Chapter 2

“What did you do?” After I get off the phone with Edna, I track Cole to the kitchen, launching myself at him as if I were a predator and he is my prey. “Did you blackmail her? There is absolutely no way my grandmother would’ve left you the house. It’s not yours.”

He stands on the opposite side of the island with the most casual expression on his face I’ve ever seen, like we’re discussing dinner options and not our futures.

“Legally, I’m afraid, it is. It’s both of ours.”

“No.”

He turns away from me, opening the double doors of the fridge and sifting through what’s inside. “Look,” he calls over his shoulder, “like it or not, the house was left to both of us. So now we have to decide how to move forward.”

“I will sue you. I’ll take you to court and sue you. I’ll say you manipulated her. That you took advantage of her.”

Clearly unfazed, he retrieves a tray of fruit from somewhere inside the fridge, sniffs it, and places it on the island, popping a grape into his mouth. “Go ahead. Be my guest. You can try to fight it all you want, but you won’t be able to prove anything because there’s nothing to prove. I didn’t manipulate Vera. Hell, I was just as surprised as you clearly are. But come on, B. Pick your jaw up off the floor, and let’s move on.”

I snap my jaw shut on command, glaring at him. “Why would she leave the house to both of us?”

He shrugs one shoulder. “Great question. One that I would like an answer to as well, in fact. What did my mom tell you?”

“She said Vera didn’t tell her anything either. She had no idea, aside from knowing that she was the executor, until she read over the will with her lawyer.”

“Vera hadn’t lost her mind,” he says. “She was coherent when she died. Stubborn as ever. Whatever choice she made, it was hers. She had a reason.”

Something flutters in my chest. “You were with her?”

“Not on the day…no. But leading up to it, I was here with Mom. She didn’t leave her side.” He looks down as he says it, as if he’s apologizing, though for what I’m not sure. He knows Vera and I had a strained relationship more than most people, since he had a front-row seat for most of it. In fairness, his view of our relationship is one of the only ones that exists, since Vera and I were never seen in public together. She couldn’t be bothered to do anything for me. Edna was always responsible for whatever I needed.

I cross my arms. “Okay, well, what are we going to do about this situation? It’s ridiculous.”

“What would you like to do about it?”

“I’d like you to do the right thing and give me my house.”

“Our house.”

He’s infuriating. I groan, squeezing my hands into fists at either side of my head. “I’m not planning to sell it,” I say firmly, stomping my foot as if I’m stamping the statement onto the tile beneath my feet, making it true. If selling Bitter House means handing it over to Cole, I’ll stay until the walls crumble all around me.

“Glad we’re on the same page about that.”

I blink, tilting my head to the side. “Really? You weren’t hoping to sell it and flit off into the sunset somewhere, instantly rich?”

He leans across the counter, staring at me. “Okay, one, I don’t flit anywhere. I’m not a finch. And two, did it ever occur to you that I actually enjoyed my time here? That I might want to keep this house and couldn’t care less about the money?”

“No.” The answer comes in an instant. “In the ten seconds I’ve had to process this, I guess I didn’t consider that you’d lost your mind and might actually want to stay here. It’s impossible.”

His dark brows draw down. “Why?”

I try to force the million reasons out of my mouth all at once and end up stammering over my words. “Because…because we hate each other. We can’t stay here, and there’s no way in hell I’m leaving you with the house. I could…” I try to think, pacing the tile floor. “I could buy you out.”

I couldn’t. I can’t. I’m flat broke, working an entry-level office job and splitting a two-bedroom apartment with my best friend and her two cats. I’d have to check my account balance before I bought a coffee at this point, let alone a house.

I’m equal parts relieved and dismayed to hear his answer.

“Not interested.”

It’s as if I’m a sheet of cracking glass—each sentence from him, each stupid smirk, a hint more pressure from his palm, another splinter. “Cole, please… Let’s just be civil about this. It’s my house, not yours. You have to know that. How can we fix this? You know you don’t want this place. Not really. It’s a lot of work.”

“I don’t mind work.”

I flatten my palms on the countertop. “It belongs to my family.”

“It belongs to the two of us now, not your family. In fact, Mom said Vera only left Jenn, Zach, and Jonah money. No property. I’m sure they were thrilled to hear that.”

“They weren’t close. She stopped talking to any of them years ago. I was all she had.” My voice cracks at the truth of that statement. I was all she had, and I was never enough.

He looks like he wants to say something, to argue and further push me toward breaking, but instead, he turns his attention back to the food in front of him, meticulously picking out a strawberry, studying it, then taking a bite.

“We can’t do this. Please. Please be reasonable. I just lost her. Don’t put me through this.”

“I’m not doing anything, B. I’m really not trying to be difficult or cruel, but Vera left me the house, too. I was the one who stayed here after you left. Maybe that meant something to her?—”

“After I left?!” I shout, casting my arms out to my sides. “As if I had a choice. I was kicked out.”

His tone remains calm and cool. “Regardless, I was here. I’ve been here. I stayed.”

A shard of ice slides down my throat. “You stayed? In this house? With Vera?”

“My mom was here until the end. I visited, yes. I was here when you weren’t. And I don’t know what sort of beef you two had, I don’t know what happened, but what I do know is that I loved this house. I spent just as much time here as you did, and if Vera wanted to leave it to me, I’m not going to question it. I have no interest in selling and, from what I understand, we can’t do that until everything with the will is settled anyway. Probate, or whatever. So we’re stuck together.” He rounds the island slowly, eyes on me. “I can’t afford to buy your half from you outright, and I don’t want to, but if you don’t want the house anymore—if you want to work out some sort of payment arrangement for me to buy it from you, we can talk about that, too. Or…”

“Or?” I stare at him.

“Or we could make this work. It could be a vacation home or…we could be roommates. Something. At least until we decide how we want to move forward.”

I cross my arms. “I’m not going anywhere. You’d change the locks.”

One corner of his mouth quirks, and he makes no effort to deny it. “Then I guess we’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future.”

“I guess we are.” This is the worst day of my life.

“I’ll be in my old room then, roomie.” He walks past me—saunters, practically—and I listen as he jogs up the steps.

What the hell were you thinking, Vera? There’s no way this ends without one of us being murdered and the other in jail. Maybe that’s what she was hoping for. One final kick to the gut courtesy of the woman who was supposed to love me.

His door shuts upstairs, and I squeeze my eyes shut. A knock on the front door interrupts my internal panic, and when I cross the room, hurry down the hall, and open it, I find a woman with a familiar face, though I can’t quite place her.

“Oh. Hi.” Her gray hair is pulled back in a bun, and she’s wearing a floral blouse and jeans, looking perfectly put together despite the tears in her bright blue eyes. Her chin quivers. “Bridget, right?”

I grip the door tighter as I notice two other women walking up behind her, one dressed in a calf-length dress and the other in yoga pants and a T-shirt. They’re all around Vera’s age, though a bit younger—sixties or seventies if I had to guess. One dusts her silver hair back from her eyes, while the other uses the bouquet of flowers in her hand to shield herself from the misting rain that has set in.

“Do I know you?” I ask the woman at the door, taking half a step back.

“Not really, no. I haven’t seen you since you were very young,” she says, waving a hand as if to shoo away my worry. She points behind her. “I’m Jane. This is Lily.” The dress and a head full of long, silver waves. “And Cate.” Yoga pants with a graying-blonde bob. “We’re the neighbors. We were friends of your grandmother. Of Vera.” Her voice cracks at the sound of my grandmother’s name, and she puts a hand to her chest. “We’re so very sorry for your loss.”

“Oh.” She looks as if she wants me to open the door, but I don’t. I’m not about to be swindled by these women. Vera didn’t have friends aside from Edna, whom she paid to stick around. She was perpetually alone, but I don’t say any of these things. Instead, I give a small, sad smile and say, “Thank you.”

“Well, anyway, I know you probably don’t want three old ladies interrupting you when you’ve just gotten here and are dealing with so much. We just wanted to stop by and see if there’s anything we can do to help you get settled in. Truly, put us to work if we can help with anything you need. Grocery runs, cleaning, sorting through Vera’s things. She was very special to us. It’s the least we can do. Oh, and we brought some flowers and a few meals.”

It’s the first time I notice the rectangular cloth bag sitting at her feet, and she bends and lifts it up. “There are two pans in here, one is lasagna and the other is chicken enchiladas. You can pop one right in the oven to warm it up and save the other in the freezer. I wasn’t sure what you liked, but we wanted to do something.”

The women join her on the porch now, handing me the flowers and the bag containing the meals. It’s heavier than I expected, and when I peer inside, there are two glass Pyrex baking dishes, one stacked on top of the other.

“Do you want us to help get everything inside?” the dress-wearing woman, Lily, asks.

“Um—”

I feel rather than hear or see him as he approaches me from behind. There’s a shift in the air, and the three women’s eyes lift from mine to something behind me.

Jane’s face splits into a smile. “Cole. Well, there you are!”

He slips past me, giving each of the women a familiar hug. “Jane, looking beautiful as ever.” He hugs Cate and Lily next, peppering them with similar compliments.

“You old charmer.” Cate swats his shoulder, though Lily looks unimpressed and only hugs him with one limp arm.

“We just brought over flowers and some meals for you two,” Jane tells him, gesturing toward the items I’m now holding. Her eyes crinkle with concern. “How are you holding up?”

To my surprise, it’s Cole she’s looking at, not me. They also don’t seem to be the least bit shocked to have found us both here. It’s almost like they knew we’d be here, that Vera told them her evil plan.

Cole holds out his hands, prepared to take the food from me, but I turn away, so he shoves his hands into his pockets instead without missing a beat. “We’re taking it day by day,” he says eventually. “It was really nice of you ladies to drop this off. I’ll help Bridget get it all inside now, if you don’t mind. But we’ll see you soon, I’m sure.”

“Of course. We’re always around,” Cate says.

“If you need anything, you just let us know.” That’s Jane. “Don’t be strangers.”

“Soak those dishes,” Lily calls.

Cole nods and waves, ushering me back into the house. When the door shuts, I dart to a window, waiting and watching to make sure they’re leaving. When I see the three women depart, I turn back to find a smug-looking Cole staring at me. “Can I help with something?” He holds out his hands.

“No.” I huff. “Who are they? Why do they know you so well?”

“They’re neighbors. Friends of Vera’s.”

“Vera didn’t have any friends.”

He sighs. “Look, it doesn’t matter, okay? They were just trying to be nice. Do you want me to help you put everything away or not?”

“No. I’ve got it.” I storm past him and into the kitchen, placing one tray of food in the fridge and the other in the freezer.

Why do I once again feel like an outsider in my own home?