Chapter 16

Thursday Morning …

T he next morning, Doreen woke to Mack texting her and realized it was already eight. “Wow,” she muttered, “I slept in.”

She’d had a hard time getting to sleep last night, after all his comments and the lecture about being more careful and needing to boost her security system. Even now as she read his text, she realized he’d already run with it and was letting her know to expect someone from the security company at nine this morning to assess her home for enhancements to the system. Which meant she needed to get up and to get moving to have a clear head before this security person arrived.

She raced into the shower, and, when she came out, the animals were all waiting for her.

“Right, I slept in, and you didn’t get breakfast or a chance to go out. Sorry, guys.” She quickly dressed and headed downstairs. There she let them outside, put on coffee, and got their food ready. With that done, she felt better, as she always hated when she slept in to the point where they were waiting for her. They did so much to enrich her life, so the least Doreen could do was provide meals and their basic care on time.

She laughed at that. “You guys really don’t have it so bad,” she noted. Mugs had already inhaled his food and was ready to race outside again. She propped open the door, so that everybody could come in and out. As soon as the coffee was done dripping, she grabbed a cup and headed outside herself, where she sat down, still yawning and trying to shake out the vestiges of her bad night.

She checked her emails and gasped. She had really been late this morning, and quite a few emails were already stacked up. Several came from Nick about their meeting at ten today, and thankfully he wanted to push it back a little bit. She immediately okayed that, then moved on to various other issues that she still had to deal with as well.

One email came from Scott. She immediately opened it, just to find his request that she call him. It seemed everything would be even better than he’d originally expected. She phoned him, and, when he answered, he seemed distracted. Yet he immediately perked up when he realized she was on the other end.

“Doreen, hello.”

“Hey, Scott.”

“You won’t believe it, but we’ve had several of our long-term customers step up and buy quite a few of your pieces before the auction date,” he began, quite ecstatic. “Now we’ve only got about four pieces left unsold.”

“Wow, so it won’t go to auction after all?”

“They were willing to pay more to preempt the auction.”

“They can certainly do that as far as I’m concerned,” she stated, with a laugh.

“Exactly. At the moment you’re at well over one million, seven-hundred thousand.”

She stopped and stared. “How much? I thought you said, one million, seven-hundred thousand dollars.”

“You heard me right, and we still have a couple of the larger pieces left that we’re dealing with, so you should do very, very well.”

“Is that one million, seven-hundred thousand for me or one million, seven-hundred thousand before expenses and your cut?”

He burst out laughing. “Oh no, that would be your take, and honestly I’m really hoping we’ll get over two million for you.”

“Me too,” she muttered. Even after their phone call was done, she remained stunned. She had always hoped the antiques would bring in good money, but even one million dollars didn’t seem possible. And now, between everything else going on, it looked as if she would be okay after all. Then she burst out laughing and gave herself a talking to.

“Doreen, you’re an idiot. Nobody would see that antique money as simply being okay .” With a little bit of solid investment advice, she should be good to go for the rest of her life, and that was something worth cheering for. She looked around at her home and her garden, realizing it was all due to Nan. Doreen would call her grandmother soon to share the good news with her.

Right now though, Doreen just wanted to sit and savor this moment, realizing that all that fear and insecurity about her future was now a thing of the past. She knew she wouldn’t get the money for a bit yet, although Scott had promised to facilitate it as quickly as possible. Once he ended up selling all the pieces, the money could come in multiple chunks.

Not that she needed it right away, not with Mathew’s estate being processed fairly quickly. According to what Nick had told her, some of Mathew’s bank accounts and properties were already in her name, or had her name on them, so no probate or other legal issues would need to be dealt with. She would be in a far better financial position than even her wildest dreams could have imagined.

Some of that was due to her ex, despite his unfortunate intentions, but a lot of it was due to Nan. Any one of these items or events would have set her up, but all of them? Wow. Now it was a whole new world of financial independence for Doreen, and she still didn’t even know what to think.

She sat here, basking in joy, with her cup of coffee, when Nan phoned. Doreen quickly told her what Scott had shared.

“That is absolutely perfect,” Nan crowed in delight. “We’ll definitely celebrate.”

“Oh, we absolutely will,” she replied, “though I have no idea what that might entail.” She laughed at that. “But, if you want to go anyplace for a holiday or a dinner out or anything at all, you let me know, and I will be more than happy to make it happen.”

Nan chuckled. “My traveling days are over, but that doesn’t mean I won’t take you up on lunch out. Is Mr. Woo back up and running?”

“Yes, he sure is. Maybe that’s what we should do. Maybe we’ll go down and see him today.”

“Oh dear, it just occurred to me that he may not be all that receptive to seeing you.”

“I sure hope he is,” Doreen replied in confusion. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

“Some people would look at you as bad luck at this point.”

Doreen snorted. “A lot of people consider me to be bad luck, but usually they’re the ones looking at jail sentences as well.” That brought a huge guffaw of laughter from Nan, as if Doreen had made the best joke ever. Honestly it wasn’t even so much a joke as it was the truth.

“Why don’t you come down and have tea with me?” Nan asked. “Or are you sitting outside having coffee?”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. I didn’t have a great night, after I had an intruder in the house yesterday afternoon.”

“Oh my,” Nan muttered. “That isn’t good.”

“I’m waiting for the security guy Mack arranged to come take a closer look at the security system here. The intruder came through one of the windows, and I didn’t have sensors on it.”

“Right, and you’ll certainly need to have sensors on every window if you keep handling cold cases and stay in trouble all the time. Now with the new case—”

“I wasn’t planning on inviting any trouble at home,” she muttered.

“No, you might not plan it, but that doesn’t mean other people won’t make it happen.”

Not a whole lot Doreen could say to that. She talked to Nan a little bit more, then shared, “As soon as I’m done with the security people, I have a meeting with Nick. So, maybe this afternoon I can come down for a visit.”

“That sounds good,” Nan replied, and, with that, they made plans for later in the afternoon. Just as Doreen disconnected, she got another phone call.

“Hey, this is Chris from the security company. Mack asked me to stop by and take a look at your system this morning. I’m calling because I finished up my last stop sooner than planned and was wondering if maybe I can head over to your place now.”

“Not a problem. Come on over. I’m just enjoying my coffee.”

“Okay then, I’ll be there in about five minutes or so.”

And, with that, she ended the call and walked back inside. “Well, guys, it looks as if our day has started.”

By the time she’d hit midafternoon, she needed to phone Nan and push back their tea. When Doreen called, Nan was unflappable as usual.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, child. You come down whenever you’re ready. I’m happy to see you anytime. I’m sorry it’s been such a busy day though. That can be tiring.”

“Very tiring,” Doreen muttered, “but it’s all good.” In fact, it was very good. She signed the authorization for Nick to act on her behalf. So now Nick would contact Mathew’s attorney and Robin’s attorney, sharing bank account numbers and other information as needed. Doreen sighed. They could finally get a bunch of this stuff taken care of.

By the time she gathered her animals together, they were all more than ready for a walk and a visit. “Let’s go down to Nan’s.”

Mugs raced to the river, and Doreen was laughing as she finally caught up with him. “I’m glad to see you’re ready to see Nan but wait up for the rest of us.”

She frowned as she noted that Goliath had already run ahead and was waiting a good one hundred yards down the path. Even Thaddeus was half-hopping, half-flying his way down. He would call out to Nan, then pick up his feet, fly a little farther, then land and do it all over again. Doreen smiled. “Your antics are something else,” she muttered.

She was very amused, and it was nice to see them so eager to see her grandmother. As she headed toward Rosemoor, she tried not to rush it but to settle down a bit, since everything in her day so far had had an underlying sense of urgency about it. When she got to Rosemoor, she found Nan sitting outside, waiting for her. Doreen stopped for a moment and savored the feeling of knowing what it was like to have family who cared, family who thought far enough ahead so a financial safety net had been put in place, something there specifically for Doreen, just in case she ended up in trouble. Sure enough, trouble had found her, but Nan’s gift had been so much bigger than actual money.

Doreen’s throat already choking with emotions, she stepped onto Nan’s patio and hugged her grandmother gently. “I don’t even know how to thank you.”

Nan just patted her gently on her shoulder, as the two of them stood here, caught in a warm embrace, not saying a word.

Until Thaddeus broke the silence. “Thaddeus loves Nan. Thaddeus loves Nan.”

Nan stepped back, looked at the bird, and smiled. “Did you get left out of the cuddle?” His head bopped up and down, up and down. Then he walked over to Nan and cuddled his way right onto her shoulder. Nan sighed and held Thaddeus close. Not to be outdone, Mugs put his front paws on Nan’s lap, as if to say, Don’t forget me . Nan chuckled. “I’m not sure what’s going on with these animals of yours.”

“I don’t know either,” Doreen admitted. “They’ve been a little bit crazy lately. I don’t know whether Thaddeus is mad at me or just tired, but he’s been off a little lately.”

“ Lately ?” Nan asked, with a dry look. “I would say they’re always a little bit on the crazy side. And Thaddeus, he doesn’t like winter. So if you can’t fix that for him, he’s going to be mad at you.”

Doreen snorted at that. “It’s not as if I can control the weather,” she protested. Still, as she considered his behavior of late, she realized Nan could likely be right. Regardless, as long as everybody was doing okay, Doreen was happy. And Thaddeus would get out of his funk soon enough. Although just thinking about it made her shake her head and want to laugh, but she couldn’t because it would hurt his feelings.

Goliath even waited until Nan was free of Mugs before he walked over and hopped up and settled on her lap, making her cry out in delight. “Goliath doesn’t do this nearly as often as I would like.”

“Well, he’s a cat,” Doreen pointed out, with half a smile. “The fact that you’ve been chosen to be where he wants to nap right now is an honor in itself.”

Nan burst out laughing, as she gently stroked his beautiful fur. “They are something, aren’t they?”

“Absolutely,” Doreen agreed, “and sometimes they are everything. They’re my family and my friends,” she declared. “They comfort me. They make me laugh. They’re just such a special part of my life.”

“That’s another thing,” Nan added. “You can thank me for everything I’ve done, and believe me that I’ll take all the kudos coming there,” she noted, with a beaming smile. “Yet you also made it happen. Not everybody could have done what you’ve done so far. Lots of kudos go right back to you.”

Doreen chuckled. “So, we’ll have a mutual admiration society today then?”

“Absolutely, let’s call for the minutes,” Nan declared and pounded the table, with a big grin. And that’s how the visit went. The animals were curled up, sleeping peacefully, yet Nan was looking tired. Doreen hopped up and announced, “This has been so much fun and just what I needed, but I’ll take these guys home, and maybe we can just relax at home, until Mack stops by later on.”

“Yeah, you must have dinner plans or a heavy date or something, don’t you?” Nan teased, waggling her eyebrows.

“Pretty sure he’ll stop by and check on the security system,” Doreen replied, with a laugh.

“I won’t argue with that,” Nan noted. “I rest a little easier knowing that he cares as much as he does and looks after you.”

“I do know that he cares,” Doreen stated, “but it hasn’t quite translated to what you want it to.”

“Oh, it will soon enough,” Nan declared. “You just have to give it time.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” Doreen pointed out gently.

“Give it time.” Nan eyed her shrewdly. “It may not take quite as much time as you think. He won’t wait around forever.”

At that Doreen went cold inside. “What do you mean?”

Nan shrugged. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he wasn’t planning something.”

Doreen immediately frowned and shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t do that.”

“Really? Why not?” Nan asked, looking at her granddaughter in amusement.

Doreen frowned. “Maybe he would, but he knows I’m not quite ready.”

“Maybe, but I’m not sure we’re ever ready for these things. Sometimes we just have to let them happen and react accordingly.”

“Of course.” Doreen agreed with that.

With the newly jumbled mess of thoughts in her head, she headed home with her animals, content and happy on the inside in a way she hadn’t even realized she needed. But, with the sales of most of the antiques finally coming to fruition, and knowing that all the legal things were being transferred and dealt with, she experienced a level of joy that she hadn’t felt in a long time. It was a massive sense of relief that both overwhelmed and liberated her as she walked home, and halfway there she started to sing.

By the time she got to her place and walked up the creek pathway, Richard popped his head over the top of the fence and asked, “Who’s caterwauling over there?”

She stopped, then frowned. “Was my singing that bad?”

He harrumphed. “It wasn’t that it was bad ,” he clarified, studying her curiously. “I just don’t think I’ve ever heard you sing before.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had any reason to sing before.”

His eyebrows shot up. “So, I guess that means good news?”

“Oh, absolutely good news,” she confirmed, beaming. “Sometimes life gives you good things, and it seems as though I’ve had a whole pile of them lately.”

He nodded. “When you get all that money that’s coming your way, ensure you spend it wisely, or, better yet, don’t spend it at all, so that you’ll always be provided for, and you can eat more than peanut butter sandwiches.” He rolled his eyes, sarcastic and stoic as ever.

She stared at him. “How did you know I was eating peanut butter sandwiches?”

He snickered. “I’ve heard some of the conversations between you and Mack in the backyard. Maybe now you can at least get some jam to go with it.” And, with that parting shot, he hopped down and went back into his yard.