Author Note: I love the reviews! Thanks also for the favorites/follows. :)
Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.
Time Out
Ch10
I dragged myself off the couch, dusted myself off, locked up the house, and fought my way back through the shrubbery to my SUV. Once back in my hotel room, I stripped off my filthy clothes and flopped down on the bed in just my bra and panties. Spread out in my thinking position, I let my mind drift. I woke awhile later feeling refreshed and I also had a new plan.
The whole purpose of the road trip was to get the hell out of Dodge (or Trenton) for awhile and figure out where I wanted my life to go. There's no reason I couldn't do that here. I was sad to see the road trip part go, but maybe I can still do part of it after I get the house squared away. The house was going to need work before I could sell it. Hopefully it was as structurally sound as it looked and it would just need cosmetic stuff. Aunt Elizabeth was apparently quite the collector, so I would have to go through all her stuff. As much as I wanted to just toss it all, she was family and she made me her sole beneficiary. I feel obligated to go through it all.
Since there were still several hours of daylight left, I decided to get started with something I knew how to do. I pulled on a pair of jeans, an old t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. I stopped at Home Depot and bought a push mower, weed eater, and some hedge clippers as well as a couple gas cans. Buying an SUV was a good thing. I managed to get it all in the cargo area. I filled the gas cans at a nearby gas station and headed for the house. I was going to do battle with that yard. I started with the front yard since it wasn't as big, so I didn't think it would take as long. A few hours later, I was dripping with sweat and ready to keel over from a heart attack. I really needed to get in shape. This was ridiculous. The grass and weeds were all mowed down to one level now. I weed eated around the house and sidewalk. I trimmed those gargantuan bushes along the front steps so I wouldn't scratch myself up going in the house anymore. Despite my pounding heart, I thought I did a pretty good job. I was glad I'd thought to take a few pictures before I started so I could do the before and after thing. There was a huge improvement already. I was too out of shape to tackle the back yard today, plus it was getting dark. I sat on the front steps, waiting for my heart rate to go down and chugged a bottle of lukewarm water.
I unlocked the front door and wrestled it open with a screech. I was going to have to do something about that door. I made my way to the back of the house, where I'd earlier spied a potentially usable bedroom. There was no sense in continuing to pay for a hotel room if I own a house. I pushed open the door and nodded. It needed to be cleaned, but I could sleep here. I imagine it was Aunt Elizabeth's room. Ground floor room for an old lady who probably couldn't handle stairs too well in her later years. The bedding was dusty and looked a little moth eaten. Considering she passed away a few months ago, the place went down hill fast. Or maybe she couldn't handle the upkeep herself and had no one to look in on her to do it for her. That was a depressing thought. I decided to stop at Walmart to pick up some cleaning supplies and new linens after I checked out of my hotel in the morning.
The next morning, I packed up my belongings and Rex and checked out of the hotel. I drove down Morton Avenue a few blocks until I reached the Super Walmart. I stocked up on a boatload of cleaning supplies, some new linens, and did some grocery shopping as well and cringed as I swiped my credit card at the checkout. Is it ever possible to leave Walmart without spending more than you'd intended? I needed to call Mr. Holmes to see if some of my inheritance money could be released soon to work on the house. My little nest egg from 'The Rug' capture wasn't going to go far on this house.
I called Holmes' office when I got to my house, but was thwarted when his receptionist told me he was still out of the office with his sick daughter. I wasn't going to be able to do much without some money, so my plans to call a contractor got put on hold. I unloaded the back of the Explorer and lugged everything in. I feel like it's officially my house now, since all my clothes are here and Rex is living on the avocado green kitchen counter. I decide to start in the bedroom and move on to the bathroom so I'll be able to sleep somewhere clean and get clean somewhere clean. I managed to pry open some windows in an effort to get some fresh air moving around and broke out my cleaning supplies.
Generally I don't like to clean, but this was probably needed for my continued good health. I took more 'before' pictures before I started. As I stripped the bed, the sheets literally shredded in my hands so I put them straight into a garbage bag. I started emptying the dresser and free standing wardrobe of clothing and shoes. All underwear I tossed immediately. Everything else in the room I sorted through, making two piles for either trash or Goodwill. After that, I took down the curtains, which were in reasonably good condition, and went in search of a washing machine. Finally I found one in the basement. It and the dryer were actually pretty new, so I was confident there wouldn't be some sort of disaster when I fired it up. I tossed in the curtains and some detergent and started the cycle before wandering around the basement. Unlike many older homes, this house had a full basement with a fairly tall ceiling and a cement floor. There wasn't even much junk down here. Maybe I could buy a treadmill and put it down here. There's no way that my yard work yesterday should have kicked my ass. If I start running, that will help. And if I decide to go back to bounty hunting eventually, being in better shape will be a good thing.
Five hours later, my new bedroom was clean and smelled fresh. My new white 400 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, down pillows, and blue and green quilt were on the bed. The freshly laundered curtains were a little wrinkly, but hanging back up. The all white bathroom was as sparkling as I could make it, considering its age. The claw foot tub looked ancient and needed to be painted or re-glazed or something, but it was usable. I hung my new super fluffy blue towels on the rack and tossed down the matching blue bath mat. It was starting to feel like home, or at least these two rooms.
Once I had some money freed up, I was going to have to have a contractor add another bathroom or three. This place had, unless I miscounted, something like twelve bedrooms, yet only one bathroom. That will not work for anyone. I know what it's like in my parents' house with only three bedrooms and one bathroom. What a nightmare. The bedrooms were also going to have to be rearranged. There were a lot of them, but they were tiny and I didn't see a single closet in any of them. Who's gonna want a house with no closets and bedrooms that might not fit even a double bed?
My new bedroom window overlooked the deep backyard, which was as overgrown as the front yard had been. I decided to finish off my day by trying to tame the weeds and grass back there. I could see a small building, hopefully a garage, but it was too overgrown to get to it. A few hours later, I was feeling even more out of shape than yesterday, but the yard was done. It would need more work of course, but at least it was all one level and I could reach the garage. I had actually accomplished quite a bit today and I felt proud of myself. It was enough for me, and I decided to call it a night after I ate a sandwich and sent my mandatory message to Rangeman.