No Easy Solution (Crowley County Series Book 1)

by T. E. Killian

  When Jo took the keys, he turned to Carla and said, “Some fresh cinnamon rolls are in the kitchen. Why don’t you grab one on your way out?”

  Carla smiled at him and thanked him as she headed for the kitchen.

  Gil turned to Jo and said, “She smiled at me. Am I not the bad guy to her anymore?”

  Jo smiled and her whole face lit up when she did. “No, Gil, I think you might even be her hero now.” She paused, looked down at her feet, and mumbled something.

  Gil had to strain to hear, but he was sure she said, “Mine too.”

  With that, Jo blushed and hurried down the hall to the kitchen. A moment later, he heard the garage door open and they were gone. Harry came running and Gil was sure the little dog was sorry he’d missed the others. He must have been outside.

  He hadn’t even finished petting Harry yet when he heard the garage door again. This time it had to be the dynamic duo.

  Gil entered the kitchen from the hallway just as the two women entered from the garage and they were chattering excitedly.

  His mother saw him first and said, “Oh, Gil, we can’t wait for you and the girls to see what we bought. It’s just the most darling pink and white bedroom set with twin beds.”

  “Eunice jumped in, “It has all sorts of frilly lace everywhere. We’re just positive the girls will simply love it.”

  His mother said, “It will be here some time after noon today. Isn’t that just marvelous. It’ll give us all afternoon to help them decorate their room.”

  Eunice turned to her sister. “Isn’t it wonderful to have girls in the house Florence?”

  He shook his head and said, “They probably won’t be here very long, just as long as it takes them to make other arrangements.”

  Florence shook her head. “Oh, no, Dear. We’re planning on them for quite a while.” She turned to her sister. “We’ll convince them won’t we Eunice?”

  That started another round of chatter between the two and Gil knew that it would go on for some time so he wisely retreated to his study to wait for Jo to come back.

  Gil secretly hoped that Jo and Carla would stay for a while too. What a perfect way for him and Jo to get to know each other better.

  He was halfway down the hall when his mother called out. “Gil, are the girls up yet.”

  “Yes, Mother, Jo took Carla to school in my car.”

  Gil spent the next fifteen minutes trying to think of ways to get Jo to agree to stay there for a while. He wasn’t sure what it would take. He knew, as Floyd implied last night, that she had relatives scattered all over the county. Maybe she’d be more comfortable with some of them.

  * * *

  It was so strange for Jo to be driving such a small car after her minivan but as she dropped Carla off, she thought she was getting used to it. By her return trip from the high school, though, she started enjoying driving the little car. It seemed to fit her mood right then.

  When she drove through the church parking lot, and up the hill past the church, to Gil’s house or parsonage as they called it, Jo felt weird. She and Carla had technically spent the night at the church. As Carla would say, that was more than weird.

  Then her thoughts turned to Gil as she easily parked the little car in the garage. Every time she was around him, she seemed to learn something new about him that she hadn’t been aware of before. And if she were honest with herself, she liked each new thing she learned about him . . . very much.

  On top of everything else, he had actually saved their lives last night. How had he been in the right place at the right time?

  She started to get out of the little car but looked up before she did. “Did you arrange for all of that to happen, God?”

  Then it hit her. She wanted to get to know Gil much better. That was when she also realized that the bar had been between them like a wide raging river before, but not anymore. Things were definitely changing for her and Carla and she was sure that most of them were going to be good changes.

  Jo thought she had prepared herself to walk into that kitchen, but she was overwhelmed by the two older women. As soon as she walked in, they both drew her into a three-way hug so tight that she was afraid her ribs were going to break.

  When they let go, they both stepped back and one of them, she thought it was Gil’s mother, said, “We’re so happy to have you and Carla staying with us Dear.”

  The other one said, “It’s just the most marvelous thing that’s happened to us in years and years.”

  Jo was starting to get used to the way the two older women talked, with one saying a little then the other and back and forth.

  “We want you to sit down right now and have a good breakfast with us.” That was his mother again, she thought.

  As Gil stepped into the room, he confirmed it for her when he looked at the last one to speak and said, “Now Mom, give Jo a chance to relax a minute before the two of you attack her this way.”

  The other women giggled together and ignored Gil as one led her to a chair at the table. Then they began setting platters of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes on the table.

  Gil laughed and sat down across from her at the table. “It takes a little getting used to them, but once you do, they’re not so bad.”

  She looked up at him and said, “I think they’re so sweet.”

  When all the food was on the table and the twins joined them, Gil asked the blessing and they all began to eat.

  Jo giggled. Did she actually do that? “If I stay here very long, I’d gain a lot of weight. This is all so wonderful ladies.”

  She was pretty sure that Florence started talking. “We’re so happy you could be here with us Dear.”

  Then the other sister said, “And we want you to stay as long as you need to. There’s no need for you to look for some other place to stay.”

  Back to Florence. “Eunice and I would love to have both of you here forever. You’re both such sweet girls.” She looked over at Gil and added, “And of course, Gil wants you to stay here too, don’t you Son?”

  She was relieved to turn her eyes on Gil since she’d been bouncing back and forth between the sisters. He smiled at her and looked into her eyes. “Yes, I would like that very much, Jo.”

  She didn’t know what to say. She knew that Floyd would be calling her aunts and uncles around the county to find her a place to stay. She looked at each of the three faces then made her decision.

  “I really don’t know how long that could be.”

  “Don’t worry about that one little bit Dear. We want you to stay until you have a place of your own.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Both of the women were bobbing their heads and when she looked at Gil, deep into his eyes, she saw more than she expected, more than she was prepared to see. She saw much more than acceptance of her and Carla staying there.

  “But won’t the church object?”

  Gil shook his head emphatically. “I don’t think there’ll be a problem there, but I will give each of our deacons a call this morning just so they’re aware of it.”

  She didn’t know what to say. She was overwhelmed by their generosity and was it love too?

  “Okay.”

  “Great. Then it’s settled.” Gil’s mother said. “We’ll help you decorate your room this afternoon as soon as all the furniture gets here.”

  “Room? Furniture?”

  Eunice giggled, “Well, of course. You didn’t think we’d expect you to be sleeping on the floor did you?”

  The others all laughed and Jo suddenly felt like she’d been swept away by a flood. She thought about that and realized she had been . . . a flood of kindness.

  After breakfast, Jo offered to help with the cleanup, but the other women wouldn’t hear of it.

  Just as she was trying to decide what to do next, Gil spoke beside her. “Why don’t you go into my study so you can make any phone calls you need to make to the insurance company and such. I need to go to the church office for a while and you’ll have
all the privacy you need.”

  She was shocked. She hadn’t had one single thought about all the legal things she had to do now that the bar had burned.

  She tried to smile at him and said, “Thank you. That would be great.”

  After she finished spending more than an hour either on the phone or waiting for callbacks with her insurance company, he had just sat back to take a deep breath when her cell phone rang.

  When she saw that it was Floyd, she almost didn’t answer. She knew he wouldn’t want her staying there and would try to talk her out of it.

  When she answered, Floyd said, “I’m sorry Little Bit, but it seems like all of our relations either have full houses or have some other excuse for not offering you and Carla a place to stay for a while.”

  She was grinning by the time he finished. Maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult to convince him after all.

  “That’s all right, Floyd. Everyone here has asked us to stay here as long as we need to.”

  He continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “I tried my best, Jo. I called everybody I could think of.”

  She could tell when what she had said sunk in. He groaned. “You’re not going to stay there . . . with Gil . . . are you?”

  “Yes, Floyd, I think I will and you know it’s not just Gil. His mother and aunt are staying here indefinitely too. And they all seem sincere in wanting us to stay here and they’re all just so sweet.”

  “Even the preacher?”

  “Yes, Floyd, even Gil. And on top of everything else, the ladies have already bought furniture for the fourth bedroom just for Carla and me. I just couldn’t say no to them now.”

  There was silence on the other end for so long, she thought he’d hung up.

  “I sure hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.” He was quiet for a moment. “Are you getting feelings for that city fellow Little Bit?”

  She went for broke. “Yes, Floyd, I do think I’m getting strong feelings for Gil and I think he is for me too. And I want to see where they lead us.”

  Again, there was a long silence then, “Okay, Little Bit I’ll stay out of the way. But if he hurts you in any way, I’ll be all over him like molasses.”

  Jo laughed as they hung up and she suddenly felt wonderful in spite of the fire.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gil was having a difficult time concentrating on anything other than Jo and her situation. He remembered that she had said she never wanted to be in the business of running a bar. That was good.

  Then he remembered what she had said about why she couldn’t sell the bar. She had said that there were two mortgages on the place, which totaled more than it was worth. How could she get around that? If the insurance wouldn’t pay enough for her to pay them off, what would she do?

  Gil’s thoughts were interrupted by a commotion in the outer office. He heard several male voices and Betty’s voice. Then Richard appeared in his doorway.

  “Pastor, one of the deacons has requested that I call an emergency deacon meeting. Can you meet with us right now?”

  Gil was overwhelmed by the urgency he heard in Richard’s voice and was that concern too.

  “Sure, Richard. Shall we go next door?”

  Gil went through the outer office to grab a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge there. When he entered the conference room, all four deacons were already seated. He took one look at all the serious faces and just moved past all of them to his seat at the head of the table.

  Jake and J.C. both started talking at once but Richard interrupted them and said, “Fellows, let’s not forget where we are and who we are. Let’s start with a word of prayer.”

  When he finished praying, Richard looked at Gil and said, “One of the deacons has some questions for you about your behavior. Are you ready to answer them?”

  Gil tried to gather anything at all from Richard’s voice and bearing, but drew a blank. So he merely said, “Yes, of course.”

  Richard turned to Jake and said, “Okay, Jake.”

  Jake cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair with his eyes on Gil. “Were you in Jo Early’s apartment at one o’clock this morning or not?”

  Gil was so surprised at the question that he laughed. When none of the others, including Richard, laughed, he realized that Jake was serious.

  “Yes, I was but . . .”

  “That’s good enough for me.”

  Jake started to get out of his chair but Richard held up his hands and said, “Now hold on a minute Jake. Give the man a chance to explain, why don’t you?”

  “No need to explain. He was there, plain and simple.”

  Gil was so shocked that if he would have tried to speak it would only have come out as a croak. Richard finally convinced Jake to sit back down and then turned back to Gil.

  “Would you like to tell us what happened?”

  “Yes.” Gil managed to get out but needed a drink of water. His hands were shaking so badly that it took a moment to get the lid off then he took a drink. “I was in bed . . .”

  When Jake started to interrupt, Gil added, “At the parsonage . . . by myself, at eleven o’clock when I received a call that Seth Watkins had had a heart attack. So I went to the hospital to be with his family. I was there until about one in the morning.”

  He paused to take another drink and as he did, he looked around the room. Richard was totally relaxed now and Leroy looked close. J.C. was looking less skeptical but Jake was still totally hostile.

  “When I was driving home, as I passed Jo’s place, I saw fire in the bar downstairs. I quickly called 911 and went upstairs to wake Jo and her sister Carla.”

  When no one said anything, he noticed that both Leroy and J.C. were more relaxed now. “I helped them get some of their things and then we all went out into the parking lot. By then, the fire department and police were arriving.”

  He thought he was home free now, at least with three of the four. But he wasn’t prepared for what came next.

  Richard looked around the room and said, “Well, I think that settles it, at least as far as I’m concerned, it does. I’m sure the Watkins family will vouch for Gil being with them at the hospital.

  “Not so fast Richard.”

  Every head turned toward Jake who was still sending extremely hostile looks at Gil.

  “All of that may be well and good but it still doesn’t make up for the fact that that woman is staying at his house.”

  He pointed at Gil. “And to make matters worse, it’s our parsonage.”

  Gil was ready to defend himself and Jo, but was somewhat surprised when Leroy did it for him.

  “Jake, give the guy a break. He has his mother and his aunt there as well as Jo’s little sister. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. After all, what is a church for if it’s not to help our neighbors in their time of need?”

  Jake turned redder in the face. “That’s not the point. It’s who she is and where she is that counts.”

  Leroy and Richard both seemed ready to speak to that but J.C. beat them to it.

  “Jake, I don’t know what it is you have against Gil here, but I don’t see anything wrong with what he did. In fact, I think it’s admirable.”

  Jake looked as if he was about to explode then, but he didn’t say anything else before he rose so fast that his chair shot backward on its rollers and hit the wall behind him as he stomped out of the room.

  The others were silent for a long moment after Jake stormed out. Gil looked from one to the other of those left and saw only encouragement and support. For the first time since he’d come to Crowleyville, Gil felt that he just might be in the right place after all.

  Richard was the first to speak. “Gil, does Jo need anything else right now?”

  Gil thought about that for a moment. “I guess she’s doing fairly well right now considering. I know she’s going to need some help as things progress. She told me once that the place was mortgaged for more than it was worth.”

  J.C. clea
red his throat and everyone in the room looked at him.

  “Gil, you tell that little lady to come see me as soon as she knows how much the insurance is going to settle for. My bank holds both of those mortgages and I’m sure we can work something out for her.”

  Gil couldn’t believe his ears. “Thank you J.C. I’ll tell her as soon as I see her.”

  With that, the meeting broke up and the others left Gil alone, still sitting in his chair at the conference table.

  Finally, he stood and left the room. On his way out, he said to Betty, “I’m going to go tell Jo the good news.”

  Betty was smiling broadly. “I’m sure she’ll be excited.”

  Gil didn’t even think twice about the fact that Betty must have heard every word that was said in the meeting.

  In spite of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, he was grinning as he started climbing the hill to the parsonage.

  * * *

  Jo was still in Gil’s study sitting at his desk when he found her. She hadn’t been able to move after her final phone conversation with her insurance agent. All of a sudden, she was so tired that she was afraid she might fall asleep right there in Gil’s desk chair.

  He walked into the room and sat in a chair on the other side of the desk. He just sat there looking at her with a broad grin on his face.

  Just looking at his happy face pepped her up tremendously. She was becoming so comfortable in his presence. It didn’t even bother her when she realized that she was in a room with a man who was blocking her only exit. She really felt good being around Gil.

  He obviously had something on his mind so she waited for him to tell her. She was surprised, though, when he did start.

  “Jo, did your insurance agent give you an idea of how close the payoff would be to your mortgage total?”

  That certainly wasn’t what she had expected him to say. Her first thought was that it was none of his business, but then she reminded herself that it was Gil asking. He had proven himself to her so many times that she felt she could trust him with anything. After all, she had unknowingly trusted him with her life and that of her sister’s just last night.