Home Again_Starting Over by Becki Willis

Author:Becki Willis [Willis, Becki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clear Creek Publishers
Published: 2016-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

***

“My, my. Two visits in two weeks. I am, indeed, a lucky man.”

Carson greeted them with his customary warmth and grace. Today he wore a pale blue linen outfit, loose and comfortable and totally out of place in River County, Texas. On him, the look worked.

“I’m sorry to drop in on you on such short notice,” Madison said. She had called while waiting on Genny.

“No problem. I have just finished my last class of the afternoon. I have another this evening, but you have my undivided attention for the next hour and a half.” When his eyes fell upon Genny, Madison somehow doubted his claim.

“I promise not to take that long. I just have a few questions I wanted to ask you.”

“Certainly.” With a sweeping arm movement, he ushered the women inside and up the stairs.

Once they were settled again in his private study, Madison told him the reason for her visit. He was so busy ogling Genny, she wasn’t sure he listened.

“I wanted to ask you about a fire you experienced about five years ago. I understand you lost your new home to the blaze?”

“Yes.” One word, but his heavy sigh said so much more. “The touch-up paint was still wet. I did the walk-through that afternoon, signed the papers, and took the key. I planned to move in the very next morning. That night, the entire house burned to the ground.”

“That’s horrible!” Genny’s soft cry was filled with empathy.

“What was the cause of your fire?” Madison asked.

“Faulty wiring in the exhaust vent over the stove.”

Madison perked up at the mention of the vent. It sounded much like the case with Montelongo’s and Ray Sams’ motor home. “Oh? Do you happen to know who the manufacturer was?”

“Absolutely. Allied Industries. I took them to court and won. It seems they had installed an experimental exhaust system without my knowledge. They had applied for a patent on the product but it was still in the approval stages and not fully tested for residential use. Long story short, I lost my house but won the lawsuit.”

Allied Industries. Her research revealed they were partners with A+ Fire Systems on a revolutionary new system that turned out to be not-so-revolutionary.

“I’m very sorry for your troubles,” Madison murmured. “I suppose you had insurance?”

“Yes, absolutely. It was a condition of my loan, actually. My policy covered litigation costs, so in the long run, I came out ahead, at least financially.”

“Yet you did not build again on the same lot.”

His expressive mouth turned downward in a frown. “That turned out to an odd situation. After everything was said and done, the bank came back with a claim that the lot ownership reverted to them. It was a small clause, buried deep within the boilerplate of the contract, that said if for any reason the intended use of the property was changed or altered, I had thirty days to notify the bank in writing. Without the proper notification, the land used as collateral would revert to the bank.”

“That’s awful!” Genny cried.

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