This was clearly the calm before the storm.
Lord help me.
“What kind of trees are these?” she asked.
“These two,” I said, pointing, “are Bradford pears. Nice pear shape and beautiful white blossoms in the spring. This is an ash. Fairly quick grower, lots of shade, and pretty yellow gold foliage in the fall.”
“It all looks so beautiful.”
“Can I ask why you’ve let the yard go all these years?” I’d been dying to ask.
Her small upturned nose scrunched. “Honestly, it’s just one of those things. Surely, you understand.”
Not really. I couldn’t imagine having what looked like a third world jungle for my backyard. But hey, that’s me.
“I don’t know if we’d be doing it at all if it weren’t for the lawsuit.”
I perked up, leaned over my stained desk blotter. “Lawsuit?”
“Neighborhood HOA. Homeowners’ association.”
My eyes went wide. “Really?”
“Really. The fines from not fixing the yard mounted and, well, Bill, he, um, is stubborn and, well . . . here I am.”
My eyebrows twitched. Something didn’t sound right.
Lindsey tsked. “Poor Greta.”
14
Heather Webber
“Greta?”
“Oh! Um, our dog.”
“Your dog? What’s that have to do with the lawsuit?”
She shifted in her chair. “I just meant that even without the lawsuit, it was past time to get the yard done. Greta barely has any room to move out there.” Her hands fluttered.
“Plus, the ticks. You know.”
I fell back against my chair. My eyebrow started twitching again. My eyebrows were my secret weapon against load-of-bull stories. If the twitching was any indication, Lindsey was seriously shoveling me a line.
“Ticks,” I repeated.
“All that long grass.” Her head snapped to the design board. “Is that a fire pit?”
I noted the change of subject. “A ceramic one, yes. For the corner of the deck. We talked about that last time, if you remember.”
“Oh, right. Right.”
Something wacky was happening, but I didn’t know what.
Clearly flustered, Lindsey fidgeted in her seat and couldn’t keep her hands still. Her eyes danced from me to the board to the floor and back again.
This might be the perfect time to get information out of her. “Have you and Bill been married long?”
She smiled. “Twelve years.”
“Really? You don’t look old enough to be married twelve years!”
I was such a liar. She looked forty if a day.
She blushed clear to the roots of her blonde highlights.
“You’re sweet. Thanks. I’m forty-three.”
“Leah was your younger sister, then?”
A cloud passed over her eyes, and for a second I didn’t
15
think she was going to answer me. Finally, she said, “Yes.”
“It must have been hard.”
“Hardest on Riley, I think,” Lindsey murmured. “To lose his mom.”
Kevin too, I figured. He’d grieved a long time for his first wife. Five years.
I put my hands in my lap, crossed my fingers. “What exactly happened to her?”
“Boating accident.”
I knew that already. I pressed. “Did it crash?”
