Read Online The Company We Keep by Mary Monroe - Free Book Online Page A

wanted to know. He looked at the documents as if he were seeing them for the first time. Then he looked at his wife. They both shrugged. “I thought we settled this.”
    “As long as you didn’t sign them, nothing has been settled. Whoever this man is, he’s a straight-up crook. And don’t you dare sign any papers he brings to you,” Teri ordered.
    “Isaac, Teri said we could lose the house,” Grandma Stewart said with increasing alarm. “I told you that man didn’t look honest to me. He had enough grease on his hair to fry a chicken gizzard.”
    “How do you know so much about this?” Grandpa Stewart asked Teri, giving her a suspicious look. “Do you know this man?”
    “I know that people like you are getting scammed out of everything left and right these days. Our accountant’s parents got swindled out of thousands of dollars last month in a similar scheme,” Teri revealed.
    “Was it the same outfit? The King Associates?”
    “I don’t know if it was the same outfit, but it was the same scam.Look, I know a lot about these things. Please trust me. It’s been all over the news lately.”
    “Why would anybody want to cheat us out of anything, Teri?” Grandpa Stewart asked with the wounded innocence of a child. And this was why it was so important to Teri for her to keep an eye on them.
    “Because they can, that’s why. But they won’t if I can help it. You’re the two most important people in my life now. I am not going to let anybody take advantage of you.” Teri ripped the documents in two.
    “What do we tell that Mr. Brinkley when he calls next time?” Grandpa Stewart asked.
    “You give him my telephone number and have him call me. In the meantime, don’t even let anybody into this house trying to sell you anything unless I know about it. I don’t care if they are trying to sell you a fly swatter, you call me before you let them into this house,” Teri said in a stern voice, shaking her finger in the air.
    “Well, I guess that’s that. I didn’t think we needed all that mess anyway,” Grandma Stewart said, leaving the room with her husband behind her mumbling under his breath.
    Teri didn’t enjoy being in the position she occupied in her grandparents’ lives. But in a way she was glad she was. The fact that she always had to be highly alert to keep them out of trouble kept her on her toes in other areas. She knew that as long as she had her wits about her and could hold her own, growing old alone didn’t seem nearly as ominous as everybody tried to make her think it was.
    “Is the coast clear?” Nicole asked, peeping around the doorway, then easing back into the room. Teri stood by a window, looking out at the backyard. Her old swing set and sandbox were still in place next to the brick barbeque grill that she and Nicole had helped Grandpa Stewart build fifteen years ago.
    “It’s fine. Come on in. How was your date last night?” Teri asked, frowning at the half-dollar-size purple sucker bite on the side of Nicole’s neck. She promptly replaced her frown with a smile.
    “Oooooh, it was nice.” Nicole swooned with a grin and a wink, rubbing her neck. “I can barely walk.”
    “Oh, shut the fuck up, you nasty buzzard!” Teri snapped, pinching Nicole’s arm as she joined her by the window. “Happy New Year, girl,” Teri said, giving Nicole a big hug. “But if you don’t show up for work tomorrow, you’re fired. You look like you’ve been mauled.”
    “Oh, you mean this?” Nicole said, rubbing her neck.
    Teri inspected Nicole’s neck for a full minute, shaking her head the whole time.
    “Say what you’ve got to say about it so we can get it over with,” Nicole suggested.
    Teri let out a loud breath before she spoke again. “I hope I get one soon,” she said earnestly. Nicole gasped and looked at Teri as if she’d just sprouted another head. Then they both burst out laughing. “Let’s go to my room,” Teri invited. Nicole followed her to one of the two