Their Second Chance

Chapter 2: New Home

Autumn Pov:

    I woke up with two little feet’s on my mouth and Sammy sleeping right beside me. I bite Anna’s little toes and she starts giggling. “Mommy no. Stop mommy.” I start tickling her and make a monster face and sound. “Noooo. Sammy help me.” Sammy lifts his head and barks at me, traitor. I put her on my lap once I’m seated on the bed. “You hungry princess?” She nods and says, “Sammy too.” They are quite the pair. I put her on top of Sammy, and he licks her face. “No, Sammy. Stop.”

    “Sammy stop that!” He whines but stops licking her. I get up to the bathroom. Anna follows me. We get ready for the day. I put her in shorts and a blue shirt that goes with her eyes. “Mommy can you do my hair in a ponytail?” She sits on top of the counter looking at me as I put make up on. “Of course. High or low?”

    She thinks about it. “High.” Sammy whines and starts digging in the floor. Oh, no. I run to Parker’s bedroom door and knock. “What?” I smile at him. “Take him out. He needs to pee. I’m busy with Anna. Thank You.” He groans. “Come on Sammy.” I go back to the bathroom and Anna is looking at my make up on the counter. “Mommy can you put some on me too?” I want to laugh so bad. “No, you are still too little. This make up is for grownups. I’ll buy you ones for your age. Okay?”

    “Okayyyyy, mommy.” I do her ponytail like she wanted. Once I’m done she scrambles to look for Cole. I finish getting ready and head downstairs. Glenda is in the kitchen making breakfast. “Oh, I was going to do that.” I take a cup and fill it with water. I drink it in one go. “Good morning. Hope you sleep well. It’s okay. Cole was whining that he’s hungry.” I return the good morning and help her.

    After breakfast Anna wants to accompany me to the cemetery, but I don’t want her to go. “Why can’t I go?” I drop to her height and put my hands on her shoulder. “This is something mommy has to do. I’ll be back really fast. Promise. Give me two kisses.” She kisses my cheeks and I do the same. “Bye, mommy.” I get in Parker’s car and drive to the florist. I buy two bouquets; one of yellow dahlias, and the other white roses.

    I drive to the cemetery and walk to Asher’s grave. I leave the white roses and talk to him a little. I walk over to Mrs. Mercer’s tombstone. “Hi Mrs. Mercer. I brought you’re favorite flowers. It seems it’s been a while since someone left you some flowers. Don’t hold it against him. Maybe he’s busy.” I left after that and drove back home.

    Anna, Cole, dad, Parker, Jen, and Sammy were playing in the grass at the back of the house. “Where’s Ruby?” I asked mom and she shrugs. I look upstairs in all the rooms and don’t find her. I look in the studio, the theater room, living room, foyer, kitchen, dining room, and nothing. Maybe she’s in mom’s studio. I walk there, but not before I was tackled to the ground by my family and little girl.

    “Ruby?” I call out to her inside mom’s studio.

    Apparently she’s been spending a lot of time up here. “Here.” I look up and see her on the second floor. “Why are you up there?” I go to her and see her in her laptop. Maybe she wanted a quiet place. “Thinking.” I sit beside her. “About?” She shrugs and looks at the floor. “Everything.” We stay in silence. I’m waiting for her to open up to me. Forcing it out of someone is the worse idea ever.

    “You went to his grave?” Is this about Asher? “Yes.” I tell her with a little worry in my voice. I try to hide it, but I’m a mom, ever since I can’t hide anything that I’m feeling. “I only his face and smile, but that’s fading.” She was so little when he died that it’s a miracle she remembers that. “It happens to me too. I don’t remember his voice sometimes. And the times I’m feeling nostalgic and want to hear and see him. I look for his video.”

    I move her laptop and log in into my e-mail account. I look for the video and let her see it. She looks at it intensely. Like she wants to memorize every little detail. She plays it one more time and closes her eyes focusing on his voice. “Thanks. Was he always that goofy?” I log out of my e-mail. “Yeah. He was the happiest person from our family. He always liked to goof around. He loved to spend time with you.”

    “Really?” I tell her more stories of Asher and how he was with our family and friends. We talk for hours, and it felt good, talking to her about him. “Ruby why didn’t you ask mom or dad or any of our siblings to talk to you about Asher?” She interlace her hands and looks at me ashamed. “I guess I didn’t want to sadden them by bring him up.” I gave her the strongest hug ever.

    “It doesn’t matter. You ask and speak what you want. Okay? He was your brother too and have every right to know about him.”  

    The month passed by in a blur. To say I was relieved was a good thing. I’ve didn’t see or bump into Ashton. He didn’t came in here demanding about Anna. I guess Mason kept it to himself. Mason and the triplets hang out with Ruby and didn’t bring the topic. We’re saying goodbye to mom, dad, Ruby, and grandma. Parker, Glenda, and Cole moved back to California a year ago because of a situation that happened at the company. The COO embezzled money from it. Parker took the position and Glenda is working at another firm.

    Jen left the same week I flew in since she stayed to long and needed to get back to work. Also Delilah couldn’t get off work, so she missed her. I don’t want to leave Ruby with everything that’s going on, but she reassured me that she’ll be find. She said she may give us a surprise visit in LA. That’s Ruby for you with her spontaneous. Only fifteen years old and she’s already this carefree. Mom and dad still put her boundaries and limits.

    “I don’t want to go.” I look down at Cole, so cute. With his brown hair and green eyes. Yep, green eyes. Another in the family. He definitely got it from our side of the gene pool, but I think Glenda has some family members that have green eyes, because it wouldn’t be this strong. He would have had either brown or hazel eyes.

    “Me too. Can we stay here with grandma and grandpa?” Anna asks me with her puppy eyes. “I’m sorry sweetie, but no. Your grandparents have to take care of Ruby and grandma Lisa. We’ll come visit them in two weeks.” She looks down, dad lifts her head, and she hugs him putting her head between his shoulder and his neck. She is in his arms. Sammy barks at her or at dad I don’t know.

    “Okay, Sammy. Grandpa you can put me down, please.” Dad puts her down and she goes to Sammy. They look so cute and act like siblings. “Let’s go mommy. Bye bye.” She drops her head and walks to Parker’s car. They’re giving us a ride to the airport and then they drive home. “Bye mom. Bye dad.” I hug them and move to Ruby.

    “I’m a phone call away. And don’t drag Mason too much to the mall. I pity the poor guy.” I kiss her cheek.

    She chuckles softly and smiles. “I’ll give him a break. Bye Auty.” I walked to the car and get in. Sammy sits on my lap and puts his face on Cole’s lap. It doesn’t take long to get to the airport. Anna and I say goodbye to everyone. Sammy barks at them. “I’ll see you guys in two weeks.”

    We decided that every two or three weeks we will visit grandma and spend the weekend as a family. Anna holds my hand tight; she never likes crowd spaces. Sammy stays by her side at all times until we have to put him in his cage. He whined at us, and Anna wanted to let him out. The flight is an hour and a half. Julius our majordomo pick us up at the airport.

    We are on our way home. The drive was about thirty minutes. I see the modern building in front of me. It’s a $22.50 million mansion. It’s a rustic architectural style house. It has eight bedrooms, eleven bathrooms; two of them are half, a laundry room, kitchen, rec room, gym, alarm system, elevator, two living rooms, one dining room, an open patio, utility room, a walking pantry, breakfast bar, two garages, a pool, pool house, barbecue, and an office.

    The mansion was constructed with concrete, cast iron sinks, petrified Elm floors, fossilized limestone, and a walnut island. It also has an open concept dining and living space. It has a view overlooking the city. It looks like a resort. I decided to decorate the inside with black, gold, and white. The walls inside are painted white with some hardwood panels. Outside is concrete and the railings of the balconies and doors of the garages are of hardwood.

    Julius already unstrap Anna from her car seat. I open the trunk letting Sammy out. He finds Anna really fast. The driveway is short, and the main door is between the two garages. I love my house, it’s big and comfortable. I wanted something different than the townhouse back at New York. Julius take our bags and head to the house. One of the maids open the door and greets him. “Mama is this our house?” I nod and she squeals at how big it is. I wanted a place that has space for her to play and in the future to expand our family.

    Sammy and Anna walk beside me, but the moment we are in they take of to explore our new home. “If you go outside don’t run around the pool sweetie. Be careful.” I don’t know if she heard me since she was running. I love it when she’s all happy and cheerful.

    “Ms. Maverick welcome to your new home. This is Claire,” Julius points at the woman who opened the door for him. She is petite with brown eyes and brown hair with a few white strands that is in a bun. She is skinny and has a straight back. She’s wearing a black fitted dress; it covers her chest and it’s knee-length. “She is one of the maids. This is Dylan, the gardener. He will come one time every two weeks.” He points to a man that looks in his mid-thirty.

    He has sandy blonde hair with brown eyes and it’s tall, maybe 5’9”. “This is Ella the other maid,” I look at a beautiful tall woman with her light black hair in a tight ponytail, a black dress like Claire, and white sneakers. She looks my age or younger. She has dark hazel eyes and a tan skin. “Are you in college?” I ask her and she nods. “And this is Nick, you’re personal chef.” The man looks like he is 5’6” with dark skin, light green eyes, a shave head, and a few tattoos on his arms. He’s wearing the typical work attire for a chef.

    “Nice to meet all of you. I’m Autumn Maverick, the little girl is my daughter Anna, and our dog Sammy. I hope any of you are not allergic to him.” They started shaking their head and saying no. I’m glad because I didn’t want to fire any of them for those reasons. They look and act like nice people. I see Anna running to us. “Mama can I see my room?” I look at Julius and he nods.

    I’m happy that the room is finished. Her room took longer than the others. The staff went to work, and we go upstairs to her room. She gasp and then squeal. “You like it?” She nods and starts seeing everything. “It’s beautiful mommy. Did you paint it?” I shake my head, “No, baby. But we can paint this one.” I point to the one in front of the painted wall that is white.

    The wall has a night sky with a full moon, little starts and a white dragon. She loves dragons. The mystical kind. The starts are white but some of them are a pastel yellow. The stars are not you’re typical five pointed one, but the ones of thin lines and dots. Her twin bed is in the opposite wall with a comforter of the night sky and pillows with the same theme.

    Her toys are against the dragon wall and in the middle is her round table with two chairs to draw, paint and read in it. She has a bathroom and en-suite. All the rooms up here have their own bathroom and en-suite. Her closet is next to the door. Sammy enters her room and lays down on the round carpet. All the floors of the house are petrified Elm except the cinema room, the bathrooms, and the laundry room. I walk to my room that is next to hers.

    When you enter on your right is the en-suite and on the left the walking closet, it’s not as the one I had back at my parents house. But I still love it. The closet is full of clothes. I walk into the bedroom and see my king bed and the sofa in front of the balcony door. The bathroom is before the balcony. The balcony has two chairs and a round table. It looks out to the backyard. I walk into my bathroom and see that everything is in order too.

    Maybe I should check the entire house. I passed Anna’s room and see her looking at some clothes. “Baby what are you doing?” She looks up at me. “Looking for my bathing suit. I wanna go swim.” I smile at her. “Okay. When you change look for me or Julius. I don’t want you unsupervised.” She says a low okay and left her.

    Sammy decided to come with me. I don’t think she even realize he left. The other room is perfect with the bed and decorations. I go to the other room and see some of my painting stuff throughout the room. There is a plastic sheet on the floor, Julius most have put it recently. I go downstairs to see too that everything is in order. I go to the basement that really is just another floor. The gym, cinema room, wine tasting room, the bar, and the little space for Anna to play is all great.

    Sammy enters every room with me and inspect it. Like I said he thinks he is a guard dog or something. I hear the elevator. When the doors open I see my princess with her red bathing suit on and her blue dragon towel in hand. “Done. Can we go now?” I chuckle, “Come one Sammy.” She motions for him to go to her. He runs and starts barking at her. She talks to him back. I sometimes think they can communicate with each other.

    I see Julius, “Sweetie why don’t you go wait by the pool for me? I need to speak with Julius.” She walks away with Sammy behind. “There’s only two maids?” We walk to my office that has a view of the pool since the wall it’s complete glass. “No, there is another one. Ella is part time and works in the afternoon. The other maid is part time too and works on night hours. Her name is Penelope. She and Ella are college students and also work on different days too. I hired them like you requested. Claire works full time. Nick works here all day. But he leaves by five pm.” I nod at him.

    “Great. Thanks Julius. Can you watch over Anna? I need to make some calls.” He nods.

    Julius goes to the pool through the other door of the office, this one leads outside. Sammy is running in the grass while Anna throws him a ball to catch. She may be four, but she has an intelligent mind and is energetic. I take my phone out and called Sarah. “Hello, you’re speaking with Anna’s favorite aunt.” I chuckle at this. “Are you home? Because I want to see it and my favorite niece.”

    “Hey. Yes we landed about two hours ago and we settled in so you and Kenneth can come over. I know Anna misses you both.” She ends the call not before saying she will be over in twenty minutes. I called Sally the person I left in charge of my gallery in New York. “This is Sally speaking.”

    “Hi Sally.” I answered as I turn on my laptop. “Ms. Maverick, how was the flight?”

    “Good. Everything okay over there? No problems at the gallery?” I have art students that work in there and some of their work is shown too. We talk for some time. Anna is playing in the shallow part of the pool. I see her talking to Julius. I hear the doorbell and walk over to the door, but Claire already opened the door.

    “Yes?” I see a woman by Claire’s height. Claire is blocking her. I hear the woman saying something. I walk over, “It’s okay, Claire. I can take it from here.” She gives me a nod and walks away. I see the woman clearly now. She has blonde hair, brown eyes, petite, a curvy body, and pale skin. I’m taller than her by a few inches. She also has a sharp jaw and nose. Her eyes are not that big. “Hi. I’m one of your neighbors. I live in the street in front of your house two houses down.”

    I look at her and nod. “I’m sorry. I didn’t introduced myself. I’m Valentina, you can call me Val. I came to welcome you to the neighborhood. Are you single, married, partner?” She asks. Is this for real? I know we are in LA, but is this really happening? I see Sarah and Kenneth driving up the street. Thank the universe for them.

    “I’m…” She hushes me. “Oh, we all know who you are. Quite the independent woman.” I try to hide my confused look, but it doesn’t work. “Well it was nice to meet you, but I have some guests.” She looks back at my friends getting out of the car. “Bye, have a nice evening.” I tell her as she walks reluctantly out of my driveway.

    Is this how it’s going to be? Having neighbors that likes to gossip? Now I’m wishing I stayed in New York. Sarah runs to me, and we hug. “I’ve miss you so much.” She hugs me tightly. “Sarah is that a bump?” She giggles and pulls away from me. “Surprise?” She sounds happy and doubtful.

    “I’m going to be an aunt?” She nods. Kenneth hugs her from behind.

    “Hey, Autumn. I guess you found out. It was supposed to be a surprise.” I smile at them. “If she didn’t hug me so tight I wouldn’t have found out. How far along are you?” I let them in, and their eyes are widen and mouth are open. “Ten weeks.” So she’s two months pregnant. Her first trimester is over in two weeks.

    “Tell me again why you move to this mansion?” I look at them, happy about them being a family already. I have Anna and Sammy and I love them. But I want someone by my side that looks at me that way. “You know it wasn’t me.”

    It’s true. My father bought this mansion a few years back, thinking that he and my mom would move. But mom didn’t want to. So he gave it to me. Thank god because I could never afford a place like this. I have money but not this kind. This mansion is 13sqft, as in 0.46 acres. I only pay half the mortgage. I still have my trust fund and the money I earned. I’m not stupid. I will never blow up my trust fund. When I turn 20 the total was doubled.

    I couldn’t believe it. At first I thought it was a mistake, but the lawyer explain that the rest of the money came from Asher’s trust. My parents gave me his trust fund since he was my twin. Those were their words not mine. Kenneth runs to Anna who is sitting on a chair and starts to kiss her. “Uncle Kenny it tickles.”

    Sarah takes her away from him. “Aunt Sari I’ve miss you.” She could never pronounce their names right.

    So she always called them like that, and it stick. “And you didn’t miss me? I’m hurt.” Kenneth fakes that his heart is in pain. Anna yawns. She most be tired. “Go shower baby. Dinner will be ready soon.” She nods and walks up the stairs. A few months ago she started showering by herself. I didn’t want her too, but she said she was a big girl.

    “Show us around.” Kenneth tells me and I smirk. He looks like a little kid in the middle of a toy store. I show them the house and they fell in love with it. “Can we keep it? You and Anna can have our home.” She says and we all laugh. “You both have a beautiful big mansion too.” They both are rich. Kenneth has his company and Sarah her restaurants all over the country.

    “Yours is way better. After the honeymoon we are remodeling some rooms and the kitchen, honey.” Kenneth groans and looks at me with widen eyes. I mouth a sorry. We may be 25 and 26, but we all are successful. We strive and study for our careers and work. We eat at the dinning table the food that Nick made.

    Sarah wanted to take him from me. I understood were she was coming from. Kenneth agree with her, he even offer Nick a job. Nick laugh it off and politely decline. I told them that they can come any time they want. I don’t mind, they are family. Me and Sarah are outside looking at the night. I have a glass of wine and she a glass of water.

    “He lives here.” I don’t look at her. “Is he a surgeon?”

    “Yes. A heart resident surgeon.” I smile and shake my head. “You mean a general thoracic surgeon.”

    “Yeah, that. You know I’m not good with complicated words.” I drink some wine. “He doesn’t talk about you, but we know he misses you. And I know you miss him too.” I look at her and she sighs. “You’re going to start seeing him more often now. Please be civil, for me and Kenneth.” I have still not answer her.

    “Also you need to tell him about Anna. He knows nothing of her since you put all of your social media accounts private, and you never put her in the spotlight.” I let out a deep and loud sigh. I move to the other side of the pool where the bar is. I take the wine and pour more in my glass. “I don’t need to explain to him about Anna. He has no right over her.”

    I tell her as she walks over to me. “He doesn’t, but you know you have to either way.”

    She is right. If I don’t it will bring chaos on all of us. I don’t want them to lose their friendship. I dreed the moment I see him again. Still I’m happy he follow his dreams and that they’re coming true.