“You don’t have to say anything, hon. I’m simply acknowledging your difficulties.” She smiled as if they had talked about this before and were on the same page about her “difficulties.” But they never had. And they never would, if Lorna had anything to do with it. It was bad enough she’d spilled her guts and more to Micah.
This conversation was exactly why she built her internal bomb shelter. Look what happened when she came out of it—people started guessing what was wrong with her, and she came close to wanting to rip the roof right off Peggy’s house.
The best thing to do was tackle the reason for her visit in the hopes of speeding things along and getting the hell out of here before Peggy started to talk about what a wonderful mother Mindy Lott had been. Before Lorna did or said something she would regret. She did not want to add to the list. “Peggy, I’ve come—”
“About the trust. I gathered. Hand to heaven, I told Mindy not to make me the trustee. I said, ‘Surely there is someone in your family who should do it?’ But she assured me she had no one. I said to her, ‘What do I know about wills and that sort of thing?’My son has taken care of mine. But Mindy insisted, and she said I was the best for it and that I knew almost everything.”
Well, that was disconcerting to hear.
“My son said I shouldn’t involve myself.”
Because he was a smart man and knew trouble when he saw it.
“But I decided it was simple enough, and Mindy really needed my help.”
“Is it?” Lorna asked curiously. “Simple?”
“Well, sure,” Peggy said cheerfully, as if the entire world knew how simple it was. Lorna had no idea.
“What do I have to do to prove that I’ve, you know, done the things Mom wanted from me?”
“Oh, Lolo. That’s where you’ve got it all wrong. Your mother didn’t want them.Youdid.”
False. Lorna had most certainly not wanted to address her regrets, thank you very much, but for the sake of ending this conversation, she said, “What I wanted, then. How will you know I’ve, like, made my apologies or whatever?”
Peggy shrugged and reached for a cookie. “Just tell me.”
Lorna stared at her. “What do you mean, just tell you? How will you know I’m not lying? What will the courts say?”
“Courts? There’s no court. As it was explained to me, if I agree that you’ve done what your mother wanted, that’s all that is required. And I don’t need anything fancy, honey. You be the judge of whether you’ve done what you needed to do and just let me know. And I know you. You won’t lie. You’re too honest.”
She had to be kidding. Mom had gone to all this trouble, and now Peggy was going to be loosey-goosey about it? “It can’t be that simple,” Lorna argued. “There should be some proof.”
Peggy smiled. “What would you like your proof to be?”
Maybe she didn’t understand. “Peggy, there has to be something that proves—”
“Not in this trust. You could come here tomorrow and tell me you’ve addressed them all and I will sign off.”
Lorna sat back and tried to make sense of it. She had avoided this for four years, and all she had to do was announce she’d done everything in the codicil? What was to stop her from doing exactly as Peggy suggested and declaring tomorrow that she was done with it? But Peggy was right—she was too honest.
This was precisely the sort of thing that led to people thinking she did not “do emotion.” Because right now she appeared calm on the outside, but on the inside, she wanted to body slam that very large rooster in the front yard to the ground and pummel it.
“Stay here,” Peggy said, hopping up and going into her house. She returned in a few minutes with a yellowed envelope. “This is the codicil.”
Lorna took it. It felt heavy. Full of history. She knew what those pages contained and didn’t want to look at them. Unfortunately, she’d come this far and she was going to have to see her plan through and decide which of her mother’s list items to tackle first. “Thanks, Peggy.”
“Just curious... what made you change your mind? About the trust, I mean.”
Lorna was reluctant to admit she wanted the money to buy her grandmother’s house. Peggy would probably disapprove of such a base motivation. She probably wanted something deep and meaningful, some reflection on how it had taken Lorna four years to realize what an inspiration her mother was. Then again, maybe Peggy would understand. She seemed the understanding sort.
But Lorna decided to speak with caution and not reveal herself, as usual. Instead, she parroted Micah. “It came down to wanting to know where I’m going with my life. And I have to know where I’ve been to figure that out.”
Peggy’s brown eyes sparkled like Christmas lights. “That’swonderful, Lolo. Howastuteof you. HowproudMindy would be.”
Yeah, well, Mindy would be proud of Micah. Lorna suddenly felt exhausted. She honestly didn’t know what her mother would think of her now. Of the forlorn, terminally single, awkward daughter she’d become.
“Just know that I am here for you.”
