Here in My Heart: A Novella (Echoes of the Heart) by Anna DeStefano Read Free Book Online

said—”
    “She said what I told her to say.” Vivian hugged him back. She pushed free and swatted Brad’s arm when he tried to reach for her a third time. “I knew it was the only way to get the two of you in the same room before you came to my funeral.” She looked back and forth between Dru and Brad. She took a shallow breath. “And I was right. Dru was just convincing herself to be somewhere else before you arrived. You’re so late, I was wondering if you’d show at all. Left to your own devices, you’d have driven up here, rushed straight to that Hotel California I’ve moved into, hugged the stuffing out of me, and raced back out of town, not caring a whit about the practical matters I need you and Dru to settle while I’ve still got my wits about me.”
    Brad skewered Horace with a glare, as if Vivian’s agitation were the lawyer’s doing. “I don’t give a damn about—”
    “What I want?” Vivian asked, reclaiming Brad’s attention.
    “You wanted me here,” he said. “I’m here.”
    He took in Vivian’s IV and oxygen tank. His gaze strayed over his grandmother’s shoulder to the dining room table Vi had preset for Thanksgiving before she’d left for Harmony Grove—knowing she wouldn’t enjoy another holiday dinner in the home she’d moved into sixty-five years ago as a bride. He made eye contact with Dru, and then his grandmother again.
    “I’d have been here sooner,” he said, “if you’d let me know. Now that I’m home, don’t even think about trying to boss me into not visiting you at the hospice center as often as your doctors will let me.”
    He jammed his hands into his pockets as he stood. He looked around the parlor again, at Vivian’s clocks, his attention swiveling to the paneled steps leading to the second floor. The walls of the stairwell were covered with framed pictures of Brad, his mother, his grandfather, and Vivian.
    “The rest of this,” he said, gesturing at their surroundings, “isn’t what I’m concerned about right now.”
    “Well, it is what I’m concerned about.” Vivian folded her hands in her lap. “I’m concerned about both of you, and what will happen with everything I’ve worked so hard to hold together.”
    Horace left the windows to stand near Vivian and the couch.
    “I’ve made some decisions,” she said. “And in that tragic excuse for a briefcase I’m pretty sure Horace has carried since he graduated from Emory Law, he has some papers to go over with you both. Now sit down, the lot of you. My neck’s killing me from looking up at you while you wait for me to keel over or something. That’s not going to happen, at least not tonight. The doctors promised I have a few more good days before my gray matter gives out. So let’s get cracking.”
    “Us both?” Dru asked.
    “Get cracking on what?” Brad added.
    Horace cleared his throat. “Just this: Do the two of you care enough about Vivian, if not each other, to keep the Dream Whip and this house going once she’s gone?”
    “What?” Dru and Brad said together.
    They sat, Brad beside his grandmother while Dru and Horace took the chairs. Horace spread out a stack of paperwork on the coffee table.
    “What does this have to do with me?” Dru was a boarder, an employee. She and Vi had helped each other a lot over the years. But Dru had made peace with needing to find a new place to live, and a new job if Brad didn’t keep the Whip—or if he wanted her out of the business once he took over.
    Vivian’s spine straightened.
    “I’ve had my wishes recorded in my will,” she said. “You’ll work together for as long as I have left on this earth to keep both the house and the restaurant going. You’ll prove to me and each other that you can coexist peacefully and partner to take care of what I’ll be leaving you both. If you refuse, Horace will sell my assets once I’m gone and divide the proceeds equally between you.”

    “I didn’t . . .” Half an hour later, Dru