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He sighs, and I step back from him so he can get it out of his pocket. “Sorry,” he says.
“Don’t be.” I tsk. “I hope it’s not Bill running out of gas. I knew we should’ve offered him some money….”
He snorts. “You think he should’ve been paid for getting free—?” Puzzlement comes onto his face as he focuses on his screen, and instead of finishing his sentence, he answers the call. “Hello?”
I’m close enough to hear a woman’s voice, but I can’t hear what she says. It must not be good, though, because sharp worry crosses Landon’s face.
“What happened?” he asks.
I grow worried, too, as his expression darkens.
“What? Why not? I’m her primary contact and you’re contacting me, so don’t I need to know why?” Whatever the woman says irritates him, and he rushes out, “Yeah, yes, I’m coming.”
He ends the call and frowns at me.
“Well, I need to go to Quiet Springs. There’s a situation with Lolly and that lady wouldn’t give me details. She just said she needs to speak with me.”
“How stupid,” I say with my own frown. “You have the right to know.”
“Yeah, I do.” He shakes his head as if to say,‘Dumbest shit I’ve heard all day.’
I rub his arm. “Do you want us to go, too? Or we can stay and go back to your apartment and get the floor vacuumed.”
He kisses my nose. “Thank you. Doing the floor would pretty helpful. I mean, I love when you guys go with me, but I don’t know what this talk is about or how long it’ll last. I’d hate for Rae to get bored.”
“Mmm, good point. We’ll get that done for you, then.” After he gives me his key, I smile at him. “Um…can we have our own little talk when you come back?”
His expression lifts substantially—his hands do, too, to my waist.
But his voice lowers. “Yeah. There are some technicalities about this move-in that I want to see about negotiating.”
Wonderful. He’s thinking along the same lines as I am.
He leaves just before Rae comes out of the bathroom, so I tell her what’s going on. She’s both tired of doing so much work and excited to get this last chore taken care of; I tell her we can fast-forward through it, which makes it sound more fun for her.
The vacuum works on both carpeted and non-carpeted floor, so we don’t have to bother with sweeping. She wants to use the thing at least once, so I set her loose in the kitchen, which will be easy to maneuver around. I go ahead and let her do the bathroom, too, because she has such a fun time.
I’ve just gotten the living room and hallway done when my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I turn off the vacuum and find that Landon is calling.
“Hey,” I answer. “How’s it going?”
But it’s not Landon who speaks. “Hi, Liv? It’s Joyce from Quiet Springs.”
In my abrupt confusion, I fail to place the name. “Joyce?”
“Yes, Nadine Wintermute’s morning caregiver.” Her tone seems to thin.
I blink. “Where’s Landon?”
She pauses before she says, her voice definitely thin now, “Well, when I walked out of the room, he…was on the floor.” She clears her throat. “I’m calling because his grandmother passed away within this last hour and when we told him, he—”
“Hold on, what?” I nearly shout. “What?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m—”
“Wait, what the hell do you mean,when you told him?” I interrupt again, shocked and horrified. “Lolly—she—before he got there? Are you telling me it happenedbefore you called him?”
“Yes, that’s right. We—”
