AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh my goodness! I thought she’d have a stroke then and there, and save us another trip back to the hospital. She was not a woman to tolerate limits on her independence.”
That independent spirit was her trademark, and Dani hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of Helen losing that. When she had refused chemo and radiation, and begun to look at hospice care, Dani had offered to move into the vacant apartment across the hall and help take care of her. The move set her family at ease, and Dani felt blessed that she could help her surrogate grandmother wring every last drop of joy from her remaining days. They had visited favorite haunts and dear friends until leaving the apartment had become too difficult. Hospice nurses had come to handle Aunt Helen’s medical needs, and given Dani a few much-needed breaks. Just handling her personal care had become around the clock job near the end. So Dani had given up her month-to-month lease on the apartment across the hall and moved to Helen’s couch. Given the moving crew downstairs, she assumed her old apartment wouldn’t be empty anymore.
Aunt Helen was gone, and Dani was as lost as ever. Everything she owned was in boxes and shoved into corners. She was surrounded by the remnants of her aunt’s life, and it was difficult to see how hers could share the space.
She’d always had trouble figuring out where she fit in. She’d been raised to believe she could be whatever she wanted. But what if she couldn’t figure out what that was? She’d bumped along okay until now, but she hadn’t really pursued anything with passion. After going to college in Houston, she’d accepted a job working as an accountant at a multi-national energy firm. It had been lucrative, but it hadn’t been satisfying, and her asshole ex-boyfriend even less so. She'd been sprinting on the hamster wheel and going nowhere. She had zero desire to hop back on. Coming home hadn’t been a hardship, but what now?
“Moving in was the best thing for both of us. She kept her freedom, and I gained my own. But now I have too much freedom. I have no job, no friends, and no idea what to do about any of it. And I’ve got all of her estate to handle…I keep losing hours at a time just holding an afghan she knit or rearranging the framed postcards from her travels.” The tears she’d been fighting to hold back ran silently down her cheeks.
“It’s a big job. Don’t rush it. You’ve got a lot to deal with. Losing Helen was hard on us all. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Come to our dinners. Talk to your friends. Bake her favorite desserts. Share stories of her that make you laugh instead of cry. It will get easier with time.”
The timer ding pulled Dani from her maudlin thoughts, and she bent to remove the shepherd’s pie from the oven. She set it aside to cool and quickly packed everything else into the fridge. At least her neighbors would benefit from her lack of a plan.
Dani turned back from the fridge, wiping the tears of frustration and grief from her cheeks. She had to shake things up and move on with her life. It’s what Aunt Helen had wanted, and she knew she had to live up to her end of the bargain. When Helen had agreed to let her come help, it was always with the understanding that when she was gone, Dani would take up the reins to her life and do something spectacular.Now if I could just figure out what that is...
“Well, Mrs. Grady, you’re all set. You’ve got the shepherd’s pie for Monday night, the spaghetti and meatballs for Wednesday, and chicken soup for Thursday. Make sure you nuke a vegetable to go with. I stocked your freezer today, so you should have plenty to choose from. Also, let Joe know that I left the fennel out of the soup this time, just for him. Tell everyone I said hi.” She gathered her things and moved toward the door.
“Are you sure you won’t join us, Sunny? I worry about you eating alone so much.”
The use of her aunt’s favorite nickname for her sparked a brief smile, but Dani shook her head. “I just...can’t yet. Maybe next week.” To be honest, she couldn’t stand to see the sadness in her heart reflected back in the eyes of her aunt’s friends. It was bad enough to feel it herself. “I’m going to go bake some cookies to welcome our new neighbor to the building. I’ll extend an invite to your dinner party on Wednesday, if you’d like.”
“The more, the merrier, I always say. And if he turns out to be a bachelor, send him over on Tuesday!” Still chuckling, Mrs. Grady closed the door behind her, and Dani waited to hear the bolt snick in the lock. She’d fallen into the habit of checking up on her neighbors when Aunt Helen had gotten too weak to do it herself. Making meals, listening for locks, dropping off mail, it didn’t take long and helped a lot. Sometimes it felt like those were the only things she accomplished in a day.
“I really need to change that,” she muttered.
Dani walked down the hallway, skirting past a pile of boxes left outside the door across the hall from hers. One of the moving men came out of the apartment for another load, and sent her an appreciative glance and smile. Dani ducked her head with a blush and quickly headed inside. Why hadn’t she said hi? Why on Earth had she blushed? She had to get out more, preferably with a male of the species. Shaking her head over her reaction and the dismal prospect of that happening any time soon, she pushed aside her worries in the kitchen, baking her famous dark chocolate chunk cookies for her mystery neighbor.
