AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded as his gruff words sank in. “Is there anything you can do?”
The plumber turned to Jack. “You turned off the valve?”
“Yep.” Jack nodded.
“Good, good. I’ll take a look if you don’t mind.” And he took off around the house where Jack had just come from.
We all just stared at the plumber.
“How are we going to clean up this mess?” Savannah broke the silence. “And where the hell are we going to stay?”
I opened my mouth to answer but Jack beat me to it. “You’ll stay with me.”
My mouth hung agape, while Savannah threw her arms around him again.
I crossed my hands as if that would somehow magically help this situation.
“No, no, no, no, no.”
With tears threatening to fall, Savannah looked at me like I had just run over her dog.
“Don’t look at me like that.” I batted her arm.
She tilted her head to the side, an innocent looking gesture.
“We have no place to go, Whit. It’s not exactly like we can call Mom up and stay with her.”
I stared at her, trying to telepathically explain why this was such a bad idea.
When that didn’t work, I just stated the obvious, without saying there was no way in hell I’d be staying with Jack.
“We don’t need to go rushing off to Jack’s house. I could book us into a hotel and I’m going to put an offer on a house I really like. Maybe they can expedite the process,” I told her, thinking it through. I’d have to place a call to Katie Kooney as soon as possible. I didn’t need to see any more houses. I knew what I wanted, and she just needed to make it happen. Now more than ever.
Jack cleared his throat and both my sister and I turned to him in unison.
He put up a finger. “First of all, that’s super freaky, never do it again. Second, my house has plenty of space, way more than you’ll get at a hotel. Plus, you will have full access to a kitchen.” He had been looking back and forth at both of us, but then turned his full attention to Savannah. “Besides, with your morning sickness, you are going to be much more comfortable in my twenty-five-hundred-square foot house rather than a 600-square-foot box with a mini-fridge.”
I felt my steely resolve crumble.
I’d temporarily forgotten my sister was pregnant.
Did that make me the worst future aunt ever?Probably. And how did Jack know? I’d have to unpack that later.
I’d never admit it to his face, but Jack was right, dammit.
Savannah felt shitty enough as is, but then add on the crap with our mother and a flooded house, and she deserved to have things be as comfortable for her as possible.
She hugged him quickly and then gave me a look that said, “Don’t fuck this up for me, Whit.”
“Thank you, Jack. We really appreciate it.” Savannah walked toward the car. “Speaking of morning sickness, which is reallyall-day sickness, I need to eat something.” Jack opened his car door and let Savannah take a seat while we waited for the plumber to do his thing. I procured a protein bar from the bowels of my purse and handed it to my sister before placing a call to Katie and suggesting Savannah get in touch with her insurance company.
Jack turned on the car and blasted the heat so that Savannah could keep warm. I moved towards the sidewalk, pacing back and forth as my phone dialed Katie.
“Katie Kooney,” she answered in that strange, recently acquired southern accent of hers.
Still, my shoulders loosened a tad at hearing her voice. Probably the first time in history hearing from Katie actually lowered my blood pressure. I didn’t want to leave a voicemail and risk delaying the home buying process by another day.
“Katie, it’s me, Whitney Rose. Listen, I’m calling because I want to make an offer right away on the first house we saw today.”
