Page 68 of Under the Lights
She’d thought the bench area was a mess, but the stands were ten times worse. It’s a good thing she wasn’t handing out tickets for littering tonight, or they would have had to host another fund-raising festival so the good sloppy folks of Stewart Mills could pay their fines.
As far as Kelly was concerned, they shouldallget trophies when it was over, although Jen’s should probably be the biggest. The town had pulled together and dug as deep in their pockets as they could—and ithadmade up the bulk of the fund—but they wouldn’t have made it without Jen’s tireless pursuit of gifts and donations from outside Stewart Mills.
Screw trophies, she thought. Maybe her mom would bake them a cake. A big chocolate cake with not a speck of blue, white or gold to be seen.
“Hey, Kel, take a break,” Gretchen said, patting the spot on the bleacher next to her when Kelly got close enough to hear her. “Talk to me for a few minutes.”
Kelly didn’t want to talk about that kiss anymore, so if that’s what Gretchen was after, she might as well keep picking up garbage. Half the town had asked her about it or commented on it as they made their way out of the stands. She’d even gotten a few congratulations, as if his kissing her in public meant they were engaged.
“I just want to be done with this.”
“I have a question, and now seems like a good time to ask it, since we’re alone.”
With a weary sigh, Kelly surrendered to the inevitable and sat down. “If it’s about Chase, the answer isI don’t know.”
“It’s not about Chase, but we can circle back to him and that kiss afterward.” She glanced sideways and caught Kelly’s expression. “Or maybe not. But I wanted to talk to you about the farm.”
That sounded serious, and Kelly set the garbage bag down next to her feet. “Is everything okay?”
“As okay as ever, I guess.” Which meant on the verge of losing everything, but never quite hitting rock bottom. “But Gram’s medicines are starting to add up, and there are more doctor appointments. Even with her assistance, her medical costs are going to nickel-and-dime us out of house and home. So I was thinking about renting out a room.”
“Renting it out to who?”
“Anybody who needs a room.” Gretchen shrugged. “I’d advertise it. But I wanted to ask you if there’s a way to do... like a background check or something on people? I don’t know what you’re allowed to do as favors for people. Or if there’s an organization that does it for a small—very small—fee, maybe you could point me to it.”
“The chief really liked your grandfather—hell, he even worked on the farm for a while when he was a teenager, if I remember right—so I’m sure he could help you a little, but are you sure you want to do that? How does Gram feel about having a stranger in the house? She’s not a woman who takes well to change.”
“It wouldn’t necessarily be a stranger, though. There are a lot of people losing their homes right in our town, never mind surrounding ones.”
“Because they have no work, Gretchen. They’re losing their homes because they can’t pay their mortgages or rent. If you rent a room in your home to somebody you know and then they can’t pay, are you going to be able to evict them?”
“I just need a little more income coming in, and I think that would be the easiest way to do it. If I move into the room next to Gram’s and rent my room, it has its own bathroom and everything. No kitchen, obviously, but you know how Gram loves to cook. Maybe there could be an extra charge to eat with us and not worry about kitchen privileges.”
“I’ll be honest, Gretchen. It makes me nervous. Especially if you just get random strangers answering an ad. I can’t decide if I’m more worried about you renting to a friend who can’t pay you or renting to a total stranger.”
“I’m just thinking about it right now. I can only do it if Gram thinks it’s okay, and if I know you or the chief can warn us about any red flags. I’m not going to have somebody potentially dangerous in the house with her. But it’s not something I’m planning to do tomorrow or anything.”
“We can talk about it again, and we’ll do up an income projection and a pros and cons list to make Jen happy, and see if the risk and inconvenience is really worth it.”
“Thanks. Now let’s circle back to Chase and that kiss.”
“I’m always circling back to Chase,” Kelly said in a quiet voice. “I can’t believe he did that.”
“I thought it was sweet. And very romantic, like a scene out of a movie.”
“And that’s bad.”
“It is?”
Kelly sighed and gave her friend areally?look. “Of course it’s bad.”
“Oh, were you two not doing the fun sex thing anymore?”
“We were doing the fun sex thing earlier today, as a matter of fact. But we weren’t doing theflaunting our fun sex in front of Stewart Millsthing at all. Or we weren’t supposed to be.”
“So you haven’t taken your relationship to the next level? Like the actual calling it a relationship level?”
“No, and that was never the plan. You know that.”
