An image of Honeysuckle Hollow bloomed in her mind. “Hey, Mrs. Steele. I’m happy you called. You obviously got my message.”
“I did—”
“Great! I want to talk more in depth with you about why I think the renovations are necessary, and I have a contractor already lined up—”
“Ms. Andrews, I have absolutely no desire to renovate that house or waste a dime on minor repairs. I’ve been talking with another local real estate agent who understands exactly what I want, and he found an investor who wants to purchase the land. The house is worthless to me, so it will be torn down.”
“What?” Tessa gasped. She never expected that Mrs. Steele actually wanted to tear down the house. She assumed it had been a figure of speech. Tessa assumed any reasonable person would see the logic in making minor repairs and then selling the house for a greater profit. But it was no surprise that the land Honeysuckle Hollow sat on, which was prime real estate, would bring in a hefty sum. “But it’s a historic home—”
“That doesn’t interest me. I no longer require your help,” Mrs. Steele said. “The demolition crew is scheduled for this morning. You can toss the keys on the porch and let the whole thing be crushed.”
Tessa’s throat tightened. “Can I change your mind?”
The line disconnected, and Tessa pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. A black hole opened in her stomach, and she felt herself collapsing into it.
Paul touched her arm. “You okay?”
She glanced at him, wide-eyed and short of breath. “The house. She contacted another real estate agent the same time she called me. They’ve made a deal already, and they’re going to tear down Honeysuckle Hollow because the land is worth more than the house, at least to her.” Her voice hitched, and she stared straight ahead, blinking rapidly.
“It’s just a house. Don’t let this get you so worked up—”
“It’s not just a house!” she shrieked. “It’s helped hundreds of people! It needs to be saved!” She inhaled two shuddering deep breaths. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. You must think I’m a loony bird. Can we blame it on the fact that my entire life is a bit of a mess?” She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel.
“I haven’t known you long enough to verify your craziness yet. And your life isn’t completely unraveling. You have the Great Pumpkin and a dashing stranger in your car.”
Tessa lifted her head and looked at him. “The latter probably validates my instability. What kind of intelligent woman drives a stranger around in her car?”
He smiled. “A fascinating one.”
Tessa almost smiled in return. “I need to go over there . . . see it one last time. Want me to drop you off at the diner?”
“And miss seeing a place called Honeysuckle Hollow? Never. Drive on, Miss Daisy.”
Tessa snorted. “If I’m Miss Daisy, shouldn’t you be driving me?”
When Tessa pulled the Great Pumpkin onto Dogwood Lane, she saw a red Audi sedan and a navy-blue double-cab dually parked in front of Honeysuckle Hollow. A white Ram truck with an attached trailer hauling a small bulldozer sat across the street. Her palms sweated. She parked against the curb a few doors down.
Tessa wiped her hands on her pants. How could they bulldoze Honeysuckle Hollow? “What about the koi?”
Paul’s head tilted in question. “Should I understand that reference?”
“There’s a backyard river behind the house. I saw a koi still alive in it the other day. Do you think they’ll just drive right over it?” A breeze blew through the open car windows, bringing with it the scent of lavender.
Paul looked at the house through the windshield, and then he glanced at the back seat. “Got a container of any kind? This sounds like a rescue mission.”
“Maybe the plastic covering the dry-cleaned clothes? We could wrap it like the goldfish prize people win at the fair.”
“Thinking outside the box. I like that. Let’s grab the plastic and go meet these destroyers.”
Tessa put up the windows and turned off the engine. She unlocked the trunk, and together they pulled off the plastic encasing her clothing. Paul tucked the wad of plastic beneath his arm. Three men stood outside the house. A man with a grizzly gray beard yelled into his cell phone while the other two stood around, kicking at weeds. The youngest of the men wore faded blue jeans with a rip in one knee. His fluorescent-yellow shirt could have been used as a beacon to guide space aliens to earth. Tessa couldn’t look directly at it without feeling as though her retinas were burning. She recognized the third man because he was a real estate agent from the neighboring town, and they had been on one lousy date.
Tessa glowered at him. “Hi, Ralph.”
“Tessa,” he crooned in a voice that was as slippery as his slicker-than-oil black hair. “I haven’t seen you in a while, too long actually. What are you doing here?”
“Mrs. Steele has been working with both of us.” Tessa was somewhat mollified to see surprise flicker in his mud-brown eyes. She pulled the skeleton key for Honeysuckle Hollow from her purse. “I have the key,allthe keys, and I’ve already given the house a thorough walk-through.” For show she grabbed the keyring full of miscellaneous keys Mrs. Steele had sent and jingled them. Tessa had no idea what the other keys went to, but it seemed vital that she prove her standing was more important becauseshehad a way to unlock the front door. But was that relevant if they were about to demolish it?
“The walk-through was a waste of time, wasn’t it? She wants it torn down,” Ralph said. “The prospective investor wants to put a Fat Betty’s here.”
