Free An Autumn to Remember: A Novel (Elmtown Series Book 1) by Joy Galloway

their lives. Even some doctors make more than that , she thought. But he lost all that entrepreneurial passion she saw in him when she first met him, when he wanted to take over the world. Something had changed in him.
       She didn’t know why he suddenly looked like he was no longer satisfied. She told him all he needed was to expand the company and be more successful but it seemed he didn’t share that hunger with her anymore. He didn’t seem to care about how much investment they lost in England after the Lehmann Brothers collapse. If he continued like that, if he continued to show this disinterest (which she called a despicable passiveness to his face), she was going to take over the company from him and run it by herself.
       “Hi Mom, isn’t it too early to be drinking?” Chelsea asked, jolting Teresa out of her whirl of thoughts. She walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek.
       “It’s almost eleven honey,” Teresa said defensively.
       “I see. I’m off to school. By the way, I’m meeting up with Jamie in the evening. He needs help with the moving so I told John not to bother coming for dinner today as we had planned.”
       “You cancelled on John? Why in the world would you do that? I was looking forward to having dinner with you two.”
       “Mom, I just told you why. Jamie needs help with the moving today. We can have dinner another evening!”
       “Let me get this straight. You are cancelling on your boyfriend because of Jamie? Are you out of your mind? Haven’t you offered enough help already? You can’t do everything for people you know. He is a man–he should be able to do things for himself. I just hate it when people have this...this...this entitled mentality,” she said rolling her eyes.
       “Mom...ummm...I don’t really get why this is such a big deal. Even John said he might come over to help if he could. What’s wrong with helping Jamie move? Come on, Mom it’s not that serious. I gotta go. Seems you’ve had too much to drink already.” She readjusted her bag and brought out her car keys from her back pocket. “See you later.” She darted off before her mother said anything that could give her a stomach churning feeling again. She loved her mother but sometimes the woman said things that made her feel like she was adopted or something, they thought so differently about certain things in life.
       “Watch your mouth young lady,” Teresa said and looked away. She took another sip of her wine as Chelsea walked away. She wished Chelsea was more like her than Cameron. Life should be run as a business, not a charity.

 
    8
     
     
     
       As nights evaporated into days and days froze back into nights, the next two weeks went by swiftly with Jamie and his mother settling down into their temporary home. They were given the keys to a side door that gave them access to the stairs leading to the basement apartment. With some help from Chelsea, Jerome and a truck from U-Haul, Jamie moved their things down–except all their furniture which he quickly sold for some much needed cash. It all happened so fast there was hardly any time for grief.
       Helen who decided against going to look at the house for the last time was released from the hospital the next day after Jamie had completed their move. She also finally got a job days later. It was a small gig with a recruitment agency that supplied temps to stores and warehouses downtown, sending her to different locations every now and then. It wasn’t ideal but it was better than nothing at all. The money would be enough to at least rent a studio or a small apartment by the end of November. “You get a job after you lose your house. Perfect timing,” she said to Jamie shaking her head.
       Jamie refocused on schoolwork and didn’t see much of Chelsea except for one night when he saw her outside the house coming out of John’s car. She was clad in a lovely beige dress so he thought they had likely gone out