Unexpected Gift(19)

I place the mug on the coaster that is in front of me, a little to the right. “You have to be mistaken. Our parents…I thought they would have custody of Posie?”

Mr. Newton read over the piece of paper in his hand and starts to chuckle. “He said you would say that. Right here.” He slides the paper across the table to me.

I don’t reach for it at first. I don’t know what it would say. Do I want to know? I take a deep breath and gather some courage. My hand is jittery as I place it on the table and walk my fingers to it until I pull the paper toward me. I scan it, looking for where it says Caden and I are the godparents.

She will argue with you and say that can’t be right. She will bring up my parents, but our parents are older. They have done their time raising kids, and they deserve to be grandparents. If anything were to happen to us. I want my sister, Molly Lowell, and my best friend, Caden Jackson, to be godparents to my Posie. They will be good to her but wait until you see their faces when you tell them the other news. It will be enjoyable. They can’t stand each other, you know. And tell them I’m sorry if they are sitting here with you, Mr. Newton. I never planned to die. Once Posie was born, I wanted her to be taken care of, and that is why this will exists. I love them so much, and if I’m not here, I miss them. Tell them to kiss my little girl on the cheek for me. Daddy loves her so much.

I run my hand over his perfect handwriting. It’s small, but all the letters are uppercase. I used to give him so much flak for it. “Brandon.” A tear escapes from my cheek, falling on the paper, smearing the ink. I give it back to the lawyer and wipe my face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get it wet.”

Mr. Newton gives me a sad smile, and his old, blue eyes glow with kindness. “It’s okay. It’s why I made copies. I can give you one if you like. The both of you.”

“Yes, please.”

“Thank you,” we say at the same time again.

“He had stipulations for the both of you being her Godparents. He said I’d have fun with this.” He tries to lighten the situation with the joke.

Caden moves Posie to his other arm and rocks her. “Oh, boy. Let’s hear it. What’s he want? For us to live no less than ten minutes apart and split the weeks?” he snorts.

“Hmmm, no. Not really.” A shit-eating grin takes over Mr. Newton’s face.

I can tell he realizes that he will be having fun with this. I just want to know what this entails.





Chapter Nine





Caden





The look on the lawyer’s face makes me worry. What did Brandon do?

Posie stretches and whimpers when I stop rocking her, so I go back to moving ever so slightly just to make sure she doesn’t wake up.

“I’ll get back to that. First, he wants to talk about the house.”

“What about it?” Molly sips her tea. Her eyes fill with more tears, but she doesn’t let them fall. She concentrates on her tea, sipping the hot brew slowly and cautiously.

“The house is paid off. He doesn’t want it sold. He wants to keep it for Posie, and if she decides she doesn’t want it, then she can decide what to do with it when she turns twenty-one. He wants everything in the house kept the same, too.” The lawyer flips a page and coughs to clear his throat. “I’m quoting exactly what he said, Ms. Lowell.”

She yanks her gaze from the middle of the table that she practically burned a hole into at this point. “Tell Molly to stop packing. I want everything to remain as it is. Posie will want them. She will want to know what her parents were like, and I want to be able to give her that one day since I’m not here anymore. Don’t sell the house. Don’t do anything. Just clean it up every now and then and open the windows to let the musk out.”

Molly giggles and covers her mouth with her hand. “Sorry, he knows me so well. It’s insane. Well, I didn’t get too far with it. I only folded the laundry and started putting all of their clothes in boxes. I kept getting sidetracked by all the photo albums.”

“So, you are okay with keeping the property and everything else as is?” Mr. Newton asks. “The both of you?”

I still don’t understand why I need to make the decision with her. She shares flesh and blood with Brandon. I only have memories, so legally, she has a leg up on me. “I’m fine with it,” I say, wondering if I overstepped in sharing my opinion.

“Me, too.”

“Great. Sign here.” He hands us the paper along with a fancy fountain pen. I love those. I always keep one in my white coat at work.

She scribbles her name first and then slides the paper over to me. “You have a nice signature.” I mean it, too. Her name has big loops and curves. It's so different from mine. I sign my name and hand the paper back over to her.

Molly tries to hide her smirk. “Wow. How do your patients read your handwriting?”

I know it's bad. The letters are small, and they look more like a tangled nest than legible letters. “It’s not that bad. I’ve seen worse.”

“I haven’t.” She winks as she hands the paper back to the lawyer.

“Alright.” He shuffles through some more folders. “Right. Okay. So, this states that any monies leftover will all go to a trust fund for Posie. When she turns twenty-one, she will have access to it. Right now, there is a little over one million dollars in it.”