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“Girls, don’t do this tonight. Please,” her mother half warned, half begged. “Let’s just have a nice dinner and enjoy each other’s company for once.”

It was too late. Rhiannon was sympathetic to her mother’s plea, but Terry never backed down. She snarled. “It means that all I take from them is dinner. You, on the other hand, took all that private college tuition money to Tallahassee and still had to move back home because you couldn’t get a job with your bullshit Goode degree.”

Her words were sharp and hit her ego with calculated precision. She had no sharp reply, and it killed her to give Terry the satisfaction.

“Teresita! That’s enough!” their dad roared, sending them back to their respective corners. “We treat each other with respect in this house.”

“She doesn’t know the meaning of the word,” Rhiannon spat through gritted teeth. Terry had been the same hateful person her whole life; she wasn’t going to stop now.

Thanks to Terry, dinner was quiet and awkward despite their mom’s best e orts to fill the silence with gossip collected from various sources. It was unsalvageable, and all Rhiannon wanted to do was take a shower and lay down.

Running recon at the open house had been more draining than expected. Tricking another woman to get ahead hadn’t felt great, but she remembered what her dad said. That’s how everyone played the game, and she was a fool if she didn’t.

After dinner, Rhiannon cleared the table before her mom could muscle her out of the kitchen so she could at least take care of the cleaning up. They hadn’t let her pay rent for staying in the little studio above the garage, so she tried to contribute where she could.

She was thinking about the recorded seminar on assistance animals and fair housing she planned to watch before bed when Terry bumped into her while dropping her dirty plate in the sink and splashing her with water.

Rhiannon did the thing Terry most hated and ignored her.

She shouldn’t have poked the bear to begin with. It always ended the same way.

“Good night, Pup,” Terry said before grabbing her bag and heading for the garage door.

Reflexive tears welled up in her eyes as Terry laughed. No.

She wouldn’t cry. Not today.

“Don’t pay attention to her,” her mother said as she hugged her from behind a few minutes later. “I really don’t know what makes that girl so angry all the time.”

Rhiannon couldn’t respond. If she spoke, she was sure she’d cry in earnest.

“Rhi, your phone is ringing,” her dad called. “I gave your card to like a hundred people! It might be one of them!”

Swallowing her pain, Rhiannon smiled and bolted for the phone she’d left on the dining room table.

CHAPTER THREE

WALKING into her regular Thursday night spot, Carmela greeted half a dozen people in the dark restaurant before she made it to the table in the back where Liz was already waiting. Elizabe

th Stein was not only her broker, she was her mentor, her best friend, and her only chosen family. They’d eaten together every Thursday night for nearly twenty years.

For the last fifteen they’d alternated picking up the check.

Carmela smiled when she saw her. Well into her sixties, Liz was as perfectly put together and glamorous as the night she met her. With a styled blonde bob and a killer white suit, she looked like a queen about to hold court. The rimless reading glass she slipped surreptitiously on and o as needed did nothing to mar her elegant aesthetic.

“Carm, I was beginning to worry,” she said, standing to kiss her on the cheek.

“Sorry, I’ve had a hell of a week,” Carmela replied as she took the seat across from her and helped herself to the wine chilling in the bucket next to the table before looking down at her buzzing phone. “I’m convinced it all started with that weird open house last weekend.”

“That’s what you get for doing your own. I’ve always told you it’s bad luck,” she said before toasting to better fortunes.

“I know, I know. I was on the phone with the clients just now. That’s why I’m late. They decided to pull the house o the market. They don’t have the cash to deal with the mold issue, but they don’t want to lose so much on the house they just spent everything on renovating.” Carmela shrugged.

“Well, they come and go. You’ve been having a good year.

I wouldn’t worry about it,” Liz said, projecting positive energy.

“It’s not even losing the sale that bothers me. It was how that baby agent swindled me,” she grouched bitterly. “You should have seen this girl. She could be a Bond villain, she was so smooth and got so much information out of me. I didn’t even notice she was doing it!”