The Boarding House Read online

  “Wyatt doesn’t want to go, so I’m not going,” she said and dipped the brush back in the tiny bottle to reload.

  Garrett frowned. He was losing his grip on her and wasn’t sure how to regain it. The older Ellie got, the stronger she became. Even when Wyatt wasn’t around, she was quicker to challenge him.

  “Surely you could take a little time from your busy schedule and spend some time with your Momma,” Garrett muttered, well aware that was a dig she wouldn’t like, but again, Ellie surprised him.

  “Momma never took time from her schedule to spend with me. Besides, she’s not in that grave. Preacher Ray said so. Her spirit’s in heaven with Baby Jesus. After all that praying she did to Him, she oughta be happy about that.”

  Garrett bit his lip and tried not to focus on Ellie’s long slender feet and tiny pink-tipped toenails. “Fine. Then I’ll go out there and see Momma by myself.”

  Ellie paused and looked up. The disdain on her face was impossible to miss. “I’m twelve. You and I both know you’re not gonna see Momma anywhere. But just in case you do, tell her I said hi. And if you don’t mind, close the door when you leave.”

  Garrett spun on his heel, slamming the door behind him. Within seconds, he heard the distinct click of the slide bolt. His eyes narrowed angrily, but he kept his tongue. He was a patient man. If he couldn’t catch his little fly with sugar, he’d use force.

  Ellie stood with her ear against the door until she heard him walking away, then exhaled slowly. Every time she challenged him, she feared it would be her last.

  Then Wyatt came up behind her. “I heard you,” he said. “Way to go.”

  Ellie shrugged, then went back to her nail polish and finished the job.

  Wyatt, always curious about the whats and whys of how girls operated, said, “Are you going to do your fingernails, too?”

  Ellie eyed the nails on her fingers then shook her head.

  “Why not?”

  “It would look weird. They’re all uneven.”

  “Oh.”

  Finally Ellie screwed the cap back onto the bottle, then stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back, bracing her arms behind her back as she waited for them to dry.

  “I’ve been checking out nannies,” Ellie announced.

  Wyatt frowned. “Does Daddy know?”

  “No. Why should he? He’s not the one who’s going to be spending time with her. That will be me.”

  “But, Ellie, you can’t just hire someone like that. You’re just a kid. How will you pay her?”

  Ellie’s eyes narrowed as she lowered her voice. “Last week I heard Daddy talking to the lawyer on the phone.”

  “So?”

  Ellie’s mouth curled up into a small, tight smile. “So he was mad.”

  “About what?”

  “Momma changed her will before she suicided herself. She left it all to us and nothing to Daddy.”

  “Holy cow,” Wyatt said. “So what does that mean exactly?”

  “I’m not sure. I could only hear Daddy’s side of the conversation, but I think Momma appointed someone besides Daddy to be the checker of her estate.” Ellie frowned. “I don’t think that’s the right word, but I can’t remember for sure. Anyway, the checker is the one who will control the money until we’re twenty-one. So it seems to me I have plenty of money now to hire a nanny if I want one, and I’m going to tell the checker to pay her.”

  Wyatt grinned. “You’re smarter than you look.”

  Ellie threw a pillow, but she was laughing.

  “So what’s this nanny’s name that you like?” Wyatt asked.

  “Sophie Crawford.”

  “Is she nice?”

  Ellie shrugged. “She makes me feel safe.”

  “What’s she like?” Wyatt asked.

  “She’s fifty-one. Older than Daddy. She’s not very tall and her hair is gray and curly. Do you remember that Christmas cartoon movie about Santa and Mrs. Claus at the North Pole that we always liked?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So her face looks sort of like Mrs. Claus. All round and happy.”

  “Where’s she gonna sleep?” Wyatt asked.

  “Doris will have to fix up Momma’s room. I’ll tell her today.”

  Wyatt gasped. “Momma’s room? Really?”

  Ellie shrugged. “Why not? Momma’s through with it.”

  “You’re not sad about Momma anymore, are you, Ellie?”

  Ellie lightly touched the edges of her toenails, testing to see if they were dry, but they weren’t. “I’ve cried all I care to about Momma. She wasn’t crying about leaving us. I don’t see a reason to cry because she’s gone. I’m saving my tears for something that really matters.”

  “Like what?”

  “That’s a dumb question, Wyatt. How am I supposed to know what’s gonna make me sad?”

  Wyatt laughed, then threw the pillow back.

  “Watch out for my toes,” Ellie squealed as she rolled out of range.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  “To find Doris. Sophie’s coming tomorrow. We don’t have much time.”

  Doris was still muttering to herself as she turned the mattress in Fern’s bedroom, then put on a new pad. She felt sorry as all get-out for Ellie, but if anyone cared to ask her, she thought this was taking things a little too far. Doris knew the child had nearly died when she was first born. She’d heard the story more than once from Ellie. She also knew that for the first six or eight years of Ellie’s life she’d been sickly. But that seemed to have passed. Doris guessed that the spoiling they’d done to her during her ailing times was pretty much set in stone, and there was little to be done about it now but go along.

  Still, Ellie saying she needed a nanny at the age of twelve and then demanding this bedroom be turned out without much warning was aggravating. However, Doris knew she got paid the same amount of money no matter what she did, so it was no skin off her nose.

  As soon as Doris finished making the bed, she went into the bathroom to give it a good scrub. Hadn’t much been done to the room at all since the funeral. She supposed it was about time, no matter who was coming to stay. But it occurred to her as she kicked off her shoes and got into the tub to scrub down the walls that if Ellie was going to start inviting people to come live in this house, Doris was going to ask for a raise. She hadn’t signed up to work for no boarding house.

  Garrett came home from work to find Doris setting the dining table with Fern’s good china and silver instead of their everyday dishes at the table in the kitchen.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Ask your daughter,” Doris said and slapped another linen napkin into place.

  Garrett’s stomach did a flip-flop. These days, it was hard to tell what was going to happen next. He was halfway down the hall and heading toward Ellie’s room when he heard laughter and talking coming from Fern’s room. He hadn’t been in there since they’d carried her out on a stretcher, covered from head to toe with a sheet. The door was already ajar. He pushed it open and walked in.

  “What the hell’s going on in here?”

  Ellie looked up and frowned.

  “You cursed. That is not a good example to set before your child, but I’m sure you won’t do it again. Daddy, this is Sophie Crawford, my new nanny. She’ll be staying in this room and she already said she doesn’t mind all the angels and crosses, so you don’t have to take them down. Sophie . . . this is my Daddy, Garrett Wayne. Daddy, meet Mrs. Crawford.”

  Then she beamed, obviously proud of herself for remembering the proper way to introduce.

  Garrett took a deep breath as the aforementioned Sophie Crawford unfolded herself from Fern’s rocking chair and came forward to shake his hand.

  “Mr. Wayne, it’s a pleasure I’m sure, and please call me Sophie as I’ve instructed Ellie to do. I find it makes it easier for children to confide in me, that way.”

  It was reflex that made Garrett clasp the hand in front of him, but he was still st
aring. The high-pitched voice and the slight stoop to her shoulders were going to take some getting used to.

  “Uh . . .” He flinched as their palms touched. “I need to speak with Ellie, please. Ellie. Out in the hall. Now.”

  “I’ll come get you when dinner is ready,” Ellie said and waved good-bye before following Garrett out.

  Garrett shut the door behind them, then grabbed Ellie by the shoulders and gave her a shake. “What the hell’s going on?”

  She pulled out of his grasp. “I hired a nanny, that’s what.”

  Garrett rolled his eyes and stared up at the ceiling as he shoved a hand through his hair. “Why do you persist in this?” he muttered.

  “I hired a nanny because I’ve reached the age where female companionship is important. According to my health teacher, girls learn how to be women by watching the women in their family, but I don’t have any now, do I?”

  “No, but—”

  “I like Doris and all, but she’s already griping about being overworked. I don’t think she’d take to having to teach me how to be a woman, too. So I hired myself a nanny. She’s cheaper than you’d expect because Wyatt says he doesn’t need her and doesn’t want her here.”

  “First time I’ve ever agreed with Wyatt about anything,” Garrett muttered, then did a double take as the other part of her statement soaked in. “And what do you mean she’s cheaper? You actually think I’m going to pay her?”

  Ellie’s eyes narrowed and she took a step back. “No, I’m going to pay her.”

  “I am losing my fucking mind,” he muttered, then turned in a circle with his hands over his face. He was hearing her words, but she wasn’t making a bit of sense.

  Daddy didn’t often curse, so Ellie took a second step back, moving herself closer to her bedroom door just in case he planned to blow his top.

  But he didn’t. To her surprise, he was almost grinning.

  “So you’re going to pay her, are you? What with? Pink fingernail polish and those candy bars you hide that you think I don’t know about?”

  Ellie gasped. If he knew about the candy, that meant he’d been snooping in her room when she wasn’t here. She shivered, but stood her ground. “I’ll pay her with money from Momma’s state.”

  Garrett’s eyes widened. He must know she meant estate, but what he couldn’t know was why she thought she could even do that. “What do you mean?”

  “I know Momma left all her money to me and Wyatt and told someone called a checker to take care of it for us until we’re older. He’s paying Sophie.”

  “Executor,” Garrett mumbled.

  “What?”

  “The word is executor, not checker, and how the fuck did you find this out?”

  Ellie frowned. “You’re still cursing. What happened? Did you have a bad day at work?”

  Before Garrett could answer, Doris appeared at the far end of the hallway. “Supper is ready,” she said and stomped back to the kitchen.

  “Doris is upset because I asked her to lay the plates in the dining room tonight,” Ellie said.

  “I saw. Why did you do that?”

  “It’s Sophie’s first night here. I thought it would be nice if we started her job off in a kind of celebration.”

  Garrett felt like his brain was on fire. “Celebration? This is a celebration?”

  “It is for me, Daddy,” Ellie said. “You go wash up. I’ll get Sophie and Wyatt.”

  She darted back into Fern’s bedroom, then came out talking with Sophie on their way down the hall, pausing only long enough to open the door to her room.

  “Wyatt. Supper’s ready.”

  Garrett felt like he’d been punched in the gut. How the hell had he let Ellie spin this far out of control? He’d been shocked by her betrayal to Fern, then afraid she’d spill the beans to the cops, and now this. Was there any way of reeling her back?

  Chapter Eight

  School began in the last week of August, and except for Sophie, Doris had the house to herself again. Wyatt and Ellie began sixth grade in separate classrooms, but their lives were beginning to go in different directions as well, and Wyatt blamed it all on Sophie’s arrival. Wyatt was still the same, but Ellie went to school with a new attitude, a different hairdo, and lipstick. According to Sophie, a little lipstick never hurt anyone, especially if it was a very pale pink. Even more intriguing to Ellie was the fact that she needed to go shopping for a different size bra. The changes in her appearance did not change her relationship with the other students. Now she was not only that odd girl, but also the one whose mother had committed suicide.

  Garrett drove Ellie and Sophie to the mall, then waited for them on a bench outside a Victoria’s Secret store, imagining how Ellie was going to look in the new lingerie.

  Confident with Sophie’s presence, Ellie marched into the store with cash in her purse and headed for a clerk.

  “Hi,” Ellie said. “I need to be fitted for a larger size bra. Can you help me?”

  “Yeah, sure,” the girl said. “Show me the style you like, and then I’ll measure you for size.”

  Ellie sifted through the hangers until she found one that seemed intriguing. “This blue one fastens in front, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “I like that, but I don’t want blue. I need either white or ivory colors, please.”

  “Okay. Want me to see if we have it in your size?’

  Ellie glanced at Sophie. Sophie nodded approvingly.

  “Yes, please,” Ellie said, and followed the clerk into a dressing room.

  She felt a moment of sadness, remembering she’d done this before with Momma, then set the thought aside. There was nothing of her past she chose to revisit. She removed her bra and stood with her arms out to her side like she was about to take flight while the clerk measured her boobs. It felt a little weird to have a total stranger feeling her up like this, then she decided the stranger was preferable to Daddy.

  “Looks like you’re a 34B,” the clerk said. “Wait here and I’ll see if we have it.”

  Ellie smiled and gave Sophie a thumbs-up. “I went from barely a 34A to a 34B in one summer. Looks like I might have inherited more than blonde hair and blue eyes from Momma.”

  “What do you mean?” Sophie asked.

  “Momma had really big boobs.”

  Sophie frowned. “Breasts. You should say breasts. Boobs is so common.”

  “Oh,” Ellie said, and made a mental note.

  A short while later they came out of the store carrying a pink shopping bag containing three new bras.

  Garrett stood up. “Are you ready to go now?”

  Ellie looked to Sophie for an answer.

  “Yes, we’re ready,” Sophie said.

  Garrett glared. “What the hell, Ellie? Have you also lost the ability to make a decision on your own?”

  The pitch of Sophie’s voice rose slightly. “Oh. I apologize for overstepping my bounds. I had no idea.”

  “You do not apologize to him for anything,” Ellie hissed, and sailed past Garrett with her nose in the air.

  Garrett cursed beneath his breath and palmed his car keys as he followed his daughter to the parking lot. She got into the backseat with her shopping bag in her lap and proceeded to glare at him in the rearview mirror all the way home.

  At first Garrett was pissed. But the farther he drove, the more fascinated he became. He’d been intrigued by her shyness, but he was beginning to like the fiery side of her more. The next time she gave him an angry look, he winked.

  Ellie froze. Something wasn’t right. Why wasn’t Daddy still angry? Confused, she looked away and began talking to Sophie, but the damage had been done. Once again, her fragile claim on stability had been rattled.

  It took another month before Sophie’s influence began to really get on Garrett’s nerves. She’d set Ellie to reading an etiquette book and practicing place settings at the table, complete with all the forks, spoons, bread plates, and multiple glasses one would expect at a formal dinner
. Doris had threatened to quit from all the extra laundry and dishwashing, and Garrett had had to raise her salary to appease her distress.

  Every time Wyatt crossed swords with Sophie, she gave him a look that set his teeth on edge, followed by, “I had no idea,” so his absence was not surprising.

  Garrett was beginning to think he was the only one left with a brain and had ideas he would gladly share, but he knew it would get him arrested. He was so pissed about the ground he’d lost with Ellie that he finally made a demand she couldn’t deny.

  Ellie felt almost grown-up as she left the drugstore and started home. The air was chilly, and she was glad she’d worn her pink leather jacket and good denim jeans. At Sophie’s instructions, she’d gone after pads so that she would be prepared when her next period began. Doris had taught Ellie how to keep track on a calendar, and Sophie added that it was always good to be prepared.

  Besides the pads, Ellie had bought a new shade of nail polish and a Hershey bar and was eating it slowly one square at a time as she walked. It was one of those days when the world felt right—when it seemed like heaven was on her side. She was doing well in school. She felt pretty, and the chocolate melting on her tongue was about as good as it got. It didn’t bother her that she had no friends her age. She was satisfied with just going about her business at school. Her life was far too complicated at home to get strangers mixed up in it.

  As she turned the corner and started down the last block to get to her house, a car full of teenagers drove past, waving and honking like crazy people. She couldn’t enjoy the attention because it reminded her of what happened the day Momma killed herself.

  Ellie broke off another piece of chocolate and popped it in her mouth, then licked her fingers to make sure nothing had been left behind. As soon as she got home, she was going to take off her old nail polish and try her new color. It was called Sunset Coral—a bit darker than the pink she’d been wearing, but not enough to look common. Sophie said good girls should never look common.