A Clean Sweep [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read online

  He followed and switched off his as well.

  She rose up on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “That guy is an ass.”

  Ted shrugged. “He’s a well-paid ass, apparently. He’s on a couple of the network’s home improvement shows. I think he either didn’t read the background package on your mom, or he decided to disregard it. Usually he’s not this much of a jerk.”

  “Okay, so it’s not just me?”

  “Not just you.”

  They switched their mics back on and returned to the house.

  By lunch, clouds had started building to the west. Someone checked the weather and found a line of severe thunderstorms was moving their way from off the Gulf.

  “As much as I hate to do this,” Mark told Corrine, “I’m going to call it a day now. We need time to button up the site, get the tents down, all of that.”

  “Can I keep working?” her mom asked. “I can use the trash bags, right?”

  He kindly smiled. “You sure you don’t want to take time off?”

  “No. Absolutely not. I want to keep working.”

  “It’s your house. Now that we’ve got some of the clutter out, it’s not quite as bad a fire hazard as it was. But please don’t wear yourself out.”

  “Oh, I won’t do that,” she assured him.

  The film crew had shut down, and most of the volunteers had left for the day, when Ted motioned to Essie. He led her through the house to the living room, where light now slanted through the sliding glass doors into the living room.

  “Wow,” she said. “That’s great.”

  The film crew had already taken their mics back. Ted gently held her hands. “I wanted to talk with you. Alone.”

  Her heart trip-hammered in her chest. “Yes?”

  “I’m going to keep working with your mom and with the show. But I needed to let you know that I can’t counsel you any longer. I’ll be here for you as a friend, but not professionally.”

  Now her heart sank. “Why?” she breathed.

  She didn’t think he was going to answer at first. But then he squeezed her hands, harder this time, and turned the full force of his blue eyes on her. “Because I really like you. I’m attracted to you. And it wouldn’t be ethical for me to date someone I’m technically treating. If I have a choice of possibly having more than just a friendship with you, or treating you as nothing more than a patient, I’ll take the risk.”

  Outside, someone called for Ted.

  He leaned in and kissed Essie on the forehead before releasing her hands and hurrying out of the living room.

  Unable to think, much less move, she stood there, his words still sinking into her brain.

  He…likes me.

  So there it was, two guys who definitely liked her, two brothers.

  Should I try for a hat trick?

  Okay, that was a horrible way to think. But it wouldn’t leave her brain, either.

  Then again, Josh hadn’t pulled away from her when she’d kissed him the evening before.

  Worse, she knew she really couldn’t ask Amy her opinion. She didn’t want to admit she was seriously contemplating this potentially kinky relationship.

  Relationships.

  It was a few minutes later, just a little after two, when the first of the rain bands hit. The temperature dropped, wind picking up, the smell of rain on the breeze.

  “Why don’t you go relax,” her mom told her. “Go call Amy. I’m going to stay over here and putter around.”

  She kissed her mom on the cheek and dashed through the rain to Ross and Loren’s. Her mom certainly looked happier by the day. It was as if the hoard had been a weight holding her smile into a frown.

  As the house emptied, her mom’s smile grew, even her posture looked a little straighter.

  Essie took a quick shower and texted Amy to see if she was even available to talk.

  Her phone rang, a FaceTime call.

  It was so good to see her friend’s smiling face she almost burst into tears. “Hey.”

  “Hiya, stranger,” Amy said, grinning.

  Essie laid back on the bed. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

  “I saw the pics you sent me. Holy crap. I’m really sorry. Now I’m wishing I had taken time off and come with you.”

  “No, it’s okay. We have plenty of help.”

  “So these are the guys from that show?”

  Essie proceeded to tell her about the brothers, answer her questions, and they ended up talking for over an hour.

  After dinner, Essie retreated to her bedroom. She turned the TV on low and channel surfed, finally finding Clue playing on a station.

  Always a guaranteed laugh for her. She knew the movie by heart but laughed every time. She set the sleep timer and settled in to watch.

  Tonight, though, her mind drifted. She thought about her kiss with Mark, her tamer one with Josh, what Ted had confessed—and her feelings for all three brothers.

  And she thought about BDSM.

  How maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if she experimented a little.

  Maybe, just maybe, she could try moving back to Florida. She could live with her mom, for a while, at least. Maybe try dating the men.

  Do something different for a change. Obviously, what she was doing now wasn’t working for her. She was alone and lonely.

  Mom’s not getting any younger. How many years do I have left with her?

  Essie had honestly thought somewhere in the back of her mind that maybe one day her father would change his ways and come around.

  The two pictures from the truck’s glove box were sitting propped up on the dresser next to her cell phone. They’d found a long-missing photo album that morning and set it aside to look at later.

  Essie knew she felt too raw, too emotional to go through it now. Besides, she didn’t want to stall the cleanup just to look through it, even though Purson said he did want to get a shot of her and her mom going through pictures at some point in the process.

  If I was here, I could pay rent to her. Give her more money to fix up the house.

  That’s not your responsibility.

  She’s my mom.

  You love Spokane.

  I miss Florida.

  There it was. She never had fully adjusted to the Washington winters. She still froze her keister off while others were wearing light jackets, or even running around in shirt sleeves. The first year she’d had to drive in snow she’d nearly wrecked when she hit ice on the road.

  Florida was flat and snow free.

  She even missed the hot Sarasota summers, where getting into the shade meant the temperature dropped at least ten degrees because the ever-present sea breeze off the Gulf of Mexico kept temperatures comfortable.

  Muggy, sure. But she’d take eighty-five and humid over a hundred-degree day with lower humidity.

  In a heartbeat.

  Am I really thinking about doing this?

  She could rent a truck and a car hauler. She and Amy had moved themselves from Florida to Spokane after graduation. Essie, who’d learned how to drive in her dad’s truck, had done most of the driving, Amy only driving on long, flat stretches of interstate.

  Those thoughts, and others, scrambled through her mind as sleep and exhaustion finally took hold of her system.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Essie awoke Monday morning with misgivings. Despite what she’d thought the night before, she knew that was a mistake. A grief-fueled, emotionally charged mistake.

  I have a life, a job in Spokane. I can’t just uproot myself and move back to Florida because my libido suddenly woke up and said huzzah.

  It wouldn’t be fair to Amy, or to her boss, who’d been so gracious to work with her on the time off.

  Even for three hunks like Mark, Josh, and Ted. Besides, how would she ever choose between them anyway? Well, she didn’t even know how Josh might feel. For all she knew, he might not be attracted to her the way she was to all of them despite their kiss. A kiss wasn’t a sure thing to
build a future on.

  I need to talk to Mark.

  And she’d had every intention of doing just that. First thing, her plan was to find Mark and pull him aside, without a camera crew there, to talk.

  She’d located him behind the house a little after seven that morning, just getting started with the crew and talking with Josh when Josh’s phone rang. He offered them an apologetic smile and stepped away to take the call.

  Nervous, she watched him as his body language changed as he talked. He held up a staying finger at Mark before she could lead him away for their talk. She hadn’t been micced yet and knew Purson wouldn’t sic a film crew on her until she was ready.

  Then Josh said, “Hold on.” When he turned, searching and pausing as his gaze fell on her, he said, “You’re a vet tech, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  He spoke into the phone. “Tell them we’ll be there in twenty minutes. Text me the address.” He hung up. “That was Tracy,” he said to Mark. “Just had an emergency called in.” Before Essie could react, Josh grabbed her by the hand, practically sprinting for the front yard where his truck was parked along the street.

  He let go of her hand as they reached his truck, and she automatically reached for the passenger door as he headed for the driver’s side.

  “I don’t have my purse.”

  “You won’t need it. Get in.”

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He barely checked his mirrors before pulling out into the street. “East Bradenton. Tracy just had a hysterical woman call the office. Her elderly mother was taken to the hospital yesterday. She fell and broke her hip while taking out the garbage. The daughter didn’t even know she had dogs until her mom finally admitted it this morning when the mom realized she wasn’t going to be released. When the daughter entered the house to take care of them, she…” He didn’t finish.

  Essie didn’t think she wanted him to.

  He hit I-75 and headed north. Two exits later, he was making a turnoff into a rural neighborhood with multi-acre properties. Older homes mixed with newer ones. He consulted his phone and then finally pulled into a dirt driveway outside an older, wood-framed house. Typical older Florida home, the two-story house was set up on short concrete pylons with a wraparound porch.

  It had seen better days. The once-yellow paint was peeling, bare wood visible around some of the window frames on the second floor.

  There was an older Ford sedan parked in the weed-pocked yard, a newer Toyota parked behind it.

  An obviously distraught middle-aged woman in jeans and a T-shirt sat on the front steps. She stood when they got out of the truck and approached her.

  “Thank you for coming so quickly.”

  Josh introduced himself and Essie to the woman, whose name turned out to be Lisa Parker.

  “What’s the situation?” he asked her.

  Inside the house, Essie heard at least two dogs barking, smaller dogs from the sound of it.

  “I…I…” Lisa burst into tears. “Now I know why she never let me inside,” she said. “I don’t want to call Animal Control to catch them for me, but they won’t come to me, and I’m afraid to even try to chase them down. I’m sure they need to go to the vet. I don’t want my mom going to jail, but I…I can’t do this. Yesterday, they told her she’d have to be in a rehab facility for at least a month. When Dad died eight years ago, I got her to give me a power of attorney in case anything happened, you know? I just…I can’t leave it like this. I have to clean this out. I just…” She stared at him, more tears in her eyes. “Please, I need your help.”

  Essie exchanged a knowing glance with Josh. “How many dogs?” she asked.

  “Three,” the woman said. She led them around the side of the house to another door that opened into the kitchen. “At least, that’s what she told me. Who knows if there’s that many in there?”

  The smell hit Essie first, even before the woman opened the door.

  When she opened it…

  Oh, thank god.

  Essie never thought she’d ever be thankful that her father “only” hoarded stuff, not garbage, not food, not animals. The cloud of stench that hit them was almost like a wave rolling in from the Gulf and crashing onto the beach. Essie felt like the smell would totally coat her body.

  A disgusting layer of garbage and animal waste mixed together and pressed into the linoleum covered the kitchen floor. The counters were completely covered in old food, garbage, and dirty dishes.

  Josh stopped Essie and Lisa at the door with an outstretched arm. “We need to go get protective equipment. We can’t go in there like this.”

  Essie spotted a small dog peeking around the corner at them before it bolted back into the narrow canyon of garbage it had emerged from.

  Josh turned both women around and made them step back onto the porch, closing the door behind him.

  “We can’t leave them in there,” Essie protested.

  “They’ve been in there for years. Another hour won’t hurt.” He turned to Lisa. “You said you have a power of attorney?”

  She nodded. “My mom is eighty-four years old. I thought maybe she was having some issues, but she seemed like she was still okay mentally. She’s always been stubborn and independent. But this…” She shuddered. “I’ll sign whatever I need to hire you.”

  “You understand that by doing that, she’s probably going to be very upset with you.”

  “I don’t care. My husband’s a lawyer. I’ve already called him, and he’s going to file an emergency motion for guardianship as soon as he can get the papers drawn up and over to a family judge. I texted him pictures of the kitchen. She obviously cannot live by herself any longer. She was always a little disorganized, but this is totally out of character for her. I’m not even sure there’s just three dogs in there at this point. That’s what she told me, but how do I even know?” The woman sounded close to hysterics.

  “I’ll stay here with her,” Essie told Josh. “You go get what we need.”

  “I need to get a signature first,” he said. He returned to his truck and retrieved his iPad, thumbing through it as he returned to the porch. “This is an emergency contract,” he explained to Lisa. “It gives us permission to be on the property, to enter the house, recover the animals, and is a liability waiver. Let’s get the dogs safe first, then we can sit down and go through the details of what we need to do and arrange a full contract. Unfortunately, our main crew is tied up on another job right now, so the earliest we can start is next week.”

  She nodded. “Okay, that’s fine. As long as the dogs are safe. Where do I sign?”

  Josh got her information from her to fill out the form, then showed her where to sign with her finger. Once that was done, he sent copies to the office and to Lisa’s e-mail address. “I’ll be back shortly.”

  Essie was peeking through the window in the door and spotted the dog again, which barked at her before running away. “Bring some crates,” she called out to him. “Pick up at least three crates, medium sized or larger. Wire crates, not the plastic kind. And some kennel leads.”

  “Some what?”

  “Just go to a pet store. They’ll know what they are. And some dog treats. Something meaty that will smell good.”

  He nodded before getting in his truck and quickly driving off.

  Essie sat on the porch steps with the woman, listening as Lisa cried through her story. Her father had died of cancer eight years before. She hadn’t been super close to her mother before that, but after her father’s death, and with her own three children busy with high school sports and other activities, she accepted her mom’s word that everything was fine. Her mom came over to eat dinner with them at their home a couple of times a month and seemed all right.

  It wasn’t until the neighbor across the street found her on the ground in the driveway the morning before and called her that Lisa had been aware there was a problem. Her mother had spent the entire day before insisting she would go home from the hospital, and
everyone thinking her stubbornness was a combination of just normal confusion, pain medication, and the result of the anesthesia.

  Until that morning.

  That was when her mother admitted to having the three dogs.

  Lisa sat with her head in her hands. “I feel like a horrible person,” she said. “I feel awful. Like I’m the world’s crappiest daughter.”

  Essie somehow held back her inward giggle that, no, she felt the title rightfully belonged to her, but that she’d gladly hand it over to Lisa.

  Then again, her father hadn’t hoarded animals.

  “You’re not awful,” Essie assured her. “It’s hard to tell a parent it’s time to get help. Believe me, I know.”

  And as they sat there, Essie confessed her troubles.

  About her dad and his hoarding, and how the case that the crew was currently tied up with was her own.

  When Essie finished her story, Lisa hugged her. “Thank you,” she softly said. “That did help. Thank you for telling me I’m not alone.”

  “I just don’t want you to think that you’re the only one to ever go through this. And we’re the ‘lucky’ ones, believe it or not. There are no telling how many other hoarders out there whose families still don’t know. They’ll get the shock of their life when something happens, their loved one dies and leaves this all on their shoulders. Some of them might know or suspect there’s a problem, but they don’t know the full extent.”

  When Josh finally returned an hour later, Essie had circled the house and looked in the windows on the lower floor. All of them had the curtains drawn. Only the window in the kitchen door wasn’t covered. Twice more she’d spotted a dog, different than the first one she’d glimpsed.

  Although she had heard a bark that sounded different from the first two, lending credence to the theory of three dogs. She didn’t think there was more than that in there, but she knew she could be mistaken.

  Josh dropped the tailgate on his truck and unloaded a large plastic storage tote. Inside he had disposable protective suits, nitrile gloves, face masks like hospitals handed out for visitors, and protective goggles.

  “Put these on,” he said, handing them both suits. “We don’t know how bad the rest of the house is.”