Twenty-six
“Oh, Kendall,” Kate said as she opened her front door with an empty pitcher in her hand. “We didn’t expect you to come.”
“Why not?” Kendall made her way past Kate and into the house. “She was my grandmother too.”
“But this is more of a business meeting.” The implication was clear—no children allowed. When it came to Kate, Kendall would always be treated like a child.
Kendall just shrugged. “Don’t worry, I think I can handle it.”
“Fine,” Kate turned away. “Everyone is in Eric’s den. I’m just getting some more iced tea.”
Kendall reminded herself of what Megan had just said—about how she and Nana were similar—as she opened the door to the den. “Hello, everyone,” she said with more confidence than she felt.
“Kendall,” said her dad, “I didn’t know you were—”
“So this is Kendall,” said a man who was seated at Eric’s desk with a folder of papers in front of him. “I’m Darren Walberg.” He stood and extended his hand. “Your grandmother’s attorney.”
“Nice to meet you.” She forced a nervous smile.
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
She swallowed hard. “Thanks. I’m going to miss her.”
“Have a seat, Kendall,” her dad said as Kate began refilling glasses with tea. “Mr. Walberg was just starting to go over some legal things.”
The attorney cleared his throat and picked up a piece of paper. “And now for the actual will.”
As Darren Walberg read, Kendall’s mind wandered. She remembered all the times she’d spent with Nana as a child—times when her parents and older siblings had been eager to get rid of her, in essence dumping her with her grandmother so they could go off to do things she was considered too young for. But what they hadn’t realized was that she and Nana formed a bond that the rest of them missed out on. They had played cards and watched goofy TV. Nana had let Kendall dress up in her old clothes and jewelry, and sometimes they’d go into the kitchen and cook something totally crazy, inedible actually, mixed up from a wild bunch of ingredients. Then Nana would let Kendall stay up as late as she liked and sleep in even later. And the next day they would go shopping and Nana would buy something that her mother and sisters would say was in bad taste. Not that Kendall would care.
“Why does Kendall get the house?” Kim was asking now. “I mean, we all knew that Nana allowed Kendall to occupy it, since Kendall didn’t really have any place else to live. But to leave that property to Kendall alone? I don’t understand.”
“The house has actually been in Kendall’s name for more than a year now,” Darren Walberg told Kate.
“It has?” Kendall frowned at him. “You mean officially and legally? Not just that I was getting to use it?”
“I mean officially and legally.”
Kendall shook her head. “No one told me.”
“Your grandmother didn’t think it was necessary to tell anyone. She had given the property to you through a trust that was set up with me. It was just her way of cleaning some things up before she went into the nursing home.”
“Oh.” Kendall tried to absorb this information. The house really did belong to her. It had for some time. Oh, she had sort of pretended it was hers, and she had wished that it was hers, but in her mind it still belonged to Nana. Perhaps it always would. “So I can do what I like with the house?”
He held up what looked like a deed. “It’s your house, Kendall.”
She nodded. “So I can keep it if I want? It won’t have to be sold? And my friends can continue living there?”
“Like I said, it’s your house.”
The others began to talk among themselves now, questioning Nana’s mental faculties, discussing the fairness of Kendall getting the house, as well as some of the other portions of the will—things that Kendall had missed while daydreaming. Kendall stood and walked out of the room. No one really seemed to notice.
But by the time she reached the front door, Darren Walberg was at her side, handing a business card to her. “Let’s set up an appointment for next week,” he told her. “I know you’re getting married soon, and it might be wise to take care of this first.”
“Thank you.” She forced a smile through her tears.
He smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Your grandmother was quite a woman, Kendall. She thought the world of you. And no matter what anyone might try to tell you, she was of sound mind when she signed the house over to you. There will be no way to dispute that.”
“Thanks.” Kendall tucked his card into her purse, then left. Part of her felt hurt and betrayed by her family, but another part wasn’t terribly surprised. Besides, she reminded herself as she drove back toward Bloomberg Place, she had another kind of family to go home to now.
Kendall tried to wear her party face at Lelani’s big shower on Saturday night, but underneath it all she felt sad and tired. When Mrs. Mendez began to serve refreshments, Kendall quietly let herself out and drove to the RV park where her parents’ motor home was parked. She wasn’t sure if they’d be there or not, but she wanted to talk to her dad.
She parked in the guest parking area and walked over to the spot where her parents had set up camp. She was about to knock on their door when she heard loud voices through the open window. “She was my mother,” her dad declared, “and if I want to feel bad, it’s my business.”
“Fine!” her mom shouted back. “Go ahead and be a big baby. See if I care.”
“Sometimes you are made of ice!” he yelled.
“Go to—”
“Shut up! Shut up!”
Kendall backed away from the trailer, turned and ran to her car, got in, and leaned her head into the steering wheel. She could remember times when her parents had fought like this before. Often, she felt responsible for those fights. If only she were more mature, more responsible, more grown-up, she’d always thought, perhaps they wouldn’t fight so much. Was that why they were fighting now? Or were they upset, like Kate had been, to learn that Nana had given her house to Kendall? If that was the case, they could have the house. Kendall didn’t want it. She reached for her phone and dialed Killiki’s number.
“How are you doing, sweetie?” he asked kindly. “Did you go to Lelani’s shower?”
She tearfully told him about what she’d just heard and how upsetting it was. “I don’t want to be the reason my parents are fighting anymore,” she sobbed. “I just want it to stop.”
“Oh, Kendall,” he said gently, “you can’t make them fight and you can’t make them stop. Don’t you see that?”
“All I see is that they’re unhappy and it feels like my fault.”
“It’s not your fault. You have to accept that. Remember what our last counseling session was about? How we have to take responsibility for our own feelings? That means you can’t blame someone else and you can’t take the blame either.”
“I know that in my head, but it doesn’t feel true.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, Kendall, but I changed my flight.”
“You changed it?” Kendall felt alarmed. Was he going to cancel the wedding?
“Yes. I’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon at four. That way I can be with you for your grandmother’s funeral on Monday.”
“Oh, you did that for me?” She wiped her tears with her free hand.
“Of course, Kendall. I want to be there for you. Don’t you know that?”
“Thank you!” she cried. “I’ll be waiting for you at the airport, Killiki. At four?”
“That’s right.”
“I love you!” she said happily.
“I love you too. And remember, you’re not the reason your parents are fighting. They’re fighting because they choose to fight. Understand?”
“Yes.” She nodded eagerly. “Thank you!”
It was just past noon on Sunday when Kendall called her dad. “I don’t know if you want to talk to me or not, but I—”
“Why wouldn’t I want to talk to you?”
“Well, I was feeling kind of like the misfit at the family meeting on Friday, and I sort of assumed—”
“Oh, Kendall, don’t you know what they say about that assume word?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that one.”
“Of course I want to talk to you.”
They agreed to meet for ice cream, and when Kendall was sitting across from her dad, she started to realize that some of her assumptions, at least about him, were a little off base.
“I couldn’t be happier that my mom gave her house to you, Kennie. And I’m not a bit surprised. You were always her favorite.”
“So there are no hard feelings?”
“Of course not. Not with me anyway. I can’t speak for anyone else.”
“Like Mom?”
“Oh, your mom might’ve expected some sort of inheritance, but we don’t need it, Kennie. We’re doing just fine.”
“What about the rest of the family?”
“I’m sure some of your siblings are jealous. Not much we can do about that.”
“I guess not.” She looked down at her ice cream.
“Let’s see a smile on that princess face,” he urged.
She attempted a small smile for him. “I’m still missing Nana. Remember how she loved going out for ice cream?”
He held up his ice cream cone now. “Here’s to my mom and your grandmother, Kendall. She was a little quirky, but she was a good woman, right?”
“Right.” She held up her cone and clicked it against his. “Here’s to Nana.”
“You know, Kennie, of all the grandkids, you’re probably the most like her.”
“That’s what one of my roommates said too.”
“Did they know her?”
“Sure, we had her over a few times.”
“Good for you.” He shook his head with a sad expression. “I was surprised at how hard it hit me when I heard she died.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“And I’ve been feeling guilty.”
“Why?”
“I never visited her at the nursing home. Not once. I’m sure she was lonely there, and I feel terrible about that.”
“But she had lots of friends there, Dad. I met a lot of them.”
“Did you go there much?”
“I wish I’d gone more.” She bit her lip to keep from mentioning how Mom had kept her from going there recently. “But really, she did have friends there, Dad. And I think she was fairly happy most of the time. She did get tired of being cooped up now and then.”
“Who wouldn’t?”
“Nana was actually kind of unhappy the last time I saw her, Dad. She was sick and weak and they were sedating her—”
“They sedated her?”
Kendall nodded. “I felt so bad for her about that. I mean, I realize she was a little upset, and the nurse said she’d get well sooner if she rested and everything. But it bugged me a lot. In fact, I wanted to figure out a way to bring her home, you know, to live in her house. I started talking to live-in caregivers, and two of my roommates were willing to help her in exchange for rent.”
“You tried to put all that together?” He looked truly stunned.
“Yeah. I even talked to a social-services person, who was going to send some papers for Nana to fill out so that her house could be used to pay for her care.”
“Wow, Kendall, that’s impressive.”
She frowned. “Except that it never happened.”
“Still, that you would even spend time and energy trying to help Nana is wonderful. And here I thought all you had on your mind was your wedding.”
Kendall actually laughed. “Trust me, Dad, I am not nearly as into this wedding as it might appear.” She glanced at the clock over the ice cream counter. “Which reminds me, I have to pick someone up at the airport.”
“Let me guess? Could this someone be Killiki?”
“How did you know?”
“You should’ve seen the way your eyes lit up.”
“I’d invite you to come along”—she grinned—“but I kind of want to see him by myself first. It’s been awhile.”
“I understand totally.”
“Besides, you can meet him tomorrow.” She reached for her bag. “At Nana’s funeral.”
He nodded somberly.
“I wish Nana could’ve met him.”
“I’m sure she would’ve loved him, Kendall.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Her dad hugged her and warned her not to speed on the way to the airport. Despite her excitement to get there fast, she took his advice seriously, focused on her driving, and tried not to daydream along the way. Then she parked her car and went to baggage claim, where she waited, thanks to a flight delay, for what seemed like hours but was actually only thirty minutes. Then suddenly Killiki was right in front of her, and he took her in his arms, and she clung to him and felt like everything was right with the world again.
“I wish we could drive through a time warp so that today would become one week from now,” she said as Killiki drove them away from the airport terminal. “We would turn around and catch our flight to Maui.”
“You’d skip the wedding?”
“Oh, yeah. In a heartbeat.” She laughed. “I mean I’d want us to be officially married, but finished with the actual wedding.”
“I know what you mean. But we don’t want to offend your family, sweetie, and one week isn’t all that far off.”
“Now that you’re here, it’s not.” She reached over and ran her hand through his hair. “Oh, Killiki, I have missed you so much.”
Kendall gave Killiki a tour of the city, including a walk through the Rose Gardens, and eventually they enjoyed a sunset dinner at a riverside restaurant. Just before dessert came, Killiki reached into his shirt pocket. “Hey, I almost forgot something.”
“What?”
“I know it’s a little late.” He held out a small blue velvet box, “But it took longer than I expected, and then I decided to present it to you in person.”
“Oh, Killiki!” She anxiously opened the box, then gasped to see a diamond set above three smaller blue stones and surrounded by what looked like a wave of platinum. “It’s beautiful,” she told him. “Is the setting a wave?”
“Exactly.” He grinned. “I had a friend design it. The diamond represents you, my drowning mermaid, and the lapis lazuli below it is me catching you.”
“The day we met,” Kendall said, remembering how he’d pulled her out of the ocean after her surfing fiasco.
“We’re both caught in the wave … that represents our love.”
She handed it to him. “You put it on my finger.”
He looked into her eyes. “I love you, Kendall.”
“I love you too!” Then they kissed and he slipped the ring onto her finger, but he struggled to get it over her slightly swollen knuckle.
“Does it fit?” He watched anxiously as she finished pushing the ring all the way on. “Lelani told me your ring size.”
“It’s a little tight right now, but that’s just because of my pregnancy. My other rings are tight too.”
“It won’t hurt your finger, will it?”
“No, of course not.” She stared at the gorgeous ring. “I love it, Killiki. And I love you even more.”
It was hard to say good night to Killiki, but since Gil had offered him a room, they didn’t want to get back too late. Plus there was the funeral service in the morning. For the time being, Killiki would use her car and perhaps get a rental car in a day or two.
The house was quiet as Kendall went to the kitchen for her regular glass of bedtime milk. She suspected everyone had gone to bed by now. But she felt too happy to sleep. In fact, she felt so happy she wanted to sing and dance and jump up and down and scream. But she controlled herself. She remembered that tomorrow was Nana’s funeral and decided to go to bed.
The service was scheduled for ten o’clock Monday, and Killiki came by to pick her up at nine thirty. Kendall wished she had something more funeral-like to wear, but thanks to her oversized tummy, combined with her commitment not to shop, she was forced to wear a coral-colored sundress that she’d gotten for their Maui vacation, back when she’d just started to show and needed some roomier clothes. This morning it was feeling a little snug. To camouflage this, she topped it with a little white cardigan and decided it would have to do.
“Are you okay?” Killiki asked her as he drove them to the church that Kendall’s family had attended for holidays, weddings, and funerals. “You seem awfully quiet.”
“Sorry.” She sighed. “Guess I was thinking.”
“Missing your grandmother.”
“Yeah, that and I’m still feeling like an outcast in my family. I mean they’ll all be there, but none of them will be glad to see me.”
“What about your dad? You had that good talk with him yesterday.”
“That’s true.” She nodded and wished that the rest of her family were as congenial as Dad. Maybe a funeral would soften them a little. But when Kendall entered the church, which wasn’t terribly crowded, she noticed that no one in her family had saved spaces for her and Killiki up in front. But to her surprise and relief, all of her housemates as well as Gil and Edmond were seated together just two rows behind the family, and so she and Killiki joined them.
The service was less than impressive. It was clear the young pastor, who surely meant well, didn’t actually know Nana. He bumbled along until he seemed to be out of words, then he invited people to participate. “I welcome you to come on up and share fond memories of Gertrude Weis as we celebrate her life.”
An uncomfortable silence followed, but after a couple of minutes, Kendall’s dad stood and made his way to the podium. He cleared his throat and began to tell a story about when he was ten years old and how his mother had shown up at his school and told the office that he had a dental appointment.
“I was a little surprised,” he said with a small smile, “because I didn’t recall any appointment. But once I was safely off the school grounds, Mom explained that we were going to the circus.” He chuckled. “The circus had come to a town a couple hours away. Mom got us lunch, then drove us all the way over there, and even though the circus hadn’t started yet, we walked all around and saw everything, and when it was finally time for the circus to begin, we had front-row seats.” He dabbed his eye with a handkerchief. “That was one of the best days of my life.”
Dad made his way back to his seat, and the sanctuary got very quiet again. Kendall stood up. With shaky knees, she walked to the front of the sanctuary and, despite her thundering heart and the distinct feeling that she might actually faint, she told everyone about how she and Nana had “gone to Paris” a couple of weeks ago.
“Of course, it wasn’t Paris for real,” she explained, “but it was still really fun.” She told them about how Nana spoke French and how they had pastries and espresso. And how they window-shopped, then had French onion soup. She even mentioned the pretty red shoes that had caught Nana’s eye. “Unfortunately, they were two sizes too small, but we couldn’t have afforded them anyway.” Some people even chuckled.
“My nana taught me a lot of things,” Kendall said finally. “Best of all, she taught me to use my imagination and to enjoy life. And I will always be thankful for her.”
Kendall stepped away from the podium and walked past the family section, where some, like Dad, were smiling and others looked completely blank. She returned to her friends. Anna nodded approval, Lelani did a silent mini applause, and Megan gave her a thumbs-up. Kendall sighed as she sat down, and Killiki leaned over and kissed her cheek. Kendall smiled and knew that Nana would’ve appreciated that her friends had come.