Carolyn Brown Hidden Secrets (epub)

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.Just before Grandpa Cosby died, he gave the vineyard to Karen and Daniel.Now Daniel wanted to buy out her half.She couldn’t sign the papers.Karen wouldn’t give up what she’d worked at for her whole life.She wouldn’t disappoint her grandfather or her father, Jesse, by taking the easy way out.Not this time.She picked up her cell phone and dialed the lawyer’s number.“This is Karen Tarleton.I need to speak to Dale,” she said and waited.“Good morning, Dale.I have the divorce papers right here.I won’t sell Daniel my half.I know he’s entitled to his portion and the law will uphold that.We’ve worked this winery together for forty years.He’s going to have to continue to be partners with me or sell me his half.If the new wife doesn’t want him around me, that’s her problem.”Karen pushed the end button before the lawyer tried to talk her out of her decision.The phone rang before she even had time to put it back on her bedside table.“Hello,” she answered cautiously.“Karen, this is your mother.I had a distant cousin in Oklahoma.She died and left me her farm and orchard.I’m going out there,” Hannah said.Karen was shocked and didn’t speak for several seconds.“You had a cousin in Oklahoma? You never mentioned that.”“Doesn’t matter now.I’m going.Just wanted you to know we’ll be leaving this afternoon,” Hannah said.Karen picked up the pen.“What’s your flight number?”“Kim and I are driving.”“You are what?”“Kim is going to rent us a car, and we’re driving across country because I want to.Don’t be trying to talk me out of it, because my mind is made up and a dozen angels dancing on a barbed-wire fence couldn’t change it.”Karen held the phone out from her and stared at it.Her mother had never made a joke in her life.Was she beginning to suffer the first stages of Alzheimer’s? Karen had heard that their personalities did a hundred-and-eighty-degree turnaround when that happened.“How long are you staying?” she asked cautiously.“Probably all summer.Maybe forever,” Hannah said.“Sounds like a harebrained idea to me.I’ll come over and we’ll talk about it.”“I don’t care what kind of idea you think it is.I’m going and I’m not going to be in a hurry to come back.A corporation called me a few months ago with an offer to buy my hotel, and I might sell it to them at the end of the summer.I’ll be living in Norma’s house, which is now mine.It’s a comfortable three-bedroom with indoor plumbing and air-conditioning these days.Are you going with us?” Hannah asked.“Absolutely not,” Karen exclaimed.Oklahoma! What would she do?“Then, I’ll call Sue to tell her we’re going.We’ll be leaving as soon as the rental place can deliver a car if you change your mind.Kim can use her cell phone a couple of times a day to let you know we haven’t been abducted by aliens or met up with hitchhiking serial killers.”Karen stared at the phone as if it were something foreign in her hand.Surely her mother hadn’t just mentioned aliens and killers in the same breath.The pacing started again.Her mother was suffering dementia and Kim wasn’t old enough to recognize the signs.She was needed, but mercy! Oklahoma! That wasn’t anything but dirt and sky and lots of cows and Indian casinos.She couldn’t go, could she?The argument began as she continued to pace back and forth.She was in the middle of a nasty divorce and she couldn’t go out on an impromptu trip with no planning except to throw a few things in a suitcase and go.On the other hand, the winery could very well run itself.There was a competent manager, and Daniel still kept his fingers in the production.The distance away from the whole sordid divorce affair would do her good.She wouldn’t have to face the girls at the country club and the pity in their faces as they told her that she was better off without Daniel.She reached for the phone and pushed the speed dial for her best friend, Peg.It rang six times before Peg answered breathlessly.“Hello, Karen.Please don’t tell me you’re canceling our lunch date.I’ve already reserved a table for two at the club,” Peg said.“I won’t be able to keep that lunch date, so you’d better cancel the reservation.I’m leaving in the next hour or so with my mother on a summer trip,” she said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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