I smiled. “Sorry.”
“Apology accepted.”
“How’s my bathroom?”
“What’s that?” She made whirry noises into the phone.
“You’re breaking up.”
“Good-bye, Mom.”
“ ’Bye,
In truth I wasn’t all that worried about my bathroom. I knew my mother would have everything under control.
Eventually.
I called the hospital again. Mr. Cabrera was still having tests run. The doctors were trying to determine whether to operate on Mr. Cabrera’s ankle or to just cast it.
What I hadn’t told my mother, and what hadn’t been spread around the Mill yet, was that the doctors suspected Boom-Boom had been under the influence when she crashed.
Of what, remained to be seen.
I started for my truck to grab the design plan when I spotted Meredith Adams marching my way. I turned and speed-walked away.
“Ms. Quinn! Ms. Quinn! I know you hear me.”
I wanted to start sprinting. Two things stopped me. One was that my body was an aching mess between being knocked down by BeBe the other day and sleeping on that chair last night, and the other was I knew Meredith was tena-cious. She’d probably chase me.
So I stopped.
“I assume you have all the proper permits to be working here?”
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Kit had double- and triple-checked all the permits. We’d had to pull a few strings, and Kit even paid a little under the table to get it done, but everything was in order.
“Don’t you have better things to do?” I asked.
Her cheeks turned red. Probably not from the heat. “Your disrespect for the rules of this neighborhood is abominable.”
I looked over her shoulder as she lectured. A small white four-door pulled up behind the utility trailer. I knew that car.
I squinted as Mrs. Krauss got out of the car, tugged on something.
A black something. A big black drooling something.
I started for the car, but Meredith stepped in front of me.
“I have work to do,” I said.
I caught Mrs. Krauss’s eye. She looked upset. Again I tried to step around Meredith.
Again she blocked me.
I thought about pushing her down, but didn’t want to be sued.
I heard Brickhouse say something in German, and BeBe took off, galloping toward us at full speed.
“Eee!” I screamed.
Meredith spun, saw BeBe, and dashed up the Grabinskys’
front steps, plastering herself against the front door.
I braced myself for impact and was surprised when BeBe bypassed me and chased after Meredith.
Thoughts of more lawsuits flew through my head until another German phrase cut through the air and BeBe came to an abrupt halt and sat at the bottom of the stairs.
Brickhouse trudged up the lawn, handed me the leash.
“Are you okay?” I asked, despite myself. She looked horrible, with no makeup, white spiky hair every which way, and sad, sad eyes.
“I cannot do it.”
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“Do what?”
“Stay away. I tried. All night, I tried. But I cannot. He needs me and I need him.”
