Wealth Pt. 04

"Well, we're going to Tommy's; Bob's getting ready to call it in right now," Henry said.

"None for me," Jack said.

Inside the truck, Honey kept the line moving while Anita and Jenee kept the food coming.

"Next!" Honey called out and froze as she looked into warm puppy dog eyes.

"Hi, yeah, let me have one of them chicken enchilada ones, oh, and just water, okay?" Jack smiled.

Honey just stared at him, mute.

"Uh, a chicken..." Jack said

"Hi Mr. Jack," Anita called out. "I heard you."

Honey stared at Jack and watched him as he walked away.

"Honey, come on!" Jenee complained as she was now having to fix food and take orders.

"You know him?" Honey begged Anita. "Huh? Please tell me you know him!"

"Yeah, he's Daddy's friend; works at Superior Motors," Anita said and nodded toward the frustrated customers. "Line's backing up there."

"Superior Motors," Honey repeated.

She was fairly useless for the rest of that shift; thankfully, Anita and Jenee were able to keep everything moving.

In her house, Toni finished up her lunch, and made sure all food was put away. Pumpkin was a notorious food thief and would gorge himself until he got sick. And when he got sick, he got sick everywhere.

She made sure Buttons was nowhere near the door, then exited the small house.

As she drove past Anita's condo, Toni looked to see if Anita's bright red Mustang was there but it was not. Miss Stacy's Jaguar was in front of her condo, so Toni cheerfully honked her horn, though she was sure Miss Stacy wouldn't notice.

Inside her condominium, Stacy did not notice any car tooting their horn; she was too busy praying for a solution. At just over six months pregnant, she was no longer able to hide it.

And Dr. Pelieur had not held any punches back; at her age, there was a very real possibility of birth defects. Particularly Down's syndrome.

"God, please," she begged.

In the garage, Kelli gaped at the 1980 Mercedes-Benz 350 SL two seat sports car.

"And this is for Aunt Harmony and Uncle Patrick?" she asked.

"Yeah, see, when your Daddy and your Uncle Michael and your Aunt Toni had their eighteenth birthday? I gave them a car," Barry explained. "What I got for your Uncle Patrick was a computer that talks."

Kelli walked over to the engine that was on the workbench.

"But now that he's marrying your Aunt Harmony, I can finally give him a car," Barry said. "But we got to finish it by the time they get married; it's their wedding present."

"So I get a car when I'm eighteen?" Kelli asked.

"Sure, what you want?" Barry asked.

"Your Bentley," Kelli said immediately.

"Your hiney, too," Barry laughed. "They're burying me in that car, you hear?"

"And it's my car anyway," Caitlin said, carrying in three ice cream cones.

Just outside of Jack's Creek, Louisiana, Toni pulled up to the shack her mother and Ed lived in. Darlene smiled a little uncertainly.

"Hey, thought you weren't coming until six," she said.

"I like wasn't but then Michael called me," Toni said, face tight

."Michael, what's wrong?" Darlene asked.

"Mom, you gave Michael and Briah like a thousand bucks, right?" Toni said.

Ed decided he needed to go check on the irrigation system and scurried to the patch.

"Yeah, why?" Darlene asked. "You get married, I'll..."

"Uh huh, the check like bounced, NSF is what they told Briah," Toni said.

"NSF?" Darlene said. "That's impossible; there's over five hundred thousand in..."

"Mom, where's your checkbook?" Toni asked, taking a deep breath and going into the dank smelling abode.

"It's right..." Darlene said, locating it.

"And you like get those statements, right?" Where are..." Toni asked.

"We get the paperless receipts," Darlene said. "You know how many trees..."

"Right now, I do not give a fuck about trees, Mother," Toni snapped. "Come on, get your checkbook; we're like going to the bank and see if we can get this shit like all straightened out. Did you give Heather and BJ a check too?"

"Well, yeah..." Darlene said.

She pulled on a simple shift and strapped on her sandals while Toni waited for her outside.

"Eddie, we're going to..." Darlene called out.

"He knows where we're going," Toni spat.

At First Union Bank, in Bender Louisiana, Heidi Moek felt her nostrils burn at the stench of the woman. She however, maintained a professional attitude and demeanor as she researched the woman's account.

"And on August twelfth of two thousand thirteen, did you authorize a draft for... Fifty thousand dollars for the Coalition for Green Habitation?" Heidi asked.

"Well, no, I mean, I did some volunteer work for..." Darlene said.

Heidi read of several drafts for various organizations; Darlene had volunteered her time and service, but no monies to these organizations.

"And because you're all like 'keep it green' and don't have Internet access, Ed just helped himself, way to go Mother," Toni snarled, disgusted with her mother's gullibility.

She turned to Heidi.

"Can you like freeze this account and open her a new one?" she asked.

"Well, yes ma'am but there's no funds to transfer to..." Heidi agreed.

"Take it out of my personal account," Toni said.

She faced her mother.

"I'll like hold on to this one; you need something, you like just tell me, and I'll go get it," she said.

"I don't need you dictating to me what..." Darlene snapped.

"Obviously you do, Mother or we like wouldn't be sitting here like right now, would we?" Toni snapped.

"How much?" Heidi asked Toni.

"What? Like a hundred thousand for now and she wrote two checks, a thousand each, right, Mother?" Toni said.

"A hundred, Toni, you can afford that?" Darlene asked, shocked.

Heidi's professional mask slipped and she giggled. Toni Delacroix could afford several one hundred thousand dollar accounts.

"Now, ma'am, since you did not authorize these transfers..." Heidi said.

In Superior Motors, Michael was showing Henry, Jack, and Bob the photographs of the Grand Canyon.

"Man, Briah's a hell of a photographer," Bob said. "I tell you, looking at these, need to take Rebecca and Bobby out there if Marie can ever get off long enough."

Michael looked up and saw Anita Lopez's Mustang pull up. He smiled and waved; she waved back but did not get out of the car.

Inside of her car, Anita turned to Honey.

"We're here; he's standing right there. You sure you don't want me to wait?" Anita said.

"No, no, I... Oh God! No! Take me back to the dorm!" Honey cried out.

"Oh no ma'am," Anita said firmly. "You damned near drove me out of my mind all day; now you want to chicken out? I don't think so!"

The four men watched in mild interest as Anita got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side and tried the door.

"Honey, damn it, open this door!" Anita called out.

She used her fob and unlocked the door and dragged Honey out.

"Hi!" Michael said as Anita marched in, pulling the diminutive Honey Childress with her.

"Hey, how was the Grand Canyon?" she smiled and hugged him.

"Unbelievable; I was just showing them the pictures," Michael smiled.

"Jack?" Anita said. "This is Honey Childress; she's an employee of mine. She needs a ride to her dorm and I don't feel like taking her. Can you give her a ride?"

Jack looked at the small woman with the short flaming hair and large green eyes and smiled, shrugging.

The woman stared at him then turned to run, but tripped over her own feet and landed with a 'splat' on the floor.

"Bye," Anita said. "Honey, we're hitting King Sanitation Monday; be ready to roll at ten thirty, okay?"

"I, oh God, I can't believe, Anita! Don't!" Honey cried out as Henry and Jack helped her to her feet.

"I just finished Caitlin's car; why don't you give her a ride home in that?" Bob suggested as Honey looked ready to faint, cry, or throw up.

"Uh yeah, sure," Jack agreed.

Honey looked wildly around, looking for an exit.

"Come on; it's through here," Jack said, motioning with his head.

Honey looked around again, then scampered after Jack.

"So, which dorm do you..." Jack said as he opened the passenger door of Caitlin's ruby red SUV.

"I'm from Kansas!" Honey shrilled. ""I just started my third semester and I still don't know what my major is going to be! Anita gave me a job because she's my best friend but I can't do nothing right and she lets me work anyway!"

Jack stared at her for a minute, shook his head and closed the door.

"Well, I'm from here, been here all my life, didn't go to college; hell, U.L.D. wasn't even there when I was a kid," Jack said and backed the SUV out of the service bay. "Man! This thing handles nice! Caitlin's going to love this!"

"Is Caitlin your wife?" Honey asked, noticing that Jack wore a wedding band.

"Huh? Uh, no, no, my wife's... She uh, she committed suicide," Jack said.

"Oh! Oh God, I'm so sorry!" Honey gasped. "My mom, my mother, she, well, my dad said she'd been depressed a long time and when I moved out, you know, to come here for college, I guess that was the last straw."

"I hope you don't blame yourself for that; that's way too much guilt to carry around," Jack counseled.

"Do you?" Honey asked.

"Yes, damned near every minute," Jack admitted.

"There's a coffee place right there; let's get some coffee?" Honey asked, pointing to Jitters Coffee Shop.

At her condominium, Stacy heard Anita pull up. Suddenly she had a flash of intuition hit her.

"Hi Miss Stacy," Anita said, smiling at her neighbor and real estate agent.

"I need to talk to you; very personal matter," Stacy said, getting right to the point.

"Oh well sure, um, come on in; sorry, I know I smell like food but..." Anita said.

"I uh, as you can tell, I'm pregnant," Stacy said.

"Want anything? Let's see, I got water, oh, or I can make some coffee, I, let's see, oh, you know what? I was in the supermarket the other day and I saw these and oh God when I was a kid? These were the best; you remember those dreamsicles?" Anita said.

"Oh my God! I haven't had one of those in forever!" Stacy said.

"Here," Anita smiled and handed her one.

The two women sat at the kitchen table enjoying the orange treat. When Stacy cleaned the wooden stick as clean as it would ever be she laughed out loud.

"Anyway," Anita said, disposing of sticks and wrappers. "What's up?"

"Like I was saying, I'm pregnant," Stacy said.

"Congratulations," Anita said.

"Are you kidding? At my age? 'Are you out of your mind' is what you should be saying," Stacy said.

"Oh, okay, are you out of..." Anita said.

"Anyway, Anita, I can't, I can barely take care of my dog and she's housebroken," Stacy said.

Anita sat and waited.

"And I'm sitting there and it hits me, God, what was I thinking? Condoms right there in the dresser drawer, damn it, why didn't I make him put one on? But anyway, what's done is done and I'm having a baby and I want you to adopt it," Stacy said.

"You what?" Anita asked, stunned.

"You adopt the baby, I mean, God, I know it's crazy but..." Stacy said.

Over coffee, Anita and Stacy discussed everything. Stacy readily agreed that Anita's lawyer would draw up the legal adoption and very readily agreed that Anita would assume all medical bills of pregnancy and birth.

"Thank you," Anita said, hugging the woman warmly. "This gift; you don't know what it means to me."

Then she laughed.

"I been wondering what to do with the second bedroom now that my office is open," she said.

At the shack, Eddie looked up nervously when Toni's Lexus drove up.

"Eddie, come on; Toni's taking us to her house so we can get cleaned up and dressed for the rehearsal dinner," Darlene cheerfully called out.

"Oh, uh, oh good, good. You uh, at the bank, you get it all squared away?" Ed asked.

"Huh? Oh, oh yeah, simple mix up really," Darlene lied, trying hard not to punch the man. "See, Briah's account is at the same bank and she had less than a hundred bucks. Teller got mixed up, thought it was my account that had less than a hundred and so of course told Briah it was NSF."

"Probably some high school dropout, huh?" Ed chuckled, grabbing his one good suit and clean shirt.

"This time, I plan to talk to, you think it'd be better to talk to Heather or BJ about me being in a couple of the pictures? I mean, shit, we been together what? Almost seven years now," Ed said.

"And still aren't like married? What's the holdup Ed?" Toni asked.

"Well uh, see, ours is a bond that transcends a few ink stains on some papers," Ed said, smiling smugly.

"Same with the pictures, Ed; you'll just have to like transcend yourself into them," Toni sneered.

Ed bit back his retort. If Toni had been his child, though, he would have put her over his knee for such impertinence. His penis begin to swell at the thought of spanking her luscious ass. The girl was just about flat on top, but her ass was truly spectacular.

"Speaking of..." he almost said 'tits' but stopped short. "You still friends with that Anita girl?"

"Yes; she won't be at the rehearsal or the dinner tonight, but she'll be at the wedding tomorrow," Toni agreed.

At Jitters, Jack jerked when his cell phone buzzed.

"Uh, how long it take to drive to..." Bob asked.

"She lives in Kansas; that's why Anita didn't feel like driving her home, Jack said.

"Jack Robert Landry, get your ass back here now," Bob said.

"Thirty more minutes," Jack bargained.

"Fifteen," Bob countered.

"Come on, Miss Kansas, let me get you..." Jack smiled, getting to his feet.

"Here's my phone number; I know, it's a Kansas phone number; I keep meaning to get a Louisiana one I mean I plan on living here forever, you got any idea what Kansas is like? Plush, they got tornados!" Honey said, handing Jack a piece of paper with her name and phone number scribbled on it.

"And here's mine," Jack said, handing her one of his business cards. "Cell number's on it."

Jack looked down with amusement when the girl took his hand as they walked to the door of the coffee shop.

That evening aside by Side Steak House, Heather looked on with amusement as Caitlin fawned and fussed over Kelli even more than Barry was prone to do.

"And look, Mom, we went and had our nails done," Caitlin said, showing Heather their light pink fingernail polish.

"You should have seen how filthy her hands were, fooling with that car!" Caitlin whispered.

"Your wife does know she's only twenty, right?" Heather whispered to Barry.

"Twenty one. And a half," Barry corrected with a smile.

"We went to that nail place on twenty seven," Kelli told BJ.

"And I swear, it's impossible to get him to leave work even fifteen minutes early," harmony was complaining to Toni as they entered the banquet room.

"And like, that's who you fell in love with," Toni reminded the girl. "He was like that when you two met."

"Oh shut up," Harmony said, smiling. "I'll go talk to Heather; she'll feel sorry for me."

"Bet I won't," Heather smiled, hugging the girl.

"And here's our ring bearer and flower girl!" BJ called out when Star, Luna, Ed, Brooke and Aries entered the room.

Caitlin actually felt a little rejected when Kelli abandoned her to go talk with her two cousins.

Brooke relinquished Aries to Briah and Michael felt his cock twitch in his slacks when Briah cooed and said, "Oh Sweetheart, I want one!"

"Well you know how to get one, right?" Ed Weinstein said. "You find a cabbage patch when there's a full moon out and..."

"Oh, that is not true," BJ called out. "See, there's this bird, called a stork?"

"Wait a minute, I thought you mail ordered them," Patrick said.

"Thank God for the Internet, huh?" Toni laughed.

"You writing all of this down?" Briah asked Michael.

"Oh no ma'am!" Darlene said forcefully. "I am too young to be a grandmother!"

"Caitlin's not," Kelli said.

She patted the red head on her shoulder.

"You're just the right age, aren't you?" Kelli asked.

"And that's why you're my favorite granddaughter," Caitlin affirmed.

As dessert was served, Toni quietly got to her feet and whispered to Ed Weinstein and Brooke Weinstein that Ed Byrd would be arrested as he stepped out of the restaurant; they might want to take Star and Luna away before that happened.

"Oh, and I like hate you, how can you have a baby and be that slim?" she asked Brooke.

"Antoinette Delacroix, you should go into politics; you're the biggest liar I ever met!" Brooke laughed.

"Daddy, like Ed's getting arrested minute he steps out this place; y'all might want to get Kelli out of here before then," she whispered to Barry.

"What? Caitlin's father?" Barry asked, shocked. "What? Why? What's going..."

"No, no, like the other Ed," Toni shushed him.

"Oh, this I got to see," Barry smiled tightly.

"But does Kelli like really need to see that?" Toni asked, her blue eyes searching his.

"Damn it, go away," Barry grudgingly agreed.

"Love you Daddy, Toni said and kissed him.

"Damn it, why she kissing on him and not me?" Ed Byrd complained to Darlene. "I mean, she even kisses that other Ed guy and they're..."

"That other Ed guy is a friend of hers; I think his wife and Toni went to school together or something," Darlene lied.

"God damn, his wife is that young?" Ed said, peering around Ed Weinstein to Brooke.

"Why not?" Darlene snapped. "My ex married a girl graduated with Toni."

"True, true," Ed conceded, looking at Caitlin.

"Before y'all all finish your desserts and run out of here," Heather called out, standing up. "I just want to say something."

Everyone looked at her.

"Before I met you, it was just me and Kelli; we just had each other and sometimes it was hard," Heather said and wiped at her eyes. "Then I met this wonderful man and he showed us how to play miniature golf and..."

"Like the water thingy?" Toni asked.

"Especially the water thingy," BJ confirmed.

Anyway, we're not alone, it's not just me and her. My daughter's got a Daddy, and a Grandpaw and Grandmaw and aunts and uncles and cousins and I got friends and family and I love you all," Heather sobbed out.

"Aw!" quite a few people said, then applauded.

After dessert, Ed Weinstein and Brooke gathered their children, although Briah did put up a little fight letting go of the sleeping Aries.

"Hey, Ed, come see," BJ said, motioning to Ed Byrd. "Our kitchen? It uses charcoal. Now, we do try to funnel the smoke, well, come look. I'm wanting to go green as much as possible without sacrificing flavor."

"Barry and Caitlin guided Kelli out as BJ and Ed disappeared into the kitchen.

At the wedding service the following day, Anita Lopez approached Bobby Weinstein. The boy, a little older now, and a little more mature, smiled.

"I'm..." Anita said.

"Yes ma'am, Miss Lopez; you're sitting with Aunt Toni," Bobby said and escorted her to the front of the church, but seated her on the left hand side, the bride's side.

"I uh, isn't this the bride's side?" Anita asked Toni.

"There's like Uncle Henry, Heather's mom and dad and step-mom and that's it," Toni whispered back. "So I told BJ I didn't like him anymore and would like sit on Heather's side.

"And what did BJ say?" Anita smiled.

"Said I could stink up Heather's side that was like fine with him" Toni giggled.

"Oh, I'm doing a stuffed pork tenderloin for lunch tomorrow; come over?" Anita asked.

"A stuffed pork tenderloin?" Toni asked "Oh God that sounds so good."

"Saw it on that 'Cast Iron Stomach' show," Anita admitted.

"Hate watching that show; makes me like so hungry," Toni smiled.

The music swelled and Star and Luna came down the aisle, performing their duties. Then Barry , as BJ's best man and Heather's maid of honor, Kelli Delacroix came up the aisle, both smiling proudly.

At the end of the ceremony, Father Jack introduced Mr. and Mrs. Barry Jacob Delacroix Junior to the congregation.