But I’d had literally oceans of experience with Greg. More than enough to know that, despite his assurances, if I moved back home to Rocky Knoll before the sale of the house was complete, he would find a way to drop the ball.
Shame on me for thinking or hoping otherwise.
“I remember you saying something about it, but I figured, no harm, no foul, if we just didn’t mention it,” he finally replied. “They’re expensive to remove and it’s not like it’s dangerous. Heck, it never bothered us buried down there all these years.”
“It’s the law, Greg. And now, in your effort to save us a few grand, you’ve cost us the sale of the house.” I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger and let out a hiss of air. There was no point in doing this with him. What was done was done. Now it was time to slip into crisis management mode.
And, for all intents and purposes, me having to live in Mee-maw’s basement for the foreseeable future, with no clear end in sight?
Was a DEFCON 1 level crisis.
“Okay, so what does the realtor suggest we do now?”
“Take it off the market for a month, hire a contractor to get the work done, do the soil samples and get the results back, and then put it back on the market again.”
“So no showings, no nothing for at least a month. Is that what you’re telling me?”
And then the whole process we’d been going through for the past eight months would start again. Waiting for showings, open houses that never amounted to offers, and fielding lowball offers. It could be eight more months before we got another bona fide offer. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes and I brushed them away impatiently.
“Look, I’m sorry. If you need money, I can--”
“No,” I said, butting in before he could make the grudging offer he’d made multiple times. Opting to get out with as little baggage and bitterness as possible, I’d forgone alimony, and most of our savings besides the 401k had been siphoned to the kids to get them through college with as little debt as possible. I had a couple grand to my name, and the rest was tied up in house equity, so it was going to suck, but I’d get through it.
Part of me wondered if deep down I considered it a form of penance…a fair punishment for being the one to pull the plug on us, despite the marriage being on life support for years. But, whatever the case, I didn’t feel comfortable with him giving me money.
“I’ll be all right. And I’ll take care of the details with the oil tank from here.” Enabling him, still. But at least that way, I knew it would get done. “If the house isn’t sold by Spring, we’re going to have to slash the price, though.”
“Well, let’s not be hasty...”
“Goodbye, Greg.”
I disconnected and tossed my phone onto the couch beside me with a groan.
Not excellent. Not excellent, at all.
Overcome with impotent rage, I hunkered down over my typewriter again, a hot flash washing over me. I was pretty used to them by that point, but this one was more intense than usual. A tsunami of heat that radiated from my skin and consumed me as surely as my anger. Suddenly, it came to me in a rush, and my fingers started tapping. Soon, I was on my way, a storm of words whipping onto the page, pouring out of me in a frantic wave. One page became two. Two became five. Five became ten.
By the time I flopped back onto the couch, wrists aching, mentally spent, the moon hung high in the sky and the clock on the microwave read eleven o’clock.
“Holy crap,” I whispered groggily, shuddering with a sudden chill.
It was weird. I felt a deep sense of exhaustion. Not like I’d completed a task, but like I’d been purged of something wedged inside me for too long and now I needed to hibernate.
Nothing had changed. Everything with the house and Greg and my life was still a hot mess. But as I curled up on the couch and tugged the fleece throw over me, a sense of well-being surrounded me.
And when I fell into an exhausted sleep a short while later, I dreamed of magic.
Get the rest of Writing Wrongs, out now!
Also By Christine Gael
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Maeve’s Girls
(Standalone Women’s Fiction)
Finding Tomorrow
Finding Home
Finding Peace
Finding Forever
Finding Forgiveness
Finding Acceptance
Cherry Blossom Point
Starting From Scratch
Lucky Strickland Series (Mystery/Thriller)
Lucky Break
Getting Lucky
Crow's Feet Coven (Paranormal Women's Fiction)
Writing Wrongs
Brewing Trouble
Stealing Time
Also by Denise Grover Swank
Carly Moore
A Cry in the Dark
Rose And Neely Kate reading order:
Family Jewels
Trailer Trash
For the Birds
Hell in a Handbasket
In High Cotton
Up Shute Creek
Come Rain or Shine
Dirty Money
When the Bough Breaks
Family Jewels
For the Birds
Hell in a Handbasket
Up Shute Creek
Come Rain or Shine
When the Bough Breaks
Neely Kate Mystery
Trailer Trash
In High Cotton
Dirty Money
Magnolia Steele Mystery
Center Stage
Act Two
Call Back
Curtain Call
Darling Investigations
(Humorous mystery romance)
Deadly Summer
Blazing Summer
Rose Gardner Mysteries
Novellas are bonus material
TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES
TWENTY-NINE AND A HALF REASONS
THIRTY AND A HALF EXCUSES
FALLING TO PIECES (novella)
THIRTY-ONE AND A HALF REGRETS
THIRTY-TWO AND A HALF COMPLICATIONS
PICKING UP THE PIECES (novella)
ROSE AND HELENA SAVE CHRISTMAS (novella)
RIPPLE OF SECRETS (novella)
THIRTY-FOUR AND A HALF PREDICAMENTS
THIRTY-FIVE AND A HALF CONSPIRACIES
THIRTY-SIX AND A HALF MOTIVES
SINS OF THE FATHER (novella)
The Wedding Pact
(Humorous contemporary romance)
THE SUBSTITUTE
THE PLAYER
THE GAMBLER
THE VALENTINE (short story)
Bachelor Brotherhood
Spinoff of The Wedding Pact series
ONLY YOU
UNTIL YOU
ALWAYS YOU
Young adult contemporary romance
ONE PARIS SUMMER
Off the Subject Series
(New adult contemporary romance)
AFTER MATH
REDESIGNED
BUSINESS AS USUAL