Daddy's Girls (20)
“That’s disgusting,” Caroline said.
“I have to admit, it’s been kind of a shock. None of us on the show were expecting it. It’s been a shit few weeks, between Dad and the show getting canceled.”
“It always works like that,” Kate said with a sigh. “Bad things come in bunches.”
“So do good things,” Caroline said optimistically. But Gemma thought that it was easy for her to say, with a husband who was a partner in a venture capital firm, and family money. Their life was totally secure. It wasn’t as visibly luxurious as Gemma’s, but they could do whatever they wanted. Private school for the kids, and they were thinking of buying a house in Aspen. Peter flew around on a corporate jet and made a ton of money. Caroline had nothing to worry about. She could write her young adult books when she felt like it. She didn’t have to worry about her future, her age, or a mortgage.
“Well, you can come home whenever you want to, or need to,” Kate said simply. Gemma hated to think of it as home again. It seemed like a giant twenty-year step backward if she were to wind up back in the Santa Ynez Valley. She’d played hard for the last ten years and spent a lot of money. She cringed every time she thought of it now. She wished she had listened to her father and saved some, but she thought the show, and the gravy train, would go on forever. Now the ride was over. And in four months, she’d have no income.
She stayed and had another glass of wine with Kate after Caroline and her children went back to her cottage, and Juliette had left to go to bed. She wasn’t leaving for France until July, so she had another month on the ranch, to help Kate with the books and prepare for their summer auction in July. They had a Thoroughbred auction then too, as well as their livestock auctions, which usually brought in a lot of money.
“I didn’t think I’d have to do it, but if I can’t find work, I may have to sell you and Caroline my share of the ranch in the not-too-distant future. When Dad died, I thought I was secure, and now I’m ass over tits on the ground, and the money will run out eventually.” Very soon in fact. September was only three months away.
“Thad said he might be interested if you or Caroline decides to sell your share of the ranch. With the money Dad left him, and his savings, he thinks he could manage it.”
“That would be interesting. How would you feel about his owning a third of the ranch?” She knew how possessive Kate and their father were about it, and how proud he was of owning ten thousand acres, after starting from nothing.
“I’d rather hang on to all of it, like Dad, and keep it in the family. But if you need the money soon, I’d have a hard time coming up with it in a hurry. I might be able to buy half your share, and Thad could buy the other half. Then I wouldn’t be giving up so much, and I wouldn’t have to sell bonds. I don’t think Caroline will buy it from you. She’s more likely to sell too, to free up the money. Neither of you comes here much, although I wish you would. Anyway, let me know how it’s going, and if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Dad always used to help me when I got in a jam,” she said in a small voice. She had never admitted it to her sisters before.
“Yeah, I kind of thought he did. Daddy’s Girl, and all that.”
“He hasn’t had to for a long time. I made great money on the show, and blew it all,” she admitted. “Art, furniture, the house, trips, chartering yachts, flying private. It’s amazing how fast it goes.” Instead, their father had bought Thoroughbreds for his breeding operation, and pastureland for his livestock, which always seemed less glamorous to Gemma. “I guess I was really stupid. I’ll sell the house if I have to,” but it was mortgaged to the hilt so she wasn’t going to get as much from it as she should have. “I’d hate to do it, but if I have to, I will. That would tide me over for a while. Don’t say anything to Thad yet.”
“I won’t,” Kate promised. She could see that her sister looked shell-shocked. “Have you thought any more about contacting our mother?” Kate asked her.
“Not really. I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out what to get rid of, ever since I heard the show was canceled.” They were wrapping in a week. The end had come quickly. “We probably won’t have time this trip anyway. Maybe this summer?” Kate nodded. She half wanted to rush into it, and meet her and get the straight story, and she was half afraid to. Caroline still didn’t want to see their mother at all.
“Dad was an odd guy. I think he always had secrets. There was only so much he wanted anyone to know. He almost never talked about his youth in Texas, except that he grew up dirt poor, and came out here with nothing except three little girls and a truck full of diapers. It took him a year to tell us he was serious about Juliette, and he didn’t tell us she’d moved in with him till we came home for Christmas, so who knows what really happened between him and our mother. If we hadn’t found that envelope, we’d never have known. He probably intended to destroy it, and forgot to,” she said, and Kate agreed. He would have had a fit if he’d thought they were contemplating looking up their mother and meeting her, since he had claimed she’d been dead for the last thirty-nine years.
Gemma left a little while later, to go back to her cottage. The three of them met the next day at the main house. Juliette had strong coffee and homemade croissants waiting, and then she went to the office, to let them do what they wanted. She had already taken the things that were meaningful to her, and had given Kate a list of them, some books, two paintings she and Jimmy had bought together, an antique silver samovar Juliette had given him, the things she’d bought for the house, and the rack of cowboy hats he wore every day. Jimmy had no possessions of great value, except the ranch itself.