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“Do you have a pinot noir?” Cici asked. “I know you don’t usually keep much wine, but we’re celebrating.”
She was correct that wine wasn’t our usual fare, but I always kept a few bottles around just in case. “I’ll see what I can do. What are you celebrating?”
Jon gave his wife a stern look. “Don’t count your chickens. There are still lots of things that could go wrong.”
“Oh, stop. I need to celebrate. It’s been so long since we’ve had a reason to.” She looked up at me with a huge smile. “We just signed a contract for the sale of our house.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.I didn’t have to ask who the lucky buyer was. While I’d been busy with Paul and apologizing to Lyra, Claire must have flown in and sweet-talked them into signing away their home.What the hell did she say to make them sign so quickly?The Zook family had lived in the Carolina Banks as long as the Ramseys and Crofts.
But maybe it wasn’t too late. Jon had said it was too early to celebrate. Taking a deep breath, I concocted a strategy on the fly. I was not good at this shit.
“Didn’t your parents raise you in that house?” I asked Jon.
He nodded. “We bought it from them right before they moved to Florida.”
“That’s right.” I chuckled, trying to make the conversation seem lighthearted even though it was anything but. “They traded one beach for another. With your kids, that’s three generations of your family that have lived in that house, right?”
“Four, actually,” Jon corrected. “My grandparents owned it first.”
Even better.The islands had the kind of history that a fancy resort couldn’t compete with. It was homey and family driven. I just needed to remind folks of that.Subtly, of course.“That’s quite a legacy.”
I was patting myself on the back for my shrewdness when he laughed. “A legacy of a leaky roof and drafty windows.” He laughed again and turned to his wife. “Do you remember that Christmas when the furnace went out? It was the coldest damn winter we’d had in ages, and I thought we were going to freeze to death while the kids opened their presents.”
Cici shook her head. “I’m glad we can laugh about it now. I can still feel the chill in my bones when I think about it.”
Damn.That wasn’t how this conversation had played out in my mind. I’d expected to plant seeds of doubt by using warmhearted nostalgia. Instead, I was reminding them of cold times they’d probably rather forget. But I wasn’t giving up.
“All of that can be fixed. The house has good bones.”
This time Cici chuckled. “Those bones are held together by duct tape and prayer.”
Well, shit.Perhaps I should have thought about my strategy more, but I’d been blindsided by Claire yet again. She was a pro, and I was stuck in amateur hour. I needed a moment to regroup.
“Let me see about that wine while you look at the menu. Jon, what can I get you?”
Jon ordered a draft beer, and I trudged to the storage room to dig up the bottles of wine. Damn Claire and her go-getter nature. If I’d gotten to the Zooks first, I could have helped them come up with a plan for repairing their house instead of having them give up on it. My family owned a contracting business, for fuck’s sake. I sighed as I unearthed a wine corker.
Buck up.It wasn’t too late. Contracts were nothing but paper and ink. They could be broken. I pasted a smile on my face as I served them their beverages.
Jon took a sip and sighed. “I’m going to miss this. I don’t suppose you ship your brew, huh?”
Screw subtlety. They needed to know they had options. “It’s probably not too late to back out of the contract. Did you have a lawyer look at it?”
Worry clouded Cici’s face, and she looked at her husband. “Do you think Markham is going to back out? Oh God. Maybe I’m jinxing it by celebrating. We need this money.” Desperation colored her tone.
Jon squeezed his wife’s hand. “I’m sure it’s fine, dear. Enjoy your wine.”
“It might not be. You said yourself—”
“Honey, don’t. We have enough things to worry about. You’re right. We need to celebrate this. Our prayers have been answered.”
I felt like I was intruding on a private conversation, albeit one that my comments had prompted. I was missing something major.
Cici looked up at me apologetically. “Sorry, Bennett. My emotions are all over the place. You don’t know what it’s like going from being days away from foreclosure to being offered three times what the property is worth. Not to mention they’re going to pay for our move.”
“Oh. I, uh, didn’t realize…”Well, fuck.Now I really didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t realized the family was in such a bad way.
Much to my horror and extreme discomfort, Cici teared up. “Sorry. I don’t mean to lay this on you. But now we’ll be able to move closer to the children’s hospital in Norfolk, where Noah gets his treatments. This money is going to change everything for us.”
