Troublemakers Mess With the Wrong Girls novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Lake Cabin

Dennis hung up and stared at the screen.

"Somebody bought my mortgage," he said. "It was the bank, and now it isn't. They sold the note to a private holder, and the new one wants everything in thirty days."

"Who?" Dad asked.

"They won't tell me. It's an LLC."

Grandma gripped the arm of her chair. "Dennis, what does that mean?"

"It means I need four hundred thousand dollars, Ma."

He looked at me.

He had nobody left to blame but me.

"This is you," he said. "Your little show on Saturday. You told the whole street I couldn't pay."

"You couldn't pay," I said.

"You've ruined me!"

"Dennis," my mother said, gently. "Sit down. You'll fall."

He didn't sit.

He took Grandma by the elbow and walked her out through our kitchen to the car, and she let him, looking back at my father over her shoulder.

The front door shut hard enough to rattle the pie plates.

For a long moment nobody spoke.

"Well," Mom said. "Who wants coffee?"

I stared at her.

"Mom. A stranger bought his loan. Aren't you worried?"

"I'm interested." She stood and began stacking plates. "Interested is different."

Caleb carried the plates to the sink without being asked.

Mom said, "Thank you, Caleb," in a voice that had nothing in it, and I noticed that he didn't meet her eye.

I put it down to nerves.

After dinner, on the porch, he held the screen door open for me and said, "Come up to the lake with me."

"Now?"

"Tonight. My family has a cabin on Lake Erie, two hours east. Nobody's there until spring."

"I have a shift at five."

"I'll drive you back at three." He rubbed the back of his neck. "You've had a week. I'd like you to stop being furious for one night."

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