Page 5 of Ayden (House of Frazier #3)
The house was full of items that they knew would be in great demand. Guy loved being able to help, and when it was his turn to do inventory, he didn’t mind having to be inside at all. In fact, he thought that he could do this forever. Picking up the house phone when it rang, he answered with “Fraizer” Not giving much away as to what he was doing there. Whoever it was, they were going to be shocked that he was in such a great mood. Because he was, damn it.
“Tell me how many diapers I can have? And I want full boxes too, not you bundling them up in a bag for me.” He didn’t recognize the voice, so he said his name again. “I don’t care who this is. If you’re going to be giving away shit, I want some of it. How many diapers can I have?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. How did you get this number? In order to qualify, you have to fill out an application before you get anything from the charity.” She let out a string of curse words that frankly embarrassed him. “We don’t sell diapers. And unless you have applied for them, I can’t help you. This is a charity, not a store.”
“I’m not going to pay for them, dumbass. The lady that works for me—well, she used to work for me said that she got free shit from you guys, and I want some of it.” He asked her again if she’d filled out an application. “No, and I’m not going to fill one out either. Why should I have to pay for them when you’re out there giving shit away just because someone popped out a kid that they can’t afford. I’m betting my taxes pay for this anyway, and I want my fair share.”
“This is a charity that works with donations. We have nothing to do with the government.” She told him bullshit. “Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but as I said, I’m not going to give you anything until it’s been approved.”
“Listen here, you mother fucker, you’re going to do what I tell you because of who I…do you have any idea who you’re talking to? I’m going to own that little business you have gone by the end of the day if you don’t do what I want. I’m a woman who gets what she wants no matter what the application is. Mother fuck. It’s just diapers. Give me enough to get me by for the year, and I’ll not have to sue you.”
“And what do you think you’d be suing me for? Not giving a person diapers when you can obviously afford them? No, I don’t think so.” He put the phone back on the shelf after disconnecting the call and continued with his inventory. When it rang again, he simply ignored it.
He was nearly done when he noticed that there were several messages on the answering machine. As he listened to the woman, her getting angrier and angrier each time he didn’t answer, he laughed his ass off as he made his way to his car. Glad that he’d started it before he’d come out—it was freezing outside. Something hit him from behind, and Guy hit the ground.
Waking up, he realized two things at once. He was in the hospital, and his brothers were all in the room with him. Asking them what happened, it was Ayden who answered him after telling them that they had it on record that his head was harder than anyone else.
“I suppose that is supposed to make sense.” They laughed, and he realized that he did have a major headache. “Some woman did this. I remember just before I fell out of it that I could smell perfume.”
“Mrs. Hathaway. She’s the mayor’s wife. I’m so glad that we put up the security cameras before we opened. She was there to knock you out, too, as she had a ball bat.” He asked why she’d done that to him. “Don’t know. She didn’t say anything other than hitting you. There were several missed calls from her in the building, but none of them made any sense to us.”
“I remember now. She wanted diapers. Boxes of them.” He explained what had transpired between the two of them while he’d been doing inventory. “She said that if we were giving them away, then she should have some too. Something about suing us as well, but I don’t remember that too much.”
“We’re not a profit place. Suing us would be like suing the road.” Ayden told him that he was going to have to have x-rays before they’d let him home. “As it is now, you need about a dozen stitches. And she’s been arrested because Capshaw said that had you been human, she would have killed you, so he’s charging her with attempted murder.”
“She was saying that we gave some to someone that worked for her. I didn’t get a name, but since we’ve only helped about half a dozen people, and only one of them is getting diapers, I think we can narrow it down a bit.” Ayden said that was what they thought as well after listening to the messages. “I ignored her after the first call. After that, I finished up and went out to my car only to be hit by her.”
“That’s what the cameras showed, too.” The nurse came in and asked him if he wanted anything for pain, and he told her yes. Talking to his brothers was making him realize how bad his head was hurting. “They’re going to keep you overnight so that they can keep an eye on you, but I’ll come and get you in the morning. All right?”
“Yes, that’s good. Do I have to press charges?” It was Ivan who told him that he’d have to get with the police when he was home to do that, but since she’d hurt him, Caroline was going to be spending the night in jail. And that her husband was none too thrilled that they were jailing her. “Too bad. She’s off her noodle. I didn’t even know that they had little kids that needed diapers.”
“They don’t. She was telling the police that she was going to resell them and that someone should be making some money off of what we were doing. People are crazier all the time if you ask me.” Everyone agreed with his brother, and he asked for something to eat. “They don’t want you to eat either, buddy. Sorry. But like I said, I’d pick you up in the morning, and then I’ll make sure you have plenty to eat before I take you back to my house. The girls want to pamper you because you were so brave.”
He made it sound as if he didn’t think it was so brave, but he didn’t care. The meds were kicking in, and he was feeling better by the minute. Closing his eyes, he realized that the light was bothering him, and he just wanted them all to go away. It was too much for him to listen to them making fun of him for being hit by a girl.
Waking in the middle of the night, he tried to figure out what time it was on his phone. His eyesight was blurry, and he was a little sick to his stomach. Finding the nurse call button, he had to calm himself when he started begging for help. He needed more for the pain, and he wanted them to bring him something that he could throw up in. Christ, he really was sick.
The next time he woke up, Ayden was in the chair beside the bed. Saying his name, he was startled by the worried look on his face. Telling him what had happened when the nurse came in, he was glad now that he’d spent the night in the hospital instead of being at home with Ayden and his daughters.
“They said you called out for them, then passed out, puking in the bed.” He told his brother that he’d not remembered that. “Yeah, I kinda got that feeling too. Anyway, they were worried and did another x-ray of your noodle and found a small crack in your skull. The doctors said that had you been home, you might well have died because of how much you were throwing up without being conscious. Christ, you scared the hell out of all of us.”
It scared him, too, and he wondered if he could have anything for pain now. He was told that he could have whatever he wanted so long as he didn’t get sick again. Closing his eyes again when the meds kicked in, Guy was thrilled when his brother took his hand into his. It was something that he’d not felt in decades, the thought of being alone and someone trying to hurt him.
It was late afternoon when his brothers showed up again. This time, there wasn’t any joking around, only concern that he’d been so sick. He was teary-eyed when the girls had made him a card with glitter all over it and had to take a few deep breaths when they told him that they loved him. Christ, he loved his family.
Being on clear liquids didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would. He wasn’t really all that hungry, but he was glad for the things that came with his diet. Selma, he knew that she’d seen ghosts, was telling him about a man that she’d been helping, and then Harley told him about the presents she’d been putting under the tree.
“There are so many under the tree, Uncle Guy, that we look like one of those Christmas commercials on television. Mom didn’t have the money to get us very much when she was working all the time, so it’s really neat to see them there. One of them has your name on it.” He asked her if she’d shake it for him. “Nah, you’ll have to wait like the rest of us do. But I know that it’s bigger than Uncle Lica’s.”
That made him laugh. As he was resting, something that he thought he wasn’t all that good at, he got some more information on Caroline. The woman had been terrorizing her employees for weeks, and the police were about ready to send her home she was cursing so much.
“She’s not normally like this, I guess.” Guy asked Devlin what he meant. “Nothing. I mean, she’s usually this cool and collected type of woman, and in the last few weeks, she’s been off the rail. I suggested that there was something wrong with her, and I got made fun of. But humans don’t just change their ways like that overnight.”
“Did you tell the doctor?” He said that he mentioned it, but no one was taking him seriously. “I’d make them listen to you. She might have something really wrong with her, and you know how humans can be.”
When the doctor came in, Devlin told them about the woman and what he’d heard about her changing her behavior. The man wasn’t listening, telling him that it would be up to her family to see what was going on. It wasn’t until Lica told the man that he needed to listen before he took them at their word. This just didn’t sound right.
It was nearly midnight when he heard from the staff that Mrs. Hathaway had suffered a stroke and had died. It hurt his heart to know that she might well have been saved if someone had listened to her earlier when she told her own doctor that she wasn’t feeling right. According to the staff, she’d been coming out of the store a few weeks ago when she’d had an episode. Telling them that she didn’t feel right, whatever that meant to the woman, she was sent on her way home with a pat on her head. She’d been getting sicker as the weeks went on, and by the time that someone had listened to her, it had been too late to save her. Guy almost felt sorry for her husband, but he should have listened to her as well. The poor woman.
“They said that she’d been in the hospital several times in the last few days. She complained of chest pains, headaches, and dizziness. Since they didn’t find anything on the EKG they ran, they sent her home with some pain pills and even had the nerve to tease her a little about coming into the emergency department so many times when she’d not been coming in before.” Guy asked if there was going to be a lawsuit. “More than likely, but we won’t hear anything about it for a while. Mr. Hathaway is trying to get his house in order because of her being arrested when you wouldn’t have been hurt either had someone done something sooner.”
He was going to stay out of it. There was enough going around that he’d not have to get involved about it with humans. Guy didn’t care all that much for humans anyway. His sisters-in-law were all right, but he didn’t find himself hanging around them all that much.
“I have a question for you.” He smiled when he thought of Brandy getting in touch with him. “You told me when you were doing the inventory the last time that things weren’t getting used fast enough. Did you mean everything or just the water that you reported?”
“What else was in there that would have expired?” She told him. “ I didn’t think about that. But what kind of best if bought by date would water have if they’re not being used.”
“I don’t know. But if they do and we use them beyond that point, are we going to be in trouble if something happens?” He told her again that he didn’t know. “I don’t either. I’m going to get with an attorney to see what I can find out. We’ll only buy them if we need them if it’s going to be a problem.”
“There are other things that we need to talk about. Like there should be people at the building at all times. It might not be a big deal with us starting out, but I’m fearful for anyone who wants to come around again, and someone might be hurt. There is no telling how long I would have been out there without the cameras.” Brandy said she’d not thought of that. “I’ve been thinking about a great many things since I was hurt. Like I think that we need to have security out there all the time. It might save us a bit of trouble in the long run. People will get into their heads that they can come out at any time and cause trouble.”
“You might be right about that. I’m not used to people wanting to get into my stuff. It’s not like I had any before you guys came along.” He told her that he was sorry. “Don’t be. You’ve made me a better person, and I love you guys.”
It took him another hour to figure out when he was going to go home. He wasn’t keen on the idea of staying with his brother, but he knew too that he’d been lucky to have been here where people could watch him, and he didn’t want that to happen again. He found that he was nervous about a lot of things of late.
He didn’t mind being alone, but not for long periods of time. He didn’t enjoy going out to eat on his own, but he would do it so that he’d not be afraid all the time. Guy needed to get his shit together so that he wasn’t going to be a recluse like his grandpa had become in his later years.
~*~
Ayden looked over the paperwork that Brandy had given him about the charity house. He didn’t know what they were going to call it yet, but he sort of liked Charity House. As the contract was going to have someone there all the time, he wondered at the idea of having someone living in the house that they used so that if there was an emergency, they could get things gathered up before the person or persons came around and that would be one less thing that they had to worry about.
“There are seven pallets of water that have a best by date on them of next year. If we don’t use them all by then, then I think we need to rethink having water around all the time for emergencies.” He asked Summer what sort of things they might use the water for. “I was thinking about that too, and I’ve come up with a couple of ideas. They’re not mine, but things that I’ve seen on the news. A house fire comes to mind. To have for the victims and the firefighters.”
“Yes, that would be better than using them to put the fire out.” She laughed with him. “I’ve spoken to a couple of people about living in the place. I don’t know that we’d want just anyone in there. I have this feeling that they’d be giving shit away to their friends. I’m not very trusting nowadays. Not since Guy was hurt.”
“I find myself looking at people like I’m waiting for them to pull out a gun. I don’t care for feeling that way.” He said that he didn’t either. “By the way, the mayor is suing the hospital and the staff. I think he’s going to win, but I don’t know. Can you sue a hospital? I’m going to look it up.”
“I don’t know that either. I know that you can sue doctors for malpractice or negligence if they do something wrong. And I think you can sue surgeons, too. But I’d have to have a look into it. Are you planning something?” She laughed and told him that with Brandy having a baby, she’s worried about everything lately. “I guess I can understand that. Guy has never been trusting. When he was a kid, he was taken advantage of by some humans. That’s what he calls them, humans. And he’s never been trusting of them since. I don’t remember the details, but I remember Dad and Mom both beating him nearly to death when he was caught.”
“I think from what I heard, your parents beat all of you like that.” That was true, but he didn’t like to think about that right now. “Selma is coming to see you. She has a dad question. Are you all right with them calling you dad?”
“Are you kidding? It’s the best thing ever. I love it when she calls my brothers uncles, too. It’s like they were born into this family, and we’ve been together forever.” She laughed a little with him. “I get a wife and two daughters right off the bat. What man wouldn’t be happy about that?”
“I guess I never thought about it as you having a family. They’ve been mine since…well, for all their lives. But having you in our lives has made so many changes. They do sleep better, and I know that I do as well. It’s nice having a home to go to and not to mention an entire family to depend on, too.” He said that he loves that as well. “Oh, I have to go. I have some things that I have to take care of right now.”
After she left him to do her thing, he opened his computer to look at the investments that he’d been playing with. He’d not ever been one to take chances with his money—not that he’d had all that much, but he did want to make sure that if Summer wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, he could still provide them with the things that they needed.
It was nearly an hour later when he finished up with Selma. She’d been having some issues at the new school and wanted to talk to him about them. She told him that her mom would have gone in with guns blazing to take care of it, but all she’d wanted was for him to advise her on what to do. Not solve it for her.
“If he’s giving you a hard time, just talk to him.” She said that she’d tried that, but he was so rude. “Boys are like that. When they like someone, they have to show off. I never did. I was too afraid of women to even talk to them very much. Teasing them would have given me a heart attack.”
The two of them laughed, and she sat down in the chair across from him. He was never sure what was going to come out of Selma’s mouth. Harley was easier to read and more fun to be around, but with Selma, he felt as if he needed to be on his best behavior. Sometimes, he was actually afraid of her. When she looked at him, he decided that he was going to get to know her better. Even if she did frighten him a bit, he needed to know her as well as he did her sister and mother.
“I’m not sure what I want to be when I grow up. I’m afraid that the ghosts will have a lot to do with how I get a job and stuff.” He asked her if she’d been thinking about what she wanted to be when she got older. “You know what mom would have said? She would have told me that I had plenty of time to figure that out and I didn’t need to worry myself. Thank you for that.”
“You’re so very welcome. But what is it that you’d like to do? I’m sure that you do have plenty of time, but it’s nice to know what you have to do to get there. Like what sort of education you might need to work on. And now that you’re in third grade, that means that you’re nearly halfway finished with your high school. You know what, you don’t have a lot of time.” He laughed again, and it felt good to be able to do that. “Selma, I’m going to make sure that you and your sister have a good education. And that you won’t have to work during college if I can manage it. Brandy said something about setting up a fund for the kids that come along, but since I’ve not talked to her about it, I don’t know what the requirements will be.”
“She’ll probably…I was going to say that it would be only for kids that were born of this family but she’d not do that. She’d think of us all as being born into the Frazier family.” He said he thought that she was correct in that. “I think so as well. Anyway, I’m going to apply for some grants and scholarships, too. And I’m going to keep my grades up so that I can win some money that way, too. It would be smarter for me to know that I can get into any college I want because I’m smart, not because I have the money to get in. Does that make sense?”
“It does, actually.” Closing up his computer, he devoted his time to her and the conversation that they were having. By the time dinner was called, not only had he found out that she was a good deal smarter than he was, but that she was compassionate as well. He loved her. He had always loved her, but today helped him get to know her better, and that felt good.
After dinner of sloppy joes and tater tots, he was ready to call it a day. The girls had to clean up the kitchen since he and Summer had cooked, and he loved the way that the two of them seemed to know on some level that they had to give as good as they got.
Ayden loved that Summer hadn’t asked about what they’d talked about. Even though Selma had told her most of it, she never badgered him into talking her into anything. He supposed all families were like that, but since he didn’t know, he was learning as he went.
The snow was coming down pretty hard when he was locking up the house. He figured that the kids wouldn’t have school tomorrow due to the roads being covered and was happy to be able to spend the day with them. Summer had a luncheon with Brandy at the main house, and since it wasn’t canceled, he was glad when she said that she was going to walk there rather than drive. He had more paperwork to fill out and file, so his day was going to be at home anyway. Just as he was headed up to bed, he heard from Guy.
“They’re releasing me tomorrow. Can I stay with you?” Ayden told him that he would enjoy that. “I can’t be alone until I don’t have a headache anymore. It’s better, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather not have a sick episode like I did before.”
“I don’t want you to either. I was just thinking that the girls won’t have school tomorrow, so they’ll be home to be around you. Take advantage of them, please. They’ve been looking forward to pampering you for the last few days.” Guy said that he didn’t know how much he could take of that. “Just don’t hurt their feelings by yelling at them to go away. All right? I’d hate to have to send you back to the hospital for making my daughters cry.”
“I won’t, I promise.” They talked about the things that he was going to be doing when he was better . “I’ve been looking at houses since I’ve been in here. I can’t look all that long, but I know enough about houses to kind of have an idea of what I want. I don’t want fucking huge, but I would like something with a few bedrooms in it. When the kids come along, I’m going to be the uncle that they stay with for fun.”
“You’ll need to have a big house simply because if you’re the fun uncle, they’ll be wanting to stay a lot more.” He told him that he could live with that. “Good. Aren’t you planning to have a mate, Guy? I mean, it’s in the cards, I think what with the three of us having one so far.”
“I don’t want a mate. I mean, if she comes along, then great, but otherwise, I’m not going to go out looking for her. I don’t have my life set right now, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I’m just loving the way that I can come and go as I please and not have to worry about anyone else.” He paused, but before he could say anything, he continued. “I don’t have my life in any kind of order. I’m twenty-five years old, and I’m just now getting to the point where I think I can live with myself. I don’t have any kind of furniture, no good memories from when I was a kid—none of us do, and I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I want people to just leave me alone, not family, and let me do my own thing.”
“You sound set in your ways if you ask me. Don’t be that guy who yells at kids for being on his lawn after he mows it. Nor the person with a hundred dogs around. You’re better than that.” He laughed which what he was going for. “I’ll come and get you in the morning. If there is any change let me know. As I said, the girls will be off school, I’m betting, and Brandy and the other women have some things to take care of. Also, you can help me think of something to get the people of my house for Christmas.”
“Money.” He had been thinking the same thing but didn’t like that money was just all he could think of, but he knew that a lot of people struggled this time of year. Going into the bedroom that he shared with Summer, he was disappointed that she was asleep already. He’d wanted to snuggle and with her asleep, she’d kick him to the side if she was comfy already.
Waking once in the middle of the night, he was surprised to see that Summer was already up. She’d gotten a text from the school saying that the girls would be off, and he was all right with being home with them. After telling her about Guy, she rolled over toward him and wrapped her now cold body around his. Almost before he could tell her that she was too cold, she was sleeping. He wished he could fall asleep that easily.
It took him until nearly midnight to get his mind to slow down enough that he could relax. Every time he would close his eyes, he’d think of something new, and he’d be off again. Before the sun came up, he finally closed his eyes. Since he didn’t have to get up too early, he was going to sleep as late as his brother would allow him to.
It was nearly noon when he heard from his brother. Getting out of the shower, he was dressed and at the hospital at one. The roads had been taken care of, and it wasn’t that bad. He was glad, too, that he’d had the girls stay home. He was stressed enough by the time he got his brother and was home again that he needed another nap. Things were working out well for the household, and he was having a good time being the one who could take care of his little brother.