Page 15 of Just Like in the Movies
Llewellyn
Iwas going to wait until I got home that night to read the letter. I stuffed it in my locker at work, but the whole time I was changing linens and wheeling patients to physio or activities or whatever, I was thinking about it. Wondering what Maddie's last words to me would be.
"What's got your head in the clouds today?" Mrs. Costner asked as I walked her down to the door out into the garden. Newly released from her bedrest, she was already pretty mobile, just needed someone beside her to steady her on her walker—her hip might be mending but her hands were still kind of hit or miss.
"Oh, just thinking about Maddie. Feels strange not to have her here." I opened the fire door and held it for her. "She left me a letter, but I haven't read it yet."
"You aren't curious?" she asked as she crept through.
"Terribly," I admitted with a grin. "But I'm at work."
She threw me a look that, for a moment, made her look about sixteen. "IfIhad a letter, I'd find a way to read it at work." She paused and patted at her pockets. "You know, I do believe I forgot my glasses back in my room. Would you be a dear and get them for me?"
"You are incorrigible, aren't you?" I told her. "I'll get you out to the garden first."
"Then you can bring your letter back and read it in the sun with me." She smiled girlishly and started down the hallway toward the garden doors again.
Once I had her settled, I jogged back through the building and grabbed my letter. I checked her room, but the glasses were nowhere to be found and when I got back to the garden, I found them—not so surprisingly—on her face.
"Mrs. Costner," I scolded with a laugh. "I think you lied to me."
"Oh, well, I'm a forgetful old lady. It comes with the age, you know." She patted the bench beside her. "Sit here and read your letter."
"Should I read it out loud?"
She shook her head. "No, you don't need to do that. She was writing to you, I don’t need to hear that. Just read it yourself and if there's something juicy in it, you can let me know after." She winked at me and pulled a paperback out of her pocket. "Particularly if it's juicy Hollywood gossip."
I laughed and stuck my thumb in the small opening at the end of the envelope, tearing it open. A single sheet of paper fell out, in what was recognizably Maddie's handwriting from near the end, shaky but still distinctive. I set the envelope on the bench beside me and unfolded the page to begin reading.
Dearest Llewellyn,
My time is nearly up.Don't argue with me, a woman knows this stuff, especially an old woman. Besides, if you're reading this, I'm already dead and buried, and you can't argue with that.
I smiledas I read that line—it was so Maddie.
I wantedyou to have a few things, and I wanted you to know a few things too, now that I won't have time to settle them myself. I'm sorry I never did this before and by the time I realized that I'd missed the opportunity, it was too late to do anything but prepare what I could to go forward after I was gone.
First of all, I've left you some money from my estate. Not a lot compared to anyone else, but the lawyer and I talked about it and we thought it was best done this way to keep anyone from challenging it. If there is one thing I learned in Hollywood, it was to always have a back-up plan. And, a second thing I learned was that money was always a good back-up plan. A smart young man like you can find ways to make twenty-thousand dollars do as much work as two hundred thousand. I also paid my lawyer something on account so he can help you find a good investment advisor, to make sure that money works as hard as I know you do. So that will be for you, to move away, or stay, whatever you want. Use it to ensure your independence and never be at the mercy of anyone.
I want you to know that I would have been so, so happy to welcome you into my family. You're good people. Don't let the gossips get to you.
You were good for Micah, too, no matter what you or anyone might think. I know you loved him, and that you love him still. I'm sorry for that, and grateful for it too, because it means there's someone out there other than his parents who wants the best for him no matter what. As my ends gets closer, I'm coming to realize what a comfort that is. I wish things had gone differently between you two. I wish that I'd been there with him to keep him from making these decisions.
I wish I had more time.
Whether you can bring yourself to forgive him is something you need to work out within your own heart. I wouldn't blame you at all if you wanted nothing more to do with him. But real love—I won't call it true love because my very own beloved Hollywood has twisted and blurred that phrase until it no longer means what it used to—real love is a means for growth. And us alphas, we need someone to take us by the hand and make us grow. You have your safety money now. You don't need to depend on him, or on anyone. If you want to follow the wishes of your heart, you can safely do so, and it is the dearest wish ofmyheart that you have that opportunity. You made an old woman's final years so much happier and I would like to pass that gift on to you in whatever form you want it to be. If that future includes my grandson, I will be glad (or would if I wasn't dead. )
She’d drawna little smiley face there at the end of that line, making me chuckle softly. Probably what she’d meant it to do. Our senses of humor were very much alike. If it made her laugh, it was likely it would make me laugh too, and I was guessing that she thought I might need a few laughs about now.
She was a smart lady, our Maddie.
The lawyer has been asked notto tell anyone about the money, so that you can make your decision without anyone else sticking their nose into your business and interfering. We also set it up in a kind of trust that means that even if you marry, the money doesn't become the property of your husband.
There are a few knicknacks, just some personal things, that the lawyer will turn over to you. Nothing of monetary value, but I remembered how you liked that old quilt, and the glamor shot of me in that red gown. (I highly recommend you get one done for yourself—sogood for the ego. The lawyer can help you with that too.)
I snorted a laugh reading that,imagining her telling the lawyer she wanted him to find someone to take sexy pictures of me and what his face had probably looked like, and out of the corner of my eye saw Mrs. Costner smile at the noise. I'd probably share this part with her—we'd both get a good laugh out of it.
There wasn't much else in the letter, just some general life advice and reminding me how much she loved me as a grandson, even if I technically wasn't. Wishes for the future, for good luck. All that sort of stuff. And a promise to come back and haunt me if I wasted this opportunity, which made me laugh again through the tears that had started streaking down my cheeks. Mrs. Costner casually pulled a tissue out of her pocket and handed it to me, then went back to her novel, giving me a little privacy as I dealt with my grief.
