Page 97 of Love It or List It
Austin dragged himself out of bed and found Will in the kitchen glaring at the open fridge.
“You trying to cool down the whole house?”As the words came out of his mouth, Austin realised two things.One: He sounded like someone’s parent.Two: Snark was probably not the best way to ingratiate himself to an emotionally fragile grumpy teen.
“It’s not like the fridge is doing anything else useful right now.”Will glared.
Right.Because Austin forgot to go grocery shopping yesterday.He was pretty sure they didn’t have milk, cereal, or bread.“I can get to the store—” Austin started.
Will finally slammed the door shut and huffed.“If I leave now, I can stop at Timmies.”
Probably a good idea.“You have cash?”
“Of course.”He rolled his eyes.
Austin did not grump back.He hadn’t even found the source of the ammonia smell yet, and already he wanted to go back to bed.“Okay, well, that’s breakfast solved.I’ll get groceries before I go back to the hospital.”
Will paused on his way to the door and asked as if he didn’t care about the answer, “Is Joe coming home today?”
“Probably,” Austin said.“I haven’t heard from him yet, but yesterday they were confident that he would.”
“Good.”Will continued on his way out.Austin supposed he should be grateful that Will actually yelled out a “Bye!”before he slammed the door behind him.
In a state of foolish optimism, Austin checked the fridge and found nothing he wanted to eat for breakfast either.
With a sigh, he shut the fridge and figured he might as well take a page out of the kid’s book and leave the house for breakfast.But first he should find the source of the smell.
It was cat pee.It had to be cat pee.But how one of them had managed to pee on the wall, Austin had no idea.
Sighing, he grabbed a garbage bag and a roll of paper towels.Once he’d sopped up the mess and then washed the walls and the floor—all the while carefully not thinking about what he was cleaning—Austin washed his hands ten times and dressed.
He checked his phone before leaving and again once he reached the grocery store, but there were no updates from Joe.
The first text arrived while Austin was in the middle of the bread aisle.Joe was conscious but not yet discharged.Austin heart-reacted the message and then put his head down to get shit done.
Unfortunately, between his lack of sleep and his anxious desire not to miss anything from Joe, concentrating proved difficult, even if all that required his attention were groceries, laundry, and animals.
It was just about lunchtime when his phone rang.Austin lunged for it—it must be Joe.
Starling Bell.
Austin slumped.He didn’t want to talk to Joe’s best friend right now.He’d been keeping her updated, and he didn’t have anything new to say about Joe’s condition.
Then again, she’d never called before.
Worry gnawed at his belly.He wasn’t sure what emergency would make her call Austin, but something had to be—
“Hello?”
“Austin, hi.”Starling’s tone sounded heavy.
“Shit—I mean.Uh, what—what’s wrong?”Jesus.
Starling barked a laugh.“Yeah, I guess calling you isn’t subtle.”She sighed.“Look, I hate to do this now.I mean, I would hate to ask anyway, but especially right now when Joe’s out of commission—”
“Starling, what’s wrong?”Austin’s heart couldn’t take this beating about the bush.
“I need my money.Or the money you owe me for services rendered.”Austin cringed.“Ugh, sorry, that sounded—” Another sigh.“Sorry, sorry, I’m not usually so bad at this, but I’m really—I know I agreed to wait until you guys sold the house, but—”
“Maybe you could tell me about it?”Based on the rambling, Austin figuredsomethinghad happened.He’d wondered what they would do if they changed their mind about selling—something he and Joe should probably talk about soon.Until now he’d figured they could cross that bridge when they came to it.Or didn’t come to it.Or didn’t sell it.
