Page 70 of The Cul-de-Sac War

Chip was still staring, thirty minutes later, as the trees were transferred from the back of the semi into his neighbor’s backyard. They thudded into the ground, tall and green. Solidifying his new reality: his million-dollar view was obliterated.

* * *

“Ms. Littleton is just finishing up a meeting at the moment. She’ll be on a work trip for the remainder of the week, but she’ll be happy to give you a call back when she returns.”

“Next week?” Chip’s attention fell away from the hideous trees and refocused on the phone conversation. Never in the four years he’d worked at McBride and Sons had Ms. Littleton, bank manager of Third Bank and Trust, ever put him on hold, much less told him she’d have to call him back in a week. Sure, he was on his own now, but seriously?

This woman wasn’t ignorant. She had to know that he knew what he was doing. Chip pushed an open door on his new slow-close cabinet. It was a bit off balance and slammed.

He pressed the phone to his other ear. “I just need one minute of her time. Please. This is Chip McBride.”

“I know, sir. I relayed your message: Chip McBride wants to speak with you regarding upping his line of credit for a new project.”

“Did you add the urgent part? Did you say it was urgent?”

He popped the screen door open—it creaked loudly—and moved down the rotting back steps.

“I did, sir. I’m sorry. She’s tied up the rest of the day.”

In the past four years, whenever she had been “tied up” and unavailable to someone else, it had been because he needed her time. Back then, Ms. Littleton would halt whatever meeting, drop whatever call, and throw whatever customer into whatever sitting area, plying them with coffee and lollipops, in order to accommodate him. The woman—the bank for that matter—tripped over their feet for him. Oh, how the tables had turned.

Chip swallowed hard. Fine. If this was how they were going to treat him when he was on his own without Daddy’s dollar bills, it was better to know now.

His phone indicated an incoming call from one of his subcontractors.

“I see. Well, I’ll look forward to her call next week.” If I haven’t found a new bank by then.

He switched the line.

“What’s up, Andy?”

“We’re not going to be able to drop off that dumpster to Kingston Road on Tuesday. Johnny said they’re going to need to keep my last one for another week, and . . .”

Chip listened as Andy went down the rabbit trail of explaining who needed which one where, and for how long, and why.

Half listening, Chip stopped next to his fence.

Looked up to the towering firs.

Half of his mountain view, gone. The entire right half of his perfect, panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, ruined. Decimated by three fat, overstuffed Christmas trees spanning the length of their fence line.

Chip’s shoulders tensed as he heard her voice.

“It’s absolutely perfect, Theo. I can’t thank you enough.”

He turned slowly toward her elevated back porch.

There she was, leaning on the rail, slender and tall in loose, threadbare jeans and a pale beige sweater. Tesla Man stood at her side; Evie sat on a chair behind them. Bree’s hair was shinier than he’d ever seen it, a loose bun high on top of her head. There was a shimmering pinkness to her cheeks, and he was fairly certain it was the first time he’d seen her in makeup—real makeup, not of the green Shrek variety. But the thing that was shining most of all were her eyes. They positively glittered.

That woman.

As if sensing his stare, she turned her head and refreshed her smile like she was noticing him for the first time. She put her hand on Theo’s arm.

“Well, hello, neighbor. What do you think of the new and improved backyard? I felt so stimulated by the hard work you were pouring into your own home, and then was so inspired by that natural beautification article in the Beyond Off-the-Grid magazine that popped up at our front door. It got me thinking.”

She looked over her shoulder to Evie. “We should seek to . . . revitalize our world with the raw, simple materials of nature’s bounty. Isn’t that how it goes, Evie?”

Evie nodded and gave two thumbs up.