“And what did we inherit?” Jemma chimes in, which is really what Cait means, because they are both in dire financial straits.
“Arcadia Falls is nice. It feels like home in a weird way.” It’s the farthest I’ve ever been from Cumberville, Alabama, and I’mactually pretty surprised by how much I like it, but I’m not sure how to tell my sisters that.
“How was the lawyer?” Jemma asks.
Maggie flutters up onto the couch, hops on the arm, and then lands on my shoulder, staring at the phone as she cocks her head back and forth, just like Doris used to. “So these are my other granddaughters,” she says. “Pretty as a picture. Which one is which?”
I touch Jemma’s face, and her name appears at the top of the screen.
“Ooh, that’s clever. I’m glad I can still read.”
“Well?” Cait presses.
“The lawyer is a character, and he was very helpful. Even bought me lunch. He has an eye patch. You’d want to put him in your pocket.”
“Love an eye patch!” Jemma giggles. “I’d also love to hear that we’ve inherited a mansion with a pool.”
“So the will was pretty strange,” I admit. “I had to deposit Maggie’s—our grandmother’s—ashes in a very specific way, and once that was done, I signed some paperwork, and now I—weare the owners of four pieces of property on the downtown square.”
“Ooh, like Monopoly?” Jemma asks, cheeks pink with excitement.
“If Monopoly was a broken-down video store that also sells boiled peanuts, an ancient movie theater, a hardware store, and the most haunted parts of an antiques market. With apartments on the second story. Right?”
Both of my sisters look at me quizzically. I’ve momentarily forgotten that I’m speaking to, well, a ghost they can’t hear.
“Right, but the other apartments aren’t as nice as this one.They’re not livable as is. No one’s set foot inside ’em in a couple of years. Things got away from me,” Maggie says.
“Right,” I answer myself for the sake of my sisters. “The apartments are probably going to need a ton of work, but the buildings are supposedly pretty solid.”
“How much can we sell them for?” Jemma asks.
I grimace, and her face falls.
“C’mon, Rhea. We can’t sell them? How does that even work?”
“It’s a legal thing. We own them, and we can rent them out, but we can’t sell them. Sorry.” It’s annoying that I feel guilty for something Maggie put in her trust, but I can see how upset my sisters are. They thought this was our big windfall, but…well, it’s more complicated than that, isn’t it?
God, there’s so much I haven’t had time to figure out.
I may be here to finally explore my own options, but my sisters are still depending on me.
How am I going to get a job in a tiny mountain town that probably has no jobs? If there’s no actual money, what can I do to get by? I barely have any savings at all. I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck my whole life. The five hundred dollars from the lottery ticket isn’t going to go far. And if Maggie’s right, it’s not like magic is going to be any help.
“Rental property is cool,” Jemma says, trying to be cheerful. “Passive income.”
“Well,” Cait says, “but then Rhea has to get them cleaned up and ready to rent, turn on utilities, find renters, call the lawyer with the eye patch….”
She trails off, and I’m annoyingly aware that she didn’t saywe.She saidRhea.
“I haven’t even been here a full day, you guys,” I remind them. “Don’t put all your eggs in this basket.”
“Um.”
I know thatUm.We all do.
It’s the one where Jemma is in trouble.
“What’s wrong, Jem?” I ask softly.
