One Mountain Away (54 page)
Authors: Emilie Richards
“Give me a break, okay? I’ve been here just two weeks. I’ve spent the whole time mucking out that hovel I’m living in. I haven’t exactly had time for house inspections.”
“Nope, you been hoping we’d just take that lease at face value. Don’t go pretending it’s not so.”
Wanda lifted an envelope from under her book and held it out. “Stove’s throwing out so much gas both those crotons outside my kitchen window keeled over. Roof’s leaking in the bathroom. Toilet’s got more rust than a battleship. And if I wanted pets, I’d get me a kitty cat, not some flock of palmetto bugs. I already paid for an exterminator and somebody to patch up some of the biggest holes where they were getting in. You can take that off my rent.”
“Gosh, no travertine tile? No granite counters?”
Wanda put the envelope on top of her book when Tracy didn’t take it. “You just go ahead and be sarcastic. But you think about it. We’re not going anywhere while you do. You have any idea how hard it is to evict somebody these days? Especially when the sheriff happens to be friends with a certain member of the Palmetto Grove police force?”
Tracy leaned over and snatched the envelope. “I’ll do what I can, but don’t expect miracles.”
Wanda watched her stalk down the road toward the cottage where those folks from India had taken up residence. Wanda didn’t try to stop her, even though she knew they weren’t at home because she had seen them leave an hour ago. At least if the landlady ever found them, the dark-skinned young couple at the end of the road spoke English. Wanda had to give them that much. That was one thing about Indians. They usually came knowing English and had good manners. But their presence some fifty yards away was just another sign that this place where Ken had settled her was a world filled with strangers. It was never going to feel like home.
“Happiness Key, my eyelash.”
Morosely, she watched Tracy Deloche’s tight little butt swing in a determined rhythm until the young woman was finally out of sight. She didn’t even yell inside to tell Ken she’d taken care of the problem. Wanda knew what a waste of time sounded like.
ISBN: 9781459234512
Copyright © 2012 by Emilie Richards McGee
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