Small Town Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

the old house.
    Before she could think further about Caleb, her iPhone rang. She glanced at the screen. Charles!
    “Darling,” he said. His voice was deep. “How’s everything going up there in the wilderness?”
    “Oh, Charles! I just got here, and it’s frustrating already. I got up to the house. It’s a mess, and on top of it all, there’s no hot water.”
    “No hot water? Well, call a plumber.”
    Lauren made an exasperated sound. If only he knew! “I did call a plumber, Charles,” she said somewhat sarcastically. “He came and burned himself on the furnace. It was a fiasco! And I still have no hot water. He won’t have the part until tomorrow.”
    “Burned? I hope he’s not the litigious kind. We don’t need a lawsuit.”
    “I can handle it. I don’t think he’s the type, anyway. And I still have to go into town, find a Realtor, and do all the paperwork.” Leave it to Charles , she thought, to think of litigation first. Suddenly, she felt very alone. Although she was not the cloying kind, she heard herself saying, “Charles, do you miss me?”
    He laughed. “You’ve only been gone a day!” he exclaimed. “However, I do miss you, darling. The place is positively desolate without you.”
    “I miss you, too,” she said. “I just want to get this place fixed and listed and get back to the city.”
    “Will you have to stay another night?”
    “Probably one more night. There’s more paperwork to fill out tomorrow.”
    “You said the place was a mess. Do you think it will interfere with the sale?”
    She looked around her. “Well, it just looks like it’s been vacant for a long time. You know, just kind of grimy. Things need cleaning and tightening. The lawn needs mowing. I’ll hire someone to come and at least get that done. That’s probably what my parents would suggest. It’s hard to get a straight answer out of them. If I call them to ask their opinion, they’ll just laugh and say, ‘Do what you think is right, honey.’”
    “Just get it taken care of. Don’t bother your parents with it. They’ll take two weeks to make up their minds. And it’s your house, legally. You can just let them know when the house sells.”
    “You’re right, Charles. They’re such…such hippies!” It was true. It seemed to Lauren that her parents had never progressed beyond the mid-1970s. They had been nomads most of her childhood, moving to different parts of the country as the whim or the weather suited them with what seemed to Lauren very little consideration for her sense of security or comfort. Once, they had actually lived in a tepee. She recalled them always running off to different protests, leaving her behind to stay with her grandmother. They lived outside San Francisco now, in a tiny house powered by a windmill and solar panels. Maybe that’s why she loved the city. The stability of the huge buildings. Her steady, prestigious job. The orderly grandeur of Charles’s penthouse. And Charles himself, ambitious and powerful.
    “Listen, Lauren,” Charles was speaking again, “I’m not sure I’ll be home when you get here. I may have to go to Singapore tomorrow.”
    Lauren’s heart sank. “Oh, Charles, no! You just got back from London the day before I left for here. You’ll forget what I look like! When are we going to get some time together?”
    She heard his patronizing laughter through the phone. “How could I forget what you look like? Those big blue eyes! That glorious hair! That tight little body! I’m an old man, Lauren, and just looking at you makes me feel young!”
    “Nonsense, Charles,” she scoffed. “You’re not old at all.”
    “There’s twenty-five years between us. And two previous marriages of mine.”
    “Yes, yes, you tell me that all the time. And you know what? I don’t care!” It was true. The age difference between them had never bothered Lauren. To Lauren, he represented security like she had never known, growing up as she had with her shabbily dressed,