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Once the flight was lined up, she decided to see if she could meet her mother for lunch. It wasn’t as if she had much more to do in four hours, but she’d do some shopping while she was here.
“How is Tracy doing?”
“I think she’s settled. She is going to start work on Saturday. Today is her first day of school and I want her to figure everything out and get caught up. How did you find housing?”
Her mother patted her hand. “I remembered the Weatherbys. They moved to the island about ten years ago after they retired. Their kids and grandkids aren’t close by. They are lonely, and they’d done some work with my organization and had foster kids in the past.”
“But you said they aren’t fostering her, right?” she asked.
Her mother had said she’d found an apartment for Tracy. Though she wasn’t sure that was the best setup, the caseworker and her mother assured her it was. Tracy was even excited.
“They aren’t. They’ve got a studio apartment over their garage. It’s for visitors to stay, but they don’t get much. I talked to them and they loved the idea. We are covering the rent until the end of the year. They didn’t want anything at all, but I told her that was silly. I have programs to cover housing for situations exactly like this.”
Grace hadn’t realized that and should have. “So she’s on the property but by herself. She doesn’t have a car though.”
She knew this because Tracy was only half a mile from The Retreat and said she could walk to work and she’d be taking the bus to school.
“No. Marissa Weatherby said that they’d help her get her license. We have funds to get her transportation when the time comes. For now, she needs to focus on school. Her housing is being paid for along with food vouchers to keep her supplied. She’ll be working for you and making money for anything else she needs.”
“But there could be more,” she argued. “Not just a roof over her head and food. What about clothing or activities or personal hygiene items?”
“Grace,” her mother said. “I’ve got it covered. Tracy will be fine. There is money for incidentals. She didn’t want anything. She’s been working part time and has her own cell phone already. Her utilities and internet are part of her rent. She’ll have money from her job and she was assigned a case manager within my program. She will have to meet with that person every two weeks and Tracy has someone to go to if she needs anything.”
Grace let out a breath. “Okay. I need to stop worrying.”
“I find it commendable that you are. The question is why are you so focused on someone you barely know?”
She should have figured her mother would see through things.
“I think it’s the right thing to do when someone is in need,” she said. “You’d know that firsthand. You’ve made it your mission to do that.”
Her mother never wanted any part of The Retreat and her grandfather gave both of his daughters large settlements. There were other businesses in the family that her mother and aunt, her uncle too, had a say in or even some controlling interest, but they’d never get a part of the legacy of The Retreat due to that stupid clause.
Her mother took her settlement and founded her organization, her grandfather helping with donations over the years, but now there were all sorts of state and federal funding too.
“I have,” her mother said. “But you’ve never taken that big of an interest in my career.”
“I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I should have.”
Her mother smiled. Their lunch was brought out and she dove into her burger. The first bite, she knew it wasn’t as good as hers, but she didn’t expect that. But it wasn’t horrible either.
“No,” her mother said. “You can’t force someone to like something you do.”
She frowned and then let out another sigh. “So I’m learning.”
“What’s going on, Grace? Talk to me. Do you have boy troubles?”
She laughed. “I haven’t dated any boys in a long time.”
“Man troubles?” her mother said, grinning.
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s something. You’ve been single for a long time. You say you like it, but I don’t think you do. Is it that all your cousins are finding people? Hunter and Hailey are married with children. Roark got married a few months ago.”
“That’s right,” she said of one of her other male cousins. Roark French was the son of the other daughter of her grandfather. Melissa French, who was a mystery writer under the pen name of Steve Spencer. The world thought her aunt was a man. Only close family knew otherwise.
It drove her mother insane that her sister didn’t shout to the world she was a woman and made it big and to prove she might not have gotten the notoriety if she had written under her own name.
