Chapter 2.27-Tell Me Everything

          “It was a house and barn,” Ignacio said. “But old Mr. Johnson extended the house to add the barn. Only the downstairs is a garage. The upstairs is more living space. So it is a little roomier than it looks.”

          Trying to hide her dismay at the weathered looking structure, Layla nodded silently. A barn now attached to the house? Did it still smell like one inside? And all the corrals still in the yard told her just how much that barn must have been used. A lot.

          “Anyway, the master suite is on the main floor, so you will not need to take the stairs when you are old and feeble,” he joked, sensing her hesitancy.

          “Old and feeble, huh?” she asked absently. 

          “Why don’ we go in and look,” Ignacio answered. “Remember, I told you this home will need a lot of work by your standards. It is very rustic, and it has not been lived in in a long time. But you can easily make it your own.”

          “Yeah,” Layla still frowned. The home she rented had come decorated and she kind of doubted her skills as interior designer. “Let’s look inside.”

          It was dusty and dingy and grey and bland to her. Her mother preferred warmer solid colors. Her current home was awash in patterns. And she’d never seen a home so utterly bare before. It was disconcerting to see the empty space. And suddenly, she felt warmed. That was it. It was empty. And so much space! She almost wanted to skip about in the room like a child, just to revel in the space!

          Even with furniture this room would still let them all walk around! Tibi’s toys would no longer be stumbling blocks, they could have all of Ignacio’s family over, she’d have so much room for all her finds to be displayed. And the photos her mother had sent! All the wall space to put those photos on!

          Entering with Tibi on his hip Ignacio sighed with relief when he saw that Layla was obviously looking past the rather drab walls and seemed to see possibilities instead.

          “So you’re saying this is far enough within my budget that I can rip the strange seashell tiles out of the kitchen?” She asked.

          “Yes,” he answered. “You could take the bathroom tiling out of the kitchen.”

          “And those odd arches,” said Layla. “I could take those out?”

          “I don’ see why not.”

          Taking a further step forward Ignacio looked around at the dust and cobwebs. His footsteps sounded loud on the planks of the floor. He’d offered to assist her in the purchase, but she had been quite firm that this would be her purchase with her money and her name on the deed and title.

          Inhaling deeply in an attempt to smell for mold he decided that there must be a reason behind the sudden decision that left her grief for her mother alarmingly far behind. She was excluding him from the purchase, while pushing her emotions out the door. Something had happened to cause such an abrupt change, and her behavior had been borderline obsessive since it had happened. He hoped moving would put an end to it. If not, he’d have to find a way to get her attention and get her to talk it out.

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          It had taken a little bit to get the house into a shape Layla considered livable and the work had left them each little time for anything other than sleep. Knowing how tired they each were Sabria offered to babysit Tiburcia for the first night Layla and Ignacio were officially moved in. The goal had been for the two to get some much needed rest.

          Rest wasn’t the goal for either of those two though.

          “I like this carpet,” Ignacio’s voice was a little lower than usual. “I think I am now with you now on not putting wood floors in here, as I had wanted.”

          “Of course I was right,” she said teasingly. “As if you should ever doubt me.”

          “I will try to remember that,” he chuckled softly.

          Comfortable silence fell momentarily, broken by a sudden bubbling of laughter from Ignacio.

          “Are you sure you are alright? I wish you could see your face. Wide-eyes, grinning. ”

          “Oh, I’m fine. I-Am-Fine. Really good. Really really good. I’m kinda wondering about the kitchen floor right now, though. I bet it’d be all cold. And there are some sharp edges on those tiles, too. Might be interesting? Maybe in a little bit?”

          Instead of laughing at her eagerness, his face softened as he gazed at her.

          “You hold such surprises for me sometimes,” said Ignacio.

          “Me? What about you? You’re the one who surprised me that one night,” she said, her face becoming thoughtful, curious. “Why did you come over that night? The night before the election?” She didn’t really need to specify which night. They both knew very well to which night she was referring.

          “I came to tell you good bye without using that word,” he said.

          “Goodbye? That doesn’t make any sense.”

          “It does,” said Ignacio. “I knew that you would do anything to keep your brother in town, and that would mean you were prepared to do anything you could to keep Ned happy. In order to not get in your way, or Ned’s, I had decided that Tibi and I would leave. I have primary custody and there is nothing in the custody agreement that says I have to stay in town.”

          “But you didn’t say anything when you came over,” she said. “You just stood in my kitchen staring at me. I know you looked sad, but-“

          “-I looked sad because going away was going to be painful. I had been avoiding Mami for weeks trying to make sure she could not guess too closely at my plans. She would have stopped me for sure.”

          “Yeah,” Layla grasped alertly to the mention of his mother. “Your mom. She’s really interesting, really sweet. But she doesn’t seem to treat Nalleli and Raul quite like she treats you. It’s like she’s just all over you, all the time.”

          “Yes,” he answered. “It’s just to me.”

          “Why?”

          “Because she has seen things that worry her about my future.”

          “And not about theirs?”

          “Not necessarily,” Ignacio said slowly. “She seems to think Raul is involved in whatever it is she has seen, and he rather resents her for her efforts to separate us whenever possible.”

          “So then is what she’s seen something bad?” Layla asked. “I mean, you two are brothers. You’re both her sons. You can’t seriously expect to keep you one from the other in case something may or may not happen.”

          Ignacio chuckled. He wasn’t really ready to let Layla in on how well the brothers were still able to get together despite her interference.

          Misinterpreting his laugh, Layla frowned.

          “That is how it works right? It could happen, it might not? ‘It’s up to you to make happen what you want to happen,’ is what she told me.”

          “You have noticed the tattoos I have on my sides, right?”

          She nodded, looking intently at him.

          “Those are symbols of protection,” he said patiently, as though explaining how the shape sorter worked to Tibi. “My mother insisted I have them put on when I was a young teenager so that I would carry a form of protection with me always. She sees flashes of ‘something horrible’ that could possibly happen. And she has seen them since I was very small. Before we moved to Sim Nation even. Her line about you making it happen is all about liability. You are less likely to hold her responsible when something unpleasant happens that she has predicted if she tells you that. And when it fails to happen, she hopes you remember that she warned you. Not all she sees comes about. But in this instance, she has seen enough for a long enough time that her superstitious side took over.”

          Layla let her mind rove over his tattoos, and another thought struck her.

          “What about the cross on the back of your calf? Or this cross you wear all the time? All-The-Time.” She flicked his cross necklace with a finger as she half rolled over.

          “Those are to annoy her,” Ignacio answered again as though he were explaining something to a small child. “I believe in the Watcher and PlumbBob as much as you do, and rather less than how much your Aunt Estella believes in them.” In his head, he knew that was a bit of a lie though. They were his own forms of protection, just in case his mother’s failed.

          Pinning his hands down, she narrowed her eyes. “I’m a part of it, aren’t I? That’s why she likes to keep an eye on me.”

          Ignacio sighed. She was putting too much faith into a possibility.

          “I have told you, it is something that might not ever happen.”

          “I am aren’t I? Did she know the same about that tart Melly?”

          “She did not know about Melly. That was an accident and never should have happened.”

          “‘An accident?’ How do you have that kind of an accident? It’s not possible.”

          “Oh, it is,” he said somberly.

          “Really?”

          “Layla, I have a reputation in the town that is only half deserved. I like women. I have liked them since I was young. And in high school, for a while, I could have had any girl I chose. So I would date one, occasionally we would experiment, not with all of them, then they would meet my mother. When they discovered she truly knew their secrets they would run off claiming I had had her do that on purpose to scare them off because I was tired of them. After a while, no one would give me a chance. Before Ned, I had difficulty even getting a job. One night, lonely, wanting to leave but constantly hounded by my mother, I went to the Broken Spur and Melly was there. The attention was nice. It had been a long time and she has a thing for men with a ‘bad boy’ reputation, or men who are taken. I let her flatter me and I allowed myself to be fooled as to who she really is. Tibi’s conception was an accident on my part due to my state of mind.”

          “How do you have Tibi and not her?” Layla had long had these questions, she just hadn’t had the guts, or the opportunity, to give them voice.

          “Ned,” Ignacio sighed, sadly. “Ned hired the best custody lawyer he could find and brought him in for me. I owe him much.” Not least of which I owe him for stealing you, he added in his head.

          Layla blinked. Ignacio was truly indebted to Ned. She knew how much Iggy had felt he owed him simply for the job, but then for his daughter? That was a large burden to bear in debt.

          Layla shifted.

          “Back to Melly then,” she said as Ignacio made a weary movement that clearly showed his disinclination toward the subject.

          “No, you haven’t told me everything,” she added a little sharply. “That bitch showed up on the doorstep the day Daddy called to say my Mom had died. You can’t let me discover your past lovers in that way!”

          “It was a onetime thing that resulted in a bond that will last as long as Tiburcia is alive,” he said. “We were not ‘lovers.’” His lip curled as he said the word. But if she wanted to know everything, he’d better give her what he could and he sat up.

          “What do you want to know?” he asked.

          Curling around his feet she frowned, thinking, framing her question.

          “What are the custody arrangements? Visitation, support payments, the whole deal. She had come over demanding to see Tibi, thankfully you had all left. Well, not really thankfully. Because I had to deal with her and you weren’t there.”

          “Where were you that day? When we came back you were gone, and when you returned you were on fire.”

          When she raised her eyebrows he waved an impatient hand through the air. “I will answer your questions, if Tibi is going to live with us now you need to know those things. Where were you?”

          Layla sighed, the corners of her mouth turning down in a pout. “I went to tell Cyrus that mom had died. And the asshole kicked me out. He was hardly affected. It was awful. But as he’s sided with the town in their opinion of me I can hardly worry about him. Or care. Custody of Tiburcia now, please.”

          “I have primary custody, she has supervised visitation. The custody arrangements will be revisited when she becomes a child. There is a possibility Melly will then get her every other weekend. She is supposed to pay a support payment once a month, but has only made a handful of payments so far. I do not beg for them. I do not need them, and the children she has at home need that money to buy food to eat.”

          “She said she has 4 kids at home. Shouldn’t Tiburcia know her siblings better?”

          “She does not have 4 at home. She has 3 at home. Ottawa moved out on his own the moment he was old enough to get a stable job. And now he lives with your aunt and uncle. He’s Sally’s boyfriend you know. Consequently, Melly could possibly be Sally’s mother in law one day.”

          “Are you sure you’re telling me everything?” Layla asked, her face stony.

          “What do you mean? ‘Am I sure I’m telling you everything?’”

          “I mean just that. I’m tired of the surprises Ignacio. You show up with a kid, then her mom shows up. And do you know what she tried to do? She tried to get me to intervene in her support payment. As well as allow her to see Tibi. And here you tell me that it’s supervised visitation. What if I had been alone with Tibi and had let her see her and then left the room? What if she had kidnapped Tibi? That would have been on my head and all because you hadn’t told me that she’s not supposed to see Tibi without supervision.”

          “Oh, that is not going to happen.”

          “You can not predict the future! You are not your mother! You don’t know what could happen! And I am not a mind reader! I can’t pick through your brain to see what’s actually going on in your life!”

          “I have told you now,” He said sullenly. “There is no need to get so upset now that you know.”

          “But you should have prepared me for the possibility that that woman would possibly be coming over!”

          “She does not usually come over! Sometimes I get a call when she wants to see Tibi, and she almost never lets me know when she will not be paying.”

          “It’s not an excuse for not telling me,” she snarled. “I have a right to know what’s going on if I’m going to have you and Tiburcia in my home!”

          “In your home? If? I tried to go in on the purchase with you and you said no, that it would still be our home despite the name on the deed. Are you planning on kicking us out? Is that the ‘If?’”

          “Oh, so you’re going to nitpick over words instead of addressing why you didn’t tell me about Melly, and custody of Tiburcia, and to whom we owe the pleasure of having Tiburcia in the first place! Those are things I needed to know Ig-Na-Ci-Oh.”

          “And now you know them! You asked, and I have told you! I do not understand why you are still so hostile!”

          “Because you evaded the question when I asked if you had told me everything. It makes me think you’re still hiding something! ‘

          “What would I have to hide from you?”

          “In the first place: a daughter-“

          “Oh for PlumbBob’s sake, I thought we had moved on from that!”

          “I did too, and then her mother showed up!”

          “And now you know about her!”

          “What aren’t you telling me?”

          “Nothing!” In a corner of his mind, he knew that there was plenty he could still tell. But she was definitely not in a frame of mind to hear that.

          Layla could see the internal struggle in his eyes and knew he was still holding something back. With a growl frustration she hefted herself up.

          “I’ll be waiting for when you’re ready to tell me everything.”

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Surprise! Roll Reveal! Miscellaneous Fun is Luxury! There is a better look at the house in the bloopers tab. I think I managed to pull the Luxury out in the Master Bathroom. Though I separated the lavatory and toilet/bathroom with a wall and door, it was just because those sinks didn’t look right in the same room no matter how I CASted them. This house probably took me like 9 hours of work to redo just because I’m slow and Interior Design is just not my forte. But I wanted it to look like I had actually had a challenge other than just ‘purchase the stuff with the highest amount of plus signs and put them in one room.’ And it was a big challenge for me. Normally I’m ok with preset one and use it all over the place. Oh well. After that it’s not my idea of luxury, but modern and minimalist isn’t Layla’s style either and that seems to be about all I've got installed that meets the criteria. Oh well. Onward!
Blah! I accidentally published this while playing with my phone! Anyhow, I was going to add that there is also another blooper under the house pics that I had a lot of fun with. Layla decides to play Light As A Feather Stiff As A Board on her own for my amusement. Now Onward!