Folk Around and Find Out (Good Folk: Modern Folktales #2)(68)
Charitable donations and ostentatious gifts for folks they would never approve of were the only occasions upon which I withdrew funds from the sizable inheritance left to me by my parents. Not much in life gave me as much pleasure as buying exotic dancers flashy diamond broaches, and then signing the card, 'From Dr. and Dr. Weller.'
My parents would’ve hated their snooty savings being spent as such. But I couldn’t think of anything better to spend their money on than causes, people, and things they abhorred. Actually, they might’ve approved of Charlotte.
I grimaced at the thought, shoving it aside, and pulled off my sunglasses as I crossed Walnut Street. Typically, like for the gold Rolex I’d bought Beau many years ago, I went to Knoxville for an expensive purchase such as this. But Ferdinand’s Fine Jewelry in our small downtown made more sense in Charlotte’s case. When she returned the item, I didn’t want her to have the hassle of driving all the way into Knoxville. Between work and four kids, I reckoned the woman was busy. I understood that and I—
Wait.
“Wait a damn minute,” I muttered to no one. That’s the issue.
My feet stalled a few doors down from Ferdinand’s and I tucked my sunglasses into my chest pocket, feeling certain I was on to something. Charlotte—being a single mom, working, and managing a home by herself—had decided to stop sharing pizza because she simply had no time to eat pizza.
I snapped my fingers. That had to be it. She was overextended, had too much to do, and no help to do it. She didn’t want a relationship with anyone, they’d be another time-suck. However, that seemed unfair to Charlotte. Why should she have to give up all the good things about having a partner? The woman clearly had unmet needs, and I could be just the good things.
Wanting to weigh this theory against her statements on Sunday, I endeavored to recall precisely what she’d said. But before I could, I stiffened because I heard her. Here. Now.
Holding very still, I strained my ears.
Not so far away, a voice that sounded exactly like Charlotte’s said, “I know you don’t want to see her, but this isn’t something I can control.”
My chest tightened. Compelled, I rounded the side of the building and crept toward the alley. Her voice was louder and clearer with each careful footstep.
“The court has given your paternal grandmother the right to visit with y’all twice a month if she wants, and she wants. Honey, you know I have tried and tried to excuse all y’all from these. If I could get you out of it, I would. But I’m there to shield you from her nasty comments, you know I will. I always do.”
“Why don’t I get a say?” a kid’s voice grumbled back. “If I don’t want to go, why should I have to? It’s not fair.”
I came to a stop at the edge of the alley, needing to swallow twice at the sight of Charlotte in profile, wearing one of her long, floral skirts. Today she’d paired it with a brown tank top. She’d crouched down in front of the kid, who I recognized from the lemonade stand on Sunday—Kimmy, the tallest and oldest of the four Mitchell children, the one that looked just like her daddy and all the rest of the Buckley brood.
Charlotte’s shoulders rose and fell like she carried the weight of the world on them. I couldn’t help but think she, of all people, deserved more, better, easier. She deserved everything.
Her chin tipping up, she said, “Fine. You know what, fine. You’re preaching to the choir here. Let’s walk over together and we’ll say you aren’t feeling good and need to miss this time. Once I have my phone, I’ll call Aunt Maddie and she’ll pick you up from the park.”
“No.” Kimmy crossed her arms and seethed through clenched teeth, “I said I’m not going at all. I’m not going back to the park.”
“I can’t leave you here by yourself.”
“Call Nanna now. Or Aunt Maddie. Or what about Jackson? Have one of them meet me here.”
Involuntarily, I grimaced at Jackson’s name but continued to eavesdrop.
“I don’t have my phone or my purse. You ran off and I ran after you. I have to get back to the park for your brothers and sister before your grandmother reports both of us missing or complains to the court-appointed supervisor, or she turns her nastiness on Joshua. You know she will with me not there, especially since she supposedly has some ‘big news to share,’ whatever that means. Kimmy”—Charlotte placed her hands on the girl’s hips—“I’m begging here. Will you please come with me? You don’t have to stay, but I do need you to come with me. I don’t want to leave your brothers and sister with her either, not if I’m not there.”
Kimmy pressed her lips together, shining eyes lifting to the sky. Her chin wobbled in a way reminiscent of Charlotte’s unsteady chin on Sunday, and for some reason this had my breath catching in my chest.
“Please don’t make me, Momma,” she begged brokenly. “I don’t want to see her. Please. She’s so mean to me. All she does is pick on me and tell me how ugly I am, how mannerless and stupid. I hate her.”
Shit. I knew exactly what that was like.
“I won’t let her, I promise. That’s why I petitioned the court to let me come, too. Thank you for telling me what she’s been doing. Now that I know, now that I’m allowed to be there, I won’t let her speak to you that way anymore. She won’t be telling you lies about yourself. But we have to go back. I can’t leave Joshua and Sonya and Frankie there either, and I really, really can’t give her any reason to take us back to court for custody. Please. Please come with me.”