#bergen_county

Sadness more than frustration, and a touch of shame.

"More for emergencies?"

"Why are we so worried about emergencies all the sudden?" Tove says "Jaymes, I love you both, but I want to know." (Demand to know)

Jaymes sighs, "They're closing the location and selling it after Christmas" He says then looks to Dagmar "how'd you find out?"

"...Gerd didn't know if it was gonna be yours or not." She frowns. "It IS yours? For sure?"

"Yeah" He says

Tove looks ..angry. "Jaymes, later we're going to talk about partnerships in marriage, but right now... talk to us."

Hr shoulders droop.

Jaymes cricks his neck. He does that sometime as a nervous habit. Possibly healthier than chewing nails

Then says "Yeah, ours is one. And it's stupid. We make a profit. It's jsut not enough of a profit compared to stores closer to highways and such."

"But I was hoping, well, trying to get enough money to..." A sigh

"I..." Frown. Torn.

"HElp with the baby? " Tove says "Jaymes. We got that gift. We're got money from my royalties. We have a midwife which will be cheaper than an OB. We'll make it. You'll get another job. You, Neither of you ,should give up your yule time with family for this"

"I have money."

"Yeah honey but to do what I want to do it will take big money " Jaymes says

"What you want to do?" Tove says startled

"Lots of money. Siv gave hers to you as a secret because I didn't want to tell.."

"it was Siv?" Both of them said

oh yes. Confusion

But at least all the mad is gone

"Yeah..." Purple. "I was being selfish..."

"If you earned it, you weren't being selfish, you were just not being generous. It's not the same thing. " Jaymes says

"Besides, you had an unseelie spell, I get very focused onmyself sometimes when I'm unseelie" Tove says "It's normal"

Both united in defending her from..her guilt

"But... Siv, like.. she gave half her share to you."

"I..."

She turns, and heads upstairs.

Jaymes says "Half? WOw..wait.. you got twice that? HOney.. wait, please! I got an idea"

She snags the shoebox from under the bed.

Down stairs she can hear her parents talking but not clearly

She heads back, clutching the box so tightly that she inadvertently crushes the cardboard.

she can make out more convo now "sorry I was trying to think how to tell you"... "This is not the crisis you have made it out to be and now she's beating herself up because she has money?" "I know I know... though where the heck did they get... " "I'm not sure , but at this point if they robbed a bank I wouldn't say anything to make her feel worse"

"There's some lawn money, too." She announces.

Jaymes blinks "SO many questions"

"Honey, do you really have over 5000 dollars in there?" Tove says stunned

"Um. 5,365 dollars."

"That'll help, right?"

Jaymes looks at her, "Okay, sit down. Please."

"We earned it. But Siv already had a car, and I can't drive."

"Okay. " he says. Is she sitting?

She's still standing, holding out the box awkwardly.

Tove takes the box, and puts it on the table. they don't go through it

Jaymes motions for her to sit with a head job "I have something I want to ask you, but it may startle you so please have a seat"

Dagmar sits, stiffly.

Jaymes nods "how would you like to have part ownership in a convenience store?"

"Um."

"What?" Tove blinks

"Why do you think I've been working so hard? " Jaymes says to both "Since they were just going to sell the place anyway adn likely have it demolished, I thought I'd buy it... if I could. So I've been doing over time a lot. Trying to get the minimum needed to purchase it"

Her eyes widen.

"But that's gotta be, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars..."