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“No, what you wanted to do was manage me. This isn’t one of those times you can pat me on the top of my head and deal with it yourself.”
“I—”
Her mother cut her off again. “I let you think that you’re running the Heron single-handedly most of the time, Kendall, but I know about every bill, every loan, and every overdue notice we have in our name.”
Shocked, Kendall tried to assimilate that information. How many times had she tried to include her mother in the day-to-day operations of the business? Her mother always waved her away and said she’d take care of the kitchen and the front desk and let Kendall handle the rest.
“You honestly think that the only thing I do is find creative fish recipes and smile pretty at the front door?”
Her mother’s acerbic tone pushed down whatever arguments Kendall was about to bring up. “Of course not.”
“Yes, you do, but that’s all right. You might need to show the world that you can handle everything, but I have a few tricks of my own, Kendall Marie.”
“Obviously we need to have a little chat,” Kendall grumbled.
“I’m your mother, Kendall, not some helpless woman wringing her hands at home. Do you think you could do all those tours and trails if I didn’t have things handled at home?”
Kendall fisted her hands into her hair. Her mother always had such a bright smile on her face, never letting on that she knew just how bad things had gotten. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry.” Lily’s tone gentled. “I’m sorry it took Larry’s death to make that clear to you. Even sorrier that you thought you had to keep this from me. That you didn’t think I was strong enough to hear this.”
Kendall sat up and hugged her knees into her chest when her mother’s voice broke. “No, Mom. That’s not it.”
“It is. I thought I was doing what was best for you, but I was so far off.”
“You did the best you could.”
“I did. And Larry did what he could.”
“He didn’t do anything. You were the one who raised me, loved me.” Kendall’s voice was harsher than she intended, but her mom had nothing to answer for. Plenty of people had it far worse than she did.
“When you get home, we’ll talk about it. I just don’t want you to hold back the bad news anymore. I’m getting tired of playing Sherlock to find everything.”
Kendall laughed. “Did you really go through all our papers?”
“You’re frighteningly organized, sweetheart.”
When she had a bank account like theirs, she had no choice but to be organized. “I don’t know how it’s going to work when Shane and I get there. I’m so afraid he’ll want to sell.”
“We’ll do our best to convince him otherwise.”
“And you’re okay with this?” It had taken days for her to wrap her mind around the fact that she now had a stranger—well, a man who used to be a stranger—in her life and soon to be in her home. And that he legally had as much right to be there as she did. She wasn’t sure she had totally come to terms with it. It was such a nebulous future when they were so far away.
“Larry had a reason for doing this.”
“Yeah, a selfish reason. He screwed up his business, so all he had left was our house to give—” She clutched her knees harder. Forced herself to turn off the anger. When it came to Lawrence, there were only two emotions that made sense to her, and neither would help right now.
“Did you ever think it was a way to make sure his son wasn’t alone?”
“Why would I? He left us alone.”
“No, he didn’t. We had each other. Wealwayshad each other.”
Kendall pressed her forehead to her knees and felt a tear roll down her nose and then another. She’d never thought about that part. How could her mother continue to think in such generous terms about Lawrence? Even now?
But if Lawrence hadn’t written the will like he had, she’d never have known what it was like to…what? Be in love? Could it be love in such a short time? Or was it just that fairy dust working overtime with orgasm-blurred edges?
“Does that also mean he has to pay for half the repairs? Because that part would be really helpful. Especially now.”
