“Then you’ll really have your hands full. Running this boardinghouse has got to be a full-time job—cooking, cleaning, laundry, yard work. How can you expect to adequately care for your children under those circumstances?”
“The same way busy women have done it for centuries, I imagine,” she said mildly. “Any other questions?”
“I understand the price offered was way above the property’s current valuation.”
“That doesn’t really matter to me,” Gwen said. “I don’t need the money.”
“Yes, throw it in our faces, why don’t you,” Paula muttered.
Bobby gave his secretary a nasty look, then turned back to Gwen, ready with another argument. “I understand the, um, father of your children has come calling. Now that you’re, er, reconciled, won’t you be wanting to marry him and move to wherever he lives?”
“I would never leave Jester,” Gwen said flatly. She hated big cities. Her maternal grandparents lived in Billings, and she occasionally visited them, though they considered her something of an embarrassment, a reminder that their daughter married a pig farmer. But they tolerated her. Other than that, Gwen never visited any cities bigger than Pine Run.
“Then he’ll come here,” Bobby continued. “And your third-floor apartment is too small for a family of four.”
Gwen had lost patience with the meddling mayor. “I will manage somehow, thank you very much. Is this really any of your business?”
“I’m concerned,” he said again. “Once the hotel project goes through, it could have a negative impact on the value of your property.”
“Not to mention my quality of life,” Gwen snapped. “Anyway, I thought the town council had vetoed your idea to build a hotel in the community park.”
“They did. But they’re beginning to come around. And there’s also the Carter place. And Mac’s.”
“Oh, really?”
Just then, Eli dumped another wheelbarrow full of debris onto the growing pile at the curb.
Bobby looked over. “Who the devil is that?”
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