Good for You: A Novel (25)

But as infuriating as Wyatt was, now that he was sitting in front of her, she didn’t feel that same pure, uncomplicated hatred toward him.

Which made the situation a lot more difficult to parse.

“What did you want to talk about?” she asked after Mari left. “You mentioned the house?”

Wyatt took his sunglasses off and placed them on the table. Aly gulped. Clearly, he was preparing to tell her something terrible. Otherwise, why would he make a point to look her in the eye? “Yeah, so, Luke left you money.” He said this offhand, like he was mentioning that he was allergic to shellfish.

“Is your sole mission in life to shock me?” said Aly. Why was she just hearing about this now? And why didn’t she know how to feel about it? On the one hand, maybe she could afford something other than a banana for her next dinner. On the other, she didn’t want anything associated with Luke’s death.

“Like I said, I tried to call you. As Roger probably told you, Luke made me the executor of his estate. I think there are terms on the inheritance—you don’t get it all at once. It’s not a ton.”

A ton, she thought, bitterness seeping back into her thoughts. Wyatt Goldstein had no idea what a ton was for her.

“That’s because most of Luke’s money went into the house—it cost him nearly two million,” he continued.

Two million dollars? Aly could barely comprehend that number. So if she sold . . . she’d be a millionaire? She wanted to be excited, but the lump in her throat felt a lot more like dread.

“Still, to your comment the other day about being in a tough financial situation, you’re probably not,” said Wyatt. “Or at least not the way you think you are. Because there’s also some kind of life insurance coming your way, but apparently that takes forever to process, and I . . . Uh, I got a late start on it. I’m sorry.”

He did look sorry, if not sheepish, but the ground beneath Aly felt like a waterbed. None of this should have come as a surprise to her. Luke had money, and he was good at making plans; of course he’d taken out an insurance policy.

And yet.

“Are you okay?” asked Wyatt, reaching forward and touching her arm. “You look kind of funny.”

“I’m fine,” she said, pulling away from his touch. “And how I look is none of your concern.”

“Okay,” he said evenly as he put his hand in his lap. “Sorry.”

“What does this have to do with selling Luke’s house?” she asked after a moment.

He reached into the back pocket of his shorts, then slid a check across the table. “This is for you.”

With some reluctance, Aly unfolded the check. Thirty thousand dollars? “For the record, that’s a ton of money,” she said, shaking her head with disbelief.

“Maybe it is,” conceded Wyatt. “It’s at least enough that now you don’t have to do anything sudden about the house. I don’t know why you decided to come now, and obviously you don’t have to tell me. But I know Luke wanted you here—he made that clear in his will. And though I don’t really get it, he wanted me here, too. I know it’s not right for me to stay long-term, but I’d like to be here for the summer, at least.”

So Wyatt was fully admitting that his only plan was to not have one. Aly met his gaze across the table, then quickly turned away. So many emotions swirled inside of her, but the only one she could name was overwhelm.

“I just think you should at least stay through July,” he blurted. “You have to give it a chance.”

Hadn’t that been exactly what she’d been trying to do the past several days? What’s more, she had a job to get back to. A life. And now, with thirty thousand dollars she’d have enough money to find a new place to live. Anyway, why did he care what she did?

“Luke never did anything without thinking it through,” added Wyatt.

Before Aly could respond, Mari reappeared, a tray balanced on her left palm. “Two margaritas and some cheese puffs. And Aly—we should catch up while you’re in town.”

Across the table, Wyatt looked at her steadily.

“I’d love that,” said Aly, glancing away from him and up at Mari. “We’ll have to do it sooner than later, though, because I’m leaving next Friday.”

Except . . . what if Wyatt was right, and Luke had wanted her to be here?





FOURTEEN


“Aly? You there?”

“Jada?” Aly could have wept with gratitude as she put her phone to her ear. More than a week had passed since she’d been involuntarily placed on leave, and now, finally, one of her coworkers had reached out. “How amazing to hear from you!”

“Yeah, you, too. I’ve been meaning to call. How are you?”

Aly had always thought that phone conversations were inherently awkward, but she swore she could hear something . . . tense in Jada’s voice.

“I’m good. Really good. Taking care of some family business,” she said cheerfully, stashing the vacuum in the closet. “And of course, actual business, too.” The truth was, she’d struggled to work on her plan for the magazine and had taken to deep-cleaning the house instead. But talking to Jada would help get her back on track.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” said Jada. “It’s been a weird time for everyone. You didn’t hear it from me, but there’s talk that they’re considering making the website a full-on shopping portal. Like, every single thing featured would be for sale. Can you even imagine?”