Page 2 of Lakehouse Mistletoe
Helen shook her head. “No, that’s impossible. Carl has been working late hours. He has had no time to go to the casino. Besides, he’s not a gambler.”
Joy typed in a few more things. Her printer started spitting out paper. She gathered the sheets and held them out for Helen. “I think you should go home and talk to Carl, Helen.”
Helen glanced at the papers in her hand. Not only was the checking account overdrawn, but the savings had a balance of zero dollars.
“Helen, will you be okay? Can I get you anything?” Joy asked quietly.
Helen couldn’t believe what she was looking at. No, this couldn’t be right.
Numbly, she got up, thanking Joy, and made her way to the car. She didn’t remember driving home or pulling into the driveway. She didn’t remember sitting on the couch waiting for Carl to come home after work.
The moment she heard the front door open, she snapped back to reality. Grasping the bank statements with trembling hands, she walked to the foyer.
“Hey, honey. I saw where you called. I’ve been slammed at work all day and didn’t get a chance to call you back. I had two crowns, a chipped tooth that needed bonding, and the rest of the day was full of regular appointments.” He bent, kissed her cheek, and tossed his keys in the milk glass bowl on the foyer table. “What’s for dinner?” He walked past her into the kitchen.
Helen followed. “I didn’t cook dinner.”
He brightened slightly. “Let’s go out. There’s a new steak house that just opened. Everyone is talking about how good the filet is.” He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. Unscrewing the top, he took a long drink.
“We can’t go out to eat,” she said, a quiver in her voice.
“DoorDash it is then!” He smiled and pulled his phone out to pull up the app.
“Carl, we can’t use DoorDash either.” She held out the papers. “My debit card was declined at lunch today. And when I went to the bank I found out why. We are overdrawn. Carl. We have no money.”
The smile slid off Carl’s face.
She expected him to tell her she was wrong. That it was a mistake. But he didn’t.
“It’s not what you think.” He held his hands up defensively.
She shot daggers at him. “What I think is that you’ve gambled away our money.”
He shook his head. “I just had a bad run of luck. I can fix this. I can. I just need some luck.”
Helen crumbled into the chair as his words of “It’s not as bad as you think” and “We can recover from this” rushed over her like white noise between her ears.
“Carl, you don’t gamble. I’ve never so much as seen you play bingo. How long have you been going to the casino? When were you going to tell me that we are broke? When were you going to tell me you had a gambling addiction?”
He shook his head. “I am not an addict. You just don’t understand.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I was hoping to fix it before you found out. But don’t worry. I can handle this. I just had a bad blackjack streak.”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “Carl, you can’t handle this. You are the reason we are in this mess.”
The doorbell rang. Carl, grateful for the interruption, headed to the foyer. He opened the door and Jeff Minton, their neighbor, was standing there looking quite concerned.
“Jeff, what can I do for you?” Carl asked.
Jeff pointed over his shoulder. “Carl, there’s a guy out here stealing your Mercedes. I already called the police.”
Helen shoved past Carl and looked out in the driveway.
She looked at her husband and glared. “He’s not stealing the Mercedes. He’s repossessing it.”
Chapter 2
Three Months Later
Helen looked around at the near empty house that she and Carl had built after getting married. And the lifetime of memories.
