Page 13 of Dreaming of Dawson

“He likes the extra space?”

“He likes everything about life, I think. We take him on long walks in the evenings, and he sits in the shop for most of the day, lapping up all the attention he can get. I’m telling you, it’s a dog’s life.”

Lucky Bentley…

“You didn’t mind leaving the apartment?” I ask, before I become too jealous of my best friend’s pet dog. “You’d lived there a long time.”

“I know,” he says. “But most of it wasn’t happy… except the last few months with Zara. Sabrina didn’t want us to movethere, and never stopped reminding me that she hated living above the store.”

That’s one thing I have to say about Stevie… she never complained about living in the apartment. Even when we were fixing up this place and having to make do with just one livable room upstairs, she just got on with it, while leading me into a sense of false security.

“How are your tenants settling in?” I’m sick of every element of our conversation leading me back to Stevie. This one should be safer… I hope.

“Fine. I learned a few lessons from all the trouble Zara had with her landlord after she moved out of her house.”

“Is that all dealt with now?” I ask. My strategy seems to be working, thankfully. Having Stevie in my head for too much of the time is never a good thing.

“Ezra sent a couple of strongly worded letters to the guy, and he backed down, although he was trying to get Zara to pay nearly four thousand dollars.”

“How much did she have to pay in the end?”

“Absolutely nothing. We could prove she hadn’t done any damage to the house, despite the guy claiming she had, and the contract said nothing about a penalty for leaving early. Ezra made it very clear he had no case, and he gave in. I’ve made sure my agreement for the apartment is much tighter, so there can’t be any misunderstandings.”

“Sounds like a wise move.”

“I thought so,” he says.

“What are they like?” I ask. “Your tenants, I mean?”

“They’re okay. They’ve only been in there for just over a week, but to be honest, I was so relieved to find them, I haven’t wasted too much time getting to know them.”

“Relieved?” I say, my brain slowing down.

“Yes. I need the rent to pay the mortgage on the new house. Sabrina’s still doing her best to milk me dry.”

“At least Stevie didn’t do that to me,” I say. Damn. What’s wrong with me? I must be more sober than I thought. I’d turned the conversation around, and here I am turning it straight back again.

“No. She was fair about the financial split, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah.” I have to admit she was. It wouldn’t have been unreasonable for her to have claimed half the value of the bar. It might have been my inheritance that bought this place, but she gave up a lot for us to get to where we were when she left. Even so, she made no such claim, and we settled on a lump sum that was affordable for me, and adequate for her. I believe it gave her enough for a substantial down payment on a house… the one she now shares with the guy who was so much better than me.

“Have you met them yet?” Tanner asks, confusing me.

“Met who?”

“My tenants.”

“No. It’s two guys, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. They’re not together, just in case you were wondering. In fact, they didn’t even know each other before they moved in.”

“I wasn’t wondering. But if they didn’t know each other, how did they end up living in your apartment together… while not living together?”

“They’d just started working for Ryan Andrews, but they’re both from out of town and were looking for somewhere to live. Peony knew from Zara that we were trying to rent out the apartment so we could move, and Ryan had spoken to her about these two guys and how hard they were finding it to get hold of accommodation. She put everyone together, and we worked it out between us.”

“How fortuitous… and how is it that Ryan Andrews can always find people to work for him, and I can’t?” I say, getting back to my original problem.

“I refer you to my previous answer,” Tanner says, a smile touching at his lips.

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