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“The rooster has gone!” she said, a little too gleefully. “A rumor was spread that the fees would rise to care for all the animals, but they would negotiate with management if the rooster went. Apparently, a lot of residents were very upset with the noise he kept making, too.”
Holy crap.
Saylor actually did it.
She started the fee rumor.
“Wow. That’s… dramatic. How’s Mabel taking it?”
“Better than you’d think,” Grandma replied. “She pointed out that the rooster didn’t eat much so it wouldn’t make sense if the fee raising was stopped if he was rehomed.”
Crap.
“She’s not wrong,” I said slowly, one-handedly getting my underwear on. “What did they say?”
“That nice nurse Stacy said the problem was that she was using the rooster to fertilize the eggs and hatch more birds, so it was going to escalate to a lot more birds than they’d planned for.”
Genius.
“So what happens now? She already let them hatch a bunch, right?”
“She did. All the roosters will be rehomed, and it depends how many hens are left as to if they can stay. If not, they’ll be sold, and the money put toward the chicken feed. And she’s allowed to let the one who wants babies now hatch nine eggs if they can all be sold.”
“That seems perfectly reasonable.”
“Exactly. After she agreed to that, I did feel rather bad about complaining about the rooster,” she said slowly. “But I realized that eventually she’d stop selling the babies, and the stupid animal would keep waking me up early.”
“I’m glad you got the outcome you were looking for, Grandma, and I’m glad Mabel isn’t too upset.”
“No, well, between you and me, I think she was quite relieved. The rooster really was a bit of a nuisance.”
“I can imagine.”
“And, it gets better!”
Oh, God. What was going on over there today? “It does?”
“There was an anonymous donation to the center for the purpose of a gated flower garden!”
I frowned. “An anonymous donation? Wow.”
“Yes, and it was quite substantial. It’ll cover the labor for your brother and his friends to put a fence in for us, plus build me some nice raised planters so I don’t have to bend over with my hip.”
“Didn’t Josh make you some already?”
“He did, dear, yes, and they’re lovely, but not very big. This gives me bigger ones.”
“Oh, right. Well when it’s done, let me know if you want me to go to Mom and Dad’s house and get some cuttings from their yard.”
“Dahlias have big tubers, dear. You’ll have to dig them up for me. I’ll come with you when I’m ready. Best to do that in the winter. Oh, Piper. I’m so happy.”
Aw. I loved it when she was happy.
“I’m so glad, Grandma.”
“Can you find out who the anonymous donor was, do you think? I should like to kiss them.”
I would not be passing that information on.
Because I was pretty sure I already knew who was responsible.
I had a big gut feeling it was the same person who was cutting me a check not so anonymously.
“If I find out, I will.” I sat on the edge of my bed. “Grandma, I’m meeting a friend for dinner and need to get ready, I’m sorry. I’ll come and see you this week, okay?”
“Oh, yes. Of course. Is it a man friend?”
“Goodbye, Grandma.”
“Oooh!”
I hung up—quite rudely, I must say—before she could go any further down that line of questioning, and grabbed my phone.
ME: You did it. Hahaha.
SAYLOR: Did what?
ME: Got rid of the rooster. They all believed the rumor you started about the fees going up.
I quickly explained what Grandma had just told me on the phone and sent the text.
SAYLOR: Stacy is a genius. And glad she’s getting her flower garden. They’ll all enjoy that.
ME: Unfortunately I think they’ll end up branching out into vegetables. You know Kinsley’s grandpa likes tomatoes.
SAYLOR: Ah, well. It’ll stop them getting into trouble.
SAYLOR: Maybe.
I put my phone down and laughed.
That was never going to happen.
***
“It’s a good neighborhood,” I said slowly. “But it can be quite busy. It’s a pretty family-orientated area so there are a lot of kids there who’ll make noise on weekends and on school breaks.”
Maverick groaned. “Why is it so hard to find a place to live?”
“I don’t know. Mine came with the job.”
“No need to brag.” He smiled at me. “What about this place?”
“Oh, hey, that’s my brother’s neighborhood.”
“We’ll skip that one, then.”
Laughing, I leaned over and took control of the laptop, making him go back to that listing. “One, he’s moving out,” I said. “He’s moving into Kinsley’s place, selling his house, and they’re going to put an extension on her place.”
“Seems like a lot of work.”
“Yeah, but she inherited her grandpa’s house, so it’s pretty sentimental. Just needs some modernizing. Oh, this one is like four down from Josh’s. Colton lives on the same street, and he’s not moving anytime soon.” I paused. “I think if he and Tori lived together in anything except a twenty-seven-bedroom mansion they’d kill each other.”
