Old Flames

Old Flames: Chapter 24

Old Flames: Chapter 24

Lainie glared at Aaron’s father, thanking God she didn’t have to endure him as her own father.  “It was an accident,” she said to him, doing her best to keep her temper under lock and key.  Angering her landlord, despite the person he was, wasn’t a good idea.  She needed her house.  She couldn’t uproot her kids again so soon.

“It was negligence,” Richard Dozier replied with a smug smile.  “I’m afraid that the fire caused more than cosmetic damage.  I have the report right here.  Even with the insurance, the costs of the repairs will be more than I deem worthy for this old house.”

Lainie was getting a headache already.  When she walked across the street from Aaron’s house just ten minutes ago, she was prepared to face the consequences of starting the fire to her house, even if it had been a true accident.  She was willing to pay for whatever needed to be done and take care of all the repair arrangements, just so long as she could get Chris and Chloe back to a normal routine.

But the jerk in front of her wouldn’t budge an inch.  “How can it be that bad?” she asked.  “The porch got a little scorched, that’s all.”

Richard glanced down at his report.  “There is water damage to an interior wall because a spark reignited after the initial flame was extinguished and the fire crew had to douse the house.  The entire front porch will need to be torn down and replaced, along with the window there and the roof, and the house needs to be re-sided in the front, and the inspection team found asbestos under the vinyl siding when they tore it off, so that will have to be taken care of.  It’s more work than this house is worth, Ms. Moon.”

“So...you’re just going to kick me out?  I signed a lease.”

“And now that lease is null and void,” he replied.  “I’ll be more than happy to return your deposit--”

“I don’t want your damn deposit!” she shouted, and immediately shot a look across to Aaron’s house, praying her kids didn’t hear her curse.  She left them there with Aaron -- and Aaron put up a fuss! -- wanting to deal with this on her own.  This was her problem.  Aaron had been kind and sweet to her and her children, but she couldn’t involve him.  And it didn’t matter that her landlord was Aaron’s father.  In fact, it was better that Aaron stayed away right now.  Those two men did not have the best history together, and Lainie didn’t want Chris and Chloe seeing them fighting.

But all three of them -- Aaron, Chloe and Chris -- were watching from the front window of Aaron’s house.  Lainie made an effort to cool her anger and calm her breathing.  “What is it going to take to get you to let me stay?”

Richard folded his report and tucked it in the inner pocket of his suit jacket.  “Ms. Moon, I’m going to be honest with you.  I bought this property for the land, which is valued at twice what this old shack worth.  The sooner you are gone from the property, the better off my investment is.”

“There is no compromise that we can come to?”

“No, sorry,” he said, adamantly.  “By the way, how’s your mother these days?”

Lainie saw red.  How dare he ask about her mother?  She balled up her fists and took a step forward, sending a silent prayer to Aaron, Turn my kids away because I’m about to punch him!

Someone was listening to her plea because both her attention and Richard’s was diverted as a car pulled up in Aaron’s drive and Teresa hopped out, wearing short, denim cut-offs -- in November!  All Lainie could see was long legs and long hair as the EMT trotted up to Aaron’s porch and into his house.  Lainie now saw red and green.  What’s she doing there?

Richard whistled low.  “Seems my son’s got his finger in two pots,” he said appreciatively.  “I knew that boy would come to his senses one of these days.”

Lainie gaped at him.  Okay, she never made any claim on Aaron, so how would his father know about them spending time together?  Had Aaron said something?

She shook her head and focused on the important thing.  “Mr. Dozier, does the report say that the house is unlivable?”

He turned back to her and frowned.  “Ms. Moon...”

“Mr. Dozier, my rent is paid up until the fifteenth.  That gives me two weeks.  Can I occupy the house?”

“I can return your full month’s rent, Ms. Moon.  I’m not completely heartless.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes.  “Answer my question.  Can I get into my house?”

He cleared his throat and looked away and hesitated for several seconds.  Lainie was getting fed up.  But by then Aaron was crossing the street over to them.  She turned her glare to him.  No, go away.

Richard smiled, obviously relieved for the intrusion, and said, “Aaron, my boy!  It’s good to see you again.”

Aaron ignored his father.  “Before you ask, Lainie, the kids are fine.  Teresa’s watching them for a second.”

Lainie couldn’t believe her eyes or her ears.  How dare he presume that it was okay with her that someone else watch her kids?  She’d given him that responsibility, and yet here he stood, like she wouldn’t mind one bit.  That was it.  She was tired of everyone taking advantage of her.  But she turned to Mr. Dozier, vowing to deal with Aaron later.  “Is the house safe to occupy?” she asked him again in a voice that brook no tolerance for more evasion.

Aaron turned to her.  “What?  No, Lainie, you can’t live here in this condition.”

She pointed a furious, shaking finger at him.  “You, stay out of this.”  Aaron stared at her, startled she spoke to him like that, but he clamped his jaw closed.  “Answer my question,” she demanded of the older man.

“Ms. Moon, Aaron is right.  The house needs repairs before--”

Before either man could say another word, she stomped up to Richard, snatched the report from his jacket pocket and read it herself.  The house could be occupied.  There was no structural damage, and the “asbestos” was deemed suspect since the landlord before Richard had already had the house tested when he put the vinyl siding on the house.  Lainie slapped the paper into the man’s chest and started to walk back to Aaron’s house to get her kids.

“Lainie, be reasonable,” Aaron said, following her.  “Think of your children.”

“Yes, Ms. Moon, think of your children,” his father repeated.  Lainie stopped dead in the middle of the street.  She whirled on them.  

“Don’t either of you dare tell me how to raise my children.  They need a home.  We have a home, and I fully intend to live there for the next two weeks.  By then I can find another place or move back home with my mother.”

Aaron halted in front of her.  “No.”

She blinked at him, amazed at his audacity today.  “What?!”

“You won’t go back to your mother’s,” Aaron explained, that stubborn set of his jaw only setting off Lainie’s temper even more.  Just because they shared a few tender moments last night and a couple of sneak kisses over the last month, he thought he could govern her life and her decisions?

She got right up in his face.  “I will go wherever I choose,” she hissed at him.  “And how could you take his side?  I thought we were friends.”

“I am your friend, Lainie,” he said, though the words were soaked with agitation.  “I’m just looking out for your safety.”

“I’ve managed just fine without you for the last ten years,” she reminded him.  “And I’ll do the same now.”  She pivoted on her heel and marched into his house.  “Chris, Chloe, get your stuff.  We’re going home.”

Teresa stood up from the floor where she was helping the twins work a puzzle.  “Hey, Lainie!  Just the person I came to see.”  Her eyes diverted to Aaron, who entered behind Lainie.  She saw the tension in his face and the same tightness around Lainie’s eyes.  “Um, is this a good time?”

Lainie hustled her children to gather their toys into a basket.  “A good time for what?”  She didn’t like the way Teresa looked at Aaron.  She really didn’t like the way Teresa looked at her.  It was...odd.

“A girls’ night,” Teresa said with a smile.  “Dusty’s got the night off from Momma duties on Friday, and I’m off work, and we thought you’d like to join us.”

Lainie shook her head.  She paced around the living room, picking up the kids’ belongings and stuffing them into bags, astutely conscious of Aaron watching her, but he didn’t say anything, just glared.  “I’m sorry, Teresa, I can’t.  I’ve got too much going on right now.”

“Aw, come on,” Teresa begged, grinning happily.  “Aaron can babysit.  I know for a fact he’s not on duty Friday either, and Dusty can’t do any other night, and I really, really want you to come with us.”

Aaron grunted from his vigilance by the door.  Teresa shot him a look.  “Shut up, Captain,” she told him.  Chloe gasped.

“She said the S-word,” her daughter whispered to Chris.  Teresa frowned.  “No, I didn’t,” she said, and Chloe nodded vigorously.  “Oh, yes, you did, Miss T’reesa.”

Lainie shooed Chloe into the bathroom to get their toothbrushes and Chris into the bedrooms to search for anything they missed.  “I just can’t, Teresa.  I’ve got two weeks to find another house to rent, and with me getting the flu, and Chris getting sick, and the fire...I’m sorry.  I have too much on my mind.”

What she didn’t explain was that there was no way in hell she’d let Aaron babysit right now.  She was too mad with him.  Oh, but Aaron heard the silent words.  He shrugged away from the wall he’d been holding up and took a Barbie doll from her hands.  “Lainie, go out with the girls.  You need this.  If anything, it’ll get your mind off of...things.”

“Yes, Lainie,” Teresa urged.  ‘It’ll be fun.  We’ll go down to Shakey’s and have a few drinks and laugh it up.  And you won’t have to worry about getting home because Dusty’s still breastfeeding, so she’d the D.D.”

Chloe came back with their toothbrushes, bath toys and a hairbrush.  “Mama, what’s press-feeding?”

Chris was on her heels.  “It’s squashing all your food together so you don’t taste the yucky stuff.”

Chloe’s big eyes lit with understanding.  “Oh, I do that all the time.  ‘Spec’lly when we have peas.”  Chloe shuddered cutely.  “Does that mean I can be a diddy, too?”

No one could say anything.  Finally, Teresa looked at Lainie.  “You need a girls’ night more than I do.  You’re coming.”

Chris pouted.  “Why do girls get their own night?”

Lainie smiled at her children.  “Because we just do.  Got everything?”  They shrugged, looking at her for approval, or maybe just a reprieve from cleaning up their stuff.

Aaron said, “If I find anything, I’ll bring it over.”  All eyes turned to him.  It wasn’t what he said, it was how he said it.  There was anger and petulance and spite in his tone, his voice croaking and thick.

“Mr. Aaron, you don’t sound so good,” Chloe said.  

“I’m fine, Chloe,” he said and knelt down to look at both kids at their level.  “Ya’ll take care of your Mama, okay?”

“Aren’t you coming with us, Mr. Aaron?”

“Chloe, Mr. Aaron lives here.  This is his house.  We were just visiting,” Lainie said, praying she didn’t have to deal with a scene right now.  Chris backed up into the wall.  

“I want to stay here.”

Lainie sighed.  It was just too much to hope for.  “Chris, we can’t stay here.  This isn’t our home.”

“I want to stay here.”

She lowered herself in front of him and gathered all the patience inside her.  “Chris, listen to me, please, okay?  Remember that time we went to Chuck E Cheese, and you didn’t want to leave?  You were having so much fun, running around, playing games, making new friends, but do you remember how you got tired and grumpy and then finally decided we should have gone home to rest?  That’s how it is now.  I know Mr. Aaron’s house is a lot of fun and you want to stay, but at home, you can rest.  You can recharge your happy again, and then you can...um...you can visit again.”  But not for a while.

Chris stubbornly pursed his lips, but he didn’t argue further.  When Lainie stood up, both Teresa and Aaron were studying her.  She ignored Aaron.  Teresa picked up some of the kids stuff and offered to help her convey it back to her house.  Lainie noticed that Aaron didn’t repeat the offer.  He allowed the kids to give him a hug, and Lainie ushered them out the door and back home.

“So, you’ll come?” Teresa asked, hefting the basket of toys as she walked beside Lainie.

“I don’t know,” Lainie answered, rolling her shoulders because she could feel Aaron’s eyes on her back.  She hadn’t thanked him from taking her in and caring for the kids before she left, and she was sure she wasn’t the only one who noticed that omission.  

They went through her back door, and the kids started digging out all the toys they missed in the last few days.  Teresa set the basket on her table and sighed.  “I haven’t known Aaron very long, but he’s a guy, Lainie.  They tend to push people around and not think much about.  And I stopped putting up with it a long time ago.  But, the captain’s a good guy.  Give him a chance.”

The last thing Lainie needed right now was relationship advice from a woman she barely knew.  She scanned the front of the living area, noticing a water stain on the corner part of the ceiling from where the firemen doused the house.  It wasn’t bad, but she knew that she needed to get it fixed before mold set in.  There was just too much.

“I don’t want to talk about Aaron,” she told Teresa, wishing she would leave soon.

“Okay, okay,” Teresa said, holding her hands up in defense.  “I didn’t mean anything by it.  And think about Friday.  I know you’ll have fun.”

“I’ll think about it.  That’s all I can promise,” Lainie said.  Teresa nodded and left.  Lainie saw her walk across to Aaron’s house and go right in without knocking.  That woman put off some strange vibes, but she obviously had a casual relationship with Aaron, despite what she said about not knowing him very well.

It irritated her.

When Chloe started wailing because Chris’ block tower fell on top of her toe and Lainie saw that there was nothing in the refrigerator or cabinets to cook for dinner and she’d have to make a trip to the store sometime today, she raised her eyes to Heaven and muttered, “Please, God.  Throw me a bone here.”

The phone rang, jolting her and making her peer oddly upward to God.  “Hello?”

“Ms. Moon, this is Catherine Spencer from the real estate company.”

“Oh, hello, Catherine,” Lainie said, thinking, What now?

“I just wanted to let you know that we’ve finally got everything cleared up with the sale of your house and we can close on Friday.  Can you come down to the office to sign the remaining papers?”

Another peek at God.  Are you really there?

Lainie had never been very fanatical about her religion, but after this, she might consider going to church a little more.  “Yes, Friday will be great.”

“Wonderful!  Once you sign the papers, we can wire the profit from the sale to your banking account.  After fees, taxes, and the closing costs you agreed to pay, you should receive just under twenty-three thousand.  Does that sound accurate to you, from the documents our office sent you?”

Lainie scoured her memory.  She couldn’t be sure, but it was fairly close to what she assumed she receive from the house, and she wasn’t really in a position to be picky.  “Yes, that sounds about right.  What time should I be at the title company?”

“Is ten okay?”

“Ten o’clock is perfect.”

“We’ll see you then,” Catherine said and hung up.  Lainie sat down on her sofa and breathed out for what seemed like the first time today.  

Everything will be okay.

Now, to find another house in only two weeks.