“Mona, are you all right?” I took a step towards them. My heart was in my throat now.
“I’m fine, Holly. Go back inside. It’s cold out here.” I could hear them talking as he followed her to her car. He opened the door for her, then turned away. Keep her safe, Father. We’ve had enough trouble lately.”
As he stepped under the yard light, I caught a glimpse of his face. The fleeting look pricked my memory, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen him before.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was still early when I went back inside, but people were ready to call it a day. The last confrontation was the final straw. Everyone was pitching in to help clean up the trash, everyone but Jane, that is. I didn’t see her anywhere. Maybe she’d taken Jim’s words to heart and gone to bed. I didn’t see the man she’d been with either.
“Is Mona okay?” Jim had his hands full of plastic cups, plates and silverware.
“Yes, I think she’ll be fine.” I wished I could say that for certain. Who was the man she walked off with? I hadn’t been able to get a clear look at his face in the semi-darkness, but I was certain I’d seen him before.
“I’m glad Hannah is too little to remember this,” he sighed. “We didn’t even get to cut her birthday cake.” A lock of hair had fallen across his forehead, and he gave his head a toss to put it back in place. The gesture was so like the one I’d seen his oldest son do many times, causing me to smile.
“You can still have a small party just for the family on her big day,” I suggested. Looking around, I didn’t see Hannah or Jane. “Where is she?” I mentally crossed my fingers, saying a prayer that she wasn’t with Jane.
“A couple of the girls took her in the other room to distract her. As for her mother, I don’t know and don’t care.” His broad shoulders slumped in defeat. “I never should have had this dinner party. Not with everything that’s been going on.” Giving a weary sigh, he shook his head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the party or his marriage.
Jane wasn’t helping clean up, but that wasn’t unusual. Even sober, she wouldn’t pitch in. The queen of the castle didn’t do hard labor. I was being snarky, but I couldn’t seem to help myself after the way she’d acted earlier.
Bill and Drake were across the room having a serious conversation. Neither of them looked very happy with the other one. I could only guess at the topic. At least they weren’t going to add to the drama by making a public display with a fist fight.
When the last of the guests were gone, it was time for me to leave. The house had been put back in order, so Jim wouldn’t have to worry about that in the morning. If only it was that easy to fix the mess his marriage had become, I thought. I prayed that when the time came, Jane wouldn’t use Hannah as a pawn against Jim. That happened too often in a divorce.
Saying my good-byes to Jim, I picked up my casserole dish. Jane still hadn’t put in an appearance. Even if she was standing next to me, I wasn’t sure I could be civil. She had put on quite the display. Like Max’s funeral, this Thanksgiving would be talked about for years. Drake followed me outside. “Would you like some company tonight?” He leaned down, placing a soft kiss on my lips.
My heart fluttered. “Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea. This is a small town, and you and your dad are public figures. The town gossips would chew us up if you spent the night at my house again.”
“Well, that wasn’t what I was suggesting, but if you’re offering.” He chuckled softly.
My face felt like it was on fire again. Mom always said I had ‘hoof and mouth disease’. I’d certainly put my foot in it this time.
“No, but I thought…Never mind. I need to go home.” I clicked the key fob to unlock the car door. With my back to him, he wrapped his arms around my waist nuzzling my neck. Goosebumps moved up my spine. When I didn’t resist, he turned me in his arms, his mouth descending on mine.
“Now can I come over for a little while?” he asked, in a hoarse voice.
“I, um,” I had to clear my throat before I could get any words out. “I guess it would be all right if you came over for a little while,” I stressed, hoping he would stick to that time frame. Besides, I wanted to know what he and Bill had been discussing when I came inside.
During the short drive from the ranch to my small house at the edge of town, I tried to talk myself down off the emotional cliff I was perched on. I needed to clarify my position in his life before this went any further.
The door had barely closed behind us when Drake pulled me into his arms. Somehow we made it across the room, falling on the couch without any mishap. It was several long minutes before either of us spoke.
“Can we just talk for a minute?” I pushed on his hard chest. I needed some space in order to gather my wits about me. We were both breathless. I stood up to put some distance between us. My legs felt like Jell-O, and I wasn’t sure they’d hold me up for very long.
“Okay. What is it you want to talk about?” He stretched his arms out along the back of the couch, completely at ease.
I was suddenly nervous. How could I phrase my questions without sounding like a complete idiot? “Um, did you mean what you said earlier?” I stammered.
He stood up taking several steps towards me. I backed up an equal number. My mind turned to mush when he got too close, making it impossible to think straight. I needed to keep a clear head, or I’d never figure out whether we were on the same page regarding where this was heading.
My house was small, and eventually I backed into the wall stopping my retreat. Within arm’s reach, he pulled me to him, but he didn’t try to kiss me. “I said you are my girl. If that isn’t clear enough for you, I’ll put it another way. It’s been a number of years since we spent any quality time together. I want to do that, before I make my formal proposal.”
“Proposal,” I interrupted, my voice nothing more than a squeak.
“Yes, my proposal,” he chuckled. “If you have any lingering doubts about my intentions, let me put them to rest. I fell in love with a knobby kneed girl of ten, and time hasn’t changed that. Except for the knobby knees,” he qualified with a chuckle. “We still need to get to know the adult us before we can go any further. Have I been clear enough?”
My heart was pounding so loud in my chest, I was sure he could hear it. Since I couldn’t make my voice work at the moment, my head bobbed up and down. Again there were several long moments of silence before either of us spoke.
We had made our way back to the couch. This time, Drake stood up, stepping away from me. I wasn’t the only one who needed some space in order to maintain a clear head.
“What were you and Bill discussing when I came back inside? It looked pretty serious.” A change of topic might help cool things down a little. “Neither of you looked very happy.”
“Yeah, I guess we both had reason to be upset. He’s been keeping a few things from me.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “I guess you have too. Why did you tell him to go looking for where Max had been hiding? Why didn’t you come to me with that?”
“What would you have said if I told you to look in the forest for his hiding spot?” I asked. “You were so intent on keeping me out of your investigation you wouldn’t have listened to me. I told you he was dirty and hadn’t shaved in a while. That means he wasn’t staying in a motel. You saw how he looked when you found his…” I stopped, taking a deep breath before I could begin again. “When you found him,” I finally finished. “Besides, Bill knows the forest better than you do since that’s where he works. It was logical that he’d be able to find where Max had been hiding faster than you could. Did he tell you what he’d found?”
Flopping back down on the couch, he drew a calming breath. “Yeah, but it turned out to be nothing. I’m surprised that old shack is still standing. A good wind would knock it over. He said it looked like someone had been staying there, but the only thing in the shack is an old chair we’d taken out there as kids. He said that’s
why he didn’t come to me with it.”
“You don’t think he’d hold back something he found if it implicated Max in the embezzlement, do you?”
He shook his head, sending that lock of hair over his forehead. This time, I didn’t resist the temptation. I combed my fingers through his thick mane to put it back in place. Taking my hand, he placed a kiss in the palm and curled my fingers over it.
Drawing a shaky breath, he answered my question. “He knows better than doing something like that. The truth would come out eventually, making it look pretty bad for him. He loves his job, and wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it.”
“So you still don’t know who was behind the embezzling, or who killed Max.” There was disappointment in my voice. “Why was Fred killed? He really didn’t tell me anything. I didn’t ask him about what happened to the town’s money. I just wanted to know how a wire transfer was done.”
“But you already knew the answer. Didn’t you work at a bank while you were in college?”
I tilted my head to look at him. “How did you know that? We weren’t in contact at that time.” He’d commented on that once before.
“You told Dad and Mom. They kept me informed.”
“They didn’t do the same for me,” I stated indignantly. “All they said about you was that you joined the Air Force. I thought maybe you’d become a pilot or something.” We’d gotten off topic again.
“No, police work was always where I planned on going. I think you knew that at one point.”
He was right. It had always been his dream to become a policeman. How could I have forgotten that?
“What else were the two of you discussing?” I wanted to get back on track. “What was Bill upset about?”
“He wanted to know if my intentions towards you were honorable.” I sputtered at that, but he ignored me. “He didn’t like my answer. Seems he’s been holding out hopes of his own. I told him it was time for him to find his own girl. I was in love with you.”
“You told him that before you told me?” I sat up straight.
“I didn’t think it was necessary to put it into words,” he chuckled.
“Oh. How did he take that?”
“For a minute I thought he was going to take a swing at me. Instead, he shook my hand, and said the better man won. I told him not the better man, just the right one for you.”
“You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
He pulled me against his chest, his lips claiming mine in a heart-stopping kiss. When he lifted his head, he looked into my eyes. “Now tell me that isn’t the truth.”
I couldn’t lie. He is and always has been the right man for me. I fleetingly thought that Bill gave up easily. His interest in me probably had more to do with the rivalry between him and Drake than it did me. Maybe now he would notice Jill was in love with him.
It was long past midnight when he finally left. We both had jobs to go to in a few short hours. I hoped we’d get this ‘knowing the adult us’ part over with soon so he could get on with the formal proposal.
~~~
The day after Thanksgiving is a slow day at any library. That’s especially true in Pine Mountain. The students are out for a long weekend. They weren’t worrying about term papers. Their parents were at all of the Black Friday sales in town or other towns around.
When the door opened, I was surprised to see Jane waltz in. She was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses that she didn’t bother taking off when she came inside. She was probably nursing a hangover this morning.
“This town is so full of hypocrites,” Jane snarled, as she came up to my desk. She was wearing the same clothes she’d had on the night before. Maybe she hadn’t spent the night at home. I didn’t want to go there.
“Really? What makes you say that?” At the moment she was one of my least favorite people. Hannah wasn’t with her, and I hoped she hadn’t forgotten about her baby again.
“No one wants that big box store here because it might hurt the local stores. But they’ll drive fifty miles to shop at one. They just don’t want it in their town.” She looked around at the empty tables and book aisles. “That money could just as easily stay right here if they weren’t such a bunch of phonies.”
“It isn’t the once a year sales that keep the stores here open,” I argued. “It’s the day to day buying that people rely on. If that store opened up here, the local stores wouldn’t be able to match the prices. They would end up going out of business. The downtown area would become a ghost town.”
“And such a wonderful downtown it is, too,” she sneered. “It would be such a shame to see it change, even though it would be an improvement. I hate this town and everyone in it. I have half a mind to leave. I’d take half of everything Jim has. See how he’d like that.” I noticed she didn’t mention taking Hannah with her.
When Linda gasped, Jane turned to glare at her. In the silent library, Jane’s voice had probably been heard even in the upper deck. “I’m not going to do that, so you can just put your hopes back in the box. He’s my husband. If he wanted an old woman, he wouldn’t have gone looking for someone young enough to be his daughter.” She whirled around, stalking out of the library.
“She is such a witch,” Linda whispered. “She’d stay married to Jim simply to punish him.” There was nothing I could to say to that. She was right. If Jane thought Jim wanted a divorce, she was vindictive enough to refuse to give him one, even if it meant she would be unhappy as well.
Worried that Jane had left Hannah alone at the ranch again, I picked up the phone. “Cox Hardware, this is Tom. How may I help you?” One of Jim’s employees answered. Not everyone had driven fifty miles to the big box store. All of the local stores had sales going this weekend as well, including the hardware store.
“Hi, this is Holly. Can I talk to Jim for a minute?” I drummed my fingers on the desk, waiting for Jim to pick up.
“Holly, is something wrong?” He sounded worried. “I saw Jane’s car pull out of the library parking lot. What did she have to say for herself?”
“Where’s Hannah? She wasn’t with Jane.” I was beginning to panic when I heard the sweet cooing in the background. “You have Hannah with you.” The words came out on a sigh.
“Yeah, and she’s a great little sales lady. I should have thought about bringing her to the store before this. Everyone who comes in here wants to play with her. They don’t leave without buying something either, even if it’s something they don’t really need.” He chuckled.
Growing serious again, he asked, “What was she doing at the library? I doubt that she’s read a book in the whole time we’ve been married.” His voice was bitter. “I’m surprised she crawled out of whatever hole she had fallen into last night even though it’s past noon.”
“She wanted me to know what a bunch of hypocrites we all are since so many people are shopping at the big stores out of town today.” A thought occurred to me. “Do you think she could be behind the store coming here?” I whispered, afraid to state the question aloud.
“I wouldn’t put anything past her.” He sighed. “I really can’t talk right now. In spite of what Jane thinks, not all the people have left town to shop elsewhere. Things are hopping here. Thanks for checking on Hannah. I wouldn’t leave her home alone, or in Jane’s care.” The line went dead. Had my assumption that Jane had spent the night elsewhere been correct?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jane had been gone less than forty-five minutes when she stormed back in. If she’d been out to the ranch and back, she had broken all the speed laws between here and there. She had a wild look in her eyes now. “Where is she? What did you do with her?”
“What are you talking about?” I stood up so she wasn’t looming over me.
“You know damn well what I’m talking about. If you don’t have her, that bitch does. Where did she take my baby?”
“Calm down. Hannah is with Jim at the hardware store.”
“Huh? What’s she doing at the hardware
store?” Her anger evaporated, and now she seemed confused. She looked around to see who else had heard her outburst. Linda and I were the only ones in the building. Not even the book club women had come in today. They were probably out shopping.
“Someone had to take care of her. He couldn’t very well leave her home alone, could he? If you’d been home when Jim left this morning, you would have known where Hannah was. Where were you last night?” I was taking a stab at the truth.
“That’s none of your damn business.” She turned on her spiked heels and stormed out again. Linda shook her head, but kept her thoughts to herself. I wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall at the hardware store if she was silly enough to go over there. I didn’t think Jim would turn Hannah over to her.
On slow days like this, Linda and I spent a lot of time straightening the shelves and catching up on paperwork. Since the library was run by the city, not the school, we had to abide by the hours set up by the town council.
By mid-afternoon we were both bored. We’d done our best to avoid talking about what happened the previous day. She hadn’t been at the ranch, but I was sure she’d heard from those who had been.
Given what June had said, and what I witnessed the day before, I was fairly certain Jane was having an affair. If she spent the night away from home, Jim probably suspected as much as well. What he was going to do about it though was a mystery. This divorce would end up nothing like the one with my mom and her many husbands. Jane would try to take everything he owned and then some.
When Mona stopped in, she looked well rested and happy. I didn’t know if the man she’d met at the ranch had followed her back to her hotel. I didn’t want to be nosy and ask either.
“I’m heading home today, and I wanted to tell you good-bye before I left.” This surprised me. She usually stayed the entire weekend. Guessing my thoughts, she added, “I have a couple of big clients I need to meet with first thing Monday morning. I still have things to prepare for the meetings.” Mona owned an interior design business, and dealt with high-end clients.
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