Free Linny's Sweet Dream List by Susan Schild Page A

trust.” High praise from her friend who saw compliments as an utter waste of breath.
    â€œLet me get to a quiet place. We are in Cabo and the reception is horrid.” A moment later, Diamond came back on, with a mildly reproving tone. “You’re not returning my calls or texts or emails, missy. How can I help you if I can’t get hold of you?”
    Linny flushed, chagrined. “I moved out of the house, and things have been crazy.” She explained the Shark Brothers’ eviction.
    â€œWhoo, that’s trashy behavior. I’m sorry.” She sighed noisily. “You need to sit your pretty self down and take some deep breaths. Let me bring you up-to-date.”
    â€œI’m sitting.” Linny braced herself, barely breathing. “Go ahead.”
    â€œFirst the good news. Your late husband’s new development, Silver Birch, was profitable. The Boomers are digging the Over-55 Active Adult Communities.”
    Linny felt weak with relief. “He’d said it was making money, but I worried he’d lied about everything.”
    Diamond went on. “Buck had a buy/sell agreement with his partners. They funded it with a life insurance policy, so that purchase will take place once everything is valued.”
    Linny breathed out, the tension in her shoulders starting to ease.
    Diamond sighed gustily. “Here’s the bad news. We’re just starting to sort through the debt, but he looks like a high roller with serious cash flow problems. He owes a pretty penny on his toys, too.”
    â€œNo.” Linny was glad she was sitting down. She shivered, picturing herself living in a refrigerator box under an overpass. Softly, she banged her head against the desk, but collected herself and got practical. “Which toy? The Caddy was old, and he bought the boat used. How expensive could those be?”
    â€œNot the Caddy,” she scoffed. “That’s only worth about fifteen grand, but the boat is a Pepperdine.”
    â€œSo?” Linny rubbed her forehead. Buck had bought it after they’d married and the boat didn’t seem that special—at least what she could remember of it from her vantage point in the head, where she threw up continuously the two or three times she’d gone fishing with him.
    â€œAre you near your computer?” Diamond asked.
    â€œYes.” Her fingers were poised over the keyboard.
    â€œGo to Boats.com and type in a fifty-two-foot Pepperdine sports fisher.”
    When the site came up, Linny peered at the copy, gasped and felt sweat break out along her hairline. She croaked, “How can a used boat cost half a million dollars?”
    â€œIt’s the crème de la crème of boats—a sports fisherman’s ultimate trophy. Boys and their toys,” Diamond gave a world-weary sigh. “Honey child, let’s take it one step at a time. We’ll dig in and bring it all to light.”
    Linny pinched the bridge of her nose, her head starting to throb. “You may need to dig deep. Buck was very private about his business affairs, and had an aversion to paper trails.”
    â€œI know the type.” She spoke to someone in a muffled tone, and came back to Linny. “I have to dash. I’ll be in touch, and this time please answer your texts and emails.”
    Linny stared out the window seeing nothing, and remembered that in Chapter 4 of Snap Out of It , Indigo Merriweather suggested using colorful imagery to manage toxic emotions, so she gave it a whirl. She pictured a seascape, the waves gently rolling toward the shore, and her holding a glugging Buck’s head under water. She imagined the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains stretching endlessly into the horizon, and her shoving Buck over a two-thousand-foot-high scenic overlook. She conjured a verdant meadow like in The Sound of Music , with her in a threshing machine hurtling toward an unsuspecting Buck. Linny grinned. She did feel better. That