Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
She took another sip of coffee and Harry was pleased as hell she warmed to her theme and kept talking.
“I got a hankering to blow out the back wall of my house and give myself a proper master bedroom with walk-in closet and another bathroom, and on the other side a TV room or maybe a big mud room, so I took on some Vrbo and Airbnb properties.”
She made a face and kept right on going.
“Found out real fast people treat other’s possessions with a disrespect I wasn’t expecting. And the owners of those are cheap as all heck. Kay also wouldn’t take the cleaning jobs for what they wanted to pay, especially for the mess people left behind. Since most of them ran through every cleaning service in the county, Kay eventually got some of the business at her rates, not what they think her rates should be. But I was always getting calls at all hours about people being loud or doing stupid stuff, and neighbors getting mad, and renters breaking stuff that had to be fixed. It was a hassle, so I let those properties go.”
Harry knew all about Vrbo and Airbnb renters, and she was not wrong. There were some real assholes who rented those properties, behaving like they rented a house on the moon that no one else would ever use, not something someone owned and gave a shit about with neighbors who had to put up with their crap.
“Did you get your master bedroom before you did?” Harry asked.
Lillian shook her head. “No. And just to say, I didn’t manage to get my degree, but I did take a course in editing and proofreading. The property management thing wasn’t exactly cutting it, so I had to find something that bridged the gap. I had some clients, independent authors. After I lost the vacation rentals, I picked up a few more writers. I’ll be saving maybe another year, then I’ll have enough to get that project done.”
Like her parents, she saved, then when she had the cash, she’d take the plunge.
It was a smart way to live.
And learning all this gave Harry some reasons why he might not have noticed her, because part of her work was scattered across the county, and all of it was very solitary.
Seeing as it appeared they ran the course of that conversational line, he changed it.
“I went to see Rita Zowkower yesterday.”
Her eyes got wide. “Really?”
“Is that a problem?” he asked.
Her gaze went vague while she thought about that.
“I haven’t spoken directly to Rita in, God…I don’t know how many years.” Her attention refocused on him. “She blocked me on her phone ages ago.”
“We’re actively looking for Willie, Lillian, so I’m gonna ask again if that family has given you trouble.”
“Rita runs those boys like a general,” she told him something he knew. “But I’m no threat to her, and she doesn’t have time for people who, in her estimation, don’t matter. The minute I kicked Willie out, I ceased to matter. That said, I didn’t matter much when Willie was with me, either.”
Heidi showed again and put Lillian’s pancakes and a plate of bacon in front of her.
Regardless of her protestations about not being hungry, Lillian grabbed the syrup and her knife and dug right in.
“You don’t have to answer this, it’s none of my business, but you and Willie don’t seem like a fit,” Harry noted.
Smearing whipped butter and pouring syrup at the same time, Lillian gave it up freely.
“I was out at the Halfway having drinks with Molly.” She took her attention from her pancakes and gave him a small smile. “And yes, sheriff, I was underage.”
“Think the statute of limitations on that has expired too,” he joked, and was pleased as all hell that got him a full smile, and honest to God, he’d never seen a smile so damned pretty.
After giving him that, Lillian turned back to her food. “I really didn’t want anything to do with him because, okay, he’s good-looking, but he started chatting me up and it was clear he was on the make. So I shut it down. Somehow, he got my number and called to ask me out for coffee the next day. I don’t know why. He was charming, and I was freaked about Mom and Dad being gone, feeling lonely, and I guess that made me stupid. So I went. Before we even finished half our coffee, he asked me to dinner the next night. There was something sweet about that, how obvious he was about liking to spend time with me, wanting more.”
Harry never thought in his life Willie Zowkower would teach him something, but he sure as fuck filed that away.
She forked into her pancakes, took a bite, and after she swallowed, she looked at him and said, “I think it kinda reminded me of my parents. How keen he was to be with me. I fell in love fast, convinced what they found was what I found.”