“Right?” Joey pressed.
“Of course I’ve thought it through,” I snapped. “I’ve done nothing but think about it, Joey. But seriously, at some point I have to follow my gut and my heart.”
His head bobbed back. “So you’ve already decided?”
“Yes, and I’d really like you to be happy for me. In fact, he’ll be here in a few to walk me home.”
He pursed his lips again. “He can walk us home, then. What about Colt?”
“What about him? Why don’t you ask Colt about me and Jack? I think you’ll find he gets ‘us’ a lot more than you do.” I reached forward and took his arm. “Joey, I’m not going to lie, I’m scared out of my freaking mind about embarking on a relationship with him. But if anything goes awry, I’m going to need you to support us, not offer a bunch of I told you so’s.”
“So why do it?” he asked, pained. “I’m not here, I can’t protect you if it all goes to shit. And we really don’t need to be raising our profile in this town. Or for you to be seen like one of those groupies, or whatever they call girls who hang out with actors, with everyone assuming he’s onto his latest piece of ass. We need approval ratings in this town, not judgments.” His eyes flicked away.
“What else is bothering you, Joey?” I managed, trying to stuff down my surge of bile at the idea of people seeing me like he’d just described. “This can’t just be about Jack. If it’s about the town, I already know they raised the property taxes on us. It’ll be a struggle, but somehow we’ll make it, or appeal to get them to lower the taxes a bit. Me seeing Jack shouldn’t effect that. Anyway, we’re going to keep it secret. You know I don’t want to be in the spotlight anymore than you do.”
Joey sighed and drummed his fingers on the polished bar top. “I didn’t want to freak you out, but I got a call from our insurance guy a few months ago. Apparently we’re in a storm surge one area, and with all the freak weather events in the last few years, they’re dropping flood insurance from our coverage, and we’ll have to buy it separately. It’s a fortune. And with our taxes going up too …” He blew out a breath and left the sentence hanging. He didn’t need to finish it. With a huge insurance bill, if we could even pay it, there’d be nothing left to pay the taxes.
My mind whirled.
Brenda popped her head out from the kitchen. “Keri Ann, I have to head out. You okay to close up tonight? Hey, Joey.”
“Hey,” my brother nodded, distractedly.
I waved at her. “Uh, yeah, thanks, Brenda. See you tomorrow.”
She disappeared, and I looked back to see Joey looking desolate.
“Keri Ann … long term, I don’t know how we’re going to keep the house.”
I gulped a breath as my heart took a nosedive. “Why didn’t you tell me before now?” I whispered.
“I am, now.”
“No, I mean, before. You said you found out months ago. There’s no way I can go to SCAD. We’ll need every spare cent for the house.”
Joey squeezed his eyes closed and then pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “I don’t want you to give that up. It’s your time, Keri Ann.”
“But, Joey—”
“No, listen. There’s a small amount left of Mom and Dad’s money. We can use that to pay the insurance this year, and then I’ll take student loans out, too. That’ll buy us a year to figure out what to do. We’ve just got to hope I can convince the town to back us up on an appeal to the county about the taxes.”
“What happens if they don’t and we can’t pay?”
“Well, then they’ll auction it, and someone will be able to buy up the Butler House for the price of just the taxes, rather than what it’s probably worth, being an historic home and all.”
“I wonder who that might be,” I said, then added grimly, “Somehow, I don’t think we’ll have much luck getting the town to back us on an appeal.” The town council, and especially Pastor McDaniel, had been after our home for years. I guessed they finally devised a strategy to make it happen. Why did there always have to be a villain? And my poor friend Jasper had him as a father. I shuddered.
“Look, don’t freak out yet. If we don’t pay them we’ve got until next April before they consider the taxes delinquent, and then if they go to auction it won’t happen until October. After that we have a whole year to redeem the house. So this is a ways away, okay? I just needed you to know what’s going on.” Joey hung his head. “God, I’m sorry, Keri Ann.”
I came around the bar. “What for?” I said and stepped into his big bear arms.