Page 5 of Find Me in California

“I’ll volunteer more hours.”

“When?” Lenore peers at her through thick lenses. “You’re already putting in twelve-hour days.”

Julia throws up her hands. “I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.” She has to—she doesn’t have other options. She’s exhausted her income sources.

“Even if you could find the time, I still can’t honor our deal.”

“Lenore . . .”

Lenore slumps over her desk. “Jules, please. I love your grandmother. Don’t make this harder for me than it already is.”

Harder for her? Lenore’s grandmother isn’t the one getting evicted if Julia can’t make the full payment.

“How much time do I have?”

“End of the month.”

Five days until the full fee kicks in. And not for just the upcoming month, but for every month thereafter. They’ll burn through the remainder of the cash Julia put aside when she mortgaged Mama Rose’s house.

“And if I can’t make the payment?”

“We’re left with no choice but to give her notice. We have several others on the waiting list.”

And the center’s new parent company sees only dollar signs on the ledger.

“We’d hate to lose Mama Rose, but I understand if you see fit to move her to another facility.” Someplace more affordable. Lenore’s suggestion goes without saying.

As much as Julia would love to save money and cut back on her hours, she can’t. She can’t move Mama Rose. For reasons her grandmother refused to share, Mama Rose insisted she spend her remaining days at Rosemont. She begged Julia to promise that under no circumstance would she move her elsewhere unless it was back home for hospice care. She has to live here.

Julia pushes up from the chair. “She’s not moving out.”

“Julia.” Lenore rises with her. “Please listen to me as your friend. You’re already overextended, and you’re practically broke. You told me yourself. You’re also not being fair to yourself.”

A small price to pay. She made Mama Rose a promise and she intends to keep it.

“I’ll come up with the difference.” Who knows how.

Julia leaves Lenore’s office in a daze, her mind grappling for solutions and coming up empty handed. It isn’t until she reaches her grandmother’s room that she remembers. She forgot to tell Lenore about her conversation with Matt.

CHAPTER 3

MATT

Dave wraps a putrid yellow scarf around his neck. “Your grammie has some wild shit.”

“Get off her stuff.” Matt yanks the scarf from Dave and shoves it in the box. Dave showed up twenty minutes ago, as Matt brought in the last of Elizabeth’s boxes, stacking them on the side of the garage opposite his Porsche 911, between the side wall and the ’67 Chevy Chevelle he’s rebuilding. He sliced open and dug through a few boxes. When he couldn’t find a note from her, he gave up on the rest. Childish of him to thinkGrammiecared enough to write him a letter explaining how she got into this scrape.

He closes the box flaps. “Don’t ever let her hear you call her that.” Matt let slip “Grandma” once andGrandmotherHolloway grounded him for the weekend.

“Until a hot minute ago, I didn’t know you had a grandmother. You never mentioned her.”

“Nothing worth mentioning.” Ten-plus years of friendship with Dave probably does warrant a mention or two. But Matt chooses not to talk about the eight years he spent with Elizabeth or why he had to move into her house, because he’d rather forget it ever happened.

Dave leans against the workbench where Matt stores his tools. “When do I get to meet this mystery woman?”

“Never. And consider yourself lucky,” Matt adds when Dave screws up his face. “Toss me the packing tape. It’s behind you.”

Dave tosses over the tape and nods at the boxes. “What are you going to do with those?”

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