Moving closer to Greta and lowering my voice, I say, “You didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“I knew if I did, you’d tell me you were fine. And I knew that would be a lie, but I also knew if I pointed it out, you’d sayit wasn’t, and…” She huffs out a breath. “It was just easier if I surprised you.”
“You mean if you left me no choice.”
“Tomato, to-mah-to,” she teases, booping my nose with her finger. She looks over my shoulder. “How’s she doing?”
“About like you’ve seen,” I say, my voice even lower than before. “She hates me. Hates us both, I guess, but I’m the one she’s stuck with.”
She presses her lips together, nodding. “Have you heard from him?”
“Not since we signed the papers. He wasn’t at the house when the movers came by. I guess he assumed I didn’t want to see him.”
“What do you know? Miracles happen every day.” She rolls her eyes. “I still can’t believe you let him keep the house. It should’ve been sold and split. I could’ve gotten you both enough to start over.”
“Yeah, Mom said the same thing about EJ.”
Greta’s eyes search mine as she fights against an angry smile. “It’s not enough her new boy toy is trying to steal her away, now he’s going after my business, too?”
“It’s not like we would’ve used him. You’re the family realtor.”
“Well, I would be if you sold anything.” She tears open a bag of mini oatmeal cookies, popping one into her mouth. “You guys are like a realtor’s nightmare. You know, most people move houses every three to five years.”
“We can’t sell the house, and you know it.”
“Yeah, yeah…” She wags her hand, pretending it’s talking as she mumbles, “Sentimental stuff and important memories and good parents and yada yada yaaaeeeech…” She pretends to gag, pointing a finger toward the back of her throat.
I wave her away, slipping past to grab bowls from the cabinet. “It’s the house we brought Taylor home from the hospital into, you monster. I couldn’t let him sell it.”
“Yeah, but now it’s his.”
“If I pushed the issue, he would’ve never given in and let me keep it. He had nowhere to go. Selling would be the only option, and that would’ve killed me. At least this way, Taylor can visit him there. Her children can see it. It’s still hers.”
Her expression goes skeptical, and I know she wants to point out that I can no longer force Lewis to keep the house, but it was the only sort of power I had, and I leveraged it. I don’t want to believe he’d screw me over.
“So, want to hear something weird?”
“Are you just trying to change the subject?” She pops another cookie into her mouth and holds out the bag for me. I take one and tear open the bag of M&M’s, splitting them between our bowls before adding popcorn and mixing them.
“Maybe,” I admit. “But I think someone might’ve been coming into the cabin. We found trash in the bedroom.”
“Ew, what?”
“Weird, right?”
“Probably some local teenagers. Lord knows we used to find random houses to get drunk in back in the day.” She gives me a pointed stare, then her gaze travels the room again, and I know she’s right. “This place is perfect for that.”
I laugh, reaching next to her to pull a bottle of wine from one of her boxes. “You’re probably right.”
“Did you figure out how they were getting in? Surely the door wasn’t unlocked. The place is dusty, but it’s not destroyed. Did they break a window?”
“No, not that I saw. I ordered a new lock for the door, just in case. Maybe the neighbor lost the key…or maybe his son steals it or something.”
“Does he have a son?”
“No idea.”
“Does anyone else have access? Besides the neighbor.”
