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Chapter One

Aiden

There’s nothing quite like sleeping on Victorian furniture, and it da out drunk I woke up with a splitting headache and a crick in my neck, but worse than that, I wasn’t alone There was movement from the other side of the room

I opened my eyes with a wince, then adjusted my lids to slits so I could peek out and see as there withup anyone froht hootten about it

“Well, Aiden Joseph Walker, it’s about tie, as did the use of rown man of nearly thirty should never be called by his full name, and only two people had ever done so in my life as far as I could recall One was my mother, who’d been dead for over a year, and the other was Mattie Johnson, our faside Mom my entire life

“I was beginning to think you were dead Lord knows there’s so dead in this house Sh the air and then turned to wipe down the family clock that hadn’t had the correct time since I elve and pulled the pendulum too hard Mattie had tanned my ass, and Mom had let her

The only thing dead in the house wasthe insane retirement fund I paid you to leave me the hell alone?”

“You shut your mouth I don’t work for you any here, but I won’t have you disrespecting me” The crack of the dishtowel popped about two inches froht back to wiping down the things around , but I wished she hadn’t done that My appetite wasn’t what it used to be

I sat up and wipedit a scratch “I don’t understand what’s so hard about respecting my wishes”

“Your wishes are getting out of hand Look at this place, Aiden It’s a pig sty You row your hair and beard to look like you haven’t got two pennies to rub together, but this horass is knee deep, and there’s a good year’s worth of overgrowth out on the hedges”

“Yes, and that’s because when I gave the gardener his payoff, he left and had the good graces not to come back”