Page 13 of Stone

“I thought that I’d like this dress. Libby has one just like it, but I don’t care for it now.” Sage asked her what she thought was wrong with it. “I don’t know. It’s too tight, which I know I can change, but I don’t like it on me. I’m not as old as they are, can that be it?”

“If you could have anything that you want to wear, what would it be? Nothing that the other little girls have on but something that you want to see if it works on you. And just so you know, I had a top on this morning that was pretty but it felt like it was trying to crawl over me. I had to take it off before I had a panic attack.” They were having fun with just being honest about things. Even when the other two women showed up, they were telling Hailey that her grandparent had entered the hospital and that he was very ill. She asked if she thought he was going to make it.

“No, it doesn’t look good. His only thoughts were that his wife was gone, and he didn’t want to go on without her. I think that happens to a lot of older people nowadays. They don’t have much in the way of family like the Danielsons didn’t, and they just give up when the other one dies. Sad, but it’s true love.” She asked Rain if he’d said anything about her and the little girl. “No. It doesn’t look like he will either.”

Sage didn’t know what that meant, but she figured that he was close to dying, too. Knowing that he’d had a heart attack a few months ago made her think that both of them were on the verge of losing their battles as well. She didn’t know what to think about Hailey and what was going to happen to her.

Getting to the airport in plenty of time, she was thrilled to see that her mom and Stone were talking about something as they came up the runway. They were both seemingly in a great mood and that’s all she thought that she’d ever wanted. As soon as they were close enough for her to get a hug from her mom, Stone told her that they were getting along great and having fun.

“Oh, your husband is such a wonderful person. I’ve spoken to Storm as well. She tells me that the two of you are already wed in the eyes of the law.” Mom leaned closer to her. “She’s sort of scary, too, isn’t she? But I’ve had a wonderful time, and they couldn’t have made me feel any more welcome.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I wanted you to know that I’ve heard from Albert.” Mom stiffened up, telling her that she wanted nothing to do with him. “Good. He asked me where you were, and I, at the time, had no idea where you were at that moment, and I told him that. He said that you owe him for rent as he was tapped out. Again. He has a gambling problem, doesn’t he?”

“Now that I think about it, I’d say that’s a good hard yes. I don’t care for it all that much. I’ll use a roll of nickels when he wants me to go with him until they’re gone, but I don’t bet anything on anything bigger. I have won a few hundred dollars a few times, but I don’t tell him, nor do I share. He doesn’t either if you were going to ask me.” She asked what he spent his money on. “More scratch-offs. The ponies. Most sports games. He’s never any good at the latter, but he still plays. If he’s asking for rent, that means that he didn’t have any of it. We’ll be on the list—no, he’ll be on the list again for not having it. They usually give us thirty days, but here lately, that’s not been working on either.”

“I don’t know him, do I?” She said she’s been with him for nearly twelve years now. “Then no, I don’t know him. He sounds like he’s pissed off a great deal. He told me that if I heard from you, I was supposed to have you call. Something was wrong with your phone. Did you give it to Smokey when she asked for it?”

“I did. Yes. She said that she’d take care that he couldn’t trace me. I don’t know that he’d knowenough on how to do that but I’m glad to be done with him.” Mom laughed and hugged her again. “I’m so glad to be here with you. And with your family. I’d like for us to be friends. I think that I’ve burnt the bridges of us being mother and daughter. Who is this lovely little thing with you?”

“This is Hailey. She’s the reason that I’m out here. And that I met Stone. I’m considering her my good luck charm.” Leslie got down on her knees and spoke to the little girl. She was still shy around people and it took a few minutes for her to warm up to her mom. “We’re still waiting on what is to happen to her now that her grandparent is ill.”

“If my daughter is in charge, you can bet that it’ll be done correctly. I don’t know her all that well yet, but I’m sure that she can make things happen when they need to.” Hailey said that she wanted to live with her and Stone. “Well, I don’t know anything about that, but I’m sure they’ll do what is best for you. Sage always did for me when she was a little girl.”

When her mom started tearing up, Stone changed the subject. They talked about what they were going to do for dinner, and since they were already in Columbus, they’d have dinner now. She was glad that she’d only eaten a small salad for lunch when they suggested a steak house. As they were leaving, Hailey held her right hand and her mom the left, she was excited to be able to just be around them all. And hoped that things turned out for all of them.

Mom was giddy to tell her that she could read. She was very quiet about Storm having given her some magic so that she could do it, and was excited to be able to read the menus wherever they went. It was nice to see her mom so happy, and it rubbed off on her.

~*~

Stone kept an eye on the two women. He liked Leslie, all right. There wasn’t much in her mind other than to make up with her daughter and live close to them. Not that she didn’t mind living with them, but she wasn’t going to ask. Neither was Stone. Let the two of them figure that out on their own.

Leslie had broken down in tears on the way back to Ohio. She’d been telling him of the terrible things that she’d done to Sage that had gotten her into trouble. Some of the things weren’t that bad, missing school appointments and not having money for lunches. But there were things that were terrible, too. She’d left her alone as a five-year-old for an entire two weeks so that she could have some fun. But she told him that Sage had done well.

“She’d not missed a day of preschool and did the laundry. What kid do you know does the laundry when they’re just a little bitty thing?” Stone asked her what she’d said about it. “She told me that she needed clean underwear and didn’t know when I’d be back. I should never have left her in the first place.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Leslie nodded and looked out the side window, where she could just see the plane’s wing. “She’s doing all right now. Before I became her mate, she was holding down a good job that paid her well and had some friends. She’s been making a lot of them since coming here, too.”

“She was always good at that. Making friends. Mostly to older people, she didn’t know a stranger. It seemed to me like, but she was a good girl. After she left home—I’ll be honest with you and tell you that it took her a while to notice that she was gone—things began to fall apart for me and I sort of lost hope in getting someone to love me again. I know how that sounds. It’s been beating on me since I spoke to her when she called me back. I wasn’t ever a good mother to her, but I want to be a good friend to her now. If you don’t think that it’s too late.”

“It’s never too late for friendship. My family will all tell you when you fuck up. You might want to consider that when you get to our home. Any one of them will take you out if you hurt her too.” She told him how his brother had already told her that. “We all love her to pieces. She’s my all, and I’d die for her.”

Now, they were headed to dinner, and he was glad that he’d invited his parents to come and join them. It was a lot to through at Leslie, but he wanted to get to the point right away that if anyone had a problem with her, they’d never find her body. Old saying? Yes, but he didn’t know any other way to put it than that.

Hailey was getting tired by the time they were ready to leave the nice restaurant. They’d all had a good time and he was surprised to find out that Storm had made it so that Leslie could read. It had been a long time since he’d been around adults who couldn’t read, but her having dyslexia since she’d been born made him realize that teachers now knew how to help someone with that. Leslie might well have been skipped over when she didn’t catch on right away.

Carrying Hailey in his arms, they got into the waiting cars and sat in the seats. He could tell that the two women didn’t know how to act around each other and didn’t care at all when Sage moved to the seat facing him to sit by her mother. They were talking softly when Edwin contacted him.

“Earl passed away about an hour ago.”He said that was a shame, the poor man.“Yes, he’d spoken to his attorney before his wife passed and had the will changed. I don’t know what that means for Hailey, but I’m sure that he’ll have left her something. Probably through Sage, too, if I don’t miss my bet.”

“Are you saying that I should adopt her?”He asked him if he’d already thought that in his heart.“I suppose I have. She’s been a good company for Sage and me when we run out of things to say. She wants to stay with us from now on. Even before we knew that Earl was going to pass.”

“She and Jeffery’s daughters got along well enough, but they’re the same age and girls, so there was a little bit of fighting. Jeffery said that she held her own, but it was too much of a change for her to have sisters around and nothing before.”He asked him if he was going to file the paperwork now.“You’d better be talking to Sage about that. I like her a great deal, but I’m afraid that she’s one of those quiet, crazy women. You know she can go off the handle at a second’s notice.”

“I’m going to tell her that you said that too.”He said if he did, then he’d not tell him when he was going to auctions again.“Christ, that one is tomorrow. I wanted to do with Sage, too.”

“Take your new daughter. It might be good for her to be around more strangers. She seems to come out of her shell the more she’s around you and Sage. How is the mother doing? I hate to say this, but I think that we’re all wondering when and if she drops the other shoe. It wouldn’t hurt me at all to take her out if she so much as breaths the wrong way around either of the women in your life.”He told his brother that he was having a good time with them all.“Good. One thing that I can mark off my list of shit to do.”They both laughed.“I’m going to let you talk to your family, Stone. If you need me, you know all you have to do is reach out. I don’t want anything to happen to any of you now that things are becoming normal around here.”

After closing the connection between him and Edwin, he listened in on the other two’s conversation. Mostly, they talked about the house. There were sprinkles of Albert in there, as well as himself. He was glad to hear Sage say that she loved him, as he loved her so much more than he could count the stars in the heavens. It was wonderful, too. He told himself that they were ready to move some of the other things into their new home that would make it their own. He wished that he’d had a house before now, then negated that. He wouldn’t have this house if he’d done that.

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