in it broke me. It was full of her. She was in every cushion. Every bookcase. Every oddball knickknack. Her scent was in the curtains that had been recently washed and ironed, as if she’d known the end was near and had someone come clean the house. Couldn’t leave it untidy on her exit to heaven for people to talk.
We sat in Aunt Ruby’s living room and cried a little and told a few nostalgic stories, trying to bring back the old banter, but it was as if Carmen had forgotten how to relax. She was wound up on a spool of bungee rope and someone had tied the ends down. Tight and unable to yield.
Still, we had history. At one time, she was family. Which is why Aunt Ruby hired her to handle her will and estate.
A word that seemed so silly on my tongue, as I would have never associated estate with my aunt or her property. But that was the word Carmen used again and again when we talked. Her estate involved the house and some money (she didn’t elaborate), but it had to be probated and there were complications due to medical bills that had to be paid first.
Which made sense. It had taken almost two months, and I had almost written off hearing anything. Not that I was holding my breath on the money part. I was pretty sure whatever dollars there were would be used up with the medical bills, and that just left the house. I figured that would probably be left to me. I was really her only family after my mom died young. Well, except for some cousins that I barely knew from her brother she rarely talked to, but I couldn’t imagine them keeping up with her enough to even know that she died.
I didn’t know what on earth I’d do with the house. It was old and creaky and probably full of problems—one being it was in Charmed and I was not. But it was home. And it had character and memories and laughter soaked into the walls. Aunt Ruby was there. I felt it. If that was intuition, then okay. I felt it there. But only there.
So I’d probably keep it as a place to get away, and spend the next several months going back and forth on the weekends like I had right after she passed, cleaning out the fridge and things that were crucial. Mentally, I ticked off a list of the work that was about to begin. That was okay. Aunt Ruby was worth it.
“How’s it going over there?” I asked.
“Good, good,” Carmen said. “How’s California?”
Oh yeah.
“Fine,” I said. “You know. Sunshine and pretty people. All that.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. Where did I get this shit?
“Sounds wonderful,” she said. “It’s been raining and muggy here for three days.”
“Yeah,” I said, just to say something.
“So the will has been probated,” Carmen said. “Everything’s ready to be read. I wanted to see when you’d be able to make it back to Charmed for that?”
“Oh,” I said, slightly surprised. “I have to come in person?”
“For the reading, yes,” she said. “You have to sign some paperwork and so do the other parties.”
“Other parties?”
“Yes—well, normally I don’t disclose that but you’re you, so . . .” she said on a chuckle. “The Clarks?” she said, her tone ending in question.
“As in my cousins?” Really?
“I was surprised too,” she said. “I don’t remember ever even hearing about them.”
“Because I maybe saw them three times in my whole life,” I said. “They live in Denning. Or they did. I don’t think you ever met them.”
“Hmm, okay.” Her tone sounded like she was checking off a list. “And you’ll need to bring some things with you.”
“Things?”
“Two, actually,” Carmen said, laughing. “Just like your aunt to make a will reading quirky. But they are easy. Just your marriage certificate—”
“My what?”
Carmen chuckled again, and I was feeling a little something in my throat too. Probably not of the same variety.
“I know,” she said. “Goofy request, but I see some doozies all the time. Had a client once insist that his dog be present at the reading of the will. He left him almost everything. Knowing Aunt Ruby, there is some cosmic reason.”
Uh-huh. She was messing with me.
I swallowed hard, my mind reeling and already trying to figure out how I could fake a marriage certificate.
“And the second thing?” I managed to push past the lump in my throat.
“Easy peasy,” she