Tootsie said it was all right if I called your husband’s lawyer and talked to him. This looks much better than that first one, but you are still entitled to alimony if you’d like to pursue that,” he said.
“Eli told me about the revision, and I’ve decided to sign it. If you could mail it to me, that would be great,” she said.
“I’ll drop it in the post office this afternoon. If you are sure about this, just sign it, and mail it back to me. I’ll take care of the rest of it,” he said.
“We don’t have to go to court or see each other?” she asked.
“Not if you agree on everything. His lawyer and I will meet with the judge in chambers. I’ll file it and then send you a final copy. Maybe you should think about it for a while. Once it’s signed, you can’t go back and ask for alimony. It appears the house you have is the only shared property, and it still has about seven years left on the mortgage. Are you willing to take that on with no job and no alimony? You could at least ask that he make the payments for the first year so you can get your feet under you,” Mr. Thomas said.
“I’ve got a job waiting for me when we get back to Sugar Run, and I want as little to do with him as possible. I’m ready to sign and get it over with. I want to thank you for all your help, though. Please send the bill—”
“Oh, no payment is necessary,” he butted in before she could finish. “Smokey was an old golfing buddy, and Tootsie worked for me for years. Smokey talked about you three ladies a lot—like y’all were kinfolks, so let me do this in his memory.”
“Then thank you very much.” Carmen made a mental note to take the lawyer a basket of homemade cookies and breads when she got home.
Everyone around the breakfast table was staring at her when she ended the call. “You probably heard enough to know that was the lawyer,” she explained. “He’s mailing the papers here. I will sign them and send them back. I’m hoping it’s all done by Thanksgiving so when we take turns around the table sayin’ what we’re thankful for, I can simply say ‘closure.’”
“And start off the new year with a new life,” Luke encouraged.
“Amen. And, honey, you don’t need anything Eli has in the way of financial help,” Tootsie declared. “I’ve got more money than I’ll ever spend, so if you get in a bind, you just let me know.”
“Thank you, but I called my friend last night and told her I’d be there for work on December fifteenth. That’ll give me a few days to get settled at home before I start. She said the first day will just be paperwork, but after that I’ll be working from eight to five every day, and I can have all the overtime I want,” Carmen said. “I’d have mentioned it first thing this morning, but this is not about me today. It’s Diana’s birthday.”
“And what better present could I have than knowing that you’re actually about to have closure and that you have a job,” Diana said. “That’s just the best birthday present ever.”
“Do y’all realize that in three weeks, we’ll all be at our daughters’ graduation? And Brett will be home, and the divorce will be done with?” Joanie asked.
“Life sure has taken some strange twists and turns for all of us in the past seven weeks, hasn’t it?” Carmen got up and brought the coffeepot to the table to refill all their cups. “It’s been good to be here in Scrap, so thank you again, Tootsie.”
“Aww, pshaw!” Tootsie waved away the words with a flick of her hand. “It’s me that’s got the blessing. I was crazy with grief, but coming home has helped me come to terms with Smokey’s leaving me so fast.”
Luke pointed at the ceiling and frowned. “I think I hear sleet hitting the roof. I hope we don’t lose power again or, worse yet, have an ice storm closer to the time when we need to leave for the graduation.”
Carmen went to the window and pulled back the curtains. “That’s exactly what you hear, but we’ve got lots of firewood cut, and there’s still two or three bottles of lamp oil in the pantry, so we should be fine. And if there’s ice on the road when