by SUE FINEMAN
A two-foot wide raised planter would wrap around the outside just below the windows. Diners would be able to see the flowers through the windows.
Laura was delighted with the design, but frustrated with the construction mess. After Jay cut into the wall, she found everything coated with dust. She and Luke hung huge plastic sheets over the construction area, but it was still a big mess. At least Jay worked on this in the evenings, when her customers didn’t have to endure the choking dust and noise, but it meant she had to start at least a half-hour earlier each morning to wipe off the tables and chairs and run the vacuum. Although business dropped off a little, they were still bringing in more money than she ever dreamed possible.
They ordered special blinds for the windows in the sun room, installed tile on the floor, and moved in five tables. Luke put two potted palm trees in the corners. They could squeeze another table in there without the plants, but Laura liked this better. She looked at it from all angles. It was the way she’d dreamed it could be, only better.
Queenie would have hated it.
“We have to do something about the landscaping, Luke. We need something down by the street and in front of the apartments, and we need flowers for these planters.”
“Your father is getting estimates from landscaping companies. Part of his job will be taking care of the outside, including the landscaping and windows. Morris will help him.”
Rusty and Morris would both earn their rent.
“Laura, I asked the designer to start on that other addition.”
“Do we need that now, Luke? We just added five more tables.”
“Let’s get the design done and approved. We don’t have to build it right away.”
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Laura’s parents moved into the manager’s apartment. Dad’s old, worn out sofa and recliner looked awful, but they moved it in anyway. They still hadn’t sold the fishing camp. The one man who was interested found another place he liked better. Dad couldn’t hide his disappointment, but Florence remained optimistic that they’d recoup at least some of their money.
Laura went back and forth, spending some nights at the apartment and other nights with Luke at the ranch. Some days she was too tired to drive that far, especially if she had to work the early shift the next morning. No matter how many other people worked at the café, she was there nearly all the time, greeting customers, filling the buffet, and preparing more food.
She’d been thinking about uniforms. The ones Queenie made her wear were worn out, and she was one short, since Earl had destroyed one. Meg and Florence and Judy all wore something different, but she wanted them all to wear something similar, something that would instantly identify them as working there.
One afternoon at the diner, she explained the problem to Luke. “The only thing I can think of is blue polo shirts with white aprons. We could put the name of the diner and the crown logo on them, like the sign.”
“I like it. Speaking of the sign, it’s due the first week of August.”
“We should plan some kind of promotional thing for that week, shouldn’t we?”
“Now you’re thinking like a businesswoman. What would you think about free T-shirts for the first hundred customers?”
Laura tapped her lip. “I wonder what kind of deal we could get on a thousand. We could give some away and sell the others, or we could give them away at Duchess Décor openings.”
Luke liked Laura’s uniform idea. They were making enough money that they could afford to buy shirts for everyone who worked there, including Rusty. They could buy their own skirts or shorts or whatever.
It was time to get Laura out of here for a few days. Time to take the next step in their relationship. “Laura, how would you like to take another trip to the beach?”
“I’d love it, but I can’t get away now.”
“Laura, the diner can run without you there every day. Arrange the schedule so someone else can cover for you. Put Judy in charge. She ran the place before and she can run it now.”
She followed him out to the parking lot. “I can’t go now, Luke. I have two high school kids coming tomorrow afternoon to talk about working part time, and Judy found a woman who wants to work while her kids are in school. She can make salads, but I don’t know where we’ll put her. There’s no more room to work in there.”
Luke shook his head. “Buy salads already made. Order breads and desserts from the bakery in town and salads from the deli at the grocery store. If you have a standing order, you can negotiate a good price and they’ll even use your recipes if you want. You can’t make everything yourself. It just isn’t possible with the volume of business you’re doing, especially in that little kitchen.”
“I guess we could try different things until we find something the customers like. What about going to the beach next weekend? Is that soon enough?”
He lifted her chin for a kiss. “I’d like to steal you away right now, Miss Whitfield.”
“Are you two at it again?” said Jay. “When are you gonna make an honest woman outta her?”
“When you make an honest woman of my mother,” Luke retorted.
“You think she’d marry an old fool like me?”
“You’ll never know if you don’t ask,” said Laura.
“She’d probably throw me out on my ear.”
“Not necessarily,” said Luke. “Lily needs a firm hand. The little monster needs a father.”
“She ain’t no monster. She’s just an ornery kid.”
“She painted Molly’s toenails bright pink. Poor dog.”
Laura laughed softly. “I don’t think Molly minds.”
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Billy called Luke with the news. Foreclosure papers for Earl Windsor’s Daytona Beach property were delivered to Earl at his home at four o’clock on Wednesday. “There isn’t enough money in all of his accounts to pay the back payments and keep that property out of foreclosure. He has to get money from somewhere else or lose it. If and when he comes up with the money, state investigators will track down whoever’s giving it to him. The IRS will want to be involved, too, especially if there’s no paper trail.”
Luke asked, “What about the locked rooms?”
“Nothing yet. They expect something to happen in the next few days.”
On Friday, with the authorities still watching his warehouses, Earl received a foreclosure notice for the Vero Beach property. This time, Earl called Luke. “What in the hell are you doing? My lawyer says you’re behind Duchess Décor. If you wanted a piece of my business, why didn’t you come to me?”
“I don’t want your business. I want your property, so I can start my own business. Pay what you owe or lose it.”
“You don’t need any damn money. Your mama’s rich.”
“Then the property is mine.”
Earl started to swear and Luke hung up on him.
Even after he received the second foreclosure notice, Earl stayed out of sight. Since the night he was arrested for indecent exposure, he couldn’t go anywhere without people staring at him. He shut himself in his house and didn’t come out.
And then Luke foreclosed on his house.
Earl called Luke again, his voice filled with rage. “What the hell are you doin’ to me, boy? You stop it or else.”
“Or else what? I’m not a woman you can beat or rape. You come near me and I’ll wipe the smile off your face for good. I’ll hold you down while the women castrate you. Pay what you owe or get the hell out of my house.”
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Two days later, Luke was talking with Bruce when Meg pounded on the door. “Luke, turn on the news. Channel five.”
Luke watched the fire department spray water on Earl’s luxury home as flames shot through the roof and out the windows. The reporter gave a re-cap of the night Earl was arrested for indecent exposure while the camera panned the activity around the burning structure.
“What can you tell us about this fire, Captain?”
“Nothing at this point, but it looks
suspicious. The structure was fully involved by the time we arrived, and we were unable to get inside.”
“Is anyone in there?”
“We won’t know for sure until the fire is out, but there was no vehicle in the garage, so we assume the owner was gone when the fire started or shortly after.”
Luke watched in wonder, knowing Earl wasn’t in the house. They’d pushed him too far, and he’d lashed out the best way he knew how. What would he do next? Earl was too much of a coward to face Luke, which meant he’d go after the women or burn something else. If he had the balls to burn his own house, he could do anything.
Luke raced to the diner. To Laura. “Laura, Earl burned his house.”
She gasped. “He didn’t!”
“I’ll send Jay to the ranch to stay with Mom and Lily. They don’t know where Earl is and I don’t want to take any chances. I’m staying with you, but I need to make some phone calls.”
Laura wiped her hands on her apron. “I’ll get Jay. Make your phone calls.”
Whoever had been giving Earl money had to be pretty pissed with him by now. Maybe they got him. Maybe he died in that house, but they couldn’t take any chances. Luke called Carlos and Billy, and then he called a guard service. They sent men to patrol the grounds at the ranch and the beach house. Two other guards were sent to watch the apartments and the café.
Earl wasn’t a businessman. He was just some jerk someone set up in business. Was he smart enough to know who he was dealing with and what they were doing? Or did he care? He had all those stores, he appeared on television, and people recognized him wherever he went. He was a big shot who loved the power, the influence, and the glory.
And they’d taken it all away from him.
<>
Guards patrolled for five days, but Earl stayed out of sight. Then one day he appeared at the bank in Daytona Beach with a satchel full of cash. Someone called the authorities, who took him in for questioning, but Earl wasn’t talking.
At Earl’s arraignment, the prosecutor convinced the judge he was a flight risk, so bail was set high. Since Earl paid the back mortgage payments on his Daytona Beach property just before he was arrested, he had nothing left for bail. So he sat in jail.
Fire department investigators determined someone had splashed gasoline or another accelerant all over the inside of Earl’s house and set it on fire. Earl Windsor was their only suspect.
Billy prepared the paperwork to repossess the other six stores and warehouses, but Earl couldn’t pay. He sat in jail, waiting to be tried for assaulting Laura, when he was charged with arson. The IRS wanted a piece of him, too.
Luke still wanted to smash his face in.
Over the next few days, Earl’s suppliers cut him off and repossessed their merchandise. When the merchandise had all been removed, Mitterman’s men cut the locks on the doors of all those little rooms and looked inside.
They were empty, every last one of them.
Chapter Nineteen
With Earl safely in jail, Luke and Laura rearranged their schedules and left for three days at the beach. It was a good time to go somewhere a little cooler to escape the muggy and miserable ninety-six degrees in the shade in Kingston, typical weather for August in this part of Florida.
The new sign would be installed in a few days. Luke wondered if the name change would make any difference to Laura. Would she always think of the place as Queenie’s? Would she ever stop trying to outdo Queenie? She didn’t have to prove anything to him or to anyone else. The place was successful because of her. Sure, he pumped money into it, but she would have done it without him. It just would have taken her longer.
The balmy ocean breeze caught him when he opened the car door, making him smile. He’d grown up poor, and now he owned a house on the beach. But he wanted more. He wanted a woman to share it with, someone who’d love it as he did. A woman who’d love him forever.
Laura.
He carried their bags inside and put them in his bedroom. Their bedroom.
“You’re awfully quiet, Luke. What are you thinking about?”
He turned to face her. “Just wondering if I could entice you to leave the diner more often.”
She stared at him, her eyebrows knit in confusion. “What are you talking about? Are you firing me from my own business?”
“I hoped you’d want to leave it.”
“Why?”
“To marry me.”
Her mouth opened, but she seemed too stunned to speak.
“I love you, Laura. I want to be with you all the time, but with you tied to that place, it won’t work. I have to travel, find new business investments, and do the same things I’ve been doing with you at the diner and motel. I want you to come with me, work with me, be with me. I don’t want you here while I’m in Leesburg or Hollywood or Tallahassee or Sarasota or somewhere else. I want you with me. Do you love me, Laura?”
“Yes, of course I do, but what about my business?”
“We’ll hire more people. Judy can manage the diner and your parents can keep an eye on things. I thought we could live here, at the beach house. It’s only forty minutes away, so we’d be close if they need you.”
“I know, but—”
“Florence and Meg can help Judy. They can hire however many people they need.”
She looked stricken. He’d just proposed and her mind was on business. Did she have any idea what that did to a man’s ego?
“You’re not ready to give up on it, are you? You’re more tied to that place than you are to me.”
“It isn’t that, Luke. It’s just... I want to marry you, but I can’t just walk away.”
What made him think she’d give up her business for him? The diner was her baby, her child. She wouldn’t leave her baby for him.
She drifted into his arms. “We can still get married, Luke.”
“A long-distance marriage won’t work. I don’t want us to be separated all the time. Either you’re with me or you’re not.”
She draped her arms around his waist and gazed up into his eyes. “But I love you.”
Sure she did, but she was too obsessed with the diner and with proving her worth to a woman who’d died months ago to leave Kingston. “It’s not enough, Laura.”
Deeply hurt, Luke turned away and walked out to the deck. She had to know what this was doing to him. He’d handed her his heart, but his love couldn’t compete with that damn diner. Without looking back, he opened the gate and walked down to the beach. He slipped his shoes off and waded in the frothy surf and started down the beach. She didn’t love him enough to leave that damned place. He should have known she wouldn’t leave it. She was obsessed with it. Instead of fixing it up, he should have torn it down and started over. They’d changed the name, but to her it would always be Queenie’s Café.
Her home.
He walked for nearly an hour before he found himself back at the beach house. He was hot and itchy and wanted to take a cool shower, but he wouldn’t do it now. Right now, he had to drive Laura back to her precious diner. From now on, their relationship would be strictly business, as it should have been all along. He’d let himself fall in love with a woman who wasn’t free to love him back. She wouldn’t be free to love anyone as long as she was tied to that diner.
He found her on the deck, sitting by the pool in the shade. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes were swollen and red. She’d been crying.
“Maybe we’d better go back,” he said.
“If that’s what you want.”
“You know that’s not what I want.” The words came out harsh. He swallowed his angry pride and lowered his voice. “That’s not why I brought you here.”
“Why should I give up my job? Are you giving up yours?”
“I’m not asking you to come along just for the hell of it. I’m offering you another job, working with me.”
“All I know how to do is run a diner.”
“You know about people and you understand how a business runs. You�
�re smart. You’ll learn the rest.”
“I want to be with you, but—”
“Pack your things. I’ll take you back to your precious diner.” He heard the bitterness in his voice and knew she heard it, too, but he wouldn’t apologize. He couldn’t.
“I didn’t unpack. I didn’t know if you’d want me to stay.”
“I want you to stay for good, but you don’t love me enough to do that, do you?”
She didn’t answer, and her silence drove the knife in deeper.
Luke locked up and tossed their bags on the backseat. He didn’t know what to say to her, so he said nothing.
Laura wiped tears off her cheeks a couple of times, but she didn’t speak until they were approaching Kingston. “Luke, you don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t. It’s just a place, honey, just a building where you work yourself to death.”
“I can’t leave now.”
“Because you still have something to prove to yourself? You sure as hell don’t have anything to prove to anyone else. Laura, Queenie is dead.”
“Her words still haunt me.”
“I know,” he said softly. Queenie’s power was stronger than Laura’s love for him, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He could compete with another man, but how could he compete with a dead woman?
“I’m sorry, Luke.”
“So am I.”
She pulled her suitcase off the backseat, closed the door and walked away.
Luke drove back to the ranch to lick his wounds and wallow in self-pity. He should have expected this kind of response, but he thought she loved him. On some level he knew she did, but it wasn’t enough.
She loved her business more.
He walked in the door at the ranch and Mom asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I asked and she turned me down. End of story.” He walked to his bedroom and threw the suitcase on the bed with such force it nearly bounced off.