Page 25 of Wreck Me

Nico mentally leapt for joy. This was working! He was doing it! “Does that mean you’re willing to negotiate? I fully acknowledge that you have put money and effort into the house.I will treat you fairly.” He winced as a second, stronger muscle twinge struck.

Her forehead wrinkled in concern. “Are you in pain?”

“It’s my back. It doesn’t like all this bending over.”

“Sometimes it pays to be small like me,” she said, but her tone was kind, sisterly. She stood up straight and arched her back slightly. “Maybe stretching it would help.”

As if his back muscles understood English, the mention of the word “stretch” sent them into their biggest spasm yet. He had no choice but to loosen his grip on the projector a little more, but just enough so that he could yaw his torso a smidge to the left, easing the knot.

And that was his mistake.

In a flash, she bent back down and wrapped her thin arms fully round the machine, knocking his hands off in the process. He reached for it again, but with her arms in the way, he could no longer get a solid grip. She pulled the whole thing toward her like a gloating poker player scooping up her winnings and heaved it into her arms. Eyes glinting like green steel, she tossed him a triumphant look before turning and heading toward the truck.

“No!” He attempted to go after her, but his right leg tangled into the legs of the little table, and he stumbled onto one knee. There was nothing more he could do but watch from the ground in helpless defeat and horror as, with the strength of an Olympic weightlifter, she heaved the substantial machine straight over her head and ally-ooped it hard into the bed of the pick-up. He groaned as he heard a mighty crunch. A mushroom cloud of plastic and metal debris rose above the truck bed’s sides and then collapsed back down again with the tinkle and clatter of expensive rain.

Nico pushed himself back to his feet, but his arms hung loose at his sides and his head drooped on his neck. Her display ofenergy seemed to have absorbed his. He allowed himself a deep breath before saying in an exhausted voice, “You really didn’t have to do that.”

“Oh, but I did. I really did,” she said, smiling like Shakespeare’s trickster, Puck. In the near dark sky, her teeth and eyes seemed to glow as if powered internally. “Thatwas our final negotiation. If you have anything else to say to me, you will say it through a lawyer. And if you show up on my property again—not just at my house, but my lawn too, I’m calling the police.”

11

Ginny wanted to slam the front door behind her with enough force to melt its hinges, but all three dogs were jockeying and whining to get out.

“He didn’t bring any veggie dogs,” she groused at them as she used her knees to awkwardly maneuver herself inside and shut the door without smashing any noses or tails in the gap. “Sheesh. You guys are bigger suckers for that jerk than I am.”

The dogs pounded toward the front window, where they placed their front paws on the sill and whined some more. Through the dark, she could see Nico packing up the rest of his stuff.

“Don’t worry,” she said as she pulled the curtains closed. “You’ll never see him again. And if you do, he’ll be headed to jail for harassment and trespassing.”

Mick dashed past her, nearly knocking her down on his way to the bay window in the kitchen. “Hey, careful!” The others followed like the giant lemmings they were. She made her way there and closed that curtain too, but just as she did, she sneezed so loudly the dogs all startled.

“Sorry,” she said to them as she reached for a tissue from the box on the table and blew her nose. She’d been sneezing off and on that whole day, and a soreness was creeping into her throat.

“I must be the only person in LA capable of catching a cold as a complete shut in,” she said aloud as she filled her tea kettle and set it on the stove. And that’s when she remembered the sneeze-shower Sadie had given her two days prior.

With a cup of steaming Bigelow Perfect Peach in her mug and her head beginning to fill with cotton fluff, she sat at the booth and called her sister.

“Heddow?” Sadie said. “Id dat you, Ginny?”

“Crap. You’ve got a cold?”

“Bad one,” Sadie replied.

“Remember how you sneezed on me at brunch?”

“Oh no. I’b so sorry.”

“What have I got to look forward to?”

“The whole shebang. Grant is taking good care ob me. You need anyting?”

“No. I’ll be fine.”

“Try to rest. Watch a moobie maybe.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. She’d just rejected that exact offer from Nico. “Not you, too.”

“Me too? What do you mean?”

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