All At Once by Lindsay Harrel

Author:Lindsay Harrel [Harrel, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Aster Press

Chapter 6

Mr. Hannigan had promised. She was supposed to have four more days.

Gabrielle’s fingers trembled as she hunched in the high school’s hallway. Maybe she’d heard wrong. She replayed the voicemail she’d found on her phone after a full evening of summer camp lock-in activities.

“Ms. Wakefield, I just wanted to call you back and let you know that I can’t lower the price for you. In fact, because it seems clear you’ll be unable to meet my price, I’ve agreed to sell to someone else. I signed the purchase agreement this afternoon. I’m sorry, but I have to do what’s best for me and mine. Good luck to you.”

Nope. Her ears had worked the first time.

She slumped against the stark white wall decorated with dumb motivational posters. Like the one opposite her that showed a snail leaning over the edge of a leaf, the word OPTIMISM splashed across the top.

Yeah, well, she’d been optimistic and look where that had gotten her.

Without a new home for Liam and Jenna.

How was she going to tell her sister the news? Especially since she’d come home after this morning’s activities to find Jen out of bed, fully dressed, hair and makeup done, and paint sample cards spread on the kitchen table. Her sister had chattered on and on about the best colors to paint the walls in every room of the Berry Street home, some of them harkening back to the way Mom had decorated it.

The moon cut a sliver of light across the hallway floor outside the gymnasium. It was far too late to call Mr. Hannigan back. But what could she say anyway? He was right. Much as she’d tried to scrape together the extra cash, she didn’t have it.

Maybe this was yet another dream she was going to have to let go.

Tyler poked his head around the door to the gymnasium. Inside the space the camp kids, leaders, and extra parent volunteers were camped out in sleeping bags and pajamas while watching a Disney movie after a fun night of pizza, games, and awards. Last Gabrielle had seen, most of the kids had already fallen asleep.

“There you are. I thought you were going to the bathroom.”

“I got a little sidetracked.” She forced a smile. No need to bring up the disappointment over the house, not when it was only 10:00 p.m. and they still had the whole night ahead of them—if she could stay awake. It had been a rewarding five days with the kids, but that plus working at the restaurant most evenings had sucked her energy dry. Gabrielle stifled a yawn.

Tyler tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You still up for our date?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” He took her hand and led her away from the gym. Not being overly large compared to those of other towns, the high school consisted of one interconnected building. They took the long hallway through a set of double doors and emerged into the main floor with rows of classrooms and lockers. The gleaming linoleum floors smelled of some sort of citrus wax.

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