today, April 16, turned into tomorrow, April 17. He was a CPA, a damned good one if he did say so himself, and he had been working round the clock since January 1 to meet his clients’ needs. He’d made a lot of them happy and a few of them sad when he pointed to the bottom line that said, REFUND or PAY THIS AMOUNT!
Gus walked across the driveway, wondering where Elaine was. It was nine fifty-five, and she wasn’t home. The jittery feeling between his shoulder blades kicked in again when he saw no sign of his car. He frowned as he walked toward the back entrance of his house, the house his grandmother had bought for him. It was a beautiful four-thousand-square-foot Tudor. He shivered when he thought about what she would say when she found out he’d added Elaine’s name to the deed in one of those tonsil-kissing moments. For months, he’d been trying to find the courage—no, the guts—to tell his grandmother what he’d done. He knew she’d go ballistic, as would his two aunts. None of them liked Elaine. No, that wasn’t right, either. They hated Elaine; they could not stand her. And Elaine hated them right back.
Elaine said his grandmother and the aunts were jealous of her because she was young and beautiful and had stolen his love away from them. He’d never quite been able to wrap his mind around that, but back then, if Elaine said it, he tended to believe it. With very few reservations. His grandmother and the aunts had been a little more blunt and succinct, saying straight out that Elaine was a gold digger. End of discussion.
The strain between him and his beloved zany grandmother and dippy aunts bothered him. He had hated having to meet them on the sly, then keeping the meeting secret so he wouldn’t have to fight with Elaine and suffer through weeks of tortured silence with no tonsil kissing and absolutely no sex. Elaine held a grudge like no one he knew.
He owed everything to his grandmother. She’d raised him, sent him to college, financed his own CPA firm, then helped him again by buying him the beautiful house that he now lived in. With Elaine. And no prenup.
His grandmother had never once asked him even to consider paying her back, even when he’d tried.
He loved her, he really did, and he hated the situation he was in. Tomorrow or the day after, regardless of how it turned out, he was going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with his wife and lay down some new rules. Family was family, and it was time that Elaine realized that.
Gus opened the gate to the yard, and Wilson came running to him. Wilson was the one thing he’d put his foot down on. Elaine said dogs made her itch and sneeze. Well, too bad; Wilson was his dog, and that was that.
“What are you doing out here, boy?” Gus tussled with the German shepherd a moment before walking up the steps to the deck, which was located off the kitchen. The low-wattage back light was on. He didn’t need Wilson’s shrill barking to alert him to the pile of suitcases and duffel bags sitting outside the kitchen door. His suitcases. Six of them. And two duffel bags. All lined up like soldiers. Next to the suitcases was a pink laundry basket with Wilson’s blanket and toys. He knew even before he put the key in the lock that the door wouldn’t open.
“Son of a bitch!” He looked at the hundred-pound dog, who was barking his head off and dancing around the pink laundry basket. The jittery feeling between his shoulder blades had grown into a full-blown, mind-bending pain.
The words gold digger flitted through Gus’s mind as he tried to peer in through the kitchen window. The only thing he could see was the faint greenish light coming from the digital clock on the microwave oven. So much for that glass of wine, never mind a home-cooked meal.
“You shoulda called me, Wilson,” Gus snarled at the dog. As though what he said was even possible. The big dog barked angrily, as if to say, What do you think I’m doing out here?
“Let’s check the front door.” Wilson nudged Gus’s leg, then slammed himself against the door. The envelope stuck between the door and the jamb fell to the floor of the deck. The dog backed up and sat on his haunches. “Aha!” Gus said dramatically as he