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I nodded to myself, relieved. “Okay. Thanks.”
What she and Callie called the big house was on the other side of the huge lawn. Why did anyone have that many acres of grass anyway?
“Also, the microwave doesn’t work,” she added. “Never has.”
“Really? How do you cook?”
“We have laundry and cooking privileges up at the big house. I help Marge with cooking on and off. It’s a lot easier to cook for four than two anyway. We eat with them. Marge wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Sounds good.” I’d have to introduce myself to this Marge tomorrow.
“About the rent,” she said with a tentative crack to her voice.
“I remember. I’ll take care of it.”
My agreement on the rent had cemented the deal with Grace. When I’d first called her about this, handling her rent for the current month and the one she was behind on had seemed like a small price to pay in my getaway plan. It would use up all my cash to pay the first half of it. The payment for the Cleveland project I’d just completed would take care of the rest, and leave plenty left over.
She sighed audibly. “Thanks.”
“Are you getting close on what you need for the hotel?” I hoped for a bit of good news.
“Uh…yeah.” Her voice trailed off.
“You should tell her, honeybunch,” I heard her husband, Dirk, say in the background.
She sniffled. “We’ve got medical bills.”
“Oh.” What was I supposed to say to that news?
“We want to have a baby, and the treatments are pretty expensive, and, uh, they’re not covered. Anyway, uh, thanks for helping us… I—we appreciate it. We’re trying another round of in vitro.”
In vitro? As in fertilization? I sat down with the weight of this news. “I’m glad I could help. I didn’t know.” This I would never have guessed, but it explained why she referred to the dogs as her kids.
“It’s not something we tell people. I mean, it’s embarrassing. Everybody else just does it and…” Her words hung there, followed only by a sniffle. “We really want a baby.”
“I understand. I wish you guys all the best.”
Suddenly Grace and I had something in common. We both had a situation we’d hidden from the world, and from each other. Her tale of saving to buy a hotel had been a cover story to avoid discussing her struggles to become a mother. Both of us had lied to put a brave face on things.
She didn’t seem to want to say any more—and who could blame her?—so I switched the subject. “Who do I pay the rent to?”
“Up at the big house. Boone Benson. Just use the back deck door.”
My blood ran cold. Tonight, I’d been able to handle my chance meeting with Boone without puking because I knew it was a fluke, a one-time event.
Living in Grace’s shack with her three dogs was one thing, but having to live this close to Boone Benson for weeks? Not to mention cooking for him and eating with them? What had seemed like a small inconvenience to help my stepsister was now magnified a hundred times.
It’s only a few weeks, I reminded myself. I could deal with anybody, even him, for that long, couldn’t I?
Thirty days, seven hundred and twenty hours, forty-three thousand two hundred minutes. I didn’t bother with the seconds calculation because the larger number would only make me feel worse.
If those Indian mystics could calm their minds enough to walk on a bed of hot coals, I could survive this personal hell. It was all in the mental preparation, they said. I could be tough.
After taking the dogs out again, I finally slipped into the bed. On any normal night, the fresh sheets would have lulled me to sleep, but the adrenaline I’d worked up during my escape kept me nervously tossing and turning. Giving up, I rationalized that I needed a good night’s sleep for tomorrow and slid out of bed.
Rummaging through my duffel, I eventually found the sleep aid I was looking for.
As I slid back under the covers, I relished the thought that I didn’t have to hide this from Kevin any longer. He would have been livid if he’d even suspected.
