Page 37 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

“You were off with Xander, and I wanted to have this discussion with Ari out of the house.”

That sobered Kennedy right up. “What’s going on, Maggie?”

“As you know, I’ve been in close contact with Robert about the state of Mom’s finances. In particular the trust responsible for paying the property taxes, upkeep on the house, and other expenses associated with having this much acreage.” She paused and sipped at the coffee. “It seems Mom took a great deal out of the trust over the last decade or so to pay for college expenses, not only for us, but for quite a few other fosters.”

Pru’s hands laced around her coffee mug. “How much?”

“A lot. Which would have been bad enough but could’ve been recouped. Except the bottom fell out of the stock market last year.”

“So how much is left?” Kennedy asked.

“Not even enough to pay off the lien. It may rebound some eventually, but given the economic forecast for the country the next few years, we’re going to be on our own covering all those expenses, for a while at least.”

Kennedy read between the lines. “So we could lose the house.”

“It’s not quite that dire yet. Athena and I will help as much as we can financially.”

Pru wasn’t rolling in it with her massage business, and, of course, Maggie assumed Kennedy had nothing to contribute financially after the way she’d lived. She had some, but given the scope of what they needed, it might as well have been nothing.

“Why do you have that tone like there’s more bad news?” she asked.

“Because there is.”

“There’s something worse than possibly losing the house?” Pru asked.

“Mom’s life insurance had lapsed. The renewal got lost in the shuffle while she was dealing with the adoption, so there won’t be anything incoming there either.”

Pru just closed her eyes. “We were counting on that.”

“The important thing that Robert keeps emphasizing is that with the probate, we have time to come up with some kind of a plan. I’ve got to catch up on work as soon as I get back to L.A., but I’ll keep working on this. Meanwhile, it might be worth going through the loft more thoroughly to see if there really are any antiques up there worth anything. It wouldn’t make much of a dent, but it would give a little bit of a buffer for normal expenses.”

“We’re not so bad off,” Pru insisted. “Now that I’m back to work, I’ve got steady income again.”

“And I’m not destitute, despite what you may think,” Kennedy said. “I haven’t been a leech before, and I’m not going to start now.”

Maggie looked chagrined. “I don’t think you’re a leech. And if I’ve made you feel like I do, I’m sorry. This whole situation has me upset.”

“I know. There are a lot of unknowns and a great deal of this is entirely out of your control. You don’t handle that well.” Understatement of the century. “But there’s one thing I handle better than anyone else in this family—and that’s maintaining the optimism that it will all turn out all right in the end, even if we don’t know how. I’ve lived my life by that for ten years, and I haven’t been wrong yet. I don’t plan to start now.”

“I don’t think optimism is going to carry the day here.”

“My sunny, can-do attitude isn’t the only thing I plan to throw at this situation. I’m going to brainstorm and help you come up with a plan.” Kennedy rolled on before Maggie could utter the Thanks, but no thanks on her tongue. “I know I don’t have your business training or financial knowledge, but I do have a lot of life experience in a lot of different areas. It may be that I can think of something outside the box.”

She thought of the book option. Yeah, that was definitely outside the box. But when and if that happened, it would be a long time in the future. As little as she knew about publishing, even she was aware it was a slow process. They needed an influx of cash now.

Maggie was silent a moment. “Well, nothing has popped for me inside the box, so go for it.”

“I intend to. And in the meantime, I’m headed into town.” Kennedy shoved

back from the table.

“What? Now?”

“Yes, now.”

“For what?”

“I’m going to find a job.”

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