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“Mrs. Lowell told us that. I still wish they could stay. Butterflies are pretty.” Reese opened the front screen door and stepped inside. “Mimi, Auntie Taylor is home,” she called, loud enough for their neighbors down the street to hear.
Priscilla Walker, Taylor’s mother, poked her head around the corner. “I know, I saw her car in the driveway. Dinner’s ready if you’re hungry, Taylor.”
Her mom knew it wasn’t uncommon on days like today for her to not get a chance to eat all day. Often, that meant a stop at the first fast-food restaurant she saw on the way home because she was so hungry she could no longer wait. Thankfully, today had been a little different. She’d managed a light lunch after the arrest. “Starving, and I heard we’re having tacos.”
“Reese made sure to remind me today is Taco Tuesday. Everything is on the table. Have a seat. I’ll be right in. Don’t wait for me to get started.” Priscilla disappeared again, and Taylor heard the bathroom door close.
When Priscilla joined them a few moments later, Reese already had her first taco assembled, although Taylor refused to let her niece start eating until Priscilla joined them.
Reese picked up her taco as soon as her grandmother sat down, but then she paused before taking a bite. “Mrs. Hewitt sent home something about career day tomorrow. She told me to give it to you. It’s in my folder.”
Taylor closed her eyes. She’d forgotten all about career day tomorrow morning. Every year since the new superintendent took office, they did a career day at each of the town schools. This year, Mrs. Hewitt, the elementary school principal, had asked her to participate, and she’d agreed. Too many kids believed working for the DEA or any other government agency was something only men could do. She hoped taking part in career day would show girls it was definitely an option for them when they graduated from school.
“I’ll get it after dinner.”
“You’ll never guess what happened today,” Priscilla said while Reese munched away and Taylor prepared her first two tacos. “Kimberly called me. She and David accepted an offer on the house.”
“About time.”
Kimberly and David Cranston had moved out of the huge house next door and into an assisted living facility a good two years ago. Since then the place had remained empty, slowly deteriorating from the beautiful house Taylor remembered it being when she was young to the run-down property she passed when she went running.
“I hope they got enough for it,” Taylor said.
Although fifteen years separated Kimberly Cranston and Priscilla, the two women were good friends. When the Cranstons put the house on the market, she’d confided in Priscilla that without the money from the sale, they wouldn’t be able to stay in their current location long. Considering how long ago they’d moved, Taylor assumed the Cranstons were getting close to being forced to move again. And Taylor knew the Cranstons’ children would never help. Although all very successful, they were three of the most self-centered people she knew. They rarely even went to visit their parents, never mind help them financially.
“According to Kimberly, they got the full asking price,” Priscilla answered.
“Who’d be willing to pay that much?” Taylor loved the old house next door. It was a one of a kind gem in town, but the house needed a lot of work both inside and out. Even before the Cranstons moved out, it had needed stuff done. The years of neglect since then hadn’t helped any.
Priscilla gave a slight shrug. “Kimberly didn’t know much about the gentleman, other than he’s currently living in Boston. She told me he also agreed to skip a house inspection before the sale is finalized.”
It pleased her to hear the place had been sold, but she feared the new owner might have a few screws loose. Skip a house inspection on that old place? Who in their right mind would do that, especially after looking at the house?
“Maybe someone with children will move in,” Taylor said.
While her niece had plenty of friends, none lived on the street. When she and Eliza had been growing up, many of the houses near them contained children their age. Now, though, Reese was the only elementary-school-age child on the entire street. Instead, all their neighbors either had grown children who had moved out, or babies.
“I was thinking the same thing myself. The house is simply too big for a single person. Whoever bought it must either have children or be planning to start a family.”
She agreed, but then whoever bought the house might not plan on keeping it. Other homes in and around town had been purchased, fixed up, and then immediately put on the market again. A small two-bedroom on Sawmill Road, in fact, had been sold the past fall, and after being gutted and spruced up it went back on the market in March. A sale pending sign had gone up in
front of it last week.
“Did Mrs. Cranston say when the closing might be?” Taylor asked.
“No, we didn’t talk long. She had other calls to make. But I’ll see her next week and I’ll ask.” Priscilla and Mrs. Cranston attended a book club together every other Thursday night.
Across the table, Reese polished off her second taco and started building a third, a bottomless pit when it came to food. With a break in the adults’ conversation, she decided to add her own news. “Stripes caught a mouse.”
Stripes was the American Shorthair cat they’d found in the shed three winters ago. At the time, Taylor had feared the animal wouldn’t make it through the week. He’d surprised them all, though, and while he spent much of his time inside, he did occasionally venture outside on warm, sunny days like today.
“He left it on the patio under the table,” Reese added.
Well, at least he hadn’t brought it inside. He’d tried to do that a time or two. Thankfully, she’d always caught him before he left it somewhere in the house.
“I’ll take care of it after dinner.” While death was a part of life, she didn’t want her young niece seeing a mouse decompose.
“Deb came into the library this morning,” Mom said, once her granddaughter went back to stuffing herself with tacos. “Her son, Jack, is moving back to town this month.”
