The Homewreckers(139)

“Well, damn,” Hattie said.

“It’s okay. The assistant DA says my statement can be included in the sentencing file they give to the judge. It might not make a difference, but at least I made the effort. And you know what? The minute I walked out of that office, I felt like a huge burden had been lifted. No more guilt, or shame. Literally, I felt lighter.”

Hattie hugged her best friend. “Cass, I’m so proud of you.”

“I’m kind of proud of me too.”

“We should have a girls’ night tonight, to celebrate,” Hattie said. “We could do Mexican, and if you’re nice, in between margaritas, I’ll let you help me finish tiling my kitchen backsplash.”

“You’re working on your kitchen again? What brought that on?”

“Boredom, maybe? I was so proud of the kitchen we did over at Chatham Avenue, I thought, what’s stopping me from doing that in my own damn kitchen? We had a couple boxes of tile left over, and I already had the granite for my countertops, it’s been sitting in the backyard since…”

“Since Hank died,” Cass said gently. “The clocks stopped at your house the day he died.”

“They kind of did,” Hattie agreed. “I didn’t see any point in fixing up the house just for me. But this past week I’ve had this crazy surge of creative energy. Anyway, so you’ll come over tonight, right?”

“Actually, I might already have plans.”

“Might? What kind of plans?”

“That depends. There’s a guy I think I kind of like, and he asked me out, but I need to clear it with you first.”

“Me? I’m not your mom. You don’t need a permission slip from me to go on a date.”

“I kinda do,” Cass said, looking guilty. “The guy is Jimmy.”

“Jimmy Cates? Our roofer?”

“Formerly your Jimmy Cates,” Cass said. “I won’t go if…”

“Of course you’ll go,” Hattie said. “We only dated for, like, five seconds. Jimmy’s nice, but turns out he was a…”

“Icebreaker?”

They both got a laugh out of that. “It was never gonna work out for us,” Hattie said. “But you two? I can totally see you together.”

“You really don’t mind?”

Hattie’s cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID.

“It’s Carolyn Meyers,” she said. “Fingers crossed she’s got good news.”



* * *



“Hattie!” the realtor exclaimed. “We’ve got an offer on your house.”

“Thank you, baby Jesus,” Hattie said. “I’m at the office with Cass and Zen. I’ll put you on speakerphone so they can hear.”

“Hi, ladies,” Carolyn said. “We have an all-cash offer on Chatham Avenue. Which means no appraisal, no mortgage approval, and a quick close.”

“What’s the offer?” Hattie asked.

“Eight seventy-five,” Carolyn said. “I know it’s less than we hoped for, but they can close immediately, with no stipulations.”

“Do they know the, uh, history of the house?”

“They know, and they don’t care,” Carolyn said, chuckling. “They live in Michigan now, but the husband grew up here. He’s Holland Creedmore’s first cousin.”

“Ahhh. The despised Yankee cousins,” Hattie said.

“Exactly. He’d given up trying to deal long-distance with Mavis and Holland Senior. And he was fit to be tied when he found out the city condemned the property and sold it to you. He’s been following your progress on social media. He called me after he saw the listing photos.”

“That’s incredible,” Cass said.

“I just got off a long phone call with him,” Carolyn said. “He and his wife are ecstatic about having the house back in the family. They love how you brought the place back to life, and what they love most is the prospect of never having to deal with their Savannah cousins again. So, what do you say?”

Hattie had been taking notes during the conversation, underlining the sale price and adding exclamation marks.

“The answer is yes. Absolutely. I accept.”

“Great. I’ll write up the contract and email it as soon as we get off the phone. Sign it, and shoot it back to me. What’s a good closing date for you?”

“How’s tomorrow?”

Carolyn laughed. “That’s maybe a little premature. I know they’re planning on flying down this weekend. Let’s see if we can do the walk-through and closing next Friday.”

“That works for me,” Hattie said.



* * *



Hattie disconnected the call and grabbed Cass’s hands. “Sold, sold, sold!” Hattie sang out, as they did a clumsy ring-around-the-rosy waltz around the office. “We sold the house! We sold the house!” They danced over to Zenobia and coaxed her into joining them. “Sold! Sold! Sold!”

“All right, y’all, that’s enough foolishness for me,” Zen said finally, extricating herself from the other two women. “I got work to do.”

“Promise you’ll call me first thing tomorrow,” Hattie whispered to Cass. “I wanna hear all about your date with Jimmy.”