Love in Plain Sight by Jeanie London

Author:Jeanie London
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780373607976
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

NORMAL PEOPLE PROBABLY didn’t have heart attacks when they found yellow notices taped to their front doors. I wasn’t normal. Not for as long as I could remember, so the sight of that thin sheet of paper made my blood pump and my head dizzy.

I should have known to expect something like this. Today was going to suck no matter what I did.

Reaching for the notice, my hand trembled. My hand that controlled a pencil boldly, or a marker, or a paintbrush. It shook as I took the notice from the door, careful not to take paint with the tape.

The words were handwritten, an artistic scrawl. I did not expect that. My heart pounded so hard I could only hear a loud bump, bump, bump, so I jumped when a voice said, “Rent check bounced. Where’s your aunt?”

Dead, dead, dead.

Spinning toward the person who had caught me unaware, I realized the super had been stalking the floor waiting for someone to come home.

“Working.” The strangled sound that came out of my mouth made him look at me weird.

The superintendent was a thick-featured man with an accent who always smelled like booze. Debbie used to say he probably used vodka as aftershave. If I were sketching him, I would have decked him out like Russian mafia, someone who would get the job done with a lead pipe and his beefy hands. Not sure why that image stuck when he never wore anything but dingy T-shirts and jeans that didn’t cover his butt. To be fair, he was effective at evicting deadbeat tenants.

Which I was not.

But he had startled me, and threw me off. I usually reacted faster, but I didn’t like being surprised.

“Your aunt, she’s working a lot. I never see her.” He waited for me to fill in the blanks.

I shrugged, trying to pull off an act as a stupid kid who didn’t know anything, but I was coming across as nervous. He sensed it. I could tell by the way he narrowed his gaze.

“So there’s no trouble with the money?” he asked. “You and your aunt, you have it to pay the rent?”

“Yes, yes. I don’t know what happened.” That much was true. The money was in Debbie’s account. I transferred it there myself. “I’ll tell her. Something must have happened with the bank. She’ll fix it. Can she give you another check?”

He considered me with his googly eyes, deciding if I was trustworthy. Debbie’s checks had never bounced before. I didn’t know what had happened, but we both knew the bank had already closed.

“If the money is there, I’ll tell the bank to put the check through again tomorrow. You owe me thirty dollars for a late fee. If it bounces again, that’ll be another thirty. And your bank will charge you a fee every time also. Better to pay the rent on time.”

That announcement seemed to make him happy. Misery loves company, Debbie used to say. I agreed.

“Do you want a check for the late fee?” I asked.

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