Owen Page 6

  “I didn’t call to fight,” her mother replied.

  “That’s good. So why did you call?” She desperately wanted to get off the phone and to spend some time watching TV, doing something a whole lot easier and more productive than this. And more enjoyable.

  “Your father’s friend is in town this weekend.”

  Immediately Penny felt her insides tightened. “Meaning?”

  “We thought it would be good for you to meet.”

  “Matchmaking again?” She tried to keep her tone light and failed miserably.

  “I just think that you would be happier if you were settled.”

  Penny’s face twisted into a wry smile, as she realized, once again, her mother—who didn’t understand her at all—was trying to marry her off, thinking that that would make Penny settled. “Mom, anybody who has suffered physically like I have throughout my life has a different idea of what being settled means.”

  “And I don’t mean to knock that,” she argued. “We do understand that life has been very different for you, than for the rest of the family.”

  “You mean, my sisters.”

  “Of course,” she stated. “You’ve had a more difficult time of it than they have, which obviously has changed your perspective of the world around you.”

  “Yes, I don’t want other people to suffer quite the same as I am,” she said. “I want to help. Maybe that’s because of my personal experience. I don’t know, but it seems like all I do now is fight the family.”

  “Believe me. The family,” her mother replied with a note of asperity, “they feel like all they’re doing is fighting you.”

  “So what’s the solution then?” she asked.

  “Your father and I have been talking about this.”

  She groaned. “Meaning?”

  “We’ll have a meeting with the accountants and see what we can come up with, some kind of a common ground.”

  At that, Penny stared at the phone in surprise. “Really?”

  Her mother laughed. “We’re not insensitive to what it is you’re trying to do, but, like everything, it needs to be watched.”

  “What kind of watch?” she asked, with suspicion.

  “No, we’re not trying to put a watchdog on you. You can manage these charities on your own,” she replied. “We just need to discuss with the accountants what’s the best way to handle this.”

  “Handle what?”

  “A plan that we have in the back of our heads.”

  “Is it a good plan or a bad plan?”

  “I’m hoping it’ll be a solution to the problem,” her mother answered.

  “Which problem?”

  “You, always asking for money.”

  “Does that mean you might give me enough of it to do some good?”

  “We’ve given you millions.”

  “You have, and I appreciated every penny,” she said. “And, of course, as you understand, none of it’s for me.”

  “You know what? If it were for you, I’d have no trouble giving you more,” she retorted. “But you won’t spend it on yourself.”

  “No,” she said. “Unlike my sisters, I don’t have a chauffeur. I don’t have a housekeeper and a maid. I don’t have a nanny.”

  “Maybe if you had kids …” her mother stated. “which would go along with other things, like being settled. Maybe that would appeal more.”

  “So, from all that, I’m not sure,” she replied. “What is it that you’re actually after here?”

  “We want you to come and meet this young man, who your father thinks is a great pick for you, and I want you to be openhearted, open-minded, and give him a good try.”

  “Matchmaking again?”

  “Yes, but it goes along with the fact that we are talking to the accountant,” her mother pointed out carefully. “About what’s the best way to move forward with you.”

  “Okay, so blackmail.”

  “Ouch,” her mother said. “That’s hardly fair.”

  “I like to call a spade a spade,” she told her mom. “In order for you to continue to talk to the accountant, I’m expected to meet this young man. Are those your terms?”

  “Is there a reason you can’t try to humor your father?”

  Her mother did that all the time, and it drove Penny crazy. Her mother would fob off the responsibility for these decisions as being her father’s decision, so her mom could play the nicer middleman.

  “In other words, come play nice, and you’ll play nice too.”

  “See? That’s how the world works,” her mother replied.

  “I know it’s how the world works,” she stated. “I had hoped it was different from how the family worked. Regardless I’m just trying to make a difference in the world.”

  “And so are we, which is why we’re also willing to talk to the accountant.”

  Penny pinched the bridge of her nose, knowing there was absolutely no point in arguing. “When and where?”

  Her mother immediately said, “Don’t make it sound like this is a business meeting.”

  Isn’t it? She held back the comment, that of course it was, and that was just the penalty she had to pay in order to do what she needed to do, but such was life.

  “You still haven’t answered me,” she asked again. “You promise you’ll show up with good intentions?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Okay, good,” her mother said, with relief. “It’s next Saturday night. This gives you plenty of time to plan to attend. We’ll meet here at the house at six p.m.”

  “And then what?”

  “We’re having a big business dinner at the house,” she said. “I promise that you’ll enjoy yourself.”

  “Right.”

  “But please don’t be disagreeable, especially if you want more money. Humor your father.”

  “Message received.” Penny ended the call, put down her phone, and stared at it.

  She still didn’t understand how she could be so different from everybody else in the family. Her sisters were horrified at her charities. They had charities too, but they were managed by other people, and they were the politically correct kind of things. Not what Penny did, as she tried to help more and more people, so she needed more and more money funneled into her trusts. The family all kept to their nice little boundaries and their nice little tax havens. Penny didn’t give a hoot about paying the taxes, about trying to shelter things to pay less. In Penny’s mind, taxes were the price of doing business. As long as it allowed her to keep functioning and to keep helping others, she was fine with it.

  So she had to play the game as much as she could, and, with her father, that was very much a case of play the game or else. He still controlled the major purse strings, and, if she were to do anything to buck that, then life would not be terribly pleasant. She could close the door on getting any more funding from him, and that she wouldn’t do. So many people were in need, and Penny was desperate to make sure they were helped, as many as she possibly could.

  No matter what the cost.

  When Owen still hadn’t seen her for another couple days, he just set the whole idea of her off to one side. That was pretty easy to do because really? The bottom line was, his personal world had gone from nothing to overdrive—at least in the rehab department. Now it was all he could do to get himself and his sorry butt back up to the meals on time. He knew he’d been warned about the PT here, but he hadn’t really understood.

  It’s not that Shane was driving him past what Owen could do, but he himself was also driving himself past what he should be doing. Shane had cautioned him several times to pull back a little bit, to not overdo it. The hot tub had become his solace, and the food from Dennis had become what he craved on a daily basis. He wasn’t seeing the progress yet; he was only seeing the pain, but he knew that the pain often came first, and the rest would fall into place.

  Days later he looked up to see Penny walking toward him. He stared at her in surprise.

  She carried a small plate o
f something in her hand, and she sat down beside him. “Hey,” she said. “Figured, since I was in the area, I’d stop by.”

  “You didn’t stop by to see me,” he noted, motioning at the huge piece of apple pie in front of her. “You stopped by to see Dennis.”

  She burst out laughing. “You know what? You could be right,” she teased. “His food is very addicting. And so much better than what I can create.”

  “And who would have thought that would be possible, when dealing with an institution.”

  “Hardly an institution,” she corrected. “But I do understand.” She picked up her fork and asked, “Would you like to share this with me?”

  He shook his head. “You need all those calories yourself. Besides”—he smirked—“I just had a bigger slice than that.”

  She laughed. “I’ll do my best to eat all this myself.”

  “How is life?” he asked her, as she took a bite, chewing slowly, then swallowed.

  “Ah,” she said. “I’ve got a big family to-do this weekend, so it’s fine. Yet, at the same time, ugh.”

  He burst out laughing. “I thought women liked to dress up and to do all kinds of family things.”

  “Sometimes,” she grumbled. “This time it’s more of a family thing that I don’t want to do, but I have to, so I will go with a big smile on my face.” Shaking her head, she took a bigger bite this time.

  “That’s the way to deal with it,” he replied. “No matter how bad it is, you’ll have the upper hand because you’ll know exactly why you’re going, and it’s your choice then.”

  She stared, frowning at him, and then smiled. “I like that,” she said, pointing her fork at him. “It’s a good way to look at life.”

  “Sometimes that’s the only thing we can do,” he replied.

  “How are you holding up here?” She kept eating between talking, making good progress on her pie. And it was some wonderful pie.

  “It’s interesting,” he said cautiously. “I’m working on that whole not-overdoing-it thing.”

  “Yeah, … are you working on it, or are you actually beating it?”

  “No, I’m definitely not beating it.” He chuckled. “But I am working on it.”

  “So, progress is being made?”

  “Absolutely.” He nodded. “And it’s progress that needs to be made.”

  “But only in the time frame that you can best do it,” she cautioned.

  “Yep, that’s the bottom line still, isn’t it?”

  “It is, but that’s okay,” she said. “You’re looking better.” She had eaten most of the pie, now laying her fork on the plate.

  “I don’t know how that’s possible.” He gave her a headshake. “Honest to God, I feel exhausted all the time.”

  “But I think, that in itself, has put color back in your face,” she noted.

  “Now if only there was color in yours.” He studied her features intently. “You look like you’re still sick.” He paused, then added, “Or stressed?”

  “I’m not trying to be,” she said. “I am working on it.”

  “Sorry, stress is such a hard thing to conquer.”

  She gave him a lopsided grin. “Family. It’s my family.”

  “I just have my brother now,” he said. “So I don’t really have the same viewpoint as you.”

  “Maybe that’s something I need to be reminded of,” she replied. “I do love my family, but I’m an oddball to them.”

  “Ah,” he said. “My sister was like that.”

  “Was?”

  “Yes,” he said quietly. “Our family was all very close. Our parents and our sister were killed in a car accident—a long time ago.”

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “How hard to lose so many all at once.”

  “It was hard.” He nodded.

  “But you do slowly adjust, and you never forget because they’re always part of you.” She tilted her head, watching for his reaction to her words.

  “Exactly,” he said, with a smile.

  “I need to remember that I do love my family,” she stated. “What kind of oddity was your sister?”

  “I would say faerie.” Immediately she stared at him in surprise. He grinned. “Not a term most people use, I know, but something was so very fairy-dust-like about her. She wasn’t grounded in this reality and wasn’t grounded for this world at all and not for very long. I swear to God, I don’t want to think that she would have been beaten down by life, but something was just so special about her that I worried all the time that life would have crushed her, would have made her not her.”

  “Interesting,” she said. “I’m the true philanthropist of my family, so I’m always hounding them for more money for more projects—for various things that I’m involved in—and they do get tired of it.”

  “So you give them something they want in order for them to keep giving you something you want.”

  She frowned. “Very insightful, but it seems like a game that way.”

  “It’s business,” he said bluntly. “And what business is, is a game. So you have to play the game to keep getting what you want.”

  “That’s kind of where I’m at. That’s what the family to-do is this weekend.”

  “Then go with a smile and know that you’re the one in control and pay your dues.”

  “Aye, aye, captain,” she said, with a big smile, relaxing in her chair, enjoying this peaceful interlude to her week. “I think I can do that.”

  Chapter 6

  “How come you’re so smart?” Penny asked, puzzled.

  Owen smiled at her. “I was in the family business before I went into the navy,” he explained. “I kept up some of my business studies on the side, but I did eventually lapse. It’s in the back of my head to set up my own business. I just haven’t figured out what.”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide.

  He grinned. “Hey, I’m not a dumb bunny, you know.”

  “And I never said that.” She had her hands up in the air in mock surrender. “But it’s always nice to find people who have done something more unusual than you expected.”

  “That’s because we never really know who people are, do we?”

  “Nope, not until you sit down and get to know them,” she noted. “And I’m happy to have done so with you.”

  “Ditto,” he said.

  She looked at her watch and groaned. “It’s time to go to work.”

  “What? You mean you haven’t been working yet?” he teased.

  “I work all the time basically.” She stood, smiled down at him. “Have a good weekend. I’ll see you next week sometime.”

  “Ha! Maybe, maybe not. Depends on your schedule.”

  “To a certain extent, yes.” She nodded. “But I don’t know of a week that I haven’t been by.”

  “You take care this weekend. Remember. It’s all a game.”

  “I guess I’m not really good at games,” she said in all seriousness. “I’m a straight shooter, and I wish everybody else was.”

  “I am too,” he agreed. “So I understand. But, when it comes to things like this, it’s the business game of give and take.”

  “I hadn’t considered it in quite that light,” she admitted, as she gave him a brilliant smile. “Thanks, you gave me some things to think about.”

  He watched as she walked away. She was definitely twenty pounds on the lighter side, but it looked like she was working hard to regain the weight she had lost. She appeared to be that tall willowy type anyway. It wasn’t the usual kind he went for, but then he was no longer the usual kind of man he was before either. It blew him away to see just how different his life was now, these days. Still, it was all good, and he was definitely happy to have made a friend here.

  He understood the family side of the business too, just because he knew how hard it was for so many in the family to accept and understand somebody who was different from themselves. They always wanted everybody to go in the direction they were going in, without realizing just
how much their point of view and their direction may not mesh with other people. There were always multiple ways to accomplish the same thing.

  When people were tough like that, seeing only one point of view, they didn’t really want to accept others. And it sounded like her family had a healthier dose than normal of that same kind of negativity.

  “It would be nice if they accepted her for who she was,” he muttered.

  “Talking to yourself now?” Dennis came by, a big grin on his face.

  Owen smiled at him. “Sometimes.” He shrugged. “Sometimes nobody else will talk to me.”

  With that, Dennis gave a shout of laughter and sat down beside him. “What do you want to talk about?” he asked. “The origin of the universe? Black holes? How about we argue the Bible?”

  “Oops, no, I can’t do that,” he said. “I was raised as an atheist by an atheist, so my Bible knowledge is extremely limited.”

  “So, what do you want to talk about?”

  “How does one make a decision, about what to do with their life?”

  Dennis’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re in a good place for these questions, in that many of the people here spend time pondering that same question,” he said. “The thing is, it’s a different answer for every person.”

  “It really is, isn’t it?” Owen said.

  “My suggestion is to always talk it out with someone, whether a friend or a professional. Bring it up at your required psychiatrist appointments.”

  Owen nodded, giving a one-arm shrug.

  Dennis added, “Regardless of whose advice you seek, you are the only one who can truly answer that question about what is best for you.”

  Owen sighed. “Just when you think that you have figured it out, you realize that you haven’t figured anything out.”

  Dennis chuckled. “And that’s not just on your side of the table. That’s for everybody.”

  “And I think that’s one of the things that we tend to forget too,” Owen suggested. “We always think that everybody else is dealing with exactly the same issues. Or … that they look like they have no issues.”