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“Is it?” I cocked my head. “Does that mean you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up?”
She laughed. “Pretty much.”
“Can I ask how old you are?” That was probably something I needed to know, though I wasn’t overly worried since they wouldn’t allow her to work behind the bar if she was underage.
“Twenty-two. What about you?”
“I’ll be twenty-nine in June.”
“Did you always want to be a musician?”
“I want to say yes,” I admitted. “But I can’t deny that as a little kid I wanted to be an astronaut, fireman, and doctor. All at the same time.”
“Same. Not a fireman, but astronaut, doctor, and super model. I think we all have dreams when we’re kids.”
“By the time I was about fifteen, I knew I wanted to do something with my music. My parents were supportive, but I had to graduate high school and take at least a few classes at the community college.”
“Did you go to college?”
“I got my associate’s degree,” I said, chuckling. “Which also means a whole lot of nothing other than it made my parents happy.”
“Sometimes that’s important. My dad died when I was a baby, and my mom died when I was fifteen.”
“Oh, hell. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I moved in with my Aunt Meg, my mother’s older sister. And even though I miss my mom, Aunt Meg was always in my life, so it wasn’t like I had to live with a stranger.”
“Are you still close?”
“I still live with her,” she replied. “She was diagnosed with MS a few years ago, so she needs me around. And anyway, I couldn’t afford to go to college and live on my own.”
“When do you graduate?”
Sadness clouded her eyes for a moment, and she looked away. “Hopefully in May. I’ve missed a lot of classes this semester because Aunt Meg fell a few times, but I think I’ll be able to make up the work.”
“Sounds like Aunt Meg is lucky to have you.”
“I was lucky to have her,” she countered. “I was devastated when I lost my mom. Aunt Meg took care of me, but she also let me grieve. She let me take my time going through Mom’s things to take what I wanted. She didn’t tell me to get on with my life or any of that. Those were rough times.” She leaned against the bar, and I was surprised to see a faint smile on her lips. “But it taught me a lot about resilience. Patience. Self-care. And unconditional love. Aunt Meg’s husband was killed in Desert Storm. She never remarried, never had kids. Then she stepped into the role of parenting a teenager seamlessly.” She cleared her throat. “What about you? Are you close to your family?”
I hesitated. “To a degree? I mean, yeah, I come from a big, close-knit family. Lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Everyone’s in each other’s business all the time. But once I got rich…” My voice trailed. This wasn’t the type of thing I talked about. Ever.
“I would guess money changes people,” Sunny said softly. “Sometimes it’s the person with the money who changes, but other times it’s the people around them. I hear a lot of stories like that working here. Most of our clientele is wealthy, and it’s hard to believe the things they deal with. Families who expect you to take care of every fifth cousin twice removed you’ve ever had, along with the neighbors, their high school English teacher, and everyone’s pets.”
“Not to mention, pay for all the weddings, baptisms, and family vacations,” I said dryly.
She wrinkled her nose. “Is it really like that?”
“You know, sometimes I just shake my head. I make a lot, so I don’t mind helping out the family. Paying for college, medical emergencies, stuff like that. But when I get a fifty-thousand-dollar bill so my cousin can take his new girlfriend shopping in Paris, it pisses me off. Especially when he doesn’t even have a fucking job.”
“That happens?” she asked, her eyes wide. “And you allow it?”
“My mother makes it happen when she lends people her credit cards,” I admitted. “And that makes it complicated. She grew up dirt poor, so now she thinks it’s my job to make sure no one in the family has to experience that.”
“But they should at least work, no?” she asked softly.
“You would think so.” Our eyes met and she shook her head.
“I’m sorry. That sounds really selfish. Of all of them.”
