I appreciate the couple of reviews that I got! It was a nice surprise and here's the next installment.
Dinner had been a tense and rather unpleasant affair that night. Mara was moping and one couldn't get more than a few words out of her at a time while Marcy was still fuming over having been tricked into going to the mall with her mother and forced to try on those most hated of garments; dresses and skirts. Elizabeth didn't see why her mother insisted on pushing these feminine frills on Marcy. Her youngest sister was into hockey and basketball but try telling that to her girly mother.
Once the dishes had been washed and put away, Mara immediately melted upstairs and Elizabeth wanted to groan when she heard the sounds of Adele coming from her sister's room. She had nothing against the singer and even liked most of her songs but Mara had a tendancy to play her cd to death.
Shaking her head, she pulled out the evening newspaper and started looking at possible places they could move to. A few looked like possibilities and she circled them so they could take a look on Saturday. Some would have been perfect, but were definitely out of their price range. One particular house caught her eye. It was small, but in obviously good repair and the price was right. Provided the rooms looked as good as the outside of the house, they could make it into a snug little home.
She circled that one before looking through the mail and stopping as her hands fell on a letter addressed to her in a neat hand that she knew all too well. It was from Evan.
Evan Fuller was the brother of her awful sister in law, Frances. How those two came from the same family Elizabeth would never know but Evan was the complete opposite of his sister. He was kind, and a hard worker. He was fairly quiet as well, but had a ready, dry humor that she enjoyed.
When their father had passed, Evan had come to pay his respects to the family and help with whatever needed to be attended to. Marcy in particular had taken a particular shine to Evan, especially when he gamely suited up and played roller hockey with her as the goally. He wasn't the best at the game, but with Marcy's coaching he'd gotten to the point where he made Marcy work to score a goal on him. Mara liked him well enough but lamented how reserved he was. Her mother had liked him almost as well as Marcy and there was a time that Elizabeth had been sure that Evan liked her.
But that was all before she knew about Lacy Steward. Lacy was a likeable enough girl, though Elizabeth privately found her to be a bit of a fluff head. Lacy had stayed with them for a bit while waiting to move into the dorms at Western and Elizabeth was informed that she was Evan's secret fiance. Utterly crushed, Elizabeth had kept her thoughts to herself but now, here was a letter from Evan.
Swallowing, she put the letter aside. She had enough things to think about tonight without dredging all of that up again.
She heaved a heavy sigh as she turned out the lights and prepared for bed. Just when it had seemed like things were going well, they'd been turned upside down. Why could nothing just go well for her family? Fluffing her pillow up, Elizabeth closed her eyes and fell into a restless and uneasy slumber.
Morning dawned cold and frosty and Marcy was in a better mood than yesterday. Mara was checking her cell phone every 5 minutes, no doubt hoping that Josh would call or text. She still refused to tell them exactly what had happened, which made Elizabeth wonder what on earth had happened. Usually Mara was quite forthcoming and keeping secrets was unlike her.
"Marcy, want to ride to the dealership with me?" she asked. It would surely be better than staying here with Mara and their mother.
From the speed with which Marcy agreed, Elizabeth concluded that her sister'd had the same thought. They trooped outside bundled in their winter coats and piled into their serviceable Subaru Forrester. "Do we have to sell the car?" Marcy asked curiously. Their mother had insisted that the youngest girl not be troubled with any of the "difficulties" but Marcy wasn't stupid and Elizabeth decided to be honest.
"Yeah, we do. We just can't afford insurance on three cars." she said as they headed down Iowa Street toward the Dewey Griffin Subaru dealership. Marcy nodded thoughtfully as they drove and Elizabeth reflected that it was nice to ride with someone who didn't chatter all the time.
The consultation at the dealership left them 4 thousand dollars richer, due mostly to the fact that Elizabeth was fastidious about taking the cars in for their oil changes when scheduled and making sure they were taken care of properly. They hailed a cab and returned home to find Mara rushing around the house.
Their mother informed them that Josh was coming to see her and they helped get the house ready for his arrival. The doorbell rang and the last items were shoved into the hall closet as Elizabeth went and opened the door.
Josh Wilson was a typically tall, dark and handsome young man. He had hazel eyes and a ready smile that wasn't so apparant at the present moment. He looked almost...nervous. "Hello Josh." Elizabeth said kindly as she stepped aside for him to come in.
"Hi Elizabeth." he replied as he came in and took off his shoes. "Crappy weather, huh?"
"Yep." she agreed as she followed him into the living room. If he was reduced to making conversation about the weather, something was seriously wrong.