I wasn’t sure whetherthat warmed my heart or froze it in terror. The answer was both.I sagged in Travis’s hold, surrendering the feeling of someone holding me. After a few seconds, I extracted myself from his hold. It would still take a minute to get used to regular intimacy. Though I had noproblem with the idea of getting him naked and practicing.
A loud rap against thedoorjoltedme. The knock was so crisp and authoritative that fear instantlyhadmy heart in a vice grip.
“Do you think they’ve come to kick us out already?” I asked in a whisper to Travis.
He shrugged but his eyes were alert as if ready for battle. Butunfortunately,we couldn’t cut the guy’s head off who came to evict us...or could we...no, no, we couldn’t.
I grabbed the handle and swung open the doorrevealing ashortwomanin a big puffy coat andUgg boots. Under her winter wear she wasin a tweed skirt and jacket andhad her hair up in aFrenchchignon. Her eyes widened behind her round spectacles at eithermy dramatic open or the state of our clothes which were tattered and spattered in blood. She was small and one of those women you couldn’t decide was eitherfiftyor twenty years old.She used the yellow envelope to shield herself. “Oh, I’m sorry to bother you. Is this a bad time?”
“Yes,” Travis and I said in unison.
If she was sent here to evict us, she wasshitout of luck. They would have to send twenty big guysto drag me away,and I’dstillgo kicking and screaming. Or if I were being realistic, one armed police officer because that’s all it really took.
“Oh, I'm sorry,” she said, and I knew she genuinely was.Just like I got that soothing feeling whenever the aunt answered a question. I thought back to when the forcefield went down and a pulse of energy shot out, hitting me in the gut.
Before I could think about that any longer, the woman asked,“IsMarilynRitshere?”
My heart sank. Travis’s hand closed around mine. “She passed on yesterday. What do you need?”
Thesmartly-dressedwoman worried her bottom lip in her teeth. “Oh, oh dear. Wespokeonlyyesterday on the phone. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
The woman caught herself jabbering on and stuck a handout. “I’m Donna Fischer.I’m an estate planning paralegal.Are you family to the deceased?”
I nodded and took her soft manicured hand into my own calloused, dirty one with chipped black nail polish. “Yes, I’m her granddaughter.”Rememberingthe manners my gran kicked into me like mule, I asked, “Won’t you come in Ms. Fischer?”
We directed her into the living room, where she settled inhigh backed chair. We sat on the floral couch and Travis laid his arm over my leg, covering my knee with his hand. Something deep inside me purred.
Donnalooked up at us with a little nervous smile. “Well, I’m so sorry to hear thisnewsabout yourgrandmother.I hope...I hope she didn’t take the news I gave her too hard.”
“What did you tell her?” I asked.
“An old beau of hers, Richard Cox,passedawayin his sleepaboutthree weeks ago.”
Travis squeezed my handas my heart filled with lead. “Yeah, we met him once. Nice guy. I'm sorry to hear that.”I sent Travis a meaningful look. Perhaps that was the reason my gran was a prime target for the Shinigami.Jessica, and the family who killed themselves, had all suffered a loss of someone close to them. Ricky had been the love of her life and the one who had gotten away.
She nodded, but her eyes werefarawayas ifsilently calculating something. “I don’t wish to press unduly but do you know if you were included in your grandmother’s will?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we went over it about five years ago, and if she hasn’t changed anything, I’m the sole whatever you call it. I get everything.”I wondered if Iinheritedall her debts too.I should have paid attention to her financial stuff sooner, but I barely checked my own bank account.Travis took care of the accounting for our business.“What did you say you were here for again?”
She shook her head. “OhI didn’t yet. And I don’t wish to speak too soon,but Mr. Cox left your grandmother asum of money in his will. Which would likely mean you would inherittheassets.”
“Oh yeah?” I smiled at Travis. Maybe we’d get some moretaxidermizedanimals since that was his business for a while. Gran would have liked that.
“A sum offourhundred thousand dollars to be precise,” she said.
I stuck my pinky in my ear and cleared the canal. “I’m sorry, can you say that again? I hallucinated for a minute and heard you sayfourhundredthousand dollars.”
Shenodded,her face pinched in all seriousness. “Oh yes, you heard correctly.Fourhundred thousand dollars.”
I turned to Travis who looked like someone had slapped him.
The laugh that ejected from my mouth sounded like a gunshot. Then it softened into a more genuine laugh, and I covered my mouth tosuppress my reaction.She was serious. The lady was telling me, I would get almost half a million dollars just...because.
This wasn’t my life. As Travis pointed out regularly, things were never easy for us. There had to be a catch.
“So does the tax man get to take most of it or something? Are his kids going to come after me withpitchforks?”
She shook her head and explainedtherewould be no inheritance tax and his kids were already well taken care of. Theyhad no issue with his final will and testament.
