The sewing machine fell silent and his mother peered at him over her reading glasses, waiting for his answer.
Mike cleared his throat. “No, I had to give Lucky a ride into town because she was stranded at Grandpa’s house without any heat or water.”
“Did you say Lucky?” His mother blinked as though he’d just spoken gibberish. The lines on his father’s forehead formed an instant V.
“Lucky Caldwell’s back,” Mike said.
His mother promptly pushed all the fabric out of her lap and onto the table. “You’re kidding.”
“No.”
“But why? Why is she back after so long?”
“Because she owns property here, I guess.” He remembered Lucky saying there was something she had to do and wondered about the book she’d gone after, despite the rough weather. But he didn’t see any point in mentioning it. He didn’t have any idea what she had planned.
“That house should belong to us,” his mother said.
His father walked over to massage Barbara’s shoulders. “Do you know if she’s staying for good?” he asked Mike.
Mike removed his hat and scratched his head. “I don’t think so.”
“That’s hopeful, anyway.” His father bent to give his mother an encouraging smile, but the unhappy expression on her face lingered.
“I wish she’d sell us that house and be done with it,” Barbara said. “But she won’t. She’s a mean-spirited, nasty person just like her mother.”
Mike had come here hoping to bolster his dislike of Lucky. But his mother’s harsh words didn’t sit well. “Mean-spirited?” he repeated.
“What else would you call her? She has no use for that house. She doesn’t even like Dundee. She thumbed her nose at us and ran off the second she inherited it, and no one’s heard from her since. Unless it’s to send a forwarding address for her monthly check.”
“She left as soon as she graduated,” he clarified, “not as soon as she inherited.”
“It happened about the same time. She took off, that’s the important part, and she abandoned the house to the elements.”
What Mike had once viewed as indifference now seemed to have a variety of interpretations. “Maybe she didn’t feel accepted here.”
His mother shook her head. “She was born here! She just couldn’t wait to start traveling across the country, living the high life on my father’s money.”
Mike was the one who’d told them about Lucky’s nomadic lifestyle, but now that he knew she’d never even slept with a man until him, he doubted she’d spent all her time partying. What he’d previously imagined as Lucky living the wild single’s life suddenly seemed like a pretty solitary existence. “Grandpa’s trust doesn’t give her that much every month,” he said.
“She gets enough to support herself,” his father pointed out.
“True, but I’ve offered her more than half a million for the house. If she really wanted to live the good life, don’t you think she would’ve liquidated as soon as possible?”
His mother’s cheeks grew mottled as she stood and moved closer to him. “Why are you defending her?”
“I’m not.” He shrugged as if he wasn’t particularly concerned one way or the other. “I’m wondering if there isn’t a little more to the story, that’s all.”
“You lived next door to her while she was growing up. You know what she’s like. Josh told me she stripped off her clothes in front of you once.”
“It was only her top and—”
“Only her top! She had no business doing that. What a little…tramp,” she finished as though the word had been difficult for her to say but was too fitting to avoid.
Mike’s irritation spiked in spite of his efforts to retain control. “She’s not a tramp.”
A pained expression claimed his father’s face. “Maybe you’re not used to hearing your mother say such things, but you know Lucky’s reputation, Mike.”
Mike knew of Lucky’s reputation, all right. He’d made assumptions based on that reputation and he’d found them to be totally false. But without telling his parents how he came to know her reputation had been largely exaggerated, he couldn’t convince them that they were wrong, so he decided it’d be smarter to back off.
“Look, she’s not my favorite person, either, okay?” he said. “I want Grandpa’s house, and I’m still hopeful she’ll sell it to me and move. But if she doesn’t, let’s…” He allowed his words to fade away, because he wasn’t sure how to frame his request.
“What?” his mother demanded.
“Let’s not make a big deal about her being here. Live and let live, you know?”
“When have we ever hurt her? I’ve hardly spoken two words to her.”
“I’m just saying that maybe we could cut her a little slack. This whole mess is really her mother’s fault.”
“Lucky was part of it, too,” Barbara argued. “I remember how she used to fawn over my dad. ‘Daddy, it’s cold out. Don’t forget your coat. Daddy, I shined your boots the way you like them.’ She hung on your grandpa’s every word and smiled up at him as though he was the moon and the stars, all the while hoping to get her hands on his money. It kills me that he fell for it.”
“We don’t know about her motivation, Mom. She was only a child.”
“She wasn’t a child when you took her to court.”
Mike couldn’t help scowling. How was it that he ended up on the opposite side of every argument lately? “Morris gave her the house. What did you want her to do, apologize and hand it back?”
“Yes!” his mother said. “Why not? What makes her think she’s entitled to it? She was part of my dad’s life for only ten years. Her mother tried to kill him, for heaven’s sake!”
“We’re not positive about that.”
“Of course we are. Maybe we couldn’t prove it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
“Even if it’s true, Lucky didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Who knows?”
Mike stood and stretched his neck. After last night he was sure Lucky hadn’t had anything to do with the insulin overdose. She wasn’t the kind of person to harm an old man. His mother, who was usually one of the most generous people he knew, simply couldn’t divorce her emotions from the situation long enough to see it from any perspective but her own, and trying to force the issue was only creating a bigger problem. “Look, Mom, I’m sorry Lucky’s back, okay? But there’s no need to get so upset. Everything will be okay.”