A Christmas Dinner on Marshall Street (The Hills of Burlington Book 5) Read online

  "I can see you're determined on this, but I feel I need to warn you this house may not even pass an inspection which would make it tough to get a mortgage." He sat without dusting off the step before sitting as many others would. But he had three kids at home, none of whom believed in clean like their mother had. He felt no regret that he aligned himself with them on the issue more often than not.

  "That won't be a problem as I'll be paying in cash."

  Pete studied her as she stared quietly down the street that dead-ended into the one they were on. She had stated her intent in a matter-of-fact manner. There was no pretense in her. That much he had learned within hours of meeting her the day before. She preferred the Waffle House to a more upscale place for lunch. There was a five star hotel on the outskirts of town yet she had chosen to stay in the older historic hotel in the center of historic downtown Burlington. It wasn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination but neither did it scream See me! Pete knew she was famous, figured she had money. Probably gobs of it. He just hadn't figured on how much. And after spending the last couple of days with her he'd bet she didn't have a condescending bone in her body. She might have money but she didn't wear it.

  Mary turned to him, amused at his study and could almost imagine his thoughts. "Not what you expected?"

  Pete took a deep breath. "Not exactly." He wasn't certain what he expected but it wasn't this. "I thought you liked the house down the street."

  "I do." She looked at him, silent laughter lighting up her eyes as she watched him intently. "I want it too. Cash." She chuckled softly at his surprise. His jaw didn't drop but his expression was close enough to make up for it. She felt good. This was right, she thought, feeling better than she had in a long time. She had no idea what she was going to do with the big place. But she did know she was going to buy it. "I'm serious Pete. Both places. I don't want to dicker over price. I'll give them what their asking for, and if need be, I'll go up in price if I have to. I don't want to give my money away but neither do I want to lose either of these houses." She ended on a serious note, serious enough for him to understand her objectives were important. They might be personal. They may very well be considered eccentric by some. But they were very, very important. She had always wanted this but now more than any other time in her life she almost felt driven. Nothing could hamper this as it had so many other times in her life.

  Pete studied her quietly gauging her possible reaction before asking. "Do you mind if I ask why?"

  "The family you mentioned who built and lived in the house," she nodded in the direction of the large Victorian down the street though they both knew what she referred to, "prior to the current family who are selling it." At his nod Mary continued. "They were mine." She glanced over her shoulder at the front door of this small house she had run in and out of freely as a child. "And this was where they came when it was no longer theirs." She spoke quietly yet her eyes stayed steady on his and did far more to relay the importance of her plans than her simple words.

  Pete pulled out his phone. His first call was to the realtor of the big Victorian house they'd walked through. Then another call, this one to the realtor of the house they sat on the front steps of. In this one he could hear the shock in the man's voice and easily imagined his expression since it likely mirrored his own. All throughout both calls he relayed questions, terms, and everything else to the woman beside him who answered without any hesitancy, gave all information needed, made a couple of calls of her own. When they were done he looked at his watch. Thirty minutes. He shook his head. It was amazing how quickly money sped up the wheels of what was normally an endless barrage of red-tape. "You'll have keys to this one after the closing tomorrow. The other in a couple of days, they've still got some things to get out of there." He looked at the woman sitting next to him on the steps of the run down home. "You've got yourself two houses."

  See below for excerpts from the next in the Hills of Burlington…Maple May Connections.

  EXCERPTS from Maple May Connections, Coming soon.

  “Rob, I’ve made some hot chocolate for both of us,” Carrie wished she wasn’t nervous. She knew there was no real reason to be. “Why don’t you sit down with me for a few minutes?”

  “Sure,” he set the books that he’d just checked out of the library on the chair next to the one he pulled out and sat down in. He wondered what was up. It wasn’t unusual for Carrie to invite him to sit with her. But he’d been living here long enough to recognize when she was nervous. A sudden though hit him and he would wonder later at how much and how hard it had. “Has something happened to my Dad?”

  “No,” she turned away from the stove immediately at the anxiety she heard in his young voice. “No, Nick is fine, Rob. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you.”

  “Okay, that’s okay, I just thought…” he wasn’t certain he even wanted to say out loud what he’d thought in those few moments but he knew it had scared him. He wasn’t at all certain what he thought about that. He took a deep breath and looked back at Carrie. Took the cup of hot chocolate she handed him. He grabbed the bag of marshmallows she must have set on the table earlier and began dumping them liberally into his cup. “So, what’s up?” Since he knew something must be or she wouldn’t be making hot chocolate.

  “It’s about what happened to you the first time you went into that little room upstairs at the Summer Street house,” Carrie said slowly, thinking about how she’d played this conversation out in her head. “Remember when we first talked about it?” she asked him as she sat down at the table with him and did the same with the marshmallows as he had.

  “Yeah,” Rob settled into his chair more easily. Relieved now that he knew what it was all about.

  “Well, I asked Court to check into where you were in the family line,” at his questioning look she elaborated. “If you haven’t already seen the genealogy chart that Jake, Tom, and Court have been working on you need to have them show it to you. It’s pretty detailed because they’ve been trying to go down all the different lines and fill in all the blanks,” she shrugged slightly. She’d seen it and her first thought was it was too big and wieldy to get from point A to point B if that’s all you were trying to do. “Casey’s been working on something similar but hers is more specific.”

  “How so?” Rob asked, he hadn’t seen either. But he knew what she was talking about. He and his cousin Addie spent a lot of time at the online site that allowed you to set them up right there on the site.

  “Hers are just more simple to see the family connection from one person to another one. Like from Julya and her daughter Ingryth to the three of us, Casey, Mary, and I.” She paused, knew she was getting off track from what she wanted to talk with him about. She let out a deep sigh and tried to shift back in that direction. “We could ask her to do one for you, one that goes from you back to your direct ancestors.”

  “That would be cool,” he suddenly realized what she was saying as he spoke. “Do you know how I go back in the family?”

  “Court called a little bit ago,” Carrie edged slightly not answering him directly. “He’d just gotten a call from Tom who’s been really digging into the records trying to fill in a lot of what we didn’t know. Court had asked both him and Jake to help us trace back your side of the family.”

  “Have you talked with Dad about it?” Rob asked thinking it would probably make his father cringe. He wasn’t at all into the family stuff like he and Addie were.

  “Actually, I haven’t,” Carrie said slowly and knew all her pre-planned conversational gambits weren’t the way to go. And in that moment made the decision to simply say it. “You can tell your Dad, Rob. It’s up to you.” She had his attention now as he looked up from his hot chocolate to study her quietly. Knowing him as she did Carrie figured he was already connecting the dots she’d subtly given him. “It’s not Nick that you’re connected to my family through, Rob.” She watched as his eyes slowly narrowed, saw the grief and sorrow he rarely allowed anyone to see. Said wh
at she had suspected all along but was still grappling with now that it was a reality. “Your connection to the family is through your mother.”

  See other books by the author below.

  Other books available by the author.

  The Last Christmas Ornament

  Cost of Redemption

  Her Letter

  When Words Matter

  Heart of the Canyon

  All We Keep

  Everything We Are

  Any One Moment…August 2017

  Each Day Since…September 2017

  Home to Clare Harbor

  Before the Storm

  Storm Clouds

  Storm Winds…October 2017

  The Andersen Saga

  Betrayal

  Resolute

  Broken

  Found

  Choices

  Regrets

  Remember

  Forgiven

  Truths

  Always

  Expectations

  Decisions

  Disillusioned

  Believe

  Relentless…summer 2017

  Hills of Burlington

  Return to Cedar Hill

  Retreat to Woodhaven

  Summer Street Secrets

  Refuge on Leebrick

  A Christmas Dinner on Marshall Street

  Return to Summit Falls

  Going Home

  Home Again

  Coming Home

  Finding Home

  Sharing Home

  Home to Stay

  Home Again for Christmas

  The Hope of Hyde Hills

  When We Trust

  How We Love

  Where We Turn

  What We Remember…November 2017

  Home In Madeira Springs

  The Typewriter Playoffs

  The Delahass Legacy

  Family

  Family Unbroken

  Family Shadows

  Family Always

  Family Trust

  Family Promise

  They Will Know You

  The Civil War Connection

  The Seneca Falls Connection

  The French Revolution Connection

  The Wilberforce Connection

  Worlds They Left Behind