Page 14 of August
August hadn’t realized just how diverse Dedria was. She not only had some very large homes around the world but she had a good portfolio as well. Just selling him the Soil company for five bucks did a great deal for his own, but she had market stocks in a great many new and old ventures. He was excited to have something entirely new to gamble with.
“If I make money or not, I don’t want you to tell me. Just at the end of the week, let me know if I have to sell more to be able to eat or not.” He laughed with her. The two of them had gotten close over the last few days. “I do have a couple of homes in Europe that I think I’d like to unload. They’re pricy but aren’t bringing in the cash like they used to. No one is staying long term when they rent anymore.”
“Have you thought about renting them out short term.” She told him that’s what she was doing now. “No, I mean as a vacation place for people to go and not have to stay in a hotel.”
August told her everything that he knew about vacation homes that way and how much she could charge per month. Or even less. August had been doing the same thing for the last couple of years, and it’s been very profitable.
“I don’t want to have to go back and forth to see to the rent and such. How would I make thatwork and not have someone tearing up my home? I did use them a great deal before the kids came along. Both homes are in the middle of what I call touristy things. This sounds interesting.” Showing her a contract that he used for the people on the other end to keep an eye on things, she was excited to make things work. “What I wouldn’t have given for a home to rent rather than a hotel. This can be very personable with the right people in there.”
After going over both contracts, one for a manager to keep things cleaned up and well maintained, there was a second one for the person who was going to be a renter. She couldn’t believe that she could get that much for a simple weekend.
“That’s the point too. Most people wouldn’t be able to afford a first-class home like this, so you can get a little more out of it. I have maid service there as well as a cook if they want one. A lot of the renters liked having someone for breakfast but they want to do their own things in the afternoon and evening. You won’t believe how much you can make in a single year.” He’d already found renters for the next three weeks after she’ gotten on the cruise ship that she was going to have fun on. He hoped that she did. If anyone deserved it, it would be Dedria. She was a good woman and a great mother-in-law to him and his brothers. August picked up Joey to play with when his cell phone rang.
“August Erickson.” The woman at the other end asked him who he was again. After telling her twice more, he was ready to hang up when she started going on about houses in the downtown area. “Wait a minute. I’m still trying to get information on who you are. I don’t know what you’re talking about when you said the building at Fifth and Vine.”
“It’s my house, damn it. Someone sold it to you, and I want it back.” He pulled up properties that they owned and that home wasn’t on his list. Trying to explain that to the older woman, he was ready to hang up on her when she insisted that he did. “The bill of sales has your name all over it, dumbass. I know how to read, by god.”
“I have no doubt that you do. But as I’ve said to you three times now, I don’t own that property. I do own the one on the left to it and one across the street, but that’s never been up for sale, or I might well have purchased it.” She asked him if he was sure, sounding confused now. “Yes. I’m looking at a map now. As I said, I would own it if I knew it was up for sale, but I don’t. Perhaps someone told you a lie.”
“That damned little bitch.” He guessed the woman was in her sixties or older, the way her voice sounded so frail. “My daughter told me that you swooped right in at the meeting and demanded that I sell it to you. I’ve been sick, you see, but I’m beginning to think that I shouldn’t have trusted her with a single feather from my down comforter. If you don’t own it, can you tell me who does?”
“Yes, I can.” He went to the public website and pulled up the sales in that area. He didn’t know the woman on the line, but he was willing to bet that her daughter had told her a lie. “It says here that Granville March owns it.” When she started cursing, he let her.
“That god damned kid. I knew it was going to have to be something like that if you didn’t own it. Now, what am I supposed to do? She’s put her dead husband’s name on it to fool me into thinking that you…I need that place. It’s mine.” He told her the name of a good attorney, leaving his brother’s name off the list. It didn’t sound safe to him to have his brothers in a closed room with the family. “You’re not an attorney?”
“No, I’m into investments and portfolios. Things that I can get cheap and sell big.” She asked him if he ever played the ponies. “No, I don’t gamble. I did one time with my brothers but that’s it. I got it out of my system.”
Locke had been wanting to buy another ticket. The amount of it had surpassed even the one that they’d purchased. He’d have to get with him and see what he’d done. It was scary as hell to win that much and even worse to spend the grocery money on them like he knew people to do.
After getting off the phone, he called his buddy Jamie and told him that he’d given his name to a woman who complained that she’d gotten her house stolen. He asked if it was the March family home.
“That’s it? Oh no, tell me I didn’t recommend you to someone who is going to cause you a lot of problems. I’m so sorry.” He told him what had happened. “She did ask me if I bet on the ponies.So they put the house in someone else’s name to keep her from losing everything. I wish I had known that.”
“It’s fine. She goes through money like she has a great deal. Then complains to her family when they don’t get her out of hock. It would be a conflict of interest if I were to take her on, so it’s an easy out for me. But she’s got your number now and it’ll be busy all the time for you, I’m afraid.”
“Actually, not. I was surprised to have a call come in on that line. It should have been shut off weeks ago.” They both got a kick out of that. “I’ll have to figure out why it’s not been off yet. Thanks for reminding me.”
They talked a bit more, mostly about how people can get so worked up about things that they shouldn’t in the first place. Then he told him about a man and woman who had hired a surrogate for them to have a child.
“First thing out of the gate, they’re suing her because her shorts were too short when it’s nine hundred degrees outside. Then when that got thrown out, they tried again to make it so that she lived with them during the entire process. I told her what I thought, and now she’s no longer a surrogate. Get this, August, they weren’t just using her. They had about ten other women who were doing the same thing, too. They wanted to make sure that they had a pretty baby when the time came.”
“What were they going to do with the other nine babies and their mommas?” He told him that he’d asked the same question and they weren’t going to pay them. Then he told them the clause. “So they get to not just pick the sex of their child from all these mothers, but also, if it’s ugly, they don’t have to pay for it? That’s a huge scam if you were to ask me.”
“It’s perfectly legal if the contract states that and the mother signs off on it. They know going in that it might be for nothing. Christ, no wonder attorneys have a bad rep.”
The two of them talked for a bit longer. Jamie had been in law school with his brother Zander. Where Zander was going to be working for them all the time, Jamie had gone to his father’s firm and was working on large cases. Like the kind that got you six figures if you won. And a bad rep if you lost.
“I need to get going here. My wife is at home with the—” Shocked sounding, Jamie asked him if he really had a wife. “I do, and three children that I love. Also, one on the way.”
He didn’t bother explaining it to him. And he wasn’t surprised that he didn’t ask. Attorneys were a private bunch. He’d learned that from Zander and Knox, so he didn’t elaborate on how he’d ended up with the best deal in the world and come out winning the kids lottery as well.
Pulling out his list when he made it to the store before going home, getting food to feed his little growing family was scary enough without having to take into consideration a lot of other things that children needed. Diapers were much more than he had thought, not to mention the formula for the youngest. He, like Jacklynn, thought that by the time their next child came along, they’d be professionals at this.
“Hey there, August.” He didn’t see anyone that he knew and just nodded in the general direction that the shout had come from. Looking at his list again, he was annoyed when someone said the same thing to him again. This time, he heard it closer and was dismayed to find someone he didn’t have time to talk to coming toward him. “I’ve been looking for you. Are you all tucked up in your house or something?”
“Something like that.” He looked around and then at the woman again. “I’m sorry. Should I know you? If I should, I apologize to you.”
“Darling Jane. That’s not my real name, as you can guess. Just my professional one.” He only then noticed that she was large with child. Or he totally misread the big belly she kept rubbing. “Do you have a few minutes, August? We should really talk if you’re going to be a papa soon.”