A Family's Hope: A Sweet Romance (Love in Millars Crossing Book 3)

by Carolyne Aarsen

  “Suzie,” Janie said, her mom-voice tinged with reprimand.

  Luke couldn’t help a quick glance in his rearview mirror. Suzie was sighing, but she didn’t reply.

  “Directions?” he reminded Janie.

  “Sorry.” She shifted again, clenching her teeth against the pain. “You should go to my mother’s first to drop off the kids.”

  “And have her see you like this?” Luke guessed Janie wouldn’t want her mother fussing over her. “I can take the kids to her place after I drop you off. So, which bank?”

  Janie bit her lip as she considered this. “I go to the one on Main Street. Down from the coffee shop. Todd, do you have my envelope?”

  Luke turned, trying to make sure he didn’t make any sudden jerks with the minuscule stick shift and tiny clutch. The one-ton trucks and eighteen-wheelers he’d driven seemed easier to maneuver than this itty-bitty car.

  “What time do you have to be there?” Luke asked as he ground the gears, backed off and tried again.

  “Two and a half minutes.”

  “That’s shaving it pretty fine.”

  “I would have been okay if it wasn’t for tripping down the stairs and finding Autumn…” She stopped and grabbed his arm, cutting off his little guilt trip over her comment about tripping. “Autumn. I can’t let her go to my mother’s like that. I was on my way to get a clean shirt when I tripped.” She dropped her head against the headrest. “I’m doomed.”

  “I don’t want to go to Grandma’s.” Suzie leaned forward taking advantage of the situation. “Why doesn’t Luke take care of us?”

  “Because,” was her succinct reply.

  Janie pulled out her cell phone punched in a a number. She tapped her one hand on her knee, shifted her feet and then winced.

  “You should see a doctor about that, you know,” Luke said. “What if it’s broken?”

  “It isn’t…. Dodie, I hate to bother you, but I need your help. I am really stuck and I can’t get hold of Jodie.” Janie glanced back at Autumn. “I can’t take the kids to my Mom’s right now. Could you phone her and tell her I need to keep the kids at my house and then watch them for me? Really? That works out perfect. You’re a dear. Could you meet me or Luke at the bank? Yes, he’s here. Okay, that works great. Thanks.”

  Janie ended the call, then turned to Luke.

  “One piece of good luck. Dodie dropped her car off at the mechanics for some work so she’ll get them to bring her to the bank. And she’ll need a ride back to the house.”

  Luke knew it was the right thing to do, but to be honest he had been looking forward to spending some time with Janie’s kids.

  “Sure. Will do.”

  By the time they got to the bank, Dodie was already there, hair pulled back, face free of makeup. Her denim shirt was worn as were her pants. She was smiling so obviously today was a good day for her.

  Janie tucked the envelope into her purse and slipped it over her arm before she got out of the car. “You kids listen to Dodie,” she said. “And no television.”

  “Yes, Mom,” Todd and Suzie replied, followed by a belated “Yes, Mom” from Autumn.

  Luke turned off the car and hurried out, trying to get to Janie’s door before she got out.

  “I’ll be fine,” she insisted as he opened her door. “Just get my kids back home. I’ll call my mother and tell her what’s happening.”

  Luke ignored her protest as he tucked her arm in his and helped her up the curb. It felt good to be helping her. Felt better than good to have her arm tucked in his.

  “What happened?” Dodie hurried over to her sister’s side

  “An accident on the stairs.” Luke turned back to Janie. “What time should I come and get you?”

  “Dodie can pick me up with my car when I’m done.”

  “I can come and get you. That way she won’t have to pack up the kids.”

  Janie waved away his offer, and Luke stifled his own annoyance with her.

  Then she shifted her weight to her good foot, glancing upward. His annoyance drifted away as a soft smile shaped her lips. “Thanks for your help,” she said quietly.

  “Gladly given,” he said, holding her gaze as a light spring breeze tossed her hair away from her face.

  A glimmer of what they had shared before revisited, and it was all Luke could do not to reach up and brush the errant strands of hair back into place.

  Dodie was watching with avid interest, and Luke glanced away as Janie let go of Luke’s arm. “Do you want me to start supper?” Dodie asked.

  “I’ll take care of that when I come home.” Janie gave her sister a smile, Dodie gave her a hug and Luke felt it again. The faint touch of envy at the web of relationships surrounding this woman. Kids, sister, parents.

  His mind slipped back to Al and Uncle Chuck. They had been generous and caring. His family. They had filled a void that his mother had created with her frequent absences.

  But always, deep within him, was a deeper yearning for a family of his own.

  Janie jerked open the door of the bank and hobbled inside. Luke waited to make sure she wouldn’t keel over. An older man with thinning hair came out of an office, his hand held out in greeting. They chatted a moment, and then he was escorting her into a hallway. Just before Janie turned the corner, she glanced back over her shoulder.

  Their eyes met again, and she ducked her head, as if embarrassed to have been caught, then disappeared.

  “So, home again,” Dodie said, a faint smirk on her face as if she had caught the little interchange.

  Luke ignored the smirk and walked to the car. “Home again,” he said.

  Chapter Seven

  “I understand the entire building that my shop is in is for sale. I currently lease half the building, so I was thinking of buying the whole building and expanding.” Janie swallowed down the flutter of panic accompanying her brave words. Expand. So easy to say. It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do.

  But second thoughts hounded her brave words as she handed Victor Chernowyk, her account manager, a folder with her proposal in it. The papers inside represented precious hours of work grabbed between working at the coffee shop and taking care of her house and children.

  “I have a couple of proposals. One is expanding into the restaurant business, or adding a bookstore. I think the population of Millars Crossing could support a bookstore in conjunction with another business. Coffee shops and bookstores are a popular combination.”

  Victor opened her folder and flipped through the papers, his eyes flicking over them. He was only giving them a cursory glance.

  “I’ve done a lot of research on those proposals,” Janie said, a feeling of desperation coming over her at his seeming lack of interest. “I’ve gone through all the numbers…” Worn out her fingers on the calculator, contributed to global deforestation by going through reams of calculator paper. “Either of those could do well.”

  As Victor sighed and closed her folder, Janie swallowed down a bubble of trepidation.

  “An audacious proposal, Janie, and one I’m sure your father would appreciate.”

  Janie gave him a careful smile, reading the undertone of his voice.

  “The reality is, we’ve extended your credit as long as we possibly could,” Victor Chernowyk said from his vantage point on the other side of the desk. “In fact, I’ve had to do some intense bargaining to get you your current extension.”

  And there it came. The dropping of the other shoe.

  Victor smiled, the overhead light glinting off his glasses, his folded hands resting on the folder she had spent so much time on. “You’re barely hanging on to your business as it is. Expansion is not an option. We’ve renegotiated the loan too many times.”

  Janie swallowed down the frustration building in hr chest. “So what is the solution?”

  Mr. Chernowyk pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair, his hand still resting on her file. “Have you talked to your father?”

  “That
was never an option.” Her words came out more forcefully than she had intended, but she needed to make this point crystal clear. “I’m not running to my dad every time I’m in trouble.”

  “Of course, I realize that,” Mr. Chernowyk said, tapping his fingers on the file folder as if he were dealing with an obstinate young child.

  And perhaps that’s how he saw her, Janie thought, easing her foot into a less painful position. Victor Chernowyk had been her father’s loan officer when Ted Westerveld first started his contracting business. He negotiated her father’s loans and various other financing as his business grew and flourished.

  He’d also set up Clyde’s business financing.

  Now Ted Westerveld’s daughter was in financial straits, and Mr. Chernowyk couldn’t seem to understand why Janie simply didn’t go to the “Bank of Daddy” and take out a loan.

  “I’m sure your father would want to know about your financial situation, however.”

  Janie couldn’t disagree. She knew Ted Westerveld would willingly pull out his checkbook and fix it all.

  “He’s not going to find out.” Janie felt herself go cold and taut, and she sent a warning glance across the expanse of desk between her and her father’s friend. “From me or you.”

  Mr. Chernowyk held up his hands in a gesture of defense. “Of course not. Our meetings are strictly confidential.” He sniffed, then leaned forward again, his arms folded on the desk. “So that leaves you with one option. Selling the coffee shop while you still hold a small margin of equity in it.”

  “There’s no other way?”

  Victor sighed. “I’m sorry. Unless you find a partner who has the cash to get your operating loan in line, no.”

  And where was she going to find a partner? Her parents were out as was her sister. Dodie had enough of her own stuff to deal with right now.

  “I’ll do some work on the numbers and see what I can come up with.” Janie threw out the words as if they cost her nothing.

  In which of your full twenty-four hours do you even hope to do that? And what numbers do you think will rescue your coffee shop? The file he’s holding is full of numbers. What you need is money. Not more evenings hunched before a computer.

  “It would have helped had your husband not taken out that business loan using the house as equity,” Victor continued.

  Janie clenched her fists, pressing her lips together against the comments that she wanted to spill. As if it was all her fault Clydewas a poor business person. Her fault that the business she had hoped would give him the purpose he had been seeking had failed so spectacularly. The business Clydehad hoped would put him on par with her father.

  Thankfully Janie had set some money aside. Money Clydehadn’t been able to access when he left. She’d used that to purchase the coffee shop. It had become her sole source of income and had, in the process, become a symbol of her independence from her parents. That she didn’t need their help. That though marrying Clydehad been a mistake, she was still in charge of her life.

  “What kind of timeline am I looking at?” she asked.

  Mr. Chernowyk blew out a sigh as he picked up a pen from the desk. “In about two months, interest on your current loan will reach critical mass.”

  And wasn’t that a comforting concept.

  “Thank you for taking the time to see me,” Janie said, slipping her papers into the envelope.

  “No problem. Always glad to see you.” Mr. Chernowyk stood as Janie painfully got her good foot under her, her hand resting heavily on the armrests of the chair. “Are you all right? You seem to be in pain.”

  His concern after his cavalier dismissal of her work, his easy assumption that she could run to daddy for help, got her back up.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped, though she was anything but. Her ankle throbbed with each heartbeat, sending waves of pain and heat up her leg but she managed to get upright without groaning or moaning.

  “Of course.” Mr. Chernowyk visibly pulled back, slipping his pen in the suit pocket of his coat. “I’ll see you to the door.”

  He walked around the desk, leading the way out of the office. Janie followed him, stifling a cry of pain as she put her weight on her foot.

  “You have hurt yourself,” he exclaimed, frowning as she hobbled toward him.

  “I twisted my ankle before I came here,” she finally admitted. Fibbing about it further would only make her look even more foolish. “But I’ll be okay.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” Gracious, he was almost as stubborn as Luke.

  “All right, then.” He gave her another smile as he held open the door. He watched her go and then, thankfully, left.

  Janie sank against the glass window of the bank, taking her weight off her foot. A few people passing said hello and she flashed a completely fake smile in return, hoping they wouldn’t stop to talk. Between the pain in her ankle and the pressure building up in her head she wasn’t sure what kind of conversation she could make.

  From her vantage point in front of the bank she saw the pulled blinds and the Closed sign on the door of her coffee shop.

  Which meant every person pausing at the door was one fewer customer and less income. All of which put the top of the hole she had been trying to climb out of since Clydehad left her further out of reach.

  For now, she had to get home and get supper ready for her family. As she pulled her cell out to call her sister, she felt a moment of panic wash over her.

  Too many decisions. Too much to think about. And no way out.

  Janie opened her phone to dial home. Then hesitated. Dodie would have to pack up all the kids to come here. Maybe she should phone her mother to pick her up and take her home.

  And have her find out about the ankle, the shirt and the bank appointment?

  She dialed her own home.

  Suzie’s “hello” was breathless, and in the background, Janie heard Todd laughing.

  “Are you watching television?” Janie demanded.

  “Luke is telling us stories.”

  “Why is Luke still there?”

  “Auntie Dodie told him he could stay and help.”

  Didn’t he have work to do on his house? Why was he spending time with her kids and her sister? Was he staying because of Dodie?

  And why did she feel that faint tinge of jealousy? “Where is Auntie Dodie?”

  “She’s sitting right here.”

  “So Luke’s been with you kids and Dodie the entire time?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Luke made us clean up the house, and he’s been trying to get Autumn’s shirt clean. You can talk to him.”

  “No, honey, that’s fine. Let me talk to Dodie.”

  But all she heard was some more giggling, then Luke’s voice came on the phone. “I’m guessing you’re done.”

  Her heart endured an unexpected pitch and roll at his deep voice juxtaposed against the sound of her children’s muted laughter. A man in her house, with her kids.

  She decided to forego questions about his presence in her home. There would be time later. “Is Dodie there? I need a ride.”

  “Don’t you think it might be better if I come get you? That way I’m not left alone with the kids. Just better optics and make you feel a bitter.”

  She let his words sink in. Then felt a lift of pleasure that he even considered that. “Sure. That would be good.”

  “I’ll see you in a bit.”

  She wished she could tell him how she appreciated his consideration, his awareness of the precariousness of her situation. Instead she simply said goodbye and hung up.

  She laid her head against the wall, her mind ticking back to a scene from the past. Clydewas supposed to be watching the kids while she went grocery shopping. When she got home, she found he had left a note that he got a call from a guy at work and had to duck out. She didn’t know when he got the call or how long he’d been gone, but when she got home Suzie was eating cereal in front of the television, Todd was stuck screaming in the bathroom, wit
h a door he couldn’t unlock and Autumn was playing with a pair of scissors.

  She’d felt sick for weeks afterward, thinking what could have happened.

  She pushed the memory aside. Clydewas gone and out of their life. Thankfully.

  Her ankle was throbbing by the time Luke pulled up in front of the bank in her car.

  Todd and Suzie had come with him. Which seemed to negate the whole ‘optics’ thing.

  Never mind.

  She pushed herself away from the wall just as Luke got out to help her.

  “I’ll be okay,” she said. But as she took her first step, an agonizing pain shot from her ankle up through her leg almost sending her to her knees.

  Luke caught her and thankfully, didn’t say anything as he escorted her to the car.

  He helped her inside and waited for her to buckle up. “Luke hurt his leg, too,” Todd said from the backseat. “He said he was in the hospital for two weeks. You won’t have to go to the hospital, will you?”

  “I can wiggle my toes. It’s just a sprain.” She ignored Luke’s knowing look.

  “Luke said he used to have a motorbike,” Todd said. “Like Dad did.”

  “Hardly in the same class,” Luke said with a vague smile. “At least guessing from the pictures I saw.”

  “The kids showed you pictures?”

  “I thought it would be okay,” Suzie said, picking up on the alarm in Janie’s voice. “I wanted to show him how pretty you were in your wedding dress.”

  The thought of Luke looking at pictures of her past created a sense of connection she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. And yet, as she caught his sidelong glance, the discomfort slipped away.

  “I’m sure Luke doesn’t care about my wedding,” she said quietly.

  “But he said—”

  “And I’m sure your mom doesn’t care what I said, Todd,” Luke told him, glancing in the rearview mirror.

  Thankfully he didn’t look at her after he quieted Todd. Because in spite of her brave words, she tried not to wonder what he’d actually said.

  The kids filled her in on the rest of the afternoon on the short trip back to the house. Apparently Luke hadn’t had much luck washing the marker out of Autumn’s shirt or the carpet upstairs. That he had even attempted, made her smile.