“It’s over.” He shrugged a little, the way a cashier would when telling you they couldn’t give you change for a dollar.
‘Course, being the glutton for punishment that I was, I had to have him repeat it.
Which he did. Several times. And then he left.
Dinner was on the stove, warm and ready to be eaten. I was down one boyfriend and down one marriage proposal. So I ate everything.
Okay,” Shelle said, waiting for me to catch my breath. “Let’s think this through. There must be something we can do. Don’t give up!”
Easy for her to say. She lived in a house her parents bought her.
“Can’t you just sell it?” she asked. “And then pay off the loan?”
“Yes, but that wouldn’t cover the entire loan. We overpaid for it, thinking we’d renovate and make a killing.”
“Oh, right. Like one of those TV shows where they flip houses,” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. Like that. Except it always works out for the people on TV. My life is a different story.”
“Well. You can come live with me.”
That made me cry even harder. “You—you know I’m mildly allergic t—to dogs,” I sputtered. “And I have a cat.”
“I’ll send the dogs to my parents. And I promise to vacuum.”
Ugh. What was I going to do?
I was going to get it together, that’s what. I wasn’t normally one to wallow in my problems. I blew my nose hard and wiped my eyes. Thank god, I didn’t wear makeup because by now, it would have run down my face and onto the front of my shirt.
I’d have my little pity party and be done with it. I was going to figure this shit out.
Chapter 2
CARTER
Hey, neighbor,” I called out to the nice-looking woman next door. What was her name again? Jane something-or-other?
She looked up from where she was crouched by the house’s foundation, and waved.
“Hi,” she said without much enthusiasm.
I’d had a good day. Was in a good mood. Shit, I felt like talking. I walked over to where she was and squatted down right next to her.
She looked at me with one of those what the hell do you want? looks. Damn, I hadn’t taken her for such a bitch. But if she wanted to be that way…
I stood back up. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bother you.” I headed back toward my house. Christ, the Grinch would have been friendlier.
“Wait,” I heard her call. “Hold up.”
I turned around.
I’d never really spent any time talking to her and her boyfriend, even though they’d been my neighbors for a couple years. They’d always seemed so…busy. Or uninterested. I was never sure which. What was the guy’s name anyway? Larry?
And because they were always on the run, I’d never actually seen her close up. Only from a distance, where I could admire that crazy red hair of hers. And of course, her booming little figure.
Admiring her from afar, I’d not had the chance to appreciate the gorgeous spray of freckles across her face that looked like someone had painted with a tiny pointed brush. They almost didn’t look real. And she had brown eyes. People with red hair can have brown eyes?
I thought they had to be blue or something.