Page 3 of Tank

“Why are you so upset about the money? There isn’t any by the way. Once I pay off the house, there might be a little, but nothing like you’re thinking. There’s going to be little to nothing left after I donate the clothing that she had. Do you want some of that too?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, I don’t want her cast-offs. She probably got them second-hand anyway.” More than likely, knowing her sister the way that she did. “Whatever you get from the house, I should get half of that. I don’t want to have to wait around on it either.”

“It’ll be a month before the house sells. I’m auctioning off everything that she had and getting rid of the house at the same time. Someone is coming by to pick up the toys tomorrow morning, and that will be one less thing that I have to deal with. Dealing with you, too, is going to make me insane.” She asked why she hated her so much. “I don’t like you. I never said that I hated you. And you know why I don’t like you, Beth. You can’t have forgotten what you did when I was engaged to Thomas.”

“He wasn’t right for you anyway. It was just too easy for me to take him from you, that’s how I know.” She acted like it wasn’t any big deal, but it had broken her heart. “Maybe when you get back to New York, I can take over the things that are going on here, and I can be the hero.”

“There is no hero. She’s dead and not going to acknowledge anything that you’ve done for her.” She put the blanket in the car and turned to look at her sister. “What’s really going on? Are you broke?”

“Yes. If you have to know.” She asked her what had happened. “Nothing happened. I just spent way too much money on things that should have mattered, and I lost out. I bet you have every penny that our parents left us.”

“I do. I’m saving for a house someday.” She thought about the house that Helen had left her, but dismissed that. She didn’t know if she could live with the memories. “Helen wasn’t broke. She saved her money up to pay off the credit card debt so that there wouldn’t be any when she died. Also, I’m going to sell the house to pay it off.”

The house had been paid off, but she wasn’t going to tell Beth that. She didn’t want to share what she’d been left. It wasn’t being selfish because she knew her sister well enough to know that she’d spend all the money in a month and wouldn’t have a thing to show for it. And it wasn’t her fault that she’d pissed off their sister so much that she did not want to leave her even a mention in her will.

“I’m going to the auction to see how much money you make off of it. Then we’ll see who gets the last laugh.” She asked her what she was talking about. “You know what I mean. I’m going to make sure that I get half of whatever comes in. You’re not so special that you’re the only one who is going to benefit from her death. She was my sister, too.”

Getting into the car, she had to sit there for several minutes to make sure she didn’t wreck the rental and then be out of that money too. She wasn’t broke. Serenity had a nice-sized savings account that she was going to use to buy herself a nice place to live. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t work from anywhere, but she loved New York and all the fast-paced things that were going on at any time of the day or night.

Driving back to the house, she decided to look around to see what there was that could be sold. The house was in brilliant shape, she thought, if not a little like her sister. Helen had excellent taste when it came to decorating, but toward the end, it looked like she’d just given up on things. Not that she blamed her. She had really fought hard to live in those last few months of her life.

The house had five bedrooms and five baths. All the rooms had some sort of children’s drawings in them when she looked around. Smiling at some of them, she couldn’t believe the way that Helen had set up her home. It was a beautiful home, if a little on the cluttered side right now. She decided to box up the rest of the clothing that had been in her bedroom and get it taken care of. She was on her last box of clothing when she found a picture album that she must have put together at some point.

It was pictures of their family. Their parents had both been killed in a car accident when they were just sixteen. Living in the family house with their grannie had been all right, but she didn’t like having to live in their home when the judge told her to. As soon as they were eighteen years old, Grannie left, and they’d not heard from her again. She didn’t even know if she was still alive or not. Looking through the pictures, she could see that the way they grew up was wonderful, and she had always wanted to have pictures of them as children.

If Beth wanted any, she was going to make her copies so that she could have the album. Maybe she’d share it with her or not. She wasn’t feeling all that generous to her sister right now. Looking through the pictures gave her a laugh. They’d been good kids and had a wonderful life when living at home. She had missed all the things that they’d done. Her cell phone was ringing when she turned to the last page. It was Brenin Savage.

“We’re coming out to get the things now from the yard. My brothers and I are going to help them get the toys, and the women who are in charge of the daycare are going to go through the papers and such that you said they could have. Is that still on the table?” She told him, of course, and was looking forward to getting them to someone. “Good. We’ll be there in about half an hour. Some might be showing up sooner. They’re using our trucks to get them in.”

“That’s wonderful. I’ve been going through some of the things here.” She put the album on the table and smiled. “I’d forgotten that Helen had all the pictures from when we were children. I found an album.”

“That’s wonderful. I hope you find other treasures like that.” She told him that she hoped so as well. “All right. We’ll be there soon. You don’t even have to come out in the cold if you don’t want to. We’ll take care that the fence is locked up when we leave.”

“I have to find the key.” She went to the front of the house, where the keys were hanging, and found it first thing. “It has a large toy on the keyring. I knew I could count on her to make it easy.”

She did go out with them when they arrived. She’d not realized how much stuff was out in the play area until then. Helen must have spent a fortune on these toys, and she was so happy that someone was going to be getting them. The women from the daycare even took everything in the room where she had coloring pages and math homework. Serenity was so proud of her sister and what she’d been doing with the kids that she felt her eyes fill with tears again.

“She really did a good job.” Nodding, she told the man standing next to her, one of the cousins, she thought. “The parents around here are going to miss her a great deal. You should be happy that you’ve been able to do this for her.”

“I am.” She looked up at the man and nearly licked her lips. “You’re very good looking, aren’t you? I mean, you could be a model.”

“I was once. I didn’t care for it.” He laughed, and for whatever reason, she joined him. It felt good. “You should get inside. You don’t want to catch a cold now that you’re stressed out.”

“Yes, Beth used to say that. You could get sicker when you’re stressed out than when you feel good. I’ll go in now.” She found herself being helped into the house and was happy for it. The sidewalks had gotten slick, and she nearly fell. “Thank you for your help today. I’m sure that Helen would have loved to know that her things were going to continue entertaining children. She so loved them all.”

“Our pleasure.” He seemed hesitant to go, but in the end, he turned and left her. Before he was a few feet away, he turned back. She smiled at him when he spoke. “My name is Sherman Savage, everyone calls me Tank. I’m thrilled to have met you.”

“I’m thrilled to meet you as well.” She went into the house thinking that he was odd. As she was putting the key back, she thought of all the things that she was going to have to do in the next week. Looking out the window, she was surprised to see that Sherman was still standing there. Waving bye to him, she went back to the bedroom to finish what she’d been doing. It was going to be a long day for her, and she didn’t want to waste it on staring out the window at a gorgeous man.

Chapter 2

Janice was getting out of jail in the morning. She had to go and see the judge, too, but she was going to be getting out as soon as he released her. Being in jail for the last ninety days had been too much, and she was going to make heads roll if he said she was going to have to spend any more time in the place. She had people to take care of, and she couldn’t do it behind bars.

“What’s the hold up?” The cop who brought her lunch to her said that she didn’t know, as she wasn’t at the courthouse. “Well, I want you to call there and tell them to get a fire under their asses. I have to get out of here today, or I’m going to be pissed.”

“You’ve been that way since you’ve been here.” Her tray was slid under the bars, and she went to pick it up. “If you’re going to be here for supper, there won’t be a hot tray. When they counted trays, we expected you to be gone. You sure have been telling us about that enough.”

“If I’m still here at supper, I’m going to cause a scene. And there had better be a hot tray for me. It’s the only thing that I’ve had to look forward to since I’ve been in here.” She took the lids off the food and inhaled deeply. I don’t know who the cook is for this stuff, but they’re coming to work for me when I’m out of here. That’s final. I need a good cook to help me through the day.”