With Baited Breath by Lorraine Bartlett

she’d already decided she wanted that house. It was foolish. It would be a ton of work and cost a boatload of money, but she wanted it more than the racing bike she’d coveted as a tween.
    Her family would be unhappy. Tori would be unhappy, and Kathy knew there’d be days when she’d curse the idea of even looking at the place. But at that moment all she could think about was transforming that ugly duckling of a house into a beautiful swan she’d love and treasure.
    Now all she had to do was buy the place. There was a tiny problem with that—how to pay for it. She had to keep her job until her inheritance came through and she hoped it would equal what her brother had received three years before.
    She crossed the road and headed toward her tiny rental room. She’d never done anything so impulsive in her life—especially without a feasibility study, but her gut was telling her this was the right decision.
    She just hoped she wouldn’t regret it.

 
    CHAPTER 7
     
    It had sounded like an easy plan to pop the lawnmower into Tori’s hatchback and head up Resort Road to the Jackson bungalow, but it had taken Tori, Kathy, and Herb to lift it in, and four bungee cords to secure it—they hoped. Tori drove like a little old lady, very slow and with her hands gripping the steering wheel for dear life, while Kathy twisted like a pretzel in her seat, keeping an eye on the mower.
    At last, they pulled the car up to the edge of the lot. If there was ever a gravel driveway, it had long ago been taken over by grass and weeds. They got out of the car. “Think the two of us can get this mower out of the car?” Kathy asked.
    “No. We’d better get Anissa.” But they didn’t have to move a foot, for Anissa was already heading across the weed patch toward them.
    “Aw, you girls didn’t have to come out here.”
    “No, but I’ll bet you’re glad we did,” Tori said and laughed. “Can you give us a hand?”
    “Sure thing.”
    They each grabbed a part of the mower, but it was obvious Anissa took most of the weight, and set it gently on the ground. “Who gets to run it?” she asked.
    “Me,” Tori said.
    “We brought along some clippers, the weed whacker, and a couple of rakes. I figured you and I could hack at the landscaping while Tori cuts the grass. We’ll have this place looking like a palace within the hour.”
    “It’s going to take a new coat of paint and probably a new roof to do that, but that can happen on another day,” Anissa said. She and Kathy gathered the tools while Tori started the engine. She thought Kathy’s time estimate was optimistic, considering how high the weeds had grown, but the lot wasn’t nearly as big as the Cannon compound. They’d be finished before dark.
    Tori had to cover the same ground over and over again to chop down the sturdy weeds, but after a couple of rows the yard began to resemble a lawn instead of a meadow. She looked up as she started another row and saw a woman dressed in white slacks and an orange blouse standing in the driveway of the big house on the hill, watching them work. From that distance, Tori couldn’t discern the woman’s expression, but with arms crossed over her chest, her body language conveyed impatience—or perhaps it was annoyance. Lucinda Bloomfield had been angling to buy the property and obliterate the bungalow that for years had been a visual blight next to her property.
    Kathy and Anissa hacked at the overgrown bushes around the front of the house and in no time had dragged the debris to a pile at the side of the road. The front of the house was in desperate need of paint, but as Anissa had said, it could wait for another day.
    Tori was still attacking the grass/weeds when Kathy and Anissa grabbed the rakes and started on the rows that Tori had already finished. She continued to cut the grass and with each new row looked up at the house on the hill where the woman stood watching. Kathy and Anissa had noticed her, too.
    Once the lawn was cut,