What the hell am I doing?
She’d left her perfectly good apartment for this? Sure, it had been bland and she’d never bothered to decorate, but at least it didn’t look like it was about to fall apart.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Lisa said, stepping in beside her. Her sister had been waiting for her when she’d driven up the gravel drive. “Maybe. I went inside and it’s pretty bad in there. I can’t believe Bill’s kids didn’t clean it out.”
She felt her eyes widen because she wasn’t good with dirt. Blood, she could handle. She fully understood the role of germs in the natural world, but in her own home she preferred the suckers nonexistent. “They didn’t clean?”
Lisa turned to her. “Oh, not that. I didn’t mean that. I had a maid service clean it top to bottom. I’m talking about all the things.”
“They said it came furnished.” It was the reason she’d chosen the place. Well, that and the fact that it was cheap, and she needed cheap. Most of her savings was in her practice now. She couldn’t afford a new house. Or apparently one that would be standing in a couple of years.
“Yep, with everything. You bought a ninety-eight-year-old man’s entire life.”
She wasn’t sure that’s what she’d planned on. “I thought it was furniture and dishes and stuff like that.”
She’d left behind almost all of her own stuff when she’d broken things off with her fiancé. She’d walked away from him and gotten her own bland apartment that served as nothing more than a place to eat and sleep. It hadn’t been hard to leave it when she’d decided to move out of Dallas.
“And dentures. He had a surprising collection of those,” Lisa pointed out. “Don’t worry. I think I got them all. I organized the bathrooms and there are fresh sheets on the bed. And the kitchen. It’s spotless, though not decluttered. I wasn’t able to get to the rest of the place. It’s been crazy at work lately. I’ll be here every minute I can to help you. I actually think it’s going to be pretty once we fix it up.”
It had to be because she was going to live here. She was going to make a home here in this tiny backwater place, where she could maybe hide from the big bad world.
“Lila, are you okay?”
She shook it off. She’d made her decision and she was sticking to it, peeling paint and all. “I’m good. It was a long drive. Thanks for bringing the keys out. And you don’t have to help me. I’m sure it will be a good way to pass the time. I certainly won’t explore this town by driving around. The sheriff is quick with a ticket.”
And he was gorgeous and his smile lit up the world, and he had the most spectacular butt. She’d seen it in her rearview mirror as he’d swaggered away to write her up.
Apparently he wasn’t married since he’d asked her out. Well, he’d suggested that they grab dinner together. That was kind of like asking her on a date. She’d been out of the game for a very long time.
Lisa groaned. “Are you serious? I’ll talk to him. You know what? There’s a town hall next week. I’ll yell at him there. And I’ll let him know if he doesn’t fix it, he’s off the pie list at Guidry’s. Don’t discount that threat. Armie might look like a man who never eats carbs, but he loves my pecan pie.”
She did not want her sister involved. “It’s fine. I was speeding, but I swear he’s in league with that gator. Are there a lot of them?”
“Gators? Yeah, but they really don’t cause trouble,” Lisa explained. “You leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone. You know you can change your mind. You can still come and stay with me until we get everything up to your standards.”
“I have standards?”
Lisa sent her an incredulous look. “Yeah, sis. It’s kind of your thing. I remember not being allowed out of the house until I looked picture perfect, and I was all of ten years old.”
“You had to look perfect so no one would suspect we were on our own.” The first time their mother had gone to jail, their aunt had stayed with them for the whole six months. The second she’d had other things to do. She’d played her part for CPS, but they’d been on their own. It had gone that way for the rest of their childhood. Often Lila had preferred the times when her mother was locked up. It meant one less person to take care of. “We had to be ready in case someone showed up. The place had to be immaculate at all times, and we all had to be perfect in school or questions would be asked.”