Amazing Gracie by Sherryl Woods Page B

a greeting to preface it. “He’s on the warpath. He thinks we should all hire an attorney to sue you for our money and an accountant to do an audit.”
    Kevin sighed. They’d been through this so many times, he had his response memorized. “If you want to waste your money that way, go right ahead. You know the terms of your father’s will as well as I do. They’re iron-clad. I ought to know. I’ve been hunting for a loophole to get out of it myself for years.”
    “As for an audit,” he continued, “I provide you with one every year. You all pick the accountant, I don’t.”
    “I know all that,” she said dismissively. “So does Bobby Ray. What did you do to set him off?”
    “I’m amazed he didn’t tell you.”
    “Well, of course he did. I want to hear your version.”
    “I refused to give him the money for another one of his schemes.”
    Helen sighed. “I should have guessed he hadn’t just asked for a piddly little advance on his trust funds. What was it this time? A hamburger franchise next to McDonald’s?”

    “Not quite that bad. I believe this one was a jewelry designer he wanted to back on one of those cable shopping channels.”
    “Must be that designer Sara Lynn is sleeping with.”
    Kevin held up his hands to ward off a full-blown discussion of the tale. “I don’t want to know,” he said emphatically. His opinion of Sara Lynn was low enough without fresh gossip.
    “You’re right. You don’t. If Bobby Ray ever managed to marry the right woman, he might be able to get his life on track. He’s not a bad person,” she said in defense of her younger brother.
    “Nobody ever said he was. And he was married to the right person: Marianne. He has a terrific kid. None of that’s enough for him.”
    “He just needs a sense of direction, a goal.”
    “I agree. Maybe he could start by being a halfway decent father to Abby.”
    “You know he doesn’t know how. Look at the example he had. Can’t you help him, Kev? That’s why Father left you in charge, you know. He thought you could straighten all of us out the same way you’ve been handling Uncle Bo and his brood.”
    “I doubt Dr. Joyce Brothers and a team of her peers could straighten all of you out. Your father knew that. He just wanted to keep you financially stable.”
    He regarded his older cousin fondly. Of all of them, Helen did have a head on her shoulders. She was brassy and pushy and, like her sister, a little too free with her credit cards, but she was insightful about human nature. She’d made the one solid marriage of all of them, to a man who had indulged her every whim. Maybe that was why she was also the only one who wasn’t on Kevin’s case about moneyall the time. Her husband had provided all she required, then left her with a nice insurance settlement when he’d died in a tragic boating accident a few years back.
    “We are a dysfunctional lot, aren’t we?” she said. “And you’re right. We can thank Father for that. He never encouraged us do a thing for ourselves. He bailed us out of every single jam we got into. He bought Bobby Ray’s college diploma by promising the school a new liberal arts building. Then he wondered why none of us took responsibility for our actions.”
    Kevin had given a lot of thought to his uncle’s handling of his five children. With a little guidance from Aunt Delia, he’d finally reached a conclusion. “Maybe bailing you out was the only way Uncle Steven knew to stay involved in your lives. It made him feel needed.”
    “With Mama dying so young, all we ever needed was his love. Maybe if he’d loved us more, he’d have taught us to fly and kicked us out of the nest sooner.” She sighed. “Oh, well, that’s water under the bridge now, I suppose. We have to deal with the hand we were dealt. Or should I say, you do. He didn’t do you any favors, dumping us into your lap, did he, Kev?”
    “I’ve cursed him a time or two,” Kevin conceded.
    “More than that, I’ll