Page 10 of Giddy Up, Daddy

Did she have the worst luck today or what?

“I saw you come home. Open up or I’ll be forced to use my key.”

Great. She hated that he had his own key to her apartment. But he was her landlord, she guessed.

Opening the door, she stared up at him. He was tall and thin. His hair was a deep black that was at odds with his wrinkled face.

“Mr. Brandt, how can I help? The rent isn’t due until the end of the week.”

“Yes, but I’m going to have to ask you to vacate the apartment.”

Shock filled her. What?

“Why?”

“Because of the noise. I told you I couldn’t have any noise. My birds are very sensitive to noise.”

“What noise?” she asked.

“All that racket you were making this morning with the alarm.”

“It was the smoke alarm. I burned my casserole.”

“Smoke? There was a fire?” he asked, sounding alarmed.

Shit. Why had she said that?

“There was no fire,” she replied hastily. “It was just smoke.”

“Is there damage? There has to be damage.” He shook his head. “No, no. I can’t have you living here. You might set the whole building on fire. You need to be out by the end of the week.”

“You . . . you can’t do that! I have nowhere to go.” Panic bubbled in her stomach.

This was the worst thing that could’ve happened to her.

“Should have thought of that before you tried to set the building on fire,” he grumbled before shuffling away.

She leaned against the door frame, her legs weak.

What was she going to do now? She didn’t want to have to go back to living in her car.

But it seemed that was rapidly becoming her only choice.

This day just kept getting worse and worse.

Stafford glanced down at the address on her application and up at the building. He didn’t come into Frogmore a lot and he wasn’t familiar with this area. The building was rundown, but it looked like it had once been a large, grand house.

He walked past a rusty old car parked next to the footpath.

Wait. That was her car.

He hadn’t taken a good look at it before, but now that he was, he didn’t like what he saw.

The tires appeared to be bald. There was rust everywhere. Was it even safe to drive?

Frowning, he walked up to the front door and knocked.

An older man with black hair opened the door and scowled at him. “What do you want?”

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