28. Chapter Twenty-Eight ~ Emma
Chapter Twenty-Eight ~ Emma
“This place is great!” Leann exclaims, racing from one room to the next.
You’d never guess the girl was in high school with how energetic and excitable she is sometimes. But her energy is definitely infectious and I can’t help but laugh.
“You can pick out one of those rooms.” I point to the ones on the right. “Mom, the master suite is here.”
“A master suite?” She raises an eyebrow at me in surprise but then follows me to the room I point out.
Leann follows, obviously intrigued and we step into the room that’s far larger than Mom’s back home. And it has its own bathroom.
She doesn’t say a word, but she doesn’t have to. The look on her face shows just how amazed she is. And Leann immediately starts rushing around, checking out everything. And talking about everything.
By the time we’ve explored the house it’s nearly lunchtime and that doesn’t even include moving much of anything inside.
I take them both up to the main house to get some lunch and as we sit down I can see that Mom wants to say something.
There’s a firm set to her mouth as she looks down at the table and she’s not eating. Instead, she folds her hands together and slowly brings her gaze up to me. It’s a sign that something is coming she thinks I might not like.
It’s what she did when she told us about Leann being sick. And when she told us about Dad leaving.
“Emma … it’s a beautiful house,” she begins and I brace myself for what’s to come. “But we can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” I ask, though it’s not entirely unexpected.
“This is too much. For him to give us a house and money for an allowance and … everything … we can’t accept it.”
Leann looks sad at the words but also like she understands. And so do I. Honestly, I can see where Mom is coming from.
It’s never been her style to just sit back and let anyone take care of her. It’s one of the reasons she hates me giving them money all the time. But it’s just one of those things …
“Well, you can feel better about it because you’re not getting everything for nothing.”
“Did he change his mind?” Mom is bracing herself now and I know she’s thinking about all the times someone has changed their mind on her.
“No. He didn’t. He still wants you to have everything free and clear. But, there’s something else you should know before you go making any decisions about whether you can accept the offer or not.”
“And what’s that?” she asks and I can’t help but smile, even though I’m nervous about how she’s going to feel.
“I’ll need your help taking care of the baby.”
There’s complete and utter silence for a moment and then Leann practically screams and jumps up, running over to give me a big hug. Mom, on the other hand, looks stunned, staring at me with wide eyes, her mouth dropped open.
“Oh, my goodness!” But then there’s a bright smile and she is also rushing toward me to give me a big hug. “It would be an honor to help you with the baby! How could you think otherwise?” She’s scolding me but I can also tell she’s not that upset. Not really. Not now.
The idea of her grandbaby being so close is definitely changing her opinion on things.
“It will be just a few months,” I admit. The story comes out then. At least, the abridged version that Chris and I have decided to tell people. That it was kind of a whirlwind thing. That we just felt connected and that having a baby wasn’t exactly planned, but it’s something we’re very excited about.
And Mom and Leann both are plenty happy to be included.
“We’re hoping you’re going to help out with the baby. And that is how you’ll pay Chris back for the house.”
“I think I can handle being a nanny,” she replies with a smile and I shake my head, though I’m smiling as well.
“You won’t need to watch the baby all the time. But we would definitely appreciate help.”
“And you’ll have it,” Mom agrees.
“Plenty of it,” Leann adds and I can’t help but grin at both of them, pulling them in for another hug.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you everything. I just wasn’t entirely sure how.”
“This has been the best week ever,” Leann exclaims, squeezing both of us a little tighter.
I’m inclined to agree. Because now that they know everything, and so does Chris, and they’re moving in close, it really does feel like everything is working out for the best.
As we make our way back to the house it feels almost like old times. The three of us, laughing and joking. Talking about anything and everything. The way we always did.
“What are these?” I ask, pulling a set of pictures out of a box.
“Those are your baby pictures. Yours and Leann’s.” Mom reaches out to grab them like they’re made of glass. Or like they could crumble apart at any minute which maybe they could even despite their frames.
“And why do you have them out?”
“They belong in my room. That’s where they always go.”
As we continue unpacking boxes it becomes apparent that Mom doesn’t really like to get rid of anything. Especially nothing that Leann or I ever wore … or created … or touched. But she’s definitely not ashamed of that fact.
“Just you wait until your little one gets here. You’re going to be the same way,” she says and I laugh. I can already see myself lugging around a huge diaper bag full of everything. Or even funnier is the image of Chris carrying around the bag instead. But something in me says that he would. and it wouldn’t even faze him.
“So, do you think you two will be happy here?” I ask, glancing around the place once we’ve got everything set up.
“Absolutely,” Leanna insists. “It’s beautiful and it’s going to be absolutely perfect.”
“I think it is a lovely house,” Mom replies, giving me a smile of her own. “And it already feels something like home,” she replies, glancing around at everything in its place.
It was hard to imagine them living here. Not because I didn’t want them, but because we’d always lived in that same little house; to not be there anymore felt strange.
I could tell Mom felt it too from the way she looked all around and then looked at me. But she simply smiled and went back to fussing with a few small things. She wasn’t about to let on that she was sad in the least. Not when Leann looked like she was absolutely thrilled with the place.
“Come on, you’ve got all your stuff unpacked. Let’s go shopping and pick up a few other things.”
“Oh, no. We don’t need anything,” Mom protested and I pointed to the fridge.
“You’re not going to want anything to eat in here? I mean, you guys are welcome up at the main house anytime you want and you can certainly help yourself to anything in the fridge, but you may want some of your own snacks occasionally, right?”
She hesitated and I knew I had her. Because they would need food. And that would be the way to get her to the store and pick up some other things as well. Because I had some extra money. And now that they didn’t need anything for rent, there was plenty of money between the two of us to get some extras.
“Ooh, look at this!” Leann exclaimed as we walked through the store. She’d found a giant body pillow with a fuzzy cover that was super soft. And Mom and I both looked at each other.
I could tell what she was thinking, and also that suddenly the wheels were turning in her mind.
She wanted to get it for Leann. Because Leann wanted it and they had a new house and it would be a nice gift. But she was concerned about having enough money. And then I saw the moment it occurred to her that she had money. That she had rent money … and no rent. And that meant she could buy extra things.
Like a special pillow for no reason at all.
“We’ll get it,” she said suddenly and Leann turned to her in surprise. Getting special things like this was not normal. But the look on her face when she realized Mom was serious was definitely worth it.
She squealed slightly and dropped the pillow into the cart, glancing around her at everything else with an entirely new expression on her face. Because the idea that they could actually buy things was new and even more exciting.
Even Mom seemed to get into the idea, picking up a new blanket after a whole lot of urging from me and Leann. And as we went around I grabbed a few things too, which seemed to remind them of the biggest change of all: the baby.
And so both carts soon had plenty of things for the baby. Clothes and toys and anything that we could think of since we didn’t yet know the gender.
“How about this?” Mom asks, holding up another onesie. This one features little planes that immediately make me smile, thinking about some of Leann’s and my favorite shows growing up.
“It’s cute.”
“It reminds me of that show you used to watch,” she says. “What was it, Treasure Seeker? You two would be glued to that TV …” She smiles at the memory and Leann and I smile at each other.
“It was a pretty good show.”
“I’m going to get it.” Mom drops the onesie into the cart and I can tell just how excited she is to have money to spend on whatever she wants. And I’m so grateful to Chris for giving her that opportunity. For giving all of us the opportunity to have this experience.
I can’t help but smile just thinking about him and of course Leann notices right away.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” I reply, but I still can’t hide my grin.
“You’re thinking about something,” she taunts. “What is it?”
“It’s nothing,” I repeat but she wraps her arms around me in a big hug.
“I’m enjoying this.”
“Me too.” Mom gives us both a hug and we continue on our way, and I can’t help but wonder … just how often can we do this now that money isn’t going to be such an issue?