.

“I wanted to ask you something about your brothers.” He looked up from his desk to see Mac there and realized that his computer had gone to sleep at some point. “Are any of your brothers seeing anyone they might consider special? I mean, you know, more than one date in the last decade?”

“Not that I’m aware of. But I’ve only just gotten off the phone with Debra, and she mentioned to me that she was calmer when Kahana was around. Then she told me that she liked him, but that was all. Why? What do you have planned?” She told him that she’d not really had a plan other than to make sure that she invited them to dinners, too. “I don’t know that any of them would want that. We’ve all been pretty close to the chest about people being invited to our homes. I don’t remember one time that any of us have ever had a date over to have dinner with us. Ever. I don’t know why, but that’s the way things have been.”

“You mean your parents have never met your girlfriends? That’s kind of nice, I guess. You don’t want someone to stick around if they’re not missed, right, I suppose. Now that I think about it, I’ve never had anyone over to my old place either. It just didn’t seem right for whatever reason.” He asked her about benefits. “I’ve never done that either. I’ve had sex, but it’s been a quickie at their home or a hotel. When I think about that, I’m lucky that I’ve never ended up dead. I was insane, I think.”

“Not insane, but a little too trusting. I know how that is. Sometimes, when I talk to a person that I’m to represent, I find myself sometimes, not all the time, believing everything they tell me. But the saying that there are two sides to every story is true. Even that sometimes can be troublesome for me.” She laughed when he did. “I’ve gotten jaded over the years, too. I don’t have any patience anymore nor do I have much in the way of sympathy for people. My family, yes, but clients? Not so much. They’ll lie right to my face and think that’s just fine and dandy.”

“You’re not like that now. At least you weren’t with me.” He said that he’d known something was going on between them before he realized that he loved her. “Very romantic that. Thank you. But I have to go and see some people at the hospital about some things that are going on with the reno that we did for them a few years ago. They want one of the rooms to be larger than it is now, but without knocking down a couple of walls, that’s not going to happen. They should have thought of the sizes of the rooms before putting in the plans. My dad tapes out a room size on the ground or floor to allow people to see what it is they’re getting. I might start that practice as well. Then I need to go and see my grandmother. I don t want to, I even told her that I’d not be back but the station house is begging me to come by to tell her to shut up. I think they’re slightly afraid of her for some reason. Did you want to come with me?”

“I’ll gladly go with you to see your grandmother, but I can’t make it to the hospital right now. If I don’t get this paperwork cleared away, I’m going to be behind more than I am right now.” She told him that was what she’d been hoping for. “Did you hear that they’re looking for a replacement for the hospital head nurse position? Dad and Mom are going to pay for background checks on them just so they can have peace of mind over this. It’s a royal fuck up if you ask me.”

“I know. So much is going on you have to wonder if it will be better off closing down the place and starting over. But I also know that they do good work there, too. Just a few bad people making things difficult for a lot of people. You forever hear about the bad but seldom the good in people, I believe.”

When Mac left him in order to get the hospital straightened out, Axel dug deeper into his work to get it all cleared away. He also made notes of things that he still needed in their home if he was going to be able to work from here daily. Also, he needed to hire himself someone to answer the phones at the new building if he was ever going to get any new clients. However, right now, he didn’t care if he had any or not. Hanging out with Mac more than made up for working outside of the house.

~*~

It took her longer than she thought it would take at the hospital. They wanted her to make all the rooms in the place be able to handle two patients at a time. They’d only just gotten finished with it being done up for one person per room now they didn’t like that. Too bad. She wasn’t a magician, and she wasn’t going to be able to pull more room out of her ass like it seemed that they wanted her to.

Since she needed to vent, she told Axel that she was going to see her grandmother on her own. She wanted her to pick a fight with her, and that would help with her stress. Since meeting Debra, she had been watching her food intake as well as her stress levels. The poor girl was only a couple of months younger than her, and she’d had a heart attack already.

“There you are. What’s taken you so long? Or do you not have respect for your elders.” She didn’t bother answering her grandmother as she wouldn’t hear it anyway. Instead, she asked her what she wanted. “Right to the point. I like that. I don’t like you but I do respect your ability to get to the point.”

“Yet here you are going on about shit when I told you that I didn’t have all day when you had the station call me. What is it, Grandmother? I’ve got a long list of things that I need taken care of and—”

“If I keep you here all day, that’s what it takes for you to listen to my demands. I want you to talk to your father about paying me more money. I need to live, too, and he has it all. Had I known that that stupid husband of mine would have done me dirty like he did, then I’d not have married him in the first place.” Mac told her that without being married to him, this conversation wouldn’t have to be talked about. “What are you talking about? Of course, it would have. I want what’s coming to me and I don’t like that I’m being denied things that well should have come to me in the first place.”

“Now, on that, we can agree. I want you to get what’s coming to you as well.” Nodding, Grandmother told her it was about time that someone thought that she was done dirty. “I think you misunderstood me. I want you to get what’s coming to you by way of the law. You’re not a nice person and I cannot stand to be around you. You’re mean, manipulative as well as a rotten soul. I’m not going to help you ruin my family. I love that you’re in jail, and I hope that you have to stay here until you die of meanness.”

What are you talking about? People don’t die from meanness. What a thing to say to me. Of course, I have to be stern about things. If I wasn’t around, everything in this place would be in ruin. Why you should see the way that they serve food here. They put it right on the floor and shove it right at you. And let me tell you about the food that is here. I’ve been trying for a week to get them to bring me a nice salad and a glass of wine. It’s not like they couldn’t run into Columbus to get me one. But they won’t cater to my needs like they should be.” Mac asked her why she thought that. “What do you mean? Why shouldn’t they cater to me? I’m a very important person, and as soon as my son gets his head on right, I’ll have the money that I have coming to me.”

“About that money you think that you have coming to you. What about the stash that you have in the bank? Or the money that was found in boxes all around your retirement home?” She asked how she’d found out about that. “I’m finding out all kinds of things about you. We, Dad, and I, had to go and collect your things from the assisted living home because you’ve been evicted. Not only because no one liked you there but you’ve not made a single payment to the place since you moved in. By the way, you had just enough cash in the several boxes to pay that debt off.”

“You listen here. If even one dollar of that money is missing, I’m going to own you. That’s all mine. And I will not have you going through my things either. That is mine, and I will not be kicked out or evicted, as you said, because they got a burr up their bottom and think they can kick me out. As I said before, they couldn’t run that place without me there.”

“That’s what they said you’d say. And you can’t not pay them for living there because you were giving unsolicited advice to them. But I took care of that. Also, your phone bill. How did you get by for four years without paying that bill?” She told her that she had her ways. “I’m sure you do. But I paid that bill along with all the others that people had for you. Christ, when I think about how much was in the apartment you lived in, I want to smack the shit out of you.”

Mac went over all the things that she’d been able to pay off with the money that had been stashed around in not just the apartment that she lived in but also the storage unit that she didn’t pay on monthly too. While Grandmother didn’t say, she knew how she’d gotten away with so much. She was a monster of the worst kind. One of the cable gentlemen who had come to turn off her cable and phone had had his family threatened to be killed. Especially his children.

“The money that is in the bank now will be used to pay for your legal fees. Not that I think you’ll have enough, but we can always sell off your crap to get a bit more. Why did you think that—you know what? Never mind. I don’t want to hear you going on about how you think for some reason that you’re simply owed those things because you’re a monster.”

“I’m no such thing, and I demand that you stop calling me that.” Mac rolled her eyes at her grandmother, thinking that this was much more fun than she thought it should have been. Getting to blow her off was a blast, she thought. “I have a few things that you’re going to do for me. First and foremost, you’re going to get all my money back and then put it all back in that apartment. I know that it’s beneath me to live there, but for now, it had suited me. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll simply keep your mouth shut and do as you’re told. I’d hate to have something happen to you and that supposed husband that you have. He’s an attorney, you told me. Good, I’ll have to use him. He’s going to do just what I tell him to do, too.”

She only half listened to what she was saying. It was boring, to say the least, and she simply didn’t care what the old bat wanted. As she’d told her before, she was glad that she was in jail and not bothering anything. Tuning into her when she heard her say her name, she looked at her.

“Christ, when did you get so old?” She’d not meant to say it aloud, but now that it was out there, she didn’t want to pull it back in. While grandmother was gaping at her like a fish out of water—only just now understanding what that meant, she continued on with her observation. “They must not allow you to have your hairdresser around to touch up your roots. Your hair is looking positively ancient not to mention unkept. The green jumper does nothing for your skin tone, either. Just how much makeup do you wear all the time that makes you look halfway decent.”

“You take that back right now.” She told her that she wasn’t and didn’t care if she threatened her or not. “You will when I’m out of here. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Why my son had another child in you, I’ll never know. At least Charles knows better than to come around with his hand out.”

“I’ve never done that either. Nor has Dad.” She sputtered around about it was a figure of speech. “That makes what you said make even less sense. You’re off your rocker if you think that anything that you’re saying to me is going to mean a damned thing. I’ve not respected nor loved you—that’s right, I don’t love you. I don’t even like you, and I haven’t since I was six years old, and you slapped me in the face because I didn’t want to eat my peas. I still don’t, as a matter of fact. I hate them. Mostly due to you.”

“I’d have slapped you around more if not for your stupid father catching me doing it. After that, I knew I was going to have to be more careful about how I disciplined you.” Mac grinned, knowing that she’d not done anything to her because she avoided her like the plague. “That stupid brother of yours went off and got married too. Then he had to breed. That woman that he’s married to is nothing but a milksop. She should have been destroyed before she even made it to the womb. The same as you.”

“Well then, I’m lucky that you weren’t around.” Her cell phone rang, and she could see Axel’s face there. She also noticed the time. She needed to get out of here before dinnertime and get some nice hugs from her husband.

Axel would know just what to do when she needed comfort, too. Standing up, ignoring her demands that she sit back down, Mac answered her phone with a smile on her face. Taking her chair with her, she walked down the hallway and to the front of the station house so that she could go home. Before leaving, however, she told them not to send any more phone calls to their home. No one was coming back here to put up with her shit.

On her way home, she stopped at the state store to pick up something for them to have with dinner. There was a wine cellar in their home, but it was empty as far as she knew, and also, she didn’t think that anyone had been down there for years. Picking up a box of expensive chocolates, too, she was on her way home. Calling Axel back, she told him what she’d done.

“Wonderful. You must have read my mind. I was just thinking about a nice glass of wine myself. Where are you?” She told him she was just passing the grocery store. “I ordered some dinner for us, too. Some steaks to have on the grill. I want to celebrate tonight. I got my desk cleared off, and all the motions that I needed to have filed have been filed.”

She told him that she’d stop and pick it all up. “By the way, Grandmother knows about the money that was found and what was paid off. I know that they record everything at the jail, so there won’t be any denying it when this goes to court. Have you had any luck getting statements from the people at the assisted living place?”

“More than I thought I’d get. About five dozen of the people living there not only sent things to me registered mail, but they had them certified, too, along with any bills that she might well owe to them.” She said good. “Also, I’m sure you told her that her things are in storage. We’re going to have to sell that stuff off, too, in order to pay for some other things that have come up. Honey, let’s not talk about her anymore. I want us to have a nice, stressless evening and then go to bed to make love the rest of the night.”

“Sounds like a great plan.” Going into the grocery store, she was able to pick up the four bags of things that he’d ordered. Mac loved living in a small town like this one. Everyone knew what was going on in your life, but they seemed just as determined to help you get out of things, too. She loved the little grocery store, too.

After getting home and picking up some items that Axel hadn’t ordered, she was thrilled that he came to meet her in the driveway to carry all the things that she’d purchased today. He noticed the little tests that she’d gotten, too.

“I’m late, and you and I need to know before the town does. I’d be surprised if it’s not all over town that I picked up some pregnancy tests. We’ll do them after dinner.” He told her now, she was going to do it now. “All right. I love you, Axel Hathaway. So very much.”

“And I love you, Mac Hathaway, too. More than I think that there are words in the world to tell you how I feel.” He grinned. “Go do your thing with those tests. I want to know if I’m going to be a dad or not.”

She hoped they were both going to be parents. It would be something else that would piss off her grandmother if she ever found out. She might have to have one of the officers at the jail let it slip that she was. It might be worth it, she thought, just to go in and tell her that.