STARTING OVER (33 page)

“It’s too bad school doesn’t start for three months.  I’m sure you’d make a lot of friends there.”

Kelly had her doubts about that, but she didn’t voice them.

“I’m glad you’re able to take care of yourself,” Jane admitted.  “I wasn’t sure what to do if you needed daycare or something.”

“Daycare?” Kelly repeated incredulously.

Jane hurried to add.  “I didn’t mean daycare like a nursery school or a babysitter.  I just wasn’t sure if you would be comfortable if I left you alone.”

“I’ll be fine.  I’ve always spent a lot of time alone.  Well, sort of alone.  I had a horse and a dog, and I’d ride over to my friends’ houses sometimes.  I brought some books and I have my  games.  Really, you don’t have to worry about me.”

Kelly finished the cooking as her aunt set their plates and silverware on the island.  The waffles turned out perfectly golden and fluffy, and even Jane’s mouth was watering at their delicious fragrance. They sat next to each other, facing the pool in the backyard.

“Sometimes on a weekend I like to sit here in the early morning and just stare out across the pool and waterfall and watch the morning sun reflect off the water.  It’s very calming.”

“Do you swim often?”

Jane shook her head.  “Almost never.  By the time I get home, it’s usually pretty late, and I almost always bring work home.  There’s a guy who comes on Wednesdays to clean the pool, and I have a cleaning service in on Fridays.  The last six months, I’ve been involved with remodeling this place, so I just don’t have the time.  But you feel free to swim all you want.  It’ll be good for someone to use it.”

“I went out late last night and sat by the pool for a while.  It looks really pretty with all the lights around the backyard and shining on the waterfall.  If it wasn’t so humid and hot out, I’d leave my window open just to hear the sound.”

“I have the lights set on a timer, and there are nights they’ve already shut off by the time I get home.  Usually I’m so tired, I’d be afraid of sitting on the edge of the pool . . . I might fall in and drown.”  Her aunt smiled.

“Do you like working at the DA’s office?” Kelly asked, helping herself to a second waffle.

“I love it . . . just love it.  As long as the bad guys get put away for as long as the law allows, I feel like I’ve done my job.  What sucks is when the bad guys walk.”

“Do the bad guys walk often?”

“Some do.”  Jane shrugged.  “Not enough evidence or a lawyer that cares more about the money than the truth will occasionally allow someone to get away with a crime.  I guess you can’t win them all.  I used to worry about that, but then I watched some of my colleagues get burned out.  It took a couple of years until I learned that I have to do the best I can with what I have, then try to forget the ones that slip through.”

“Are you in court today?”

“Not today.  I have to drive to Tampa and take a couple of depositions for a trial next month.”

“How far is Tampa?”

“With traffic, which there always is, maybe two hours.  I’ll be home around 8 p.m., I hope.  I’ll call you and let . . . oh no.”

“What?”

“There’s no land line in the house.  You don’t have a cell phone, do you?”

Kelly shook her head.

“How’d you guys survive without cell phones on the farm?” Jane seemed unable to comprehend a world without cell phones.

“It would have been fun to have, but all my friends were a horseback ride away.  Besides I always heard the coverage was pretty spotty out where we lived.”

“Well, I can’t fix that today.  Maybe this weekend.  There are just so many things I’ve got to do to get you settled.”

“Aunt Jane, stop fussing over me.  I’ll be fine.  Actually, I don’t have anyone to call . . . anymore.”  Kelly’s face saddened as the reality sunk in.

Jane reached over and covered Kelly’s hand.  “I’ll never replace your parents, and I wish I could introduce you to some of the kids in the neighborhood.  But the truth is, I can’t even tell you which houses have kids in them.  When your grandma died five years ago and I moved in here, I did check for sexual predators in the neighborhood, and there weren’t any.”

“That’s good to know,” Kelly smiled at Aunt Jane’s comment but her face didn’t change.

“You should be okay, but I wouldn’t go door to door.”  Jane pulled a twenty dollar bill out of her purse and laid it on the counter.  “Maybe you can use one of the neighbor’s phones and call out for pizza.  Feel free to use the computer in my office to Google it or to play games.”

“Sounds good.
  I’m hoping to get my computer set up this morning.”

“Well, if you get done with your room I could use some help in the garage.  I never had time to go through your grandma’s things, and then I started this remodeling project so every room has gotten moved to the garage then moved back when the decorator was done.  I think there are even some boxes from your great-grandma.  They’ve lived in this house since the early 1900s, so who knows what you’ll find.  I need to have a garage sale soon so I can park my car inside.”

“I really like what you’ve done so far.  This kitchen looks awesome.”  Kelly felt safe in extending that compliment as there were still some paint spots that hadn’t been cleaned off the floor and back splash, proving the job had recently been done.

“Thank you.  I haven’t gotten to your room yet, so you can pick out the colors and the flooring.  You can get new drapes and a nice comforter for your bed, too.”

“I’d like that.”  Kelly smiled.  “And I’d be glad to help with the garage sale.  I helped with a few at church, so I kind of know what sells and what doesn’t.”

“Great.  If you get to it, make three piles.  Throw away, sell and keep.  As far as I know, there’s nothing out there that I want to keep.  I’ll glance through them all this weekend.  And feel free to keep anything that catches your interest.  There might even be some stuff of your mother’s mixed in.”

“Got it.”  That thought caught Kelly’s attention.

“I better get going,” Jane said as she grabbed her dishes and silverware and dumped them all into the dishwasher.  She noticed Kelly’s surprised look. “What?”

“I’ll put them in right so they’ll all get clean.  It’ll save you water, too.”

“Well, okay.  Thanks.” Jane picked up the navy blazer that matched her navy pencil skirt.  She glanced at her Blackberry,
then tucked it into her purse.  “I’m off,” Jane said as she headed toward the front door.  “Here’s my business card.  It has my cell phone number on it.  Don’t hesitate to call me.  Leave a message if I don’t answer, but I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

“I’ll be fine, Aunt Jane,” Kelly repeated for what seemed to be the hundredth time.  “Drive safe.” Kelly frowned as she thought about her parents.

“I will.”  Jane noticed, but felt completely at a loss on how to relieve Kelly’s worry.  It would just take time and patience.  Jane hoped she was up for the challenge.

“Bye.”  Kelly watched as Jane left through the front door.  Her aunt looked very professional in her trim suit, white blouse, high heels and briefcase.  She was about five years younger than Kelly’s mom and seemed to be the perfect weight for her height.  The one bright spot in all this was that maybe some of Aunt Jane’s good eating habits would wear off on Kelly.

Kelly cleaned up their breakfast mess and loaded the dishwasher neatly and correctly. She checked out the pantry and the refrigerator and jotted down a grocery list.  She filled out the waffle iron warranty card and left it on the counter where her aunt wouldn’t miss it so it could get mailed.  Then she headed to her bedroom to begin the task of un-packing her worldly possessions.

The first box she opened had a few t-shirts and shorts on top.  But it was the fluffy comforter on the bottom that she most excited about.  She lovingly took it out and after removing the blanket currently on the bed, she spread the comforter over the sheets.  Standing back, she felt a lump rise in her throat.  She remembered the day she and her mom had gone to the mall and picked it out.  It had been her thirteenth birthday when her parents decided she needed to transition from her childish My Little Pony-themed room to one that was more mature.  Her dad had painted the pink walls a sunny lemon yellow.  She and her mom had gone to the mall to find a comforter and matching drapes.

Kelly had never been a “girly-girl”, but she didn’t want her room to look like the tack room in the barn.  They had looked at dozens of designs, dismissing them because they were either too feminine or too abstract.  When they saw the comforter set that had large, bright  primary-colored flowers on a snow-white background, they had both known they had found the perfect balance of attitude and color.

She had left the drapes behind, but having the comforter with its large red poppies, yellow daisies and blue hydrangeas made the room look more like home.  The comforter was almost three years old and a little worn, but it held too many memories to be discarded.  Hopefully, Aunt Jane wouldn’t insist on something newer and more chic.  It looked perfect to Kelly.

The five tall wardrobe boxes emptied quickly as she lifted out her clothes, still hanging on their hangers and placed them on the racks in her walk-in closet.  She had just a chest back home, so the added drawer space of both a dresser and a chest with six drawers each made putting things away pretty quick and easy.  It took a little longer to unload her computer and set it up on the desk and to arrange her books on the shelves in the bookcase next to the desk.  It was well after noon when all the boxes were empty.  Kelly cut the tape on the boxes and collapsed them, then carefully maneuvered them down the stairs and carried them into the garage through the kitchen door.

The garage was even worse than she expected.  It was hard to imagine that Aunt Jane’s car had ever been housed inside it.  Kelly stood in the middle, surrounded by boxes and furniture.  With a little organization and a lot of discretion, there was hope. The three car garage had one part consumed with an odd mixture of furniture probably from her grandma.  The other two-thirds were only about half-filled and not stacked very high.  Plenty of room to create the three piles Jane wanted.  Kelly’s stomach growled, the two waffles long ago forgotten.  She decided to take a lunch break before tackling the piles.

She knew from her earlier search that there wasn’t much to choose from.  No peanut butter.  No bread.  No jelly.  No ramen noodles.  No SpaghettiO’s. There was a head of lettuce and some oil and vinegar dressing in the refrigerator, but not much else.  She knew the lettuce would be the smart choice, but she opened a can of chicken noodle soup instead.  There was a box of Wheat Thins for crunchiness.  Within minutes, however, the meal was over.

Texas had been hot, but Florida was even hotter and much more humid.  Kelly delayed going back outside by taking a tour of the house.  She had been here several times in the past, visiting her grandmother when Kelly was much younger, and again when her grandmother died.  But she had never really explored the place.

The house was over a hundred years old.  It had survived hurricanes and greedy developers.  It was, in fact, the only original structure in the area.  Apparently, it had once stood on a large tract of land, but it was now surrounded by dozens of tract homes that had been built in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  The house was in the old Florida style with tall windows, a shiny metal roof and deep, covered porches on both levels.  The pool had been added when Kelly’s mom and Jane were kids.

Kelly started at the top where there were three more huge bedrooms other than her own, each with their own baths.  Apparently, her great-great grandfather had been quite successful, although Kelly had no idea what he had done to be able to afford such a mansion.  Clearly, it had been updated and remodeled extensively through the years.  The other bedrooms looked similar to
her own, generic and totally lacking in personality.

Downstairs was Aunt Jane’s bedroom that opened out to the pool.  Kelly took a quick peek from the doorway, but didn’t go inside.  Next to that was a large office that was beautifully decorated in Laura Ashley prints and a whole wall of bookcases.  Two large windows let in lots of light, and glass French doors opened into the living room.  The large walnut desk was partially hidden by a stack of about a dozen brown file boxes.  Curiously, Kelly lifted the lid of one and pulled out a Fort Myers police file.  She opened it, but the pictures of the victim turned her stomach and she quickly put it back and hurried out of the office.  How could anyone do that to somebody?

In the living room, there were large comfortable couches facing a flat-screen TV that had to be about 65 inches in size and was surrounded by speakers along the bottom, sides and ceiling.  Aunt Jane must like to watch Judge Judy in life-size.

All of the downstairs appeared to have already been remodeled.  Aunt Jane had chosen to replace the tile with oak flooring, accented by large rugs.  Her color scheme brought the outdoors inside with its shades ranging from aquamarine to a dark cobalt blue.  Although they were blocks from the Gulf, Kelly felt like she was right on the beach.  It was a warm, friendly house . . . which seemed contradictory to Aunt Jane’s cool, collected attitude.  The tranquil blues carried over into the kitchen and breakfast area, but the formal dining room was all in whites with a few cobalt blue accent pieces.

Kelly knew she had delayed as long as she could.  She punched the button and the garage doors rolled up, allowing the sunlight and the oppressive humidity to come flooding in.  But it did make the garage appear a little less congested.  She looked around again and decided it would be easier if she dragged some of the stuff outside and cleared a wall so she could start the piles.  She carried eight dining room chairs outside, then pulled out the matching dining room table.  Sweat beaded up on her forehead, sticking her bangs to her skin.  Her shirt was saturated, and she could feel the sweat running down her arms and legs as she alternately pushed and pulled a large couch.