Page 34 of Wishing for Love

“Sorry,” he said. “Not sure where my mind was at.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll make a few calls tomorrow and see if they can come do a pickup. I bet they would.”

“If they don’t,” he said. “You can take my SUV or I can take some time off and do it with you.”

“Which defeats the purpose of me doing it for you,” she said. “I’ll figure it out.”

They heard Vana coming down the stairs and then moving around the rest of the house and stopping in the kitchen.

“Do you think I could get a cleaning company to come in before this weekend?” Vana asked.

“Sure,” he said.

“I can take it right out of the cost of the sale of the house.”

Maybe he was cheap, but he wasn’t letting someone else do those things. “Send me the bill so I can see what is being done and go through it.”

“I can do that,” Vana said. “I’ll give you the names of two places we use. They can get rid of all the food and things like that unless you want to take anything.”

He’d already cleaned out the fridge. Well, his mother had. But the pantry was another matter. Just things that he hadn’t thought of back then.

“They can do it,” he said. “My time is limited. Do you have an idea of what you think the house is worth?”

“I think if you list it for six hundred thousand fully furnished, you’ll get a bidding war. It will turn a nice profit since I know Maryn only paid about three hundred for it five years ago.”

Vana would know that and have access to the records.

“Money for Elsie,” he said. “But you said you’ve got someone in mind?”

“I do. I’ll be sure to tell them it will go over asking if we put it on the market and that they should come in strong with no contingencies and a fast close.”

“Thanks,” he said, letting out a laugh, not a funny one either. “I’d appreciate that. I’m not going to shortchange Elsie by any means, but I’ll be reasonable too.”

“We’ll get you top dollar. No worries there.”

“I can clean out the food and other items when I’m here dealing with the clothes this week,” Crystal said.

“You’re going to get rid of the clothing?” Vana asked.

“Crystal is going to call around looking for places to donate and then make sure it’s out by this weekend. She’s Elsie’s nanny and has some time this week.”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Vana said. “I know of a few places if you’d like their names.”

“I’d love it,” Crystal said. He let the two women exchange that information and then walked Vana out after he signed all the documents that he could. He knew the closing might be a bit harder with him being the beneficiary, but his father said he’d deal with it all for the closing and would fly in for the day if he had to.

He’d started to argue and his father had cut him off. Maybe he needed that moral and emotional support more than he realized.

He was glad that he decided to let Crystal come with him, but now he wanted to take his mind off of it all.

“How about some lunch before we go Christmas shopping? Just an early one.”

She laughed. “We can do that. And then that gives us a few hours to shop. I bet that is more than you want to do.”

“You’d win that bet,” he said, grinning.

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ONE OF THE BEST

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