Scott is right—an empty house isn’t doing anything for anyone. The girls have decided they’d rather be with us in Half Moon Bay than here, usually alone.”
“What I feel terrible about is that this is a beautiful, tasteful home, so carefully decorated, the furniture so thoughtfully selected, and my house, our house, is old and falling apart.”
“Well, maybe we can do something about that,” Justine said. “We can make some improvements. Not a huge remodel. It’s a fine old house, after all. But it needs some repair and I have some savings. Plus this house will sell and I’ll make the mortgage payments until it does, deducting Scott’s share from the equity. He hasn’t made his payment in almost six months.”
“I feel bad putting your beautiful furnishings in our old house with the uneven floors and peeling paint.”
Justine smiled at her and pinched her chin. “We’ll fix that.”
Amber held up a multicolored glass vase and matching plate. “Mom, I found these for you at the market. Can we take them?”
“I think so,” she said. “Write them down. We can take your bedroom furniture and the kitchenware now, but everything else should stay until the house sells. But we need to get rid of some things. There’s stuff here we never use.”
“What about all the stuff in the garage?” Addie asked.
“Hello?” came the sound of Scott’s voice.
“In here,” Justine called. “We were just talking about you. What are we doing with all the sports gear in the garage?”
“I hooked up the trailer. I’ll take that stuff out to clean up and will sell anything we don’t keep. I assume you want your bikes.”
“Yes, I think so, but not all that dune racing or water sport stuff. I assumed you would take all that.”
“Yes, I’ll take it. And you can have the books. But I want the couch.”
“What? You hated the couch. You complained about that couch for years.”
“You did, Dad,” Amber said.
“I like it now,” he said.
“No, he doesn’t like it,” Livvie said. “Someone else likes it. Right?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.
“Red flag,” Justine said. “Whenever he says don’t be ridiculous, it’s because he just got caught in a lie. Has she been here, Scott?”
“Don’t be—” He cleared his throat. “I really like the living room furniture. You can take the master bedroom, dining room, kitchen furniture and the bar stools.”
“She wants the living room, doesn’t she?” Justine asked.
“I want the living room furniture, Justine.”
“Wait a minute,” she said. “This has to be equitable. The sports toys are worth thousands. And you have no use for books. How about I take the toys and you take the books.”
“This is going to be a very long day,” Addie said.
There was a little more arguing and give-and-take until Justine told the girls to go pack up their rooms since there was no dispute there. Addie went to help them. Justine and Scott sat at the breakfast bar and worked things out on paper. Fortunately, there was not a lot of extra room in Addie’s old house so, from a practical point of view, Justine was able to let a lot of things go. She tagged a few books she wanted to keep and claimed the dining room table and chairs but not the breakfront. She didn’t want or need the master bedroom furniture. “I have a feeling there could be unknown DNA on that,” she muttered.
Scott admitted he was planning to sell all the toys from the garage, minus the girls’ bikes.
“We can have an estate sale after the house has sold,” Justine said. “But I am taking the living room furniture and the decorator pieces that I chose and bought. Buy your girlfriend a new living room set.”
“It’s not for my girlfriend,” he insisted. But he blushed slightly and didn’t argue.
Later, Addie helped Justine box up some dishes, pots and serving platters from the kitchen. Scott did the same with glasses, a few countertop appliances and some flatware. He had his trailer, but Justine had a truck coming