AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ivan isn’t shy,” she said. “My son is cheap. He can’t find a woman because they like to go out and do things and Ivan’s wallet is most likely cracked it hasn’t opened in so long.”
“How did he get that way?” Jolene asked.
“No clue. I want to think it’s from Mom. She was tight with the purse strings.”
“That’s because we were poor,” Jolene said. “She had to watch every penny to spread it out, but she spent it. We should know. There wasn’t much left.”
She knew that well. Jolene had left home earlier than most so that she was one less mouth to feed. She was older than Shay and Connor and when it came time for the two of them to go to college, Jolene helped them both out. Shay owed her sister a lot and would never forget.
They came from poor immigrants. Gavin came from a single parent and, as the oldest son, helped put his twin brothers through college too before he opened up Fierce. Just a small pub back in the day that Jolene worked at.
For years, the pub became more popular but didn’t really grow in size. Those five kids had the plans and the idea to make the empire what it was and her sister and brother-in-law made sure they helped those kids reach their dreams.
Now it was blending into the family again. Devin and her nephew Liam both worked for Fierce, and Ivan did part time. She knew her son wouldn’t work there full time though he was asked. She felt it was the best of both worlds with the way he was handling it.
“That’s true,” Shay said. “All I can say is try to give Ivan some space then. You know he’s onto you. If Kendra and he are going to be working together, let’s see if your instinct is right. If it’s not, then you’ll need to find someone else.”
“I won’t need to find anyone else,” Jolene said. “I’m never wrong.”
4
A Lot Alike
“It’s the perfect night for lasagna,” Kendra said when she dropped the noodles into the boiling water. The Bolognese was made and her mother had gotten the casserole dish out along with the cheeses.
“I went outside to get the mail earlier. There is a bite to the air.”
“Not bad for December first,” she said. “Could be worse.”
“I saw Erika when I was getting the mail. She said she planned on baking cookies this weekend and would bring some down to me and leave a dish for you if you weren’t around.”
Erika and her boyfriend, Phil, lived on the second floor between her mother and her.
Her mother and Erika both had two-bedroom apartments with a small room that could be used as an office or storage, along with a living room, dining room and kitchen, one bath. Those apartments were close to fourteen hundred square feet. Kendra’s place was more like nine hundred. It had been the old attic that had been converted.
It was more than enough space for her. Karen Key needed to be on the first floor with no worry over the stairs other than what it took to get on the front porch. Those three were plenty, then the one step into the door. The rest was on one level and easier for her mother to move around.
Giving renters the same size space allowed her to charge more too. The rent she got almost paid the mortgage on the house, allowing her mother to live for free, Kendra picking up the difference.
That difference was still a fraction of what it’d cost her to rent a place the size of what she had.
It worked out well for everyone. Erika and Phil were in their twenties and nice enough. They didn’t throw loud parties and walked quietly on the hardwood floors.
They paid their rent on time and were helpful to her mother and that was more than enough for her.
“That’s nice of her. She does make great cookies.”
“Just like you make my lasagna almost as well as I used to,” her mother said.
“You taught me and it’s a joint effort,” she said.
Her mother didn’t like to turn the oven or stove on anymore and Kendra was fine with that. Not unless Kendra was at least in the building.
They had a routine that worked. It allowed them to spend some time together a few days a week while they cooked, ate and talked.
Karen tasted everything Kendra did, gave her instructions and felt like she had more of a hand in the meal preparation than she did.
She knew this was more about letting her mother feel like her old self than it was Kendra couldn’t handle a simple dish of lasagna on her own.
