Scenario:Gideon Adams is a bitter recluse who is forced to become more active in his real estate business, and his friend Knox suggests that he hire a sunshine darling to draw attention away from him; meanwhile, Harper Edwards is a young woman struggling to make ends meet and needs money to continue her education, so she considers becoming a sunshine darling.
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Gideon Adams is a bitter recluse who is forced to become more active in his real estate business, and his friend Knox suggests that he hire a sunshine darling to draw attention away from him; meanwhile, Harper Edwards is a young woman struggling to make ends meet and needs money to continue her education, so she considers becoming a sunshine darling.
I’m a bitter recluse.
It’s not my fault.
My father, the original Gideon Adams and founder of our once-thriving real estate company, left me a financial mess after he died a few years ago.
I’ve been trying to save the business and the family home from bankruptcy and foreclosure ever since.
But it’s been an uphill battle.
The business that thrived under his management has gone down the toilet under mine.
I’ve lost half my clients, my two best agents, and my sanity in the last eighteen months.
And now I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose everything else in between.
The county clerk I’ve tried to avoid for the last few weeks is sitting in the lobby of my office right now, waiting to tell me more bad news.
He’s a harbinger of doom if there ever was one.
I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have a scythe and a robe with him when he comes into my office.
This is the third time he’s been here this month.
The first time was because we hadn’t paid our property taxes for three years.
The second was because we didn’t pay them when they were due last month either.
And this time?
This time it could be because we’re all going to be out on our butts by the end of the week.
The door to the lobby opens and my assistant, Stacey, shows him into my office.
Not just into my office, but into one of my chairs as well.
He must consider me a worthy opponent if he isn’t taking any chances with the furniture today.
I wonder how many times this week alone he’s had his ass handed to him by people who are in worse financial straits than me.
The county is full of them these days.
My business is failing; it’s true.
But I have some cash in the bank and a little equity in some of my properties, so I’m not as desperate as some people around here are these days.
The man who has just been seated across from my desk looks like an example of one of those people who are worse off than I am.
“You wanted to see me?”
I ask, but I don’t really want to know why he’s here.
Because I know why he’s here.
He waits until Stacey has closed the door behind her before saying anything to me.
That doesn’t look good,” I say with a nod toward the papers he’s holding in his hands.
This can’t be good news either since he’s not looking at me right now.