Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Jag’s voice was quiet when he asked, “Are we talking about Elijah now, honey, or your dad?”
She shook her head.
“Dad copped to it. It took him a while, and that while happened when my stepmom entered the picture, with my stepsisters, and he clued in and was confronted with how much I did. The first time I came home from school, he sat me down and we chatted. He got emotional, it overwhelmed him how much he laid on me and he didn’t even realize it. He then went on a stint of trying to make up for it, which did not go down great with Elijah.”
“Well, shit,” Jagger muttered.
“Yeah, you’re seeing how this feeds into itself. The thing is, you gotta be pretty fucking selfish not to see why it does.”
“Yeah,” Jag agreed.
“And, you know, I’m in retail. There are going to be fat times, there are going to be lean times. The shop isn’t that old. I’m just getting my mojo with that and learning which is which. Christmas is big, obvs. Summer, sales pick up. And I’m learning how to stretch the good times to cover the bad. But anyone can use more bank. I sacrificed for him then and I’m sacrificing for him now because Elijah’s so…” Archie shook her head, shrugged and said, “Elijah. It’s easier just to suck it up and to put up with his shit.”
Jag had fallen silent again.
“You don’t agree?” she pushed.
“I will repeat, I’m gonna side with you.”
That was unhelpful to say the least.
Thus, Archie nabbed her coffee mug, sat back from her Irish Benedict and looked to the floor.
“Babe,” Jag called.
She looked back to him.
“What I’m gonna say is gonna suck,” he told her.
“What are you gonna say?” she asked.
“You haven’t had it easy with all of this, but you sucking it up is gonna keep fucking you. No one likes to get fucked. Not that way. You are the single chillest chick I know. But right now, your voice is wrong when you talk about your brother. You’re hurt and you’re angry and you’re enabling that. If you want it not to get out of control, you can’t do what’s easy. You gotta face it.”
You gotta face it.
Archie said nothing but she was finding that Jagger Black was not one of those oblivious dudes who was incapable of inner reflection (he just didn’t seem real hip on sharing those reflections).
And she knew that comment triggered that he needed to be doing some reflection.
But when she saw the pain shadow his eyes, something that was too damned familiar (and it was that and they hadn’t even been together two weeks), she did what she’d been conditioned to do with the men in her life.
She set about making things easy on him.
This time, by sidestepping that completely.
“So, you think I should…” She let that trail for him to pick it up.
“First, did you use some of your inheritance on improvements?”
She nodded.
“And your brother did not kick in on any of that?”
She shook her head.
The air got heavier, which meant Jagger was getting more pissed.
But he got a handle on it and continued.
“Okay, what I think is that you should deduct half of what it’s inarguable he should pay for. If you want, I could go over all of it with you to offer feedback, but definitely anything to do with the rental units and maintenance of them. Cleaners don’t come cheap. Not sure how long it takes you to clean the common areas, but that’s part of maintenance and I’d deduct an hourly rate for that too.”
He took a breath, and when she nodded that she got what he was saying, he went on.
“Personally, I’d make a list of what it cost to do the improvements, provide him with that list, and make a schedule of deductions for it until he’s paid his half, but he still gets a monthly payment so he isn’t totally out that income.”
Archie sucked in a quick breath at the thought of that.
“It’s only fair, baby,” he said softly. “If he agreed or not, he’s reaping the bennies of your investment. He wants to be a slum lord, owning a property he doesn’t care for, he can buy you out.”
Jagger was right.
He really was.
Damn.
“And if he has an issue with it,” Jag carried on, “he either sits down and has a rational conversation with you about it or he pushes it to ugly.”
She didn’t have a good feeling about any of that.
Especially the last part.
“Ugly?”
“He could sue you, Arch, but I think it’d take a miracle to get a judge to agree that he’s not responsible at least for standard upkeep of a property.”
“Or I could buy him out.”
His head ticked. “Is that an option?”
“I’d either have to dig into the rainy-day nest egg I have that’s what’s left of what I inherited from my grandparents and still, probably have to make payments. But the thing is, Elijah is such a pill, I’d rather he just be out of it and not have to deal with him at all.”