The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane (Life in Icicle Falls) Read Online Free PDF

wanted to pay for the paint, but they’d still said no. Hard to accept help, even from someone who’d become a friend.
    “If we’d had a son, I’d have wanted him to be just like you,” Millie said.
    Too bad his old man wasn’t around to hear that. He looked at her in mock surprise. “I’m not?”
    She smiled at him, shaking her head. “You’re such a cutup. But I do want to talk to you seriously when you’re done. If you’ve got a minute.”
    “For you? Of course.” She nodded briskly and hobbled into the house, while he went back to mowing her lawn, wondering what she wanted to talk about.
    He found out half an hour later when he’d finished, and she invited him inside to sit on her worn, blue velvet sofa.
    “Mike and I have been talking. We think it’s time for assisted living, for both of us.”
    “Aw, crap.” They’d wanted to stay in this place until they died. Not practical, of course, but Todd still felt bad for them.
    He remembered how his grandpa had fought the whole business of aging, tootling around in his Caddy, trying to take out half the population in his small town. After Gramps had run a stop sign and T-boned a truck, Mom had finally convinced him to turn over his car keys, but it had sent him into a depression that lasted for three months. The only thing that pulled him out was getting rides to the senior center from the widow down the road who drove a 1950 MG. Cruising around in a sports car with a sexy seventy-year-old had eased the pain.
    What was going to ease the pain for the Halversons? They didn’t have any kids. All they had was each other, and with Mike barely recovering in the nursing home, Todd wasn’t sure how long that would last.
    “We were hoping you might like to buy the house,” Millie said timidly.
    Just what he needed—another old Victorian to fix up.
    She must have seen his hesitation. “We’ll give you a good deal.”
    “Millie, I don’t want to screw you guys over. But, well, I’ve got a place.”
    “I know,” she said. “But only last fall you were talking with Mike about finding some more business investments. And this is commercially zoned.”
    Except that he couldn’t see himself setting up some fussy little shop. “Aw, Millie, I appreciate the offer but...”
    “Prime location. You could rent it out to someone wanting to have a shop.”
    Of course, she was right. He’d be a fool not to scoop this place up. “What do you want for it?”
    The number she gave him was pathetically low. Good Lord, did the woman have no idea what property values were in Icicle Falls these days? “Uh-uh. I’m not out to steal from you.”
    “Well, then, make me an offer.”
    He did.
    She shook her head. “Too high.”
    He had to laugh. “Mrs. H., you do know that this isn’t how you do a real-estate deal? The idea is to get the most money you can.”
    “You’ve been awfully good to us since Mike had his stroke—even before. We’ve talked it over and we’d like to help you a little.”
    “You’ll need that money,” he said. “Assisted living isn’t cheap.”
    “We have money, dear,” she told him. “We just need to unload this house.”
    Yeah, right. Who did she think she was kidding? He named another figure, and she countered. At last he threw out a final number he thought he could live with. It was still a bargain, but at least not so much of a steal that he’d feel like a robber. “And that’s my final offer.”
    She nodded. “Done.”
    “Do you want to talk to your husband about my offer?” Not that Mike could talk so well these days.
    “No, I have power of attorney. Anyway, we’ve already discussed this. He’ll be relieved. I’ll have our lawyer draw up the papers. If you can arrange financing, we can get this settled pretty quickly.”
    “There’s no rush,” he assured her.
    She smiled sadly. “Oh, yes, there is. My sister and her husband are coming here next week to help us move. We found a lovely place in