“We need to talk,” she snaps. She always snaps.
“About?” Whatever it is she wants to talk about, I can assure you, I don’t.
“About that monstrosity.” The glare she’s giving me used to intimidate me, because it scares the bejesus out of everyone, trust me, but it doesn’t faze me as much anymore.
I know she’s talking about the Little house, but I play dumb. “What monstrosity?”
“Don’t be obtuse.”
Sighing again, this time with emphasis, I cross my arms over my chest. “What’s wrong with itnow?” I emphasized that last word because this is an ongoing saga with Mona. This and every other house I’ve brought back from the dead. It’s like she’s got it in for me. I can’t figure out why, though. She and I, well, we’ve disagreed on a lot of things, but she’s never showed up at my house to “talk.”
“You’re encroaching on my rental property, for one. For another, you’re not seriously thinking about making that house blue, are you?”
“I—”
“Thirdly, the noise has got to stop.”
And by noise, she means saws and other tools. “We only work between eight in the morning and five in the evening. The city council said—”
“I’ll be speaking with the council. Believe me.”
“I’ve no doubt.” The two of us stare into each other’s eyes, but I blink first because I’m pretty sure hers gleamed red for a split second.
I could be wrong, but perhaps the rumors are true. She reallyisa witch.
Okay. Not literally. At least not that I know of. I wouldn’t put it past her to conjure up an evil spell now and then, however. What I mean is, she’s the town b-i-t-c-h. She’s into everyone’s business, literally and figuratively. She’s got more money than she knows what to do with and she uses that to get her way. She owns half the town, for sure. She mentioned her “rental property” like she’s got the one. She’s got twenty, at least. I’ve never actually counted, but she owns most of the rental houses and several buildings downtown. Not to mention she’s got a huge house of her own and about 250 acres of farmland she leases outside of town.
She owns a lot of Zodiac Hills. I’m pretty sure her plan is, or was, to own everything. To achieve total domination of our town.
Except she can’t buy me.
And that frustrates her.
Kind of like the remote does to my dad.
I beat her to the Little house. I outbid her, which was probably not a wise financial move on my part, since I put every cent I had into it buying it. So much so, there’s no wiggle room, no contingency plan if something catastrophic happens. But I knew Mona wanted it, and since the bids were sealed, I went for it, paying over asking and probably over the value. But I had the cash, and I knew this house belonged with me. The rest is history.
Rumor has it she called the Little family lawyer to ask what my bid was, but their lawyer wouldn’t tell her.
Thank goodness.
I’ll never regret doing it, though. As I said before, buying the Little house was a dream of mine. And that dream came true.
It’s good one of them did.
“I’ll see you tonight.” She turns and leaves the house, slamming the door behind her.
I turn to my dad. “Tonight?”
“City council meeting.”
“Crap on a cracker. I hate the city council meetings.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Nodding, I attempt a smile. “Thanks. I could use your support.”
“Get Bella there too. And anyone else who’s available.”
