Thirty-Two and a Half Complications (13 page)

“You’re right about my pride—it would kill me to ask him for help, but even if I conquered that, asking him wouldn’t do any good.”

Jonah tipped his head back. “You’re not insinuating he wouldn’t help you, are you?”

“No, not at all. I’m saying he
can’t
help me.” I sighed. “Between paying off his student loans and his legal troubles over what happened with his sister’s murderer—not to mention the fact that he paid for her funeral expenses—he doesn’t have anything to help me
with
. He doesn’t even have the money to move out of my farmhouse until his insurance company cuts him a check.” I put my hand on Jonah’s arm. “But he’s a proud man, so please don’t tell him I told you.”

“Of course not.” Jonah gave me a soft smile. “You know what we talk about is confidential.”

“Before Savannah’s murder he was financially stable—
better
than stable—and I could tell how hard it was for him to admit the extent of the situation to me. He’d hate for anyone else to know. Which is something I can’t explain to Violet, of course.”

“Not to worry. He’ll never know you told me. But he loves you and he’ll want to know what’s going on. At least tell him you’re in trouble.”

I shifted in my seat, my stomach cramping. “I can’t. Not yet. Once he figures out what’s going on, it will devastate him to know he can’t help me. You
know
him.”

Jonah tapped his finger on the chair arm for several seconds. “I’ll let the subject drop for now, but at least think about how he’s going to feel when he finds out that you kept this from him.”

“I’m not going to keep it from him indefinitely. Besides, we might figure something out.”

Jonah’s silence was answer enough.

There was a knock on the door and Jonah said, “Come in.”

A pretty blond poked her head in the doorway and her smile widened as her starry-eyed gaze landed on the minister. “Jonah, your next appointment showed up early. What would you like me to do?”

“Tell Mr. Smeller I’ll be right with him, Jessica,” Jonah said. “We’ll be done here in a few moments.”

When she shut the door, I grinned. “Why don’t you just ask her out already?”

Jonah looked like an opossum caught by a flashlight in the backyard. “What are you talking about?”

My mouth gaped. “You seriously don’t know that poor girl has a crush on you?”

His face turned pink. “She does?”

“All those cookies and muffins she makes for you weren’t clue enough?”

He gave a half-hearted shrug. “I just thought she liked to bake.”

I laughed and stood, picking up my jacket. “For someone so smart, you are entirely clueless about women. Jessica likes you. She used to glare at me every time I came to visit you before she realized I was dating Mason. I think she saw me as a threat since we spend so much time together behind a closed door.”

“I…I had no idea.” He stood and moved behind his desk, pointing his finger at me. “And nice attempt at deflecting this conversation from you.”

“Jessica really
does
like you.”

“Maybe so,” he conceded. “But we haven’t necessarily finished dealing with your issues.”

I slipped my arms into my jacket sleeves and shrugged my coat on. “Honestly, Jonah, I’m not sure there’s much left to discuss. Besides, I need to let Muffy out. She’s been home alone all day.” I walked around the desk and gave my friend a hug. “I know you’re a busy man, Reverend Jonah Pruitt, and gettin’ busier every day with that TV show of yours. You have no idea how much I love our chats, but if you ever find you don’t have enough time for me—”

He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back. “You stop right there, Rose. I’m your friend, just like I was before I became your counselor. You stood by me when no one else would. I’ll always have time for you.”

I smiled, feeling sappy. “Same for you, Jonah.”

He kissed my forehead, then dropped his hold. “You better scoot along. But call me if you need me for anything. I mean it.”

“I will.”

I headed home, already feeling guilty that I’d only be with Muffy for a couple of hours before leaving to meet Mason for dinner. When I opened the front door, I expected my little dog to run up and greet me. Instead I heard a muffled snarl from the back of the house.

“Muffy?”

I found her in the middle of the kitchen. She was attacking something that looked like a sleeve as a low rumble issued from her throat.

“Muffy, what on earth…?”

She stopped and glanced up at me with an “oh, crappy doodles” look, the tan fabric still in her mouth.

I gaped at her in shock when I realized it was part of my lightweight work jacket. She had never destroyed anything in all the months I’d had her, but now my coat was ripped to shreds and strewn across the floor.

Muffy came to her senses and dropped the sleeve before running under the table.

Sighing, I dropped to my knees. It was obvious she missed me and this was her way of telling me. “Muffy, come on out. I’m sorry I’ve been leavin’ you so much.”

She stayed under the table, but I about fell over from the poisonous gas floating out through the chair legs.

“Muffy,” I groaned, waving my hand in front of my face. “I said I was sorry!”

Her belly to the floor, she scooted out under a chair, her leash in her mouth. She must have found it and dragged it into the kitchen.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I took the leash from her. “I know. I’ve neglected you. I can’t take you for a walk today, but I’ll take you on a real long one tomorrow, okay?”

My answer seemed to appease her because she hopped up on my lap and covered my face with licks. I squeezed her tight, rubbing her head. “I love you too, girl. Come on, let’s go outside.”

We went out the backdoor, and I noticed the pane had been fixed. Mason was right—I would have told him no if he had offered to pay for it, but it gave me a warm feeling to know he’d taken care of it anyway.

Muffy ran up to the barn and romped in the horse pen. Watching her made me think about bringing Ashley and Mikey out here the day before. Would Violet try to cut me out of their lives now? I couldn’t bear the thought. Violet and I had had our share of spats since Momma’s death, but none this serious. I’d said some ugly, hurtful things I wished I could take back. I knew I should apologize, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

When we went back inside, I noticed the house was colder than usual and the thermostat read sixty-four instead of its usual seventy. Frustrated, I headed down to the basement to check out the ancient furnace. We’d had problems with the pilot light going out a couple of times over the past few weeks, and sure enough, it was out again. Crouched on my hands and knees, I stared at the old furnace, wondering when I would catch a break.

“Rose!” Joe’s voice called out from upstairs.

I groaned. Obviously, I wasn’t catching one yet. “Why do you insist on continually breaking into my house, Deputy Simmons?” I shouted toward the staircase.

Several seconds later I heard footsteps on the creaky wooden steps. “I’m not breaking in this time. You left the front door unlocked.”

I was on my knees, which robbed me of a fair amount of dignity, but I still put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at him. “I didn’t expect someone to barge right in. And I sure didn’t expect a break-in last night.”

He stood several feet in front of me, still wearing his uniform, and gave me an ornery grin. “No one ever
thinks
their house is going to be broken into.”

“I don’t think that’s altogether true,” I teased, despite myself. “I expected a couple of the break-ins that happened at my old house.”

“Well, you always have been different than everyone else.” His voice turned husky. “And in a very good way.”

“Joe,” I warned, turning my attention back to the furnace.

“In any case, you need to be more careful and lock your doors during the day. You have a better-than-average chance of an intruder while those bank robbers are on the loose.”

I scowled at him. “What are you doing here, Joe?”

“Just performing my duty as a public servant.”

“More like hoping to catch me alone while Mason’s at work.”

“No…” he protested half-heartedly. “I was patrolling in the area and decided to make sure there hadn’t been any break-in attempts and that Muffy was okay.”

“Muffy is just fine.” The traitor jumped on his leg as if on command, begging for his attention. “And I didn’t realize high-ranking sheriff’s deputies were asked to do patrols. Sounds like you need to renegotiate your contract.”

He laughed. “What are you doing down here?”

“The pilot light keeps going out. I was about to relight it.”

“That shouldn’t be happening. Why don’t you let me look?”

I wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but I couldn’t afford to have a repair man make a service call. Maybe he could give me a preliminary diagnosis so I’d have some idea what I was facing. When I started to get to my feet, Joe offered me his hand, but I ignored it and stepped back to give him room, brushing my hands off on my jeans.

He took off the front panel and poked around for several minutes. “This thing is ancient. I can’t believe it’s still running, but I think I’ve figured out your problem.”

I groaned. That didn’t sound good. “How bad is it?”

“Honestly, you need a new furnace, but the immediate problem is there’s a scale buildup around your pilot light. If we scrape it off, you can make it limp along a little while longer.”

“And how much would a new furnace cost?”

“Several thousand dollars.”

“I don’t have that kind of money,” I said before I thought to stop myself.

He turned around to face me, shock in his eyes. “What about your inheritance?”

“I don’t get access to all of it at once, remember? And I’ve used up what’s available to me until I turn thirty. That’s why I considered selling the farm last month. To pay for the expansion of the nursery. But then we got the SBA grant.” I scowled. “But you know all about
that.
”

He looked exhausted. “Rose, I swear to you I didn’t know anything about my father setting up the campaign stop at the nursery or the strings attached to the SBA grant until it was too late.”

Joe’s father had arranged the whole thing just to ensure I knew Joe and Hilary were back together…as well as to give Joe a not-so-veiled threat that something bad could and would happen to me if he didn’t stay in line. While I’d seen glimpses of the real Joe before, that day he’d shown up with the veil completely thrown off. I had seen Joe in all his non-glory.

Not that it mattered. What was done was done. “The SBA grant can only be used toward the expansion at the store and, like I said, the rest of my inheritance is off limits to me for years. The money has to come from somewhere else.”

“Rose, you know I can help—”

“Stop right there. You’ll do
nothing
.”

Strangely enough, he kept silent.

I waved toward the furnace. “So I can scrape the scales off? If I do, how much longer will it last?”

“A few weeks? Another year? It’s hard to say.” He reached for the gas valve. “I thought I saw a screwdriver over by the washing machine. Can you bring it to me?”

I knew I should tell him to step away from my furnace and leave, but he was about to save me a huge repair bill. When I handed him the screwdriver, he took it without comment, then bent over and poked around inside the bottom of the giant tank. Within several minutes, he had the pilot light reignited. “That should fix it for now, but like I said, this thing’s old.” He replaced the cover at the bottom and turned to face me, looking serious. “You should ask Mason to help pay for it if he’s living with you. It seems reasonable.”

“No. Our living situation isn’t permanent. He’s just helping with utilities and food until he finds a new place.” Why had I told him that?

“How long has he been living here? Is he even looking for another place? You can bet I wouldn’t be if I were in his shoes. I’d be stalling just like he is.”

“And thank you for that confirming character assessment.”

“Hey.” He held his hands out at his sides. “When a man knows what he wants, he goes for it. Full throttle.”

“And maybe that’s the problem.” I shook my head. I didn’t want to discuss
us
anymore. “For the record, he’s been waiting on his insurance check, but it should be arriving soon, so his mother is coming next week to help him look.”

Joe laughed. “His mother?”

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes, heading for the stairs. “You’re one to talk, Mr. I-Let-My-Daddy-Run-My-Life.”

“That was different,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, Mason’s
sweet
mother is coming to help him out, while your father’s like Attila the Hun—determined to conquer and destroy everything in his path. Sounds pretty different to me.”

“If Mason’s so wonderful, why’s he moving out? Why’d he move here in the first place?” Joe asked, stomping up the stairs behind me.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but Mason’s house was burned down by Crocker because of me. Then he broke his leg.” When I got to the kitchen, I turned around. “He had no place to go and I’d just decided to move out to the farm. It seemed like a good short-term solution.”

“But not long-term? You don’t see this thing between you two going anywhere?”

I released a loud groan. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.” I grabbed my tea kettle and filled it with water. “What do you want Joe, other than the obvious?”

“The obvious isn’t what you’re insinuating, Rose. You and I are friends, remember?”

“Oh, I remember. I wish to high heaven I could forget. What do you want?”

“I tried to get the status of Henryetta’s progress on the robbery investigation, but not surprisingly, Taylor’s not being very forthcoming.”

“I’m shocked,” I said in mock surprise as I put the kettle on the stove and turned on the burner.

“I also wanted to tell you that I don’t think I’m going to be able to get that sketch artist after all. It’s going to draw too many questions. But there haven’t been any more robberies, so we might be safe.”

I sat down at the kitchen table and Joe claimed the chair next to mine. “Do you think they still have my money, then? My nine thousand?”