Tessa nodded. “There are always exceptions. She could claim emotional attachment.”
“So emotional she wants to tear it down? Let’s go to the apartment. I’ll drive. But let’s grab breakfast from the diner first. I can’t think on an empty stomach.”
Tessa glanced at the fresh layer of dirt where the gardeners had filled the hole created by the bulldozer. “No,” she said. “Crazy Kate. Sheknowsher.” Tessa pointed toward the house. “They were related, she and Mrs. Steele.”
“By marriage, right? It doesn’t seem like it’s a close relationship.”
“It’s worth a shot. Maybe Crazy Kate can talk sense into Mrs. Steele. She doesn’t want the house torn down either.”
Paul shrugged. He opened the driver’s door on the black sedan rental. “Sounds like breakfast will have to wait. Let’s go see Crazy Kate.”
As Paul turned the car onto the driveway leading to Crazy Kate’s cottage, Tessa pressed her hands against the dashboard and leaned forward. Paul placed his hand on her thigh. “We’ll figure this out.”
Tessa unclenched her jaw. “I feel sick to my stomach. Maybe everyone was right about me and the house. Maybe it isn’t meant to be.”
Paul parked the car. “I think you’re wrong.”
Tessa unhooked her seat belt and glanced over at him. “Why do you say that?”
He pointed toward the cottage. “Because she knew we were coming, and she’s ready to go with us.”
Crazy Kate hurried across the yard in a streak of color. She opened a rear door of Paul’s rental car as though she’d called for a ride share. “Took y’all long enough,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for an hour.”
Tessa turned around in her seat to look at Crazy Kate. The older woman’s deep-brown eyes were wild, and the tan skin on her face was pulled tight into an expression of anger and determination. “Waiting for what?”
Crazy Kate slapped the back of the driver’s seat. “Drive!”
Paul shifted the car into gear, reversed into a smooth turn, and bounced them back up the driveway.
Tessa buckled her seat belt before looking back at Crazy Kate again. “Mrs. Steele is at the house. She doesn’t want to sell it anymore. She says she’s going to tear it down.” Tessa pulled the wrinkled cashier’s check out of her pocket and displayed it for Crazy Kate. “She gave me back my money.”
Crazy Kate gazed out the window and gripped the door handle with her thin fingers. “I knew she was coming. When I woke up this morning, I knew today was the day.” Her other hand rested on her chest. “I’ve felt a storm cloud inside me ever since she arrived in town.”
Paul glanced at Tessa with raised eyebrows. He looked at Crazy Kate in the rearview mirror. “Youknewshe was coming? Did she call you?”
Crazy Kate scoffed. “Don’t be dense. She hasn’t talked to me in nearly fifty years.”
“This is going to be a fun reunion,” Paul said.
Tessa bit her lower lip and shoved the check back into her pocket. “Do you think you can change her mind?”
Crazy Kate’s expression softened. “I don’t know the ending to this story.”
“That’s not reassuring,” Tessa said, turning around in her seat and strangling the seat belt with her hands.
Minutes later Paul parked on the curb in front of Honeysuckle Hollow. A tan crossover SUV was parked nearby, a sign that Mrs. Steele and her granddaughter, Dorothy, must still be in the house. Tessa didn’t feel mentally prepared enough to face Mrs. Steele again, but she was relieved they were still in the house. That meant a negotiation might be possible.
Crazy Kate opened her car door and stared at the front of the house. “Oh, Matthias,” she said, “I’m glad you can’t see what they’ve done.” She shook her head and closed the door. Then she marched across the yard and up the makeshift ramp.
Tessa hurried after her. “Shouldn’t we make a plan or something? Talk about how we’re going to approach her?”
Crazy Kate twisted the doorknob and shoved open the front door. “I’ll approach her the way I always have. Intentionally.” Then the old woman disappeared into the house.
“Oh,” Tessa said, lingering in the doorway.
Paul stepped up beside her. “I’ve never seen two old ladies in a brawl. This could be newsworthy.”
“I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
