Waiting For Eden (Eden Series) by Jessica Leigh Read Free Book Online Page B

like,” she returned tartly.  “Actually, I’m here because I wanted to talk to you about your property off of Stony Run Road.”
    “I knew it!  Not for sale.  Not ever , tell Ridgeway.  Get on out.”
    “But the realtor, Mr. Lockland said-”
    “Damn that busybody .  That man’s gonna get a swift kick in the arse the next time I see him.  I can just about do it too.”  Ezra struggled again to lift his right leg in proof, and then fell back against the pillows, cheeks flushed and bushy eyebrows nearly meeting in his effort to look intimidating.  “Tell Ridgeway-”
    “I don’t know any Ridgeway,” Alex repeated, and her voice now held more than a little edge to it.  She took a deep breath, and started again softly,  “Mr. Lockland explained your situation to me, Mr. Wilkens.  And by the way, I’m very sorry to hear about your wife.  I lost my husband in an accident three months ago myself.  I know what you must be going through.”
    Ezra pursed his lips, but held his tongue, starting to believe that it might be possible that she hadn’t been sent by Ridgeway.  Well then, it was likely that she was from another company, sneaking in on the heels of its competitor.  Lookin’ for an easy kill, a soft old man, and a senile one at that. 
    “Well I ain’t senile yet,” he muttered.  The girl was lookin’ at him as if he were daft now.  He only raised his voice.  “I ain’t crazy neither.”
    “He sure ain’t crazy, just a royal pain in my butt.”   Nurse Liddy’s expansive junk passed through the doorway in a slow-motion trundle.
    “Mr. Wilkens, if you don’t want to sell your property, why did a realtor tell me that it might be available?” 
    Ezra looked away from the girl’s intense, hazel-eyed gaze, trying hard to figure out a way to get her out.  “Liddy!  Bring me a bedpan!  It’s comin’!”
    “ Ya just went!” Liddy’s voice returned from somewhere out in the hallway. 
     
     
    ~~~~~~~~
     
     
    This was pure insanity.  Thoroughly defeated, Alex slumped back in her orange vinyl chair, and it squeaked out a debasingly rude sound in protest.  Coudersport Memorial was a cross between an under-funded rest home and the Twilight Zone.  What the hell had she been thinking?
    After hitching a ride back to Ole Bull State Park, where she was happily reunited with her gold-tone Mercedes sedan, she had driven until she finally located a few bars of cell phone service.  A few searches and a swift change in the restroom, and she was heading up Route 44 toward Northern Realty, the proprietor one Norman G. Lochland III. 
    One glance at Norman G. should have convinced her to retreat and point the nose of the sedan in the direction of D.C. without a second thought, but she had managed to convince herself that bizarre characters were merely part of the local flavor.  Quaint, Alex, that’s the word you want... quaint.
    When Alex had entered the office, proprietor Norman G. Lochland III was perched behind a small, neat desk in a greatly oversized chair which further emphasized his frail physique. He was a tiny man, squirrel-like in body and movement, with pale, watery eyes that bugged myopically from behind horn-rimmed glasses.  Slim Whitman was crooning somewhere in the background.
    Norman G. had appeared more than a little frightened by her entrance, she being a young and attractive out-of-towner in expensive clothes.  He had managed to clear his throat, but his voice had pitifully failed him when it came to introductions, cracking and rasping until he had coughed up a hunk of phlegm into a dainty, lace trimmed hanky. 
    In her opinion, Norman G. hadn’t looked as if he could withstand one night in the harsh mountain climate, not to mention a long, wind-whipped winter.  In all truthfulness, Norman G. hadn’t looked as if he could walk to his car and back without a case of the vapors.
    Patience and persistence eventually had brought about the information that Alex was