24.
Riley
“Good morning!” Jeannie said as she and Christine walked into the kitchen, accompanied by their usual explosion of energy. I’d hoped to be out of the house by the time they arrived, but no such luck. Instead, I was standing next to the counter eating a bowl of granola, and I nodded to them, my mouth full.
“I finally have some comps for the RV park to show you.” Jeannie held her laptop in the air, then seemed to notice I was eating. “Come in the living room when you finish and we’ll go over them,” she said.
“All right.” I turned around and I rinsed my bowl in the sink, letting half the cereal slide down the garbage disposal. My appetite was shot these days.
“You know, Riley,” Christine said as she opened the dishwasher for me, taking the bowl from my hand and putting it inside as though I wasn’t doing it quickly enough to suit her. “You haven’t put anything in your father’s office yet. There must be something that you want to keep.”
I was sure there were things I wanted to keep, but the truth was, all I seemed able to do for the past two days was sleep in the daytime and lie awake all night, thinking about Lisa. Torturing myself with the thought that she might still be alive. The last thing I felt like doing was going through my family’s belongings. I didn’t want to look at a vase or a shirt or a pen or a lamp and be flooded with memories. I’d rather have Christine take everything away than face more of my sad and confused feelings.
“I’ll try to get to it today or tomorrow,” I promised.
“Well, it would be good if you could,” she said, shutting the dishwasher, “because we’re going to start slapping prices on everything soon. And it’d be a drag to do all the work of figuring out the value of things and then have you decide you don’t want us to include them in the sale.”
“I know,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
“And what’s happening with your father’s computer?” Christine nudged.
“I’m getting ready to clean the drive,” I lied. I hadn’t even thought about the computer since copying everything to the hard drive.
“And…” Jeannie reappeared in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. She motioned to the long row of built-in cabinets beneath the living room windows. “You were really cooking with your father’s paperwork for a while,” she said. “How’s that going?”
It wasn’t. “I have a lot more to do, but there’s no rush for that, is there? I mean it’s not like his paperwork will be included in the estate sale.”
They both looked at me with the exact same expression: concern tempered by impatience.
“Well, it has to be done,” Christine said, walking past her mother into the living room. “I’ll be in Danny’s room if you need me.”
“Fine,” I said, with a bit too much annoyance in my voice, and Jeannie didn’t miss it. She put a motherly arm around me and walked me into the living room in the direction of the couch. I let her lead me, too tired to resist.
“I know this is hard, Riley,” she said. “I know you’re feeling overwhelmed. You just need to rely on Christine and me a little bit more and not worry about anything. All you need to do—your only task—is to get through your dad’s paperwork by July twentieth when we have the estate sale. And—”
“July twentieth?” I asked. “That’s only a couple of weeks away! You were supposed to check with me before setting a date.”
She looked surprised. “I thought Christine talked to you about it,” she said.
I folded my arms across my chest. “No, she didn’t,” I said, “and you have to change it.”
“We can’t change it, honey. The advertising is already in place, but don’t worry. We’ll have everything ready by then. I promise. Please stop stressing about this, okay?”
I gave in, dropping my arms to my sides. Somehow, I would have to make this work. “Fine,” I said, though I knew my voice made it clear it was not fine at all. I wished they’d picked a date a month away. Or even two months.
“Good.” Jeannie put her arm around me again. “Now, sit down and let me grab my laptop and I’ll show you the comps.”
She didn’t let go of my shoulder completely until I was sitting on the couch. She got her laptop from the table by the door and sat next to me, opening the lid. Hitting a few buttons on the keyboard, she pointed to some listings for land as they popped up on the screen.
“I won’t bore you with all of this because I can tell you’re not in the mood, but by looking at the comps for undeveloped land along the creeks and backing up to the forest, as well as looking at other RV parks and campgrounds, I think we can safely say the land your dad’s park is on, with the improvements, is worth about ten thousand dollars an acre.”
I hadn’t expected it to be that high. “How many acres is it?” I asked.
“Just under twenty. Twenty-five if you include the land Danny’s trailer is on, but I know we can’t touch that.”
“That many?” I pictured the park and its small RV sites. Each one of those sites stretched down to the creek and back to the woods, though, so I guessed twenty acres made sense. “I didn’t realize it was that valuable.”
“Yes, it is. Isn’t that lovely? So I propose we—”
“Jeannie,” I interrupted her. “Do you know anything about my father promising the park to the Kyles?” I was quite sure she didn’t, given her reaction to Tom Kyle being left the pipe collection.
She stared at me. “Where on earth did you hear that?” she asked.
“They told me. The Kyles. They’re upset because he said he would give them the park in a couple of years and they’ve been counting on it. I guess they don’t have much money.”
Jeannie’s blue eyes were even bigger and rounder than usual. “Oh, my God, Riley,” she said. “They’re trying to pull a fast one on you.”
I remembered Danny saying that Tom Kyle was yanking my chain.
“Well, even Verniece said it, and she’s—”
“She’s a sweet old bat, I know,” Jeannie said. “But she’s the one feeding you the load of crap about you being adopted, too, right? Stay away from them, Riley. They don’t care about you, and you really need people around you who’ll support you, not mess with your head.” She tapped her fingertip on my temple.
“But could Daddy have said it?” I asked. “Promised the park to them?”
“No!” She frowned at me. “He didn’t like the Kyles. I admit I’m lost about the checks he was giving Tom Kyle and why he’d leave him the pipes when he knew I could use a bit of that cash.” She let out an aggravated breath. “Although three years ago, which is when he wrote that will, I was in better shape, so it probably never occurred to him I’d be in need. But the idea of him leaving them a valuable piece of property is preposterous.”
My phone rang before she finished her last sentence and I pulled it from my shorts pocket. The number was unfamiliar and it took me a moment to realize it was Danny’s cell phone. I jumped to my feet, amazed he would call. “I have to take this,” I said to Jeannie as I headed for the front door and privacy. Once on the porch, I lifted the phone to my ear.
“Danny?”
“Come over,” he said. “I have something to tell you.”