Cinders

~88~ Loaded

~*~

The next morning I get up, and Taylor is already awake. It's Saturday, and I don't have work until tonight.

"Morning bud," he smiles.

"Where's mom?"

"Still sleeping" he says gently.

"Does this mean Sasha gets her own room now?"

"She sure does," he grins as he puts the hot coffee to his lips and takes a sip.

"What are you looking at?" I ask, seeing the newspaper in his hands.

"Er, nothing," he says as he closes the paper and acts innocent.

"It's cute that you think I'll drop it...Tell me...Is it dad?"

Taylor's face flashes surprise. "No, buddy. Jeesh-Are you that worried about him?"

I just nod. I hate how cryptic everyone is.

Taylor sighs. "This stays between us, yeah?"

I just nod again.

"Your dad is fine—He got promoted to detective a while back. He's overseeing an operation, but he's in a hotel room the whole time. He's the one who's got eyes on everyone, and telling people where to be and when to do things. He's not in any danger, I promise. If anything, he's the safest one." He says, patting my hand.

I sigh. That was all I needed to know.

"Thanks, Taylor"

He just smiles.

"I still ain't dropping it...Spill it," I say as I motion toward the closed and crinkled newspaper.

He just sighs and rolls his eyes. He silently pushes the paper towards me and points to an ad.

"What are you looking at this for?"

"Well, you know those old Victorian homes on Winchester?" He asks

"Yeah?"

"Your mom used to always make us run by them during our workouts—She was absolutely in love with them. She told me that she wants to live in one someday. I had always planned on buying her one. Well, the one she loves the most just went up for sale. I have an appointment with my sister this afternoon to go see it. Wanna come?" He asks, his eyes shining with excitement.

"Does mom know you're looking at this house?"

"No. I don't want her to know for a while," he says quietly.

"I don't understand"

"I want to propose to her, Liam—In a month. I want to have the house, keys in my hand, so I can tell her after she says yes."

"Can you afford this? This is a lot of money."

Here comes the "mind your own business, Liam"...This dude is crazy private about money and never tells me anything about their finances.

Instead, to my surprise, he nods.

"Yeah. I actually have a lot of money stored."

"Taylor, are you a jiggalo?"

Taylor starts cackling, and has to collect himself before he wakes up mom.

"I'm not—Lilah and I both got a ton of money when our mom died. Her life insurance mixed with the settlement we got from the driver my dad sued, resulted in us getting a huge amount."

"Dad gave us all of it. He is very well off, and he wanted us to have it, but I never spent any. I wanted that money to mean something. I never found anything that meant anything to spend it on. So, it's just been sitting in the bank, getting a bunch of interest. I have enough to pay cash, and then extra to do any renovating that it needs."

"Woah! Does mom know you're loaded?"

"Does your mom know that I have my mom's money in the bank? Yeah. Did she care? Not in the least. She never even asked me how much was in there."

"How much is in there?" I ask. I am not like my mother—I do care.

"I would have told her, but I'm not going to tell you. Mind your own business," he says with a grin.

There it is...

I just roll my eyes. "So let me get this straight—you are loaded. You have been for years, and yet I've been busting my ass to pay you back these last six months?"

Taylor just nods. "Yeah, sucks to be you."

"How much do I have left before I can actually spend my own money?" I ask. I probably should have been keeping track of it myself, but I haven't been.

Taylor gets out his phone and goes to his notes. "You've got me and your dad paid back from Jake. You are now working on the TV and Xbox you busted. You've paid me back $300. You've still got $1,000 to go, kid," he says, putting his phone back down on the table.

"That sucks"

"I agree—I loved that TV. The one we have now really sucks," he grumbles into his coffee.

"That's the one you bought us—You bought us a sucky tv?"

Taylor just smirks and says nothing as he shakes his head.

"I'll go with you—That sounds fun. What are we telling mom, though?"

"Uh....let's tell her we are going bowling. That will give us a couple hours."

"And if she wants to come with us?" I ask, trying to get our story straight.

"Ummm, well that would suck," he says simply as he takes another drink and stares at the picture, with a goofy grin on his face.