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Chapter Fourteen
Bright sun was shiningthrough the window when Chris woke up and rolled onto his back. Once again, he was back in Agatha’s house because he was a moron. It had been almost two weeks since he started to flip his house, but so far, he had done nothing but destroy it. Agatha was probably right; he needed to hire professionals to fix it. He had no idea what he was doing.
Rolling out of bed, he was happy to find that the battle with the ceiling hadn’t had any effect on his knee. Chris pulled on the clean pants he had brought and his blue Basten shirt. He really liked the shirt and wore it more than he liked to admit. Everyone asked him what it meant. Sometimes, he just made something up.
In the hallway, he looked into the open door of Agatha’s room and saw that it was empty and the bed was made. He found her downstairs, sitting at the table with papers strewn around her. She was in blue jeans as usual and a gray t-shirt.
“Morning, Agatha,” he said to the back of her head.
She turned at his greeting and said, “Morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, Mabel has a nice bed.” He pointed to the coffee pot, she nodded, and he filled himself a cup.
“Maby always got all the nice stuff around here,” Agatha complained with a smile as he sat down in the chair near her.
“Maybe?”
“Mabel’s nickname is Maby. Only to the family, though. Everyone else calls her Mabel or Mabel Lucie. She goes by both.” She gathered up her papers and put them into a pile. Her shirt said, “Grand Cannon.”
“Lucy, the one who can’t spell?” Taking a sip of the bitter drink, he remembered her telling him Lucy was the one who made all the shirts. He remembered everything Agatha had ever told him.
“You remember her name?” Her brown eyes were looking at him, then she shook her head. “No, Mabel Lucie and Lucy Maud are twins.”
“That’s not confusing at all.” He chuckled a little at the overly twin names.
“They’re identical, so gets even more confusing.”
“Do you have a twin?” he asked.
“No, just me.” Agatha pushed the papers away from him.
“It’s just you, but there’s seating for over a dozen in here.” He looked around the room. She was back to acting prickly. Looking back, he couldn’t pinpoint what he had said to change her mood.
“I have six sisters, and four are married. Then there’s Mom and Harrison. Lucy has twin babies now, and Buzz and Mom are both pregnant.” She listed off enough people to fill the room beyond capacity.
“Your mom is pregnant?” He looked at her closely, wondering how old she was. Maybe she was younger than he had thought. He couldn’t imagine his parents having any more kids, even before his dad had died.
Chuckling, she got up, taking the papers with her. “Stepmom. She was young when she married my dad.”
“You call your dad Harrison?” he questioned.
“No, Harrison is Sera’s second husband. My dad took off with another woman when I was in junior high. Sera raised us.” She leaned against the counter across the room from him.
“My parents split my senior year of high school. It was rough,” he admitted, turning his chair to look at her, he liked to learn about her.
Rough wasn’t even half of how bad it had been. Mostly because his mom had shielded him and his siblings from the worst of their father’s bad qualities. From sleeping around to ignoring his family until the divorce, Chris hadn’t seen it. Then his mom stopped covering for him, and it was suddenly all there for Chris to see. And then he couldn’t unsee it.
“It usually is.” She didn’t elaborate.
“The little girl is Sera’s then?” he asked, wanting her to say more.
“Yes.” Her eyes lit up as she smiled. “Violet is Sera all over again, but she looks just like Harrison.”
“I thought she was your daughter when I first saw you,” he admitted.
Agatha toyed with her coffee cup. “No, I’m not mother material, never have been. I’m just good with some kids.”
“You’re more than good with her. She loves coming over here. I can tell.” Every time he saw them together, it was clear Agatha was devoted to the little girl.
