Thirty-Two and a Half Complications (12 page)

“You know I love them.” I suspected it wasn’t the response she was looking for, but it was all I could give. “Joe was on your front porch yesterday when I brought them home. It was like he was expecting me.”

“He probably was. He called to ask if you were at the store. I told him no, but that you were picking up the kids and taking them to my house. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that he’s my ex-boyfriend, Violet. We broke up. You should have at least warned me.”

“He said it was official business, Rose. About the robbery. It never occurred to me to tell him no. He’s the chief deputy sheriff now.”

“And is the fact that he’s been spending so much time with the kids lately due to
official business?
” I knew my tone was hateful, but I didn’t care.

“No! It’s called being neighborly. It seems to me that you got pretty neighborly when he lived next door to
you.
”

I gasped, then demanded, “Just how
neighborly
are you two getting?”

“That is none of your business. Besides, like you said, you two broke up. He asked you to come back and you turned him down. Why would you care if he’s seeing someone else?”

“Not
someone
else, Violet. You. My own sister!”

“Since when did you care about my personal life?” she asked, her words dripping with contempt. “The minute Momma died, you became totally absorbed in your own little adventures and stopped caring about what was going on with my life. You don’t give a flipping wink about my feelings or what makes me happy.”

“That is
not
true!” I was parked at a stop sign and I shouted so loudly, the woman standing at the street corner walking her dog stared at me. “I started this nursery with you! It was all your idea! I couldn’t stand how unhappy you were when you separated from Mike, so I took my trust money from Dora and sank it into our business.
All because you wanted to start the nursery.
”

Deadly silence was her only answer for several long moments. “You said you wanted to be part of this too, Rose.”

“I did…but some days I don’t think we’re going to work out.”

“You and I aren’t going to work out?” she asked, her voice under tight control. “Or you and I working in the
nursery
together aren’t going to work out?”

“Honestly, Vi. Some days both.”

She released a short, bitter laugh. “Well, you just might get your wish.”

An oily feeling coated my gut. “What does that mean?”

“It means both insurance companies—our business’s and the bank’s—claim they aren’t required to pay the claim. Which means we’re out nine thousand dollars.”

“
What
?”

“Not that they’d cut a check in time to cover our losses anyway. They wouldn’t pay until Christmas at the earliest. Do you have any more jobs lined up after you wrap up at the Timberland’s place next week?”

I pulled into the church parking lot, my stomach tumbling like a washer at the Suds for Duds. “None of that will make up the difference after we pay for materials and Bruce Wayne’s labor.”

She was silent for a moment, and when she spoke, her words were soaked with guilt. “There’s something else you need to know.”

“What?”

“I’ve been doing a little…creative bookkeeping.”

My breath caught in my throat. “What does
that
mean?”

“It means we’ve been strapped for cash, and with all our plans for the expansion and the open house… I haven’t been making all the loans payments to the bank.”

I parked in the nearly empty church lot and shoved the gear shift into park. “What?” I asked in a daze.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds…or at least it wasn’t until a few days ago. I talked to Mr. Sullivan about it, and he told me not to worry. He said the Gardner Sisters Nursery was a great addition to the town and I could make a balloon payment after the open house.”

“The loan was in my name, Violet. How could you do something like that? Did you forge my signature?”

“No.” She cleared her throat. “It wasn’t anything official. Mr. Sullivan said my word was good enough.”

Comprehension washed through me. “But now Mr. Sullivan has disappeared.”

“That’s the problem.” Her voice sounded thin. “A little while back, I received notice that we had thirty days to pay or else, but when I talked to Mr. Sullivan, he told me it was a formality and not to worry about it. But yesterday, Mr. Burns, the bank manager, told me that we have to pay all the missed payments by next Friday or he’ll lock us out of the building.”

“Can he do that?”

“The bank owns the property and has the loan. And we received official notice.” Her voice broke. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

We held on in silence for several seconds before my shock gave way to my anger. “How many payments have we missed?”

“Three.”

“Three?” A quick calculation told me that three payments were just shy of five thousand dollars. We were worse off than I thought. “And you didn’t think to tell me? The loan’s in my name, Violet! It’s my credit you’re ruining!”

She choked on her words. “I’m sorry.”

“
That’s not good enough!
”

“It’s all I have right now!” she shouted back. “Instead of assigning blame, we need to figure out how to fix this mess.”

I wanted to cry, but if I gave into my tears, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to stop. “
Is
there a way to fix this mess? Or have you killed our business before it even had a chance to get off the ground? You couldn’t be happy with taking it slow. You had to expand immediately. You insisted on not only having a Holiday Open House, but one Fenton and all its neighboring counties would talk about for months to come. It just kept growing bigger and bigger.”

Her temper flared. “You were on board with all of this, every step of the way, so don’t you pretend to play innocent now.”

“That’s because you told me we could afford it!”

“And until Mr. Sullivan disappeared and those crooks took our money, we could! I can’t help it if the man decided to play Jesse James!”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the truck seat. What on earth were we gonna do?

“Rose.” Her voice was harsh. “You need to stop being so mule-headed stubborn and ask Mason to help out.”

“No.”

“
Rose!
”

“No! That’s your solution to everything! Ask someone else to bail you out. You got us into this mess, so we need to bail
ourselves
out, Violet! We need to stand on our own two feet.”

“Is that a thinly veiled insult about my personal life?”

“It wasn’t intended that way, but if you want to take it that way, go right ahead. You have to admit there’s a buttload of truth in it. You left Mike to have an affair with Brody MacIntosh,
the mayor
. Then, when you figured out that Joe’s daddy had photographic evidence of your misdeeds and planned to use it to destroy you and Brody’s future political career, you ditched him and tried to get back with Mike. You’re scared of being alone. You like to have someone else around to solve all your problems.”

I could hear her sharp intake of air.

“Not to mention you needed me to help open your nursery.”

“
Our
nursery.”

“Honestly, Violet, what was the last thing you ever did on your own? Good heavens, you’ve even roped Joe into helping you with the kids. And don’t fool yourself—he’s only interested in you and the kids as a way of getting back with me.”

“Oh! Because there’s not a chance he’s interested in me?”

“No, Violet. There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that he’s interested in you.”

She was quiet for several frosty seconds. “Don’t bother coming into the store to work tomorrow,” she finally said. “I’ll get someone to cover for you.”

“Is there even a store to go into?” I asked snidely.

“There’s no reason to take that hateful tone with me, Rose Anne Gardner! The bank manager has given us until next Friday to pay it off so we can at least enjoy Thanksgiving.”

“Enjoy Thanksgiving knowing the bank is about to foreclose on us?
Are you kidding me?
”

Violet hung up on me and I turned off the engine, staring out the windshield as I tried to figure out what had happened. In the course of less than a minute, I had lost my business and my sister.

Thank God I was on my way to a counseling session.

Chapter Nine

“Okay, slow down,” Reverend Jonah Pruitt said. We were sitting next to each other in the chairs in front of his office desk. He was sporting a new hairdo, including a full set of highlights and a liberal use of gel. He was the vainest man I’d ever met, but then again, he was the only man I knew who spent a good deal of time in front of TV cameras. And the viewership of his weekly Sunday morning church service broadcasts was growing by leaps and bounds. Soon he’d be so big he wouldn’t have time for someone as lowly as me. But that wasn’t true. Despite Jonah’s TV show appearance, he had a heart of gold and would do anything for his friends. I was lucky to be included in the group.

“Okay.” I sniffled.

He handed me a tissue to dry my eyes. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

So I did. I told him about the bank robbery, Joe’s intrusion into my life, and my possible pregnancy—which felt weird discussing with a man of the cloth even if it
was
Jonah—ending with an account of my blowout argument with Violet and the possible demise of our business.

“Wow,” he said, sitting back in his seat. “You’ve had quite a week. Even for you.”

“Yeah, I know.” I wiped my nose.

“What’s upsetting you the most right now?”

“I don’t know. It’s so hard to choose. The fact that I might be on the verge of losing all my money and destroying my credit? Or that my ex-boyfriend doesn’t understand that I’m no longer interested in him? That my sister has completely and utterly betrayed me? Or that I could be pregnant with the baby of the man I think I love but have been seeing for less than a month?”

He chuckled. “The fact that you still have your sense of humor is a good sign.”

“Is it? Or does it mean I’ve officially lost my mind?”

“No, you haven’t lost your mind, although you do seem to have more than your fair share of complications. What makes you different from most of my parishioners is that you don’t seem to bring any of it on yourself. It just finds you.”

“Maybe I’m cursed.”

“Do you believe in such things?” he asked, watching me carefully.

“Well, I never used to, but one has to wonder. Maybe getting rid of curses is on Neely Kate’s list of newly acquired pseudo-supernatural abilities.”

Jonah chuckled. “Seeing how I’m your pastor, I shouldn’t be saying this, but maybe you should consider it. Fair warning: I suspect chicken bones might be involved.”

“So what am I going to do, Jonah?”

He gave me a gentle smile. “Out of the entire list of complications you’ve just told me about, which is the most important?

I leaned my elbow on the armchair and rested my chin on my hand. “I don’t know.”

“I’m sure you do, Rose. If you could only fix one of your problems, which would it be?”

“Whether I’m pregnant or not doesn’t change anything in the short term. I’m sure Mason will stand with me either way.”

“I agree, but the not knowing is probably making it more stressful. Besides, you’ve learned not to hide from your troubles, so it’s important for you not to return to old habits.”

“You’re right, but I’m not hiding from it, I promise. It’s just that once the possibility is confirmed, I won’t be able to keep it from Mason. And I can’t deal with
that
and everything else at the same time. Just give me a week or so. If it’s still an issue, I’ll take the test.” I told him about how I wanted the baby to be loved and wanted from the moment I found out for sure.

“Rose, plenty of babies have led wonderful childhoods after being accidently conceived. The baby surely won’t know the difference.”

“I know,” I said, twisting the hem of my shirt. “But I want to want it when I find out.” I looked up at him. “Is that so wrong?”

“No.” He smiled softly. “It sounds very much like you. Besides, a week or so won’t make a difference in the scheme of things. So which problem is most pressing?”

“What’s going on between Violet and me has been brewing for some time. I’m not gonna fix that in a few days. If at all.”

“I agree you won’t be able to resolve it that quickly, but where there’s love, there’s always hope. And despite it all, you still love each other.”

It was hard to admit at that moment, especially if she’d set a course to singlehandedly financially destroy me, but I did love her. “So what’s left is the money. That seems so wrong.”

“No, Rose, it’s not the money. It’s your business. Your heart and soul. You didn’t just start the nursery for Violet, but even if that was your primary motivation, you love it now. It gives you a purpose that’s all your own, separate from Joe and Mason and even Violet, despite the fact that she shares it with you. You love landscaping and you’re good at it. And let’s not forget Bruce Wayne.”

I closed my eyes. “He can find another job if need be. Mason will give him a recommendation to go along with my own. The assistant DA standing up for a man with a criminal record should help, right?”

“Working with you isn’t just a job for Bruce Wayne, Rose. It gives him a purpose too. For the first time in his life, he feels like he belongs somewhere. Just like you do.” His hand covered my upper arm. “The money is just part of the bigger picture. You’re fighting to give all three of you a purpose.”

I shifted my gaze to him. “Three?”

“Violet. She needs this too, even if you don’t want to hear that right now.”

He was right. But what Violet needed was the last thing I wanted to think about. I’d much rather focus on helping Bruce Wayne and me. “Okay.”

I shook my head. “You know Mason loves you even if he hasn’t said it yet. He’d do anything to help you. Perhaps you should shelve your pride and ask him for help.”