Alligators in the Trees
Page 55
“I’ve got to be going,” she claimed, before bidding everyone a hasty goodbye. “Good luck, Roxanne,” she said, though her wish bore a distinct lack of sincerity. “Don’t take any overpriced listings,” she cautioned.
“Thanks, Felicity. Don’t let any overdue books slide,” Roxanne replied with the same lack of sisterly love. Felicity hitched her bag up onto her shoulder and stomped out of the room.
Once she was gone, the over-all mood in the room lightened. Neither of her brothers seemed remotely interested in sabotaging Roxanne’s agenda anymore. Both went on with their activities as if no family feud had just rocked their peaceful world. Other than Lloyd relocating to Felicity’s vacated position on the sofa, nobody said or did anything.
Roxanne picked up a butter cookie and nibbled at it thoughtfully. Now felt like a good time to let her parents digest her request. Her mother set her needlework aside and helped herself to a cookie, too.
“Would you like a glass of iced tea, Roxanne?” she asked, daintily wiping a yellow crumb from the corner of her mouth.
“No thanks, Mom. I’m fine.”
“So, you’ve given this real estate idea a lot of thought,” Harold said pensively.
“Yes, Daddy, I have.”
“And it’s something you can actually envision yourself sticking to?”
“Sticking to things isn’t really my problem,” Roxanne replied. Harold took her point.
“And you think you can make a go of it?” Daphne asked.
“I think I can, Mom. I don’t know why, but I feel really excited and optimistic about this. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way about anything,” she confessed, wondering if it were the truth or just another ruse to get what she wanted. It made her feel a little shaky to realize she was truly excited by the prospect of making a career in real estate. Wow—can I actually do this? The possibility frightened her more than anything else.
“Then I believe you can do it too, darling,” her mother said admiringly. “Let me get my checkbook.”
Other books by Cynthia Hamilton
Lucky at Love
When journalist Allison Tyler-Wilcox meets the seven-time divorced, mule-breeder Jake Sorenson at a wedding, her professional radar goes off. To understand why some people are compulsively attracted to the idea of marriage, Allison travels to Jake’s ranch in rural Oregon, where he turns her notions of life, love and marriage upside-down.
Golden State
Roxanne Platt is not perfect; she’s a heroine with foibles. But she knows there’s got to be more to life than scanning groceries. As she scours the Classifieds, she is struck by the almost endless real estate ads. Recalling an agent who’d been in her checkout line—short on sense and long on enthusiasm—she wonders why she couldn’t enjoy the same success as Lois Bronsen—top 5% in the country. She boldly takes the plunge into the character-ridden world of real estate, disregarding all cautioning about the state of the economy and the record foreclosures.
Once Upon a Lyme…
A true story of a mysterious illness that stumped a parade of doctors, and the newfound discipline of writing that became the unexpected by-product of years of misdiagnoses. Once Upon a Lyme… chronicles the search for the cause of a long list of symptoms, the eventual diagnosis, the arduous quest for a cure, and the creative outlet that helped the author through it all.