Page 191 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“Good morning, Mrs. Salonen.”

“It’s just Bells, Mr. Raddison. How can I help you?” I answered.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” he got straight to the point.

Of course. Not sure what else I could have expected. Nothing in my life could ever just be simple.

“What happened?”

“The buyers got an anonymous tip that the soil is contaminated. As you remember, they plan to build a bed and breakfast and turn the land into an orchard. They’re threatening to pull out unless you agree to have environmental testing done, at your expense.”

Yeah right. I bet it was fucking Martha who did it just to be a pain in my ass for not letting her come to Crescent Moon.

“That’s fine, Mr. Raddison, there’s nothing wrong with the soil here. I grew fifty acres of grapes this summer,” I answered tiredly, rubbing my temple against the headache already threatening to explode.

“I thought the same, so I went and looked around for a geotechnical engineer. They’re available in the first week of Dec. Will that work?” he asked.

“But, we’re supposed to close in less than two weeks?” I asked, my stomach sinking.

“There won’t be a closing without this,” he warned.

“Fuck. Okay. I guess if there’s no other way. Can I leave the keys with you?” I asked.

I didn’t want to spend another month here. Everything still reminded me of Cade and the worst mistakes of my life.

“I’ll be out of the state during that time, unfortunately. Plus the engineer usually requests the current owners be there.”

“Of course, they do,” I mumbled. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

I mulled it over for a bit and then went to find Violet. I hated asking her to stay longer, but if I was stuck here for by myself for a month, I might go crazy.

“Hey Violet, where’s Chris?” I asked as I entered the kitchen.

Violet had taken over the preparation of breakfast, lunch and dinner for the four of us. Chris usually helped, though, having taken the cooking classes Mom offered he boys growing up. I took them, too, but nothing really stuck, unless you counted the food that stuck to the pans when I tried to cook.

“He went out to let Titan for a run, while Adam and I made lunch. What’s up? Do I need to mind-link him?”

“Maybe. I just got off the phone with the realtor. Someone made an anonymous complaint saying the soil is contaminated, and it’s holding back the closing of the sale.”

“Fucking Martha,” Violet growled.

“Pretty much my thought, too,” I answered, amused to hear her cursing, and because I had the same thought.

The vile woman ended up hanging around for days, not leaving until the day before Halloween, and throwing a big hissy fit about loyalty and family meaning nothing.

“How can we help?” Violet asked.

“There’s a soil engineer of sorts coming to test the soil and I need to be here for it. I was hoping you guys would stay with us until then, but...”

“But what?”

“It’s not for another three weeks. You’d miss the full moon back home.”

I knew she wanted to mark Chris, and Dad made them promise not to until they got home. I hated putting her in this situation.

“It’s not a problem, Bells. If you need us here, we’ll happily stay,” Violet answered, a little too cheerfully.

I narrowed my eyes before I realized why she must not be wanting to go back suddenly.

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