Four Short Weeks

by Kay Correll

  Jay helped her inside The Nest, though she protested she didn’t need help. Not that anyone was listening to her.

  Okay, she was a bit unsteady, but that was to be expected. She settled into her favorite recliner.

  “I’ll let you get some rest.” Jay started to leave.

  “Wait right there. You tell me what’s going on with Gary.”

  Jay paused. Ah, someone was finally listening.

  “Aunt Lil, why don’t you rest for a while. Then we’ll sort all this out.”

  “Don’t treat me like an invalid or some little old lady. I’m neither. Jay, sit and tell me everything.”

  Jay perched on the edge of the couch and Robin sat beside him. Sara, annoyingly, hovered near the recliner.

  “Gary Jones is actually a multi-millionaire CEO of GJ Industries. Garrett Jones. His company was involved in buying sub-par building materials and pocketing the money. A building collapsed, and a man died. There was just a huge insurance settlement for the man’s family. Though, you know how that goes. Big companies always seem to appeal decisions like that.” Jay’s eyes flashed in anger. “Now, in spite of all his assurances that he knew what he was doing, the stairs collapsed. Maybe he bought subpar material for the rehab and pocketed the difference.”

  “There’s no way for him to do that. He buys the material from the hardware store on my account.” She shook her head and tried to process everything Jay was saying.

  “We should check all those receipts. Make sure he isn’t buying things for himself.” Robin frowned.

  “I have checked the receipts. I know I can’t know exactly how many boards or feet of wiring he’s used, but nothing is out of line.” Lillian turned to Sara. “Go sit down. You’re making me nervous hovering like that.”

  Sara reluctantly sat on a chair across from her. “I think we should have Jay check over all the work Gary has done.”

  “I’m going to. As soon as I leave here.”

  “And, Aunt Lil. No more dates with Gary. He’s lied to you. He’s responsible for a man’s death.”

  Lil tried to take it all in, but suddenly she was tired. Very tired. Too tired to argue with any of them. Gary just didn’t seem like the type of person to cut corners. He was so exacting and particular. He also didn’t seem like the kind of person to cheat his company out of millions of dollars to pad his own pockets. It just didn’t make sense.

  “I think I will rest for a little bit. Why don’t you all go back to work?”

  “I’m going to stay here with you,” Sara insisted.

  “No, you’re going to work and I’m going to just sit here and knit or maybe nap.” She pinned Sara with a stern look.

  “Okay, but we’ll check on you later,” Robin said.

  The three of them finally left, and she reached for her favorite teal throw and placed it over her lap. She eyed her knitting bag but didn’t have the energy to even pick it up and work on the lace shawl she was making for Sara as a surprise for her for the wedding.

  She closed her eyes, but images of the stairs collapsing beneath her raced through her mind.

  And all those things Jay had said about Gary. Were they true?

  She sighed and pulled the wrap tightly around her, suddenly chilled. It appeared Gary wasn’t quite the man she thought he was. Maybe her instincts hadn’t been so good after all.

  Chapter 26

  Gary had hung around The Nest last night, at a distance, hoping to catch Lillian alone. But Sara, Robin, and Charlotte had been there with her most of the evening. Then when Robin and Charlotte left, he could still see Sara sitting outside on the deck. He and Lucky had headed back to the small cottage he’d rented nearby on the beach.

  This morning he once again hung out on the beach near The Nest. He saw Lillian come out on the deck with her coffee, limping a bit, which made him scowl. He gathered his courage and headed toward The Nest.

  He climbed the stairs—which didn’t collapse under him like his faulty stairway—and stood on the top step. “Lillian.”

  She turned toward him, but he couldn’t quite read her expression. Not her usual welcoming smile, that much he was certain of.

  “Can I talk to you for a moment? Then I’ll leave you alone. I promise.” He took a step forward.

  She nodded, still not saying a word.

  He crossed over to where she was sitting and leaned against the railing across from her. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m feeling a bit sore, but fine. And I wish everyone would quit fussing over me.”

  “First off, I want to apologize. For not telling you my name. Well, Gary has been a nickname that my family has called me ever since I was a boy. But I should have told you about Garrett Jones. What I did. What happened.”

  She looked at him, her brown eyes filled with unanswered questions. Accusation. And maybe a little judgment.

  He sighed. “I can tell you the whole story. About how I hired my college buddy, Brian, and how he was in charge of the purchasing. He bought inferior materials and kept the million he saved. He did a good job of covering it up.” The guilt crashed over him as it always did. “But I was the boss. I should have been on top of things and never let this happen.”

  Lil sat in silence, watching him.

  He turned and looked out at the calm ocean, so in contrast to the steel-hard tension in his body. He turned back to her. “Dale, one of my workers, a foreman, was killed in the collapse. He was a fine man. Been with me over twenty years. Had two little girls and a wife who loved him very much.” He shuddered and closed his eyes briefly. “It should never have happened. I blame myself as much as Brian. I should have known something was off on the accounts. My son, Mason, asked me to check into it. I actually had the paperwork on my desk to look at, but I was just so busy. Which is really no excuse.”

  “And the article in the paper said the insurance company settled with Dale’s family?” Her voice was low. “Is your company going to try and fight that?”

  “What?” He looked at her in surprise. “No, I was the one who insisted they settle and give a large settlement. It was my company’s fault. Dale’s family deserves all the money they can get. Though, that won’t bring back Dale, will it?”

  “No, it won’t.” She sat there staring at him.

  More than anything, right at this moment, he wanted to be anyone but himself. He wanted to go back to being just Gary Jones, the carpenter, the repairman. Though, he wasn’t much of a carpenter either. He could have killed Lillian with his faulty staircase.

  “Anyway, I wanted to come and say I’m sorry. Explain why I used my nickname. I just needed some time out of the spotlight. Some time to regroup. Mason took over running the company. I’ve been teaching him for years. I hope he’ll do a better job at the helm than I did.” He shrugged. “The board of directors asked me to step down for a bit, but I’ve decided to permanently quit as the CEO. I’ll turn that over permanently to Mason.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t even build a simple set of stairs. I thought I still remembered everything I learned about carpentry. Obviously I didn’t. I’m so, so sorry about the collapse and so thankful you weren’t hurt worse.” The guilt was almost impossible now, like a building collapsing on him. Smothering him. Crushing him.

  “I don’t think what Brian did was actually your fault.” Lillian looked directly at him and he saw no judgment in her eyes.

  “Ah, but you see. It was. I hired him. He was my friend. I just let him have at the purchasing and didn’t watch over him like I would have with any other hire.”

  “So your fault, what you’re guilty of, was trusting a friend?” She eyed him.

  “It was misplaced trust.”

  She nodded. “It appears it was.”

  “Anyway, I’m sorry about everything. Hiding my past, and especially for not making the stairs correctly. I keep going over in my mind what I did wrong, but I can’t figure it out. It’s all just a jumble of boards now, so I guess I’ll never know. Rest a
ssured I won’t be building anything, ever again.”

  She sat there, with the stark white bandages on her legs taunting him and nailing his guilt.

  “I think you’re very hard on yourself.” Her words were spoken so softly he could barely catch them on the gentle breeze.

  He pushed off the railing. “I’m sorry, Lil. Sorry for everything. I’m leaving the island now. I hope you can find someone who can finish the guest house for you. I’m sorry I didn’t get it finished by the wedding. I wish you the best and hope the wedding is wonderful.” He turned and headed back across the deck.

  “Goodbye, Gary.”

  He turned back and took one last look at her sitting there in the sunshine. Her honey-brown eyes glistening with a hint of tears. “Goodbye, Lillian.”

  Chapter 27

  Jay strode into The Lucky Duck late that afternoon. Ben, Noah, and Delbert were sitting at a table finishing up their lunch. He slid into a booth beside them.

  “You look terrible.” Ben stared at him.

  “Rough couple of days.”

  “So I heard. But Lillian’s okay?” Noah asked.

  “The girls are with her now. They made her lunch. They’re probably driving her crazy about now.” Jay caught Willie’s eye and ordered a beer.

  “You’re not going to eat?” Ben pushed away his completely empty plate.

  “I grabbed something at the inn before I came here.” He reached for the beer the waitress brought and took a long swig.

  “They were just telling me about Garrett Jones.” Delbert reached for his beer. “I thought something was familiar about him when I met him. Just didn’t tie the casually dressed Gary with the business suit Garrett. His company actually gave us bids on two Hamilton Hotels we built.”

  “Looks like you dodged a bullet on not using them.” Jay set his glass down. “I should have checked the guy out more carefully. I should have never let Lillian hire him in the first place.”

  “Since when does anyone ‘let’ Lillian do anything?” Noah cocked his head. “Besides, when she got rid of Vince, she needed someone to finish the work.”

  “That reminds me.” Ben crumbled his napkin and set it by his empty plate. “I heard rumors around town that Vince is bad-mouthing Lillian for firing him. Rumor has it that he’s not getting many jobs at all now and he blames Lil.”

  “Of course he’s not blaming himself for doing lousy work and rarely showing up to the job site.” Jay shook his head.

  “There’s talk that he’s going to get even with her.” Ben frowned. “But I’m not sure how he could do that.”

  Jay sat back, thinking. He rubbed his chin and stood up abruptly. “I’ve gotta go.”

  “You just got here. You’ve got half a beer left.” Noah pointed to his glass.

  “There’s something I’ve got to do.”

  Jay hurried out into the sunshine. Things were starting to make sense. He’d gone over every inch of the work on the guest house yesterday and this morning. Nothing looked out of place. Gary did better work than he, himself, could do. Very precise and very well done. So he hadn’t been able to figure out what went wrong on the stairs.

  He strode down the sidewalk until he passed the inn and went around to the beach side of the guest house. He walked over to the lumber, piled this way and that, where the stairs used to be. He bent over and carefully studied the boards.

  Then he saw it. A cut all the way through the riser of the stairs. He dug another riser out and saw another cut. He hardly had to sort through and find the third support riser. He knew what he’d find. Another cut.

  Sure enough, he did. Then he looked carefully at the support posts and found more cuts. Someone had sabotaged the stairs.

  And he was certain he knew who it was.

  Lillian insisted on going to The Yarn Society even though Sara wanted her to stay home and take it easy. How hard was it to go and sit with her friends and knit? Besides, if she sat here any longer feeling sorry for herself, she was going to scream.

  Sara insisted on driving her to the community center despite her insistence that she was perfectly able to walk. Though, she did admit she was sore from the fall in places she didn’t even know she had.

  Dorothy and Ruby jumped up when she entered the room. “Lillian, we didn’t think you’d be here today.” Dorothy rushed over and hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Ruby was just telling me about what happened.”

  No surprise her friends already heard the news.

  “Sit down.” Ruby led her over to a chair. “And Charlotte told me all about Gary. Or Garrett. Or whatever he calls himself today. Are you okay?”

  Lillian settled into a chair and took out her knitting. It was a good thing this wrap she was knitting for Sara was an easy to memorize pattern because her friends were not finished with their questions.

  “You sure you’re okay? I heard it was quite a fall.” Dorothy sat down next to her and picked up her knitting, her needles starting to dance in a steady rhythm.

  “I’m fine. Just sore.”

  “And I heard that Garrett’s company was sued. Something about using inferior materials in the hotel they were building.”

  She told her friends what she knew about the whole episode. Then she told them about Gary coming over today and talking to her.

  “So, he blames himself?” Ruby asked as she stopped her knitting. “He didn’t actually buy the inferior material or cover it up.”

  “But he’s ultimately in charge. Just like if something goes wrong at Charming Inn. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility.”

  “Maybe, but a person can let guilt over someone else’s mistake—or outright deceit—eat at them until it ruins their life. It seems a shame for Gary to let this ruin his.” Ruby started knitting again. “Besides, you like him, don’t you? Does this change anything?”

  “He didn’t tell me the truth about who he really was.” Lillian frowned. “And really, I only met him a few weeks ago, so I guess I don’t really know him that well, do I?”

  “I think you can learn a lot about a person in a short time. Who they really are. Even if you don’t know everything about their past.” Ruby sighed. “Look at David and me. I met him and he hid the fact he’d had cancer. But it didn’t matter to me. He’s a good man and I love him. We’ll face whatever the future brings.” Ruby looked at Lillian closely. “Maybe you should figure out how you feel about him and if you want to give him another chance.”

  Lillian paused her knitting. Did she want to give him another chance? She didn’t really know him that well anyway, did she? Wasn’t it easier to just let it all go and get back to normal life?

  As if Dorothy could read her thoughts, her friend said, “And don’t just take the easy way out. Figure out what you really want.”

  Chapter 28

  Gary opened the door to his rental cottage and his eyes widened in surprise. “Mason. What are you doing here?”

  “Checking on you. I booked a flight after I saw the story about the collapse went national again. I looked for you at Charming Inn. Thought you were staying there. But some blonde gave me an earful about how you’d built a shoddy staircase and some Lillian woman had been hurt. What’s that all about? You’ve never built anything that wasn’t over-engineered and built to perfection.”

  “You mean except the hotel that collapsed.”

  Mason pushed past him, shaking his head, and strode into the cottage. His son stopped and stared at Lucky in amazement and turned back to him. “You have a dog?”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. “Well, I guess he is. He just kind of showed up at the house I was rehabbing and then stuck around. No one has claimed him.”

  Mason bent down and petted Lucky. “How are you, boy?”

  “His name is Lucky.”

  “Glad to meet you, Lucky.” The dog wagged his tail and Mason stood back up. “What’s this nonsense about the stairs collapsing?”

  “They did. Right before my eyes. I must have messed up something on the under
structure, though I keep running it through my mind and can’t figure it out.”

  Mason shook his head. “I just don’t see it. You wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”

  He was pleased his son defended him, but the facts were there. He’d built the new stairs, and they’d fallen and Lil had been hurt.

  “So who is this Lillian who got hurt?”

  “She owns Charming Inn. And hired me to rehab the guest house. I was actually really enjoying it. And Lillian and I became friends.” He led Mason over to the fridge, grabbed two beers, and handed one to his son. “But then she found out about who I really was and… well, things fell apart.”

  “How long are you going to keep blaming yourself for what happened at the hotel? It was Brian’s fault. The jerk got away with around a million bucks and disappeared. It’s his fault.” Mason looked at him. “And don’t give me the whole I’m the boss lecture. Yes, you were. And we’ve put new procedures in place so it can never happen again. But you weren’t the one who actually caused the collapse.”

  “I’m still responsible. The buck stops here.”

  “All I can see is the guilt stops here.” Mason eyed him. “Why don’t you come back to Seattle. It’s time you took back over the role of CEO.”

  “No, I’m going to resign. Permanently.”

  “You can’t do that.” Mason took a step forward. “I’m not ready to be the permanent CEO. I was iffy about taking it on temporarily.”

  “And you think the board of directors wants me back?” He eyed Mason skeptically.

  “I know they do. They weren’t pleased when the story broke again, but it will blow over soon.”

  “I don’t know…” He wasn’t sure about anything anymore, much less making a big decision like this. “I need time to think.”

  “Sure, I’ll give you a couple of days. But I’m staying here with you. You got room? I need your help on some things.” Mason nodded to his laptop bag.