Living with Love (Lessons in Love) (20 page)

Jeff’s eyes widened
, and his features softened with understanding. “You’ve worked extremely hard to get where you are,” he told her gently. “Princeton is no picnic in itself. I should know, I graduated from there a decade or two before you did.”

Alex felt her shoulders shake, a precursory warning of the tears
that were imminent.

“You deserve that money. Take it, look after your family.”

Nodding, Alex stood up. She needed to be alone, to absorb all this information, to let the shock of the money settle.

“Also, make sure you’re sitting down when you read about your salary,” Jeff advised kindly.

Alex nodded and left the office.

As she was heading through the door
, Jeff called after her, “Keep up the good work, Heron. Glad to have you on board.”

****

As Jeff advised, Alex waited until that night when she was alone in her apartment to read about her new wage increase. Working there on probationary terms, she’d made around $2,500 a month, which was just enough to rent her apartment and get by. She knew it was a good wage, but it wasn’t life changing.

Carefully, she unfolded and began to read the terms of her now permanent employee status. She finished reading the terms and then read them again, just to be certain. Before tax, she would be earning $80,000 a year. That was an obscene amount of money to Alex. She started to shake as she looked at the figures. Then, she began crying. The money would change everything. She could finally help her
mom out and get her out of the trailer and stop her killing herself working two jobs.

It was the sort of money that would enable her to put a down payment on a decent apartment in the city, or even a house back in Woodsdale. She could think about getting a mortgage, of using her money towards her future.

As Alex cried she thought of her father, of how immensely proud he’d have been if she could show him the bonus cheque, the letter about the wage increase. She imagined him telling her what an amazing daughter he had and how much he loved her. It was the same words he’d say whenever he saw her play the violin.

The pain of missing her father and being hurt by Mark started to burn through her with an intense ferocity
, and she rolled back on her bed and let her tears take her. They washed down her cheeks and tried to quash the fire of her despair.

All the money, as wonderful as it was, it couldn’t bring her father back. It couldn’t change what happened that fateful day he was taken from her, nor could it alter things with Mark. No amount of money could bring him back to her now.

But the money could change things for her mother and Andy, the people who mattered most to her. And Ashley too. It excited Alex to think she could now treat her friend to lavish gifts and go some way to repaying her for the kindness she’d shown her throughout college.

Taking out her iPad
, Alex began searching online for property in Woodsdale. She knew that there was one thing her money could potentially buy that would right an awful lot of wrongs and restore her family to what they had once been.

****

“It’s a lovely surprise to have you back home again, sweetheart.” Jackie Heron smiled at her daughter as she made pancakes on the stove in the trailer.

“Nice to be back
.” Alex smiled warmly.

“Is everything okay back in New York?” Jackie asked anxiously. It wasn’t like Alex to return back to Woodsdale so swiftly. She’d spent years avoiding the place
, and now here she was, back in the trailer while the year was only into its first month.

“Everything is fine,” Alex reassured her mother as Jackie passed her a plate of fresh pancakes
, which Alex gratefully accepted.

“I just thought it was too expensive to keep coming home,” Jackie continued, determined to get to the root cause of her daughter’s impromptu return. She anticipated that either work or boys were troubling her.

“I got a raise.” Alex shrugged, biting into a fluffy piece of pancake.

“Oh, well
, that’s good,” Jackie said brightly, visibly surprised. “So your job is going well?” 

Alex nodded, unable to speak with her mouth full.

“I do worry about you while you’re off in the city,” Jackie admitted. “Especially since you got mugged. Are you sure everything is all right?”

Alex saw the fear flecked in her mother’s eyes and sighed, knowing she would have to relinquish the true intent behind her visit sooner than she’d have liked.

“Mom, I can promise you that everything in New York is great, amazing even. I’m currently busy finding a new apartment to live in.”

“Because you got a raise?”

“Yeah, because I got a raise.”

“Alex, honey, don’t go spending all your money on an apartment. I know you don’t like where you live right now
, but I don’t want you wasting all your money just to be in a decent area.”

“It’s fine, Mom
. Don’t worry.”

“But I do worry!” Jackie implored. “Sometimes all I do is lie awake at night and worry about you.”

Alex frowned. It pained her to imagine her mother alone in the darkness of the trailer, eyes wide, unable to sleep, worrying about her children. Her mother deserved to be happy.

“If I tell you why I’m really here
, do you promise to start worrying less?” Alex asked, eyeing her mother carefully.

“Why are you here?” Jackie immediately asked. “I knew something was wrong!”

“Not until you promise to worry less.” Alex raised an eyebrow.

“Alex, I’m a mother
. It’s my job to worry.”

“Unless you promise to worry less, I cannot disclose the nature of my visit,” Alex said furtively, being coy like she was a secret service agent on a highly classified mission.

“Okay, fine, I’ll try to worry less.” Jackie sighed, desperate to hear what had brought Alex back to Woodsdale so swiftly. She wondered if it was a boy, maybe a guy from back home she had rekindled something with.

“I guess I’ll have to accept try,” Alex quipped, smiling slightly.

“So what is it? What’s going on with you?” Jackie demanded.

“Well, like I said, I got a promotion at work.”

“Which is great.”

“And as such, I’ve got some more money. And I wanted to get you something.”

“Honey, you shouldn’t be wasting your money on me. You’ve got more important things to be buying,” Jackie declared, her face falling.

“Mom! Please! Let me give you the gift first before you go telling me off for buying it!”

“But I don’t need anything.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” Alex countered.

“Okay, fine, what did you get me?” Jackie asked, not wanting to seem ungrateful but already fearful that her daughter was wasting money on her that she didn’t have. She appreciated the sentiment, truly she did. But she’d been married to a man who was more generous than his means, and she didn’t want her daughter to repeat his financial mistakes.

“I can’t give it
to you here. We have to go to it,” Alex said, her eyes sparkling with secretive mischief.

“Go where?” Jackie asked, surprised.

“You’ll see,” Alex declared smugly, smiling to herself as she finished her pancakes.

****

An hour later and they were in a cab taking them to the location of Alex’s mysterious gift to her mother. In the backseat Jackie Heron shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t like surprises, not anymore.

They were both wrapped up in thick coats and woollen hats to keep out the cold. A fresh spattering of snow had made the ground sparkle with a pearlescent lust
er.

“Where are we going?” Jackie whispered nervously.

“You’ll see.”

“You keep saying that.”

“It’s because you will.”

The cab eventually stopped outside the estate in which the Heron family used to live. As Jackie stepped out of the car and recognized her surroundings
, she felt the blood in her veins turn to ice. This was not somewhere she wanted to be. This was a place of forgotten memories, the remnants of a life that was no longer hers.

“Alex, why are we here?” she demanded, her voice pitched with emotion.

“You’ll see.”

“Stop saying that!”

“Mom, can you just trust me, please?” Alex implored, her eyes wide and asking.

Jackie wanted to leave and return to the sanctuary of her trailer. She didn’t want to see the giant houses with their long driveways and immaculate fences. She didn’t want to be reminded of all that she had lost. It was too painful to even be on the periphery of the estate. She’d accepted that she would forever be an outsid
er looking in on the lives of those more well off; she didn’t need a literal walk down memory lane to cement that anymore for her.

“I don’t want to be here,” Jackie said, growing tearful.

“I know.” Alex reached out and held her mother’s hand and noticed she was shaking slightly. “And I’m not trying to upset you, believe me. You just need to trust me.”

“Okay
.” Jackie nodded. She trusted her daughter implicitly. Even though her instincts were screaming at her to leave this place, she trusted Alex enough to push through them and carry on.

Together in the snow they walked through what had once been their neighborhood. At a few points along the way Jackie would point out the house of someone she had once known.

“That was where the Jeffersons lived,” Jackie noted by a large white house. “She’s a grandmother now.”

As they walked
, Alex noticed the sadness that weighed down her mother’s steps. This had once been a place where she felt accepted and secure. Now she was an outsider, cast out from all that she had once known.

They rounded a corner
, and there, in the middle of the street stood the house that had once been theirs. Time had not dulled its impressive stature. It was still the nicest house on the street, boasting a white picket fence and a long, curving driveway.

When Jackie saw the house
, she stopped and held her breath. It was the first time she had seen it since she’d been forced to leave. Her eyes grew moist at the thought of someone else living there, another mother cooking in her kitchen, planting in her garden. It was like someone else was living her life.

“It’s still the best house on the block,” Jackie declared, choking back tears.

“I know.” Alex smiled fondly, still holding her mother’s hand tightly in support. “You remember when Dad put that hoop up for Andy?” Alex pointed to a basketball hoop, which was still hanging above the double garage.

“Andy insisted he was going to be a pro
basketball player after that.” Jackie managed to smile at the memory.

“It’s hard seeing it,” she admitted. “I
haven’t seen the house since we left.”

“I have,” Alex told her, noticing the flicker of surprise in Jackie’s eyes. “I saw the house very recently
, actually.”

“You did?” Jackie asked, looking shocked.

“Yesterday, to be precise.”

“What? Why?” Jackie asked the question as her eyes spotted the sold sign
that had been placed on the front lawn.

Alex fished around in her coat pocket and produced a shiny silver key attached to a key ring shaped like a four
-leaf clover. Gently, she passed the key to her mother, who accepted it and looked at it like some strange foreign object, not understanding what was happening.

“I saw the house yesterday because I bought it.” Alex explained simply.

Jackie was speechless. She looked first at the key in her gloved palm and then at the house where she had once lived, unable to connect the two.

“I noticed a few weeks ago that it was for sale
, so I put an offer in, which was accepted, then put a down payment on it, arranged a mortgage and came down to finalize the paperwork,” Alex explained, speaking quickly.

Still Jackie said nothing.

“Mom, this is my gift to you. This is the reason I came back to Woodsdale. I bought the house for you because I think it’s time you came home.”

Alex squeezed her mother’s hand to try
to prompt a response. Slowly, Jackie turned to look at her with tears streaming down her face. She shook as she stood rooted to the spot, unable to move or speak.

“This is where you belong, Mom
. This is our home,” Alex said, tears beginning to wet her own cheeks.

“Oh, Alex,” Jackie said, her voice wavering. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, Mom. It’s my turn to look after you.”

“Thank you!” Jackie threw her arms around her daughter and held her tightly to her. She wept deeply as she held her, the emotion of the moment flooding out of her. In her arms, Alex cried too. As they stood on the sidewalk outside their old home that was now theirs once more, Alex knew it was one of the happiest moments of her life. To be able to come home again, it was all she’d ever wanted.