Just One Day (13 page)

I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“To be the client from hell,” she said, bringing an unexpected laugh from me. “You know how I don’t sleep, right? Well, I figure since I’m her client now, she doesn’t need to either.”

I covered my mouth, marveling at the level of shit-stirring my used-to-be-gardener-mother could conjure. It was her way of getting back at the woman Kevin had thrown our marriage away for. Or the one he got busted for, anyway. A little delayed, since that’d been ten years earlier, but hey, who was I to split hairs. Personally, I’d made peace with it long ago. Sort of. Watching him go through one bad choice after another definitely helped.

The door knocker banged, not as an opening but as an actual knock, and I did a double take as Tandy made a fire trail to the door and started raising hell. “Oh, I forgot I called Cassidy on the way here. Although I don’t know why she’d knock.”

“Actually, that may be the carpenter I called to come do some updates around here.”

I paused in mid-rise. “You have somebody coming to do work?” It made it more real. Less of my mother having a mental break. My stomach did a little wiggle.

“Yeah,
my realtor
told me there was a lot of work to be done,” she said. “Figured I’d get on that right away so there are no hold-ups. Bernie’s coming through in about a month, and I want to be ready.”

I laughed. “A month? Mom, it may be several months before this sells. It may be that long before it’s fit to sell. Maybe even a year.”

“Oh, I know, but Bernie’s ride has internet and fax and that video thingy where you can see people—I don’t need to be here when it actually goes down.”

I sighed. No, I would. With Dedra. Joy. I got up to answer the door. “So, who’d you call for all these fix-ups?” I yelled over the dog’s ruckus.

“Some guy that had a sign on the grocery store bulletin board. I think he said he went to school with you?” she said as I opened the door. “Name’s—”

“Ben,” I said.

“Emily,” he said, with a guarded but incredibly sexy almost-smile.

Forget the toilet. My day went straight to hell.

About the Author

Sharla Lovelace lives in Southeast Texas with her family, an old lady dog, and 19 cockatiels. She is the author of
The Reason Is You
and the upcoming
Before and Ever Since
, which is due out in November 2012.

Sharla is available by Skype for book club meetings and chats, and loves connecting with her readers! See her website at
www.sharlalovelace.com
for book discussion questions, events, and to sign up for her monthly newsletter.

You can follow her as @sharlalovelace on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.