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We look at each other. “Who would that be?” Mom frowns.
“Not sure.” I go to the front door and open it to see a little old lady. She’s holding a tray with a red-checked tea towel over it.
“Welcome to the neighborhood.” She smiles as she passes me the tray. “I saw the truck yesterday, and I made you some scones.”
“Oh.” I smile as I take them from her. “Thank you so much. How lovely. I’m Juliet.”
“I’m Carol Higginbottom. I live just across the road.” She points to a house across the cul-de-sac. It’s a stately home with perfectly manicured gardens.
“Hi, Carol, it’s lovely to meet you.” Oh my gosh, so sweet.
Carol looks over my shoulder and into the house as if she’s going to walk in. “Is your husband home?”
“No.” I step in front of her. I don’t want to invite her in until I get more things put away. It looks like a dumpster fire in there. “I’m not married.”
“Oh.” She looks at me in surprise. “Engaged then?”
“No. Single. I bought the house and will be living here alone.”
Her face falls. “Oh dear.”
I fake a smile. Hmm, sweet Carol is annoying.
“What do you do, then . . . to be able to afford a home in this neighborhood?”
Scratch that, Carol is really fucking annoying.
“I’m a nurse.”
“Oh . . .” Her eyes hold mine, and I can see her brain ticking at a million miles per minute. “I see.”
“Who do you live with, Carol?”
“I’m a widow. Mervin passed a few years back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
Actually, I can pick her brain a bit as we walk out onto my veranda. “Tell me about the street.”
Carol smiles broadly. “It’s a wonderful place to live, dear. It’s like a big family.”
“So, you know the neighbors, then?”
“Oh yes, we all know each other very well.”
“Who lives where?” I ask.
“Well”—she points to her house—“I live in the white house. Next door to me is Blake Grayson; he’s a doctor. Wild as they come, that one.”
“Oh.”
Chloe is going to fucking freak.
“Then you have Antony Deluca. He lives next door to you.”
“Alone?” I ask.
