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After I was ready, I checked my phone. Ten messages from David. I opened the phone app and listened as his messages went from confused, to angry, to crying. He admitted he’d been having an affair, but the trip was the first time they’d slept together. He promised. He begged me to call him and explain why I wasn’t in our apartment anymore.
I deleted all ten messages. I might call in a few months to tell him where I was, but for now, I had a life to rebuild. Without worrying about David’s feelings. Or getting sucked up by my family and their wants and needs for me. Sometimes having money was a curse. Especially when it made change hard. I glanced around the room. A vase of fresh flowers sat on a dresser and the refrigerator by my desk was filled with my favorite snacks and sodas. I opened it and yes, they’d even updated the selection to my current favorites. I grabbed a sparkling water and cracked it open. I drank down most of the bottle, dehydrated from flying. The water helped me feel clearer, so I finished that one and grabbed another to take to dinner with me. It was time to meet the family.
They were in the living room when I came downstairs. The aunts still called it the parlor. They looked up when I hit the last stair. Aunt Franny hurried to my side and enveloped me in a large, soft hug. Franny was a huge woman and she gave the bests hugs in town. Especially to a heart broken niece.
She held me out from her. Checking me over like I’d come home from a war. She was my mother’s sister and had been the top fortune teller in the French District before she’d married one of her clients and became his rich widow a few years later. Now, she lived in an old mansion in the Garden district where she held teas and joined social organizations. “I’m glad to see you. Even if this is what had to happen to bring you home. Your brother says you might be staying? I’d love to introduce you to my Garden Club. Many of our members have suitable sons that you might consider if you’re ready to settle down.”
And there it was. The elephant in the room. My family thought I was too old to be unmarried. I’d probably moved into the Old Maid zone. Like there weren’t men in Seattle. Well, they had that right, at least. The one man I’d thought about pledging my life to had been scum. Nic didn’t get this kind of scrutiny about his love life, I bet. I closed my eyes and pushed away my first response which was snarky and cold. I opened them and smiled. “Aunt Franny, I’m way too busy right now figuring out what I’m going to do here in New Orleans to be dating. I’m sure I’ll find the one sooner or later. You know soulmates can be a little tricky to find.”
“Well, I’m just glad your home. You have plenty of time.” She said, meaning she knew my time was running out. “Come in the parlor and let the rest of the family say hello.”
Uncle Orrin and his wife, Gloria, were there. He and my father were brothers and had started the family business together. Now Orrin owned most of the river casinos in the area and Gloria was a homemaker. I didn’t know exactly what Gloria did all day. Their son, Phillip, was in Boston in medical school to be a surgeon. Gloria showed me a picture of Phillip in his scrubs he’d snapped for them on the first day of residency last fall. She patted my arm. “Maybe Phillip knows some nice single doctors you could meet.”
Before I could respond, Nic rescued me. A bad habit my older brother seemed to love to do. “We need to get to the table before everything gets cold. I’m sure Eddie will tell us all about what she’s been doing in Seattle since she graduated head of her class in with an MFA focused on interior design and business, kicking my lowly MBA to the curb.”
“Son, the stuff you learned from your MBA has taken Ardronic Family Corporation from the dark ages to where we’re downright respectable. As long as you don’t look too closely at our hands.” Uncle Arthur chuckled. He held up his hands and twisted them back and forth. “It’s all in the art of misdirection, right Nic?”
Uncle Arthur was my dad’s other brother and the last of the aunts and uncles. He’d never married, and often said the job was his wife and mistress, although I thought he kept his personal life secret from everyone, even the family. Once, I saw him with a lovely Jamaican woman in a vision before he tuned in and looked right at me. He’d told me that he’d rather I stayed out of his head. Since that conversation within the vision, I’d never tried or even accidentally seen what was going on with my uncle. We both liked it better that way.
“Of course, Uncle Arthur, but we are respectable. At least that’s what the books say.” He led the group to the table and to my surprise, my brother sat me at one end of the table. He winked at me, then crossed over to the other end, sitting in the power position. The simple move announcing to our family that we weren’t kids anymore. We were our parents’ children and as such, the heads of the family. At least in this house.
Well, technically, Nic was the head of the family. And when he married, my seat would be taken by his wife. I’d become the spare heir in passing down power. My body tingled with a new source of power that confused me as it overwhelmed my senses. Maybe it was just being home again. My latent powers could be coming alive as I was near the magic well spring of our family tree. I hoped not. Even here in New Orleans, my plans were to live a normal life without magic. Or visions.
“That’s not going to happen.” Nic’s words echoed silently in my head. I met his gaze and shook my head at him.
“Stay out of my thoughts, brother,” I responded just as silently. Then I put up my walls and took a sip of the gumbo that had been set in front of me. Yes, moving home was going to be interesting.
Before I said my goodbyes and left to go back to the hotel, Nic pulled me aside into his home office. “The funeral is tomorrow. I’ll have Trenton pick you up on our way there. Please don’t argue. I’d like us to arrive together in a show of unity. There’s been some discussion on maybe we should have a change of leadership at the company.”
“Who? Not Uncle Arthur?” I felt shocked when Nic nodded. “He seemed like he was happy you took over when Dad died.”
“He’s just not happy with some of the changes I’m making. Like I said at dinner, I’m trying to make us respectable. That comes at a cost and with a level of fairness Arthur doesn’t want to be held accountable to. I’ve come down on him several times this last year on falsifying employee work records and money from the shops.” He leaned on the desk. “Look, I’m not asking you to get involved, but if you would at least look like you’re supporting me, that would be great. You’re probably wondering why I sat you at the end of the table with me.”
“No, I understood the power play. You realize, once Esmeralda comes to her senses and moves back from California, she’ll be taking that seat.” I picked up a picture of him and his soulmate when they were kids at Carnival. “She was always so beautiful.”
“She still is. She knows the power that she’ll hold when she marries me. Honestly, I think that’s why she hasn’t said yes, yet. She keeps saying that town, South Cove, needs her.” He took the picture from me and after looking at it, set it back in the exact place where I’d picked it up from. Nic liked his things orderly. “Anyway, that’s why we need to be a unified team tomorrow. We’ll leave the funeral, do the second line, then we’re off to the will reading. We’ll come back to the house for the reception after that.”
“We’re doing the will reading tomorrow. Isn’t that soon?” I thought about the vision of Grandma Andrews I’d seen in my room.
“It’s unorthodox yes, but it’s in the will. Grandma set it up this way. I think she wants everyone to know exactly what she did before they start to bicker about her fortune.” He gave her a hug. “You look beat. Go get some sleep and I’ll see you tomorrow. Remember dress code is anything but black. You don’t want to anger her spirit.”
“I have a dark blue dress that will work. It will make me feel better about not wearing black and still meet Grandma’s request.” I touched my neck where the silver locket with her and Granddad Andrew’s picture was set. She’d given it to me just before I’d left for college. She asked me to keep them close. And I had. “I’m going to miss her.”
“I know.” He reached out and touched a finger to the locket.
A knock sounded, then the door opened. Trenton poked his head inside the room. “Whenever you’re ready, miss.”
* * *
With the funeralover and the second line completed, I was back in the limo with Nic. Trenton was at the wheel, driving us to the lawyers office. I’d seen my aunts and uncles leaving the gravesite as the attendees held us back, talking about how much our grandmother had meant to them. No one but us and Aunt Franny were technically related to the Andrews part of the family, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t expecting to be part of the will. I had a bad feeling they were going to be disappointed.
I kicked off my one pair of Jimmy Choo’s and rubbed my feet. “I love these shoes but I’m not used to dressing up anymore. Even the design firm was more a Birkenstock place. Hopefully, my next endeavor will be as comfortable.”
“Come work for me at the business. I could use the help keeping Uncle Arthur in line. I’ll give you a cool VP title and your own office. And probably twice what you made at that design place.” He was scrolling his phone, answering emails as we talked.
“Maybe.” I said, but I really meant no way. I looked out the window as we passed through the Garden district toward downtown. LaFollette Cemetery was old but it was where the Andrews family vault was located so there was never any choice on where the burial would occur. LaFollette also was the home of a fictional vault of a popular vampire from a local author’s book series.
“It wouldn’t be that bad.” Nic set his phone down. “I could use the help. I need someone in the office I can trust.”
