The History of Us Read Online Free Page B

the electricity would blink off, the shops would close their doors, the people would get in their cars and drive away. Abrupt as a cardiac arrest.
    A hand slipped into Eloise’s and squeezed. She looked over to see Heather, who released her hand before Eloise could pull away. So careful of Eloise’s desire for secrecy, even as it clearly hurt and sometimes angered her, even as Eloise went on spending nights in Heather’s bed and then introducing her as her “friend.” Eloise wanted to reach out and push Heather’s dark hair back behind her ear, smooth it where the humid weather was starting to make it frizz, but she didn’t. Heather wore the necklace Eloise had bought her the week before at an art fair, a sparkly glass pendant on a black cord. The gold in the glassseemed to call forth gold in her brown eyes. “I really like how that looks on you,” Eloise said.
    “Thanks,” Heather said, her fingers going to the pendant. “How are you doing?”
    “I’m feeling guilty.” Eloise pointed her chin at Theo. “She loves this house.”
    “I know, but she can’t stay here forever whether you sell it or not.”
    Eloise sighed. She didn’t know how to make Theo understand that the house was, like many family legacies, as much a burden as a gift. Francine might have hung on to ownership of the house even after she moved to Tennessee, but she’d handed over its upkeep as if she were breaking a curse, or passing it on. Theo would say the place was more gift than burden, but she wasn’t the one who had to offer up a four-figure sum to Duke Energy every month. She could complain about the cold (because winters in Cincinnati were quite cold) or the heat (because summers in Cincinnati were quite hot) without immediately thinking of how much these vagaries of temperature would cost her. Cold winters and hot summers—this unfair combination was another of the grievances against Cincinnati on Eloise’s very long list.
    “She’s twenty-eight years old,” Eloise said. “Why does she have to be told to move out? Why doesn’t she want to do it on her own? And Josh. He’s been back a year. He’s still not even talking about getting his own place.” She looked at Heather. “I stunted them somehow.”
    “Don’t start that again,” Heather said. “You always encouraged them. They’re just broke. Times like this make you hesitate to spend money. And the house is really big.”
    “I hope someone won’t hesitate to spend money on this place,” Eloise said. “Or I’ll never get rid of it.”
    “Have you talked to your mother?”
    “Not yet. I thought I’d call once Claire is gone.”
    “You think she’ll actually do it this time?”
    “That’s what she said, the last time I asked. She’d sign it over once Claire was grown.” Eloise made a face. “But who the hell knows. She lives to torment me.”
    “You can just walk away,” Heather said. “Move in with me. You know I won’t charge you rent.”
    “But then I have no savings. I have nothing to show for everything I’ve put into this place.” Eloise gave her a rueful smile. “I’m tiresome, I know. I repeat myself. Are you sure you want me in your house, saying the same things over and over?”
    Heather pretended to consider. “Do I have to listen?”
    “Some of the time,” Eloise said. “But we can bargain. We can work that out.” She looked back at Josh, checking on him, and saw him talking with apparent ease to Adelaide. “I have to go find Claire.”
    “She went upstairs a while ago with a couple of her friends.”
    Eloise nodded, took a step toward the kitchen, then stopped. “Heather,” she said, “am I wrong to want to sell this place? Does it mean too much to them?”
    “You’re not wrong,” Heather said. “They love the house, I know, but they don’t pay the property taxes.”
    Eloise found Claire in the den on the second floor, talking to two of her friends. They’d been dance majors together at the performing arts high