Just the town in question.
"The houses in the subdivision have really small yards." Tammy dragged her teeth over her lower lip, worrying away at the lipstick I'd let her borrow for the funeral. I'd heard a few whispers about makeup on someone so young but a few hard glares had the talkers shutting their mouths. I wouldn't cause a scene at Loretta's funeral but I'd be damned if I let anybody talk trash about her or her kids, either, regardless of the time and place. "Mama always said we'd have a yard one day."
"So we'll look at the neighborhoods close to the school." The houses there were older but they were also bigger, with good sized yards and plenty of privacy. "Hopefully we can find something with five bedrooms but I'll settle for four."
"Five?" Tammy's eyes went wide. "Why so many?"
"One for each of you and then an office for me." When she continued to goggle at me, I said, "You guys do want your own rooms, right?"
"I guess." Some more chewing of her lower lip before she blurted out, "I've always had to share with someone."
"Yeah, me, too, until I left Cotton Creek." I drained the last of the tea and sighed. "So I'll go look at houses tomorrow. I might be able to convince the seller to let us move in while we're still in escrow, depending on who the seller is."
And on what kind of information I had on them. One of the few upsides to being poor was people didn't pay too much attention to what they said around you. When I was a teenager, I'd known more about the so-called upright citizens of Cotton Creek than either of the two ministers and Loretta had felt the need to keep me up to date on the juicier tidbits. I wasn't above using dirty secrets to get what I wanted.
"Okay." Tammy stood, pausing for a moment before leaning over and kissing the top of my head. "Thanks for staying."
"We're family, honey." I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. "You do what you have to for family."
CHAPTER FOUR
"Why, Jeannie Jackson!"
I had about five seconds to brace myself before Darlene Tibbets, her impossibly black hair piled high on her head and shellacked until it resembled nothing so much as a bowling ball, threw her arms around me and pulled me against her in a smothering hug. She had two inches and two cup sizes on me so when she put her back in to an embrace it truly was like being smothered. A second before I would have had to shove her away or risk suffocation, she pushed me back to arms' length and raked her gaze over me with the same sort of scrutiny I reserved for tacos.
"Honey, I know you just buried your sister and I'm sure those kids of hers are running you ragged but damn-you could have taken a few minutes to put on some makeup." She pursed her lips, her brows drawing down and together over her nose until she was all but squinting at me through her spidery lashes. "You and I are about the same shade. Let me get my bag and we can get you fixed up and presentable."
"Thanks, Darlene, but I couldn't put you out that way, especially when you're working so hard to help me out with the housing situation." You couldn't really call it helping when she was going to get a nice fat commission but it was nicer than saying the only way we'd be the same shade was if I was trying to turn myself in to one of those things from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Darlene was one of the nicest people I knew but she tanned like it was her ticket in to heaven. I wasn't exactly Snow White but I might have passed for her cousin. Easing to the side and tucking my arm in hers, I said, "Speaking of houses, I surely hope you have a few to show me because the kids and I are more than ready to get out of that trailer."
"Oh, I can believe it-I bet y'all are all but sleeping on top of each other." She steered me toward her office, which was really just a back corner of the room in general. There wasn't much call for realtors in Cotton Creek so the sign out front proclaiming the little storefront as the home of Tibbets and Associates was actually just referring to Darlene. Settling me in one of the two visitors' chairs, she bustled around her desk to plop in her own seat with a heavy sigh. "Now, I know you said you were looking at something close to the school."
"I drove around a bit before I came in and noticed about three or four which looked as if they might do." I crossed my legs and smiled. "I take it there are a bunch of folks moving out to the new subdivision?"
"You know how it is-people get a wild hair about needing the latest gadget or gizmo and go chasing after it without stopping to think if it's worth the hassle." Darlene leaned forward and lowered her voice, even though we were the only two people in the building. "Those houses they built? So-called ‘smart' houses. Got built in ports or whatever you call them to charge your electronics and you can control the thermostat with your phone and everything."
"You don't say." I tucked my tongue in my cheek in an effort to hide my amusement at her obvious disapproval. "Kids these days, hmm?"
"Oh, shush, you." She let out a giggle which could have peeled the paint off a car and swatted my hand before sitting back. Turning to her computer, she typed something in using the tried and true hunt-and-peck method, muttering under her breath about stupid machines before flashing me another smile. "Like you said, there are a few which are on the market. Now, you didn't say how much you had been approved for so-."
"Right at three hundred thousand." I couldn't hold back a smile when her jaw dropped and stayed dropped for a solid ten seconds. "I'm not real familiar with prices here in Cotton Creek but I'm thinking that should be more than enough, right?"
"Oh, honey, with that kind of money you've pretty much got your pick of anything and everything." She leaned forward again, her breasts threatening to spill out of her conservative business woman suit. "It's not drug money or anything, is it?"
"Yes, Darlene. I've spent the last ten years crisscrossing the country, delivering meth wherever I go." Either the sarcasm was too much or not enough because her eyes went wide and horrified and she glanced at the phone, clearly wondering if she needed to call Sheriff Pete. Sighing, I said, "It's a joke, Darlene. My business does well and has been doing well for quite some time. You don't need to worry about selling a house to a drug lord."
"You always did have the weirdest sense of humor." If her uneasy smile was any indication, she still wasn't entirely sure if I was joking but she wasn't willing to pass up a sizable commission. She shifted her focus back to her computer screen, tapping a few more keys before clearing her throat. "You said either four or five bedrooms, didn't you?"
"I'd prefer five but I'll settle for four."
Her mouth thinned some and I knew it was the comment about ‘settling'. Darlene Tibbets hadn't been as bad as some of the people in Cotton Creek when I was growing up but she'd always been a firm believer in people knowing their place. It was clear she thought I was stepping too far out of mine. "I've got two with four bedrooms and one with six bedrooms."
"Six?" I frowned. "You're not talking about the old Fisher place, are you?"
"As a matter of fact, I am." She lifted her chin and sniffed much the same way Tammy had done last night. It didn't impress me any more with her than it had with my niece. "I know it's a bit old-fashioned but-."
"How much?"
She blinked. "Excuse me?"
"How much?"
The price she quoted was steep, especially considering the age of the property, but not so steep the kids and I would be living off Ramen and Chef Boyardee while I tried to make the mortgage payments. I nodded and stood. "Let's go look at it."
"Right now?" Darlene stared at me, dumbfounded. "This minute?"
"You said it yourself-the kids and I are practically sleeping on top of each other. The sooner we find a place, the sooner we can move, the sooner we can stop living in each other's pockets." I raised my brows. "Unless you or the owners are opposed to a quick sale."
"Oh, no, no, no, honey, not opposed at all." She hit something on the keyboard which set the printer to whirring as she scrambled to her feet, tugging her jacket down over her stomach. "You know how I feel about the customer always being right."
"Great." I beamed at her. "Let's go."
THE OLD FISHER place had been empty for the better part of twenty years, closed up since Annebelle Fisher had finally had the decency to shuffle off her mortal coil after nearly a hundred years of making every person in Cotton Creek miserable. The only reason it hadn't been broken in to and vandalized was the very real and legitimate fear her ghost would rise up and smite down the offender. The only reason the entire building wasn't falling in on itself was Mrs. Fisher had had the foresight to set up a trust to make sure basic upkeep was provided.