reason my foot. She grimaced. Be honest with yourself, girl. Admit it, if only to yourself, that you are attracted to this man. This man who was your husband’s best friend. Good Lord, what kind of person am I turning into? She felt her face and neck grow warm. A minute ago, she had been shivering.
She whirled around and whipped out a can of Clorox wipes from the tiny closet. She moved like a whirlwind, wiping down and then drying everything so she wouldn’t have time to think.
An hour passed, then another, before Paul bellowed, “Enough!”
“That works for me. I’m done down here. All that’s left is to put the sheets back on the furniture and close up everything. I think I could use some heat right now, so I’m going to turn off the A/C and close all the windows. Everything smells clean and fresh. Is that okay with you, Paul?”
“Yes. I’m going to order a pizza and some beer. You up for that?”
“I absolutely am,” Bella said. Then she smiled when she realized she felt happy. Not just so-so happy, but genuinely happy. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt like this.
“So you found Andy’s paperwork?”
“All in one place, too. Of course, it was in the last box and at the very bottom. Here it is,” Paul said, handing over the packet of papers to Bella. She noticed the tremor in his hands but only because it matched the tremor in her own. She took a long, deep breath and looked Paul square in the eye. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Paul nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He turned around, pulled out his phone, then plucked a magnet off the refrigerator with the name of a local pizza emporium, one he guessed that Margaret used. He called in his order and gave his credit card information. He was told a piping-hot pizza with all the trimmings would be delivered along with two Bud Lights in twenty minutes.
Paul looked over at Bella. He winced when he saw tears rolling down her cheeks. She looked up at him. She waved the papers at Paul. “I don’t know if you believe me or not, but this is not about money for me. I just couldn’t comprehend Andy’s not taking the time to advise the military of his new status. I took it, right or wrong, to mean that I wasn’t important enough to do all that, and he’d get around to me when he could. And then all those months with no word . . . part of me feels guilty for the way I felt, and another part of me feels justified. Right now, I don’t feel anything in regard to Andy. I hate saying that. I really do because I do not understand how that can be. I know that doesn’t say much for me as a person, but I can’t help it. I’m starting to wonder if I was in love with the idea of love, and Andy just came along at the right moment. I barely knew him. I married a man I barely knew. That’s so sad. Just from the little you and I have spoken, it is clear that you knew him better than I ever did. This is all so surreal. It’s scaring me.
“These papers . . . He made a new will. I assume it’s legal since you and Zack witnessed it. And here is a new power of attorney with my name on it. Andy was worth millions of dollars. I never knew that. All I wanted was enough money to help pay for his truck. If he had all that money, why did he buy a truck on time? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Sure it does. Andy wanted to be like every other guy on the team. We were all struggling. He inherited most of what he had. He told me once that made him feel dishonest. He also said that Sara invested his money. He didn’t feel like it was really his. And . . . believe it or not, he had a game plan as to how he was going to give most of it away when he got out and was a civilian. You do realize that what you are holding in your hands supersedes anything Sara has, right? Doesn’t matter whether she filed it or not. It’s now a legal issue. Tomorrow, your lawyer can file these papers at the courthouse.”