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By the time he got home, she was pacing the floor.
“Uh oh. The call with your mother didn’t go very well.”
“No. It didn’t.”
He narrowed his eyes, as though trying to figure out what might have gone wrong, as he walked in the door to her side of the duplex and carried the food to the table.
She set it with silverware and poured them each a glass of water.
The kitchen was bright and cheery, facing the southern sky so lots of sunlight came in no matter the time of year. Currently, it was brightly lit, and the light in the room chased away some of the darkness in her heart. Mark was not going to like her news, but he was not the kind of man who got angry or unreasonable. They would figure this out. Together.
“Well, I didn’t have the best conversation with my sister either. She’s coming anyway. Gonna be here tomorrow.”
“You’re kidding,” she said, laughing despite herself. “She probably will arrive at exactly the same time as my mom, who is also coming tomorrow since she’s determined that you have married me for my money, and she’s going to come and check up on us. I don’t know what she’s going to do if she decides that that’s what happened, but... Hopefully it’s not keep my money from me.”
“I don’t think she can do that.”
“Well, she’s managed to do it since my aunt died. I was supposed to inherit without any conditions, but Mom said I had to get married. So far, I haven’t fought her on it. It would require hiring a lawyer, and I just didn’t want to do that.”
“I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to hire a lawyer against my own mother either. That would make a bad relationship...”
“...disintegrate,” she filled in for him, unable to think of a worse word. Because, whatever the worse word was, was what was going to happen.
“All right. We can handle this. It’s our first test as a married couple, and we’re going to do just fine.”
“Plus, as I was walking across the street, Bill and Bev from Blueberry Beach called me back. They didn’t answer the phone the first time I called. They pledged one million dollars. Told me to let them know when I had things set up, and he’d cut me a check that day.”
“You’re kidding!” she said, her eyes getting bright and her whole body feeling like the heaviness that had settled down when she talked to her mom had lifted.
“Nope. Best news we’ve had all day, isn’t it?”
“It’s certainly better news than having my mom coming.”
“Or my sister. Or Stacy.”
They laughed, and he pulled the containers out of the bag.
“We can develop a game plan. I mean, after all, we’re going to have to stick together if we’re going to outsmart your mom. She is...one of a kind.”
“That’s probably the nicest thing someone could say about her,” Pam said, knowing that he could have found a lot of different words to use, and he’d chosen to be kind. She appreciated that. Even though her mom tried every nerve in her body and often twisted the very last one to the snapping point, she still loved her. She was still her mom. Her family. And she felt a little defensive whenever anyone else tried to insult or belittle her.
Mark knew that, had heard her explain that she didn’t understand it, even though it was true. She appreciated the fact that he wasn’t railing against her.
“So we’re going to have to...look like we’re in love, I guess.”
“Yeah. Although we don’t want to go overboard. I called her last week to ask about the money.”
“I remember.”
“And I hadn’t said that I was madly in love with anyone or planning on getting married. So, I think that she’ll believe us if we’re just honest about what happened. You know, we’re good friends, and our relationship has been a long time coming.”
“Well, ten years is a long time. That’s for sure.”
Her phone rang, and it took her a second as she looked at the screen to realize it was the third company that they called for estimates on giving them a design that would work for their vision in the end.
“Do you want me to get it now?” she asked after she explained who it was, not wanting to talk on the phone while they were eating but not wanting to miss the call either.
Mark must have felt the same way, because he nodded his head. “Sure. Grab it. We weren’t able to get a hold of them, and it’d be really nice to have three estimates to choose from.”
