Later, Outside the Motel
“Elsa says Uncle Jason has all the room we need, extra houses, plenty of furniture and everything. I can finish school there.” Lacy said for the third, or was it the fourth, no the seventh time.
“Moving isn’t an easy thing. The only time you ever moved was to your college dorm room, and you bitched the whole time we did it. This is something completely different. This is thousands of miles. It’s not like we can make a couple trips and swing back by to pick up anything we forgot.”
“I know that, but it’s not safe here anymore, Daddy.”
“I don’t know if it will be any safer there than it is here.”
“It’s got to be! They killed Maria and maybe Jessica too! They would have killed me and Gabe if it hadn’t been for Elsa!”
“We have no idea what’s going on way up there. There might be range wars, rustlers…hell, I don’t know what all else going on. Here we have…”
“Here we have assholes trying to rob Uncle Dave’s store, firebombing the motel, no customers, no more supplies coming for the store, no customers shopping the store, and…did I miss anything? Wait, no more meds and your health getting worse. What else did I miss?”
Bill just stood there, staring at his little girl. He knew she had a lot of good points. He knew he should just do what Dave, Elsa, and Lacy wanted. Shoot, what Jason wanted. This was his big brother’s plan all along.
Jason tried to convince him to make the move when Lacy graduated from high school, but he wasn’t ready. He told himself it was because it would take some time to sell the business and the house, but that wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was it was Jason’s plan.
Jason moved north when he and Pepper got divorced. When they split the assets, Jason cut a deal and she bought him out of his share of the motel and the house. He took the money and went north to be a cowboy. He always said he knew they should leave California and he would make somewhere they could all be together again.
Bill hated the thought of having to be rescued by his big brother! He has been standing on his own two feet for too many years. His business kept him going after his own divorce. Taking care of Lacy, just the two of them, well, that wasn’t exactly right. Dave and Madison helped, along with Pepper and Maria. After Pepper died and left the motel to Maria and her little girl, they were still all a part of their little family. Here was where they laughed, here’s where they cried.
Dave was all for leaving. Hell, it seemed like everyone was. Why was he fighting the idea so much? Then again, it wasn’t like they were going to be able to leave today. From what Stephen says, they can’t move Jessica until she heals up some and from the sound of it, that’s not a week or two sort of thing.
Moving all the valuable stuff out of the shop and to the house wouldn’t be a bad idea. The shop hasn’t had very many customers recently, even before the quake. They could move some stuff around to make room for the others. Lacy and Else could double up and that would free up one room. If they did that, then Samantha and Jessica could use Madison’s room that Elsa has been using. That would leave Stephen and Gabriel. They could use Jason’s fifth-wheel.
“Daddy? Daddy?”
“OK, Lacy. Let’s start looking at what we would need to do…”
“Yes!”
“Wait…We need to start looking at how we can do it, but the first thing is getting all the stuff from the shop, the store and the motel moved out to the house. That’s step one. We need to make room for the others at the house.”
“I can make space in my room…”
“I know, and it’s going to be Elsa not Gabriel sharing your room.”
“I’m an adult…”
“And I’m still your father and it’s my house. I’m going to keep my protective nature in charge for a little while longer. I don’t know if you’ve slept with him, or anyone and for the time being I don’t need or want to know. What I do know is it would need to be a very serious and committed relationship before I give my blessing for you to do so in our house.”
As Bill talked, Lacy started to protest, blush and sputter all at the same time but waited until the end of his statement.
“I don’t know how serious it is.”
“That statement makes me happier than you probably could know. It means you’re thinking instead of just reacting. I like Gabriel. I think he’s probably a good guy and might be a good thing for you. I like his brother and sister too. They seem to have their heads screwed on right. Here’s the thing to remember though. What happens when we go north? Keep that in mind as you look at the relationship between you two.”
Bill saw she hadn’t given a lot of thought to that problem with them going north.
“You didn’t think about that, did you? Well we have time, but you need to think on it.” He looked around, then back to her. “Keep boxing things up. I need to find Dave.”
