Page 101 of Property of Stone
Why the hell did he have to be so damn hot and not some ugly troll? It would make resisting him easier.
After setting the full mugs on the table, Stone settled back into his chair with a grunt. “What’s goin’ on with your house?”
“The agent’s having the first open house this weekend.”
“You gotta be there?”
She could already see his thoughts churning aboutsending protection along with her if she had to be in attendance. “No. The only thing I need to do is let her do her thing. Once it’s sold, I’ll have to show up to sign the papers at closing.”
She couldn’t find a new place without being free of that debt. Being self-employed didn’t help, either. Without a steady paycheck, it made getting a mortgage on her own even more difficult.
In reality, the longer she stayed with Stone, the more she could save. However, that agreement with him was also a debt, just of a different nature.
“Think it’s gonna sell fast?”
Taryn sighed. “I sure hope so. The mortgage and monthly expenses are sucking the funds from my account faster than I can earn them.”
“Shit’s hangin’ around your neck.”
Like a damn albatross. “It is. And it’s dragging me down. I need to get out from under it as soon as possible.”
“It insured?”
“Of course. It’s required when you have a mortgage.”
A smile slowly crossed his sinfully handsome face.
It was both breath-taking and worrisome. “I don’t like that smile.”
He shrugged and chugged more coffee. “Insurance money would pay off your mortgage and any other debt hangin’ over your head, right?”
He sure liked to simplify complex issues. But that wasn’t always possible.
“What I would get would go toward paying off the damn mortgage, Stone. That debt doesn’t simply disappear when the house does.”
He frowned. “You owe more than the house is worth?”
“No, but since Vic had taken out a second mortgage, anyof the equity we had built up disappeared.” And she also had no idea what happened to that money. Since she got the house in the divorce, she somehow got stuck with that extra debt.
The divorce attorney she picked was also on her long lists of mistakes. While she’d learned from that one, she hoped she never had to go through a divorce again.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“I second that. But please don’t get it in your head to burn down my house or anything. I don’t need to be charged with insurance fraud.”
“For arson?”
Her eyebrows rose. “For aplannedarson.”
“You ain’t no fun,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair and extending his long legs under the table until they brushed against hers.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re right. I don’t find going to jail fun. How about you?”
Before he could answer, small feet were heard heading down the stairway.
It was time to end this conversation and begin making the kids breakfast. Then hope Stone’s “conversation” with them went off without a hitch.
When it came to Sunny, Taryn might as well don some armor instead of an apron.
