by Debbie Mason
“Oh, okay.” Julia didn’t know the reason for the small, painful twinge in her chest. It seemed she still held out hope that she and Hazel would get past this.
Delaney handed her an official-looking letter. “You have two weeks to vacate the premises. Both the store and the apartment.”
Julia stared at the eviction notice. “I…I don’t understand. I haven’t done anything wrong. My rent’s paid up. What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?”
Lenny took the paper from her trembling fingers. “You can’t evict her without cause. You have to give her thirty days.”
“Not if the landlord needs the property for her own use. Which Hazel does. She’s going to run her campaign from here.”
“You put her up to this, didn’t you, Delaney?” Julia asked, praying she was right. She didn’t think she could take it if she was wrong.
The other woman shrugged. “So what if I did? You have nothing to tie you to Harmony Harbor now. Go home to Texas. Hazel might actually stand a chance of reelection without you here.”
A man walked in with a registered letter. “Julia Landon?”
She nodded, and he handed her another official-looking envelope. “Thank you.”
The man gave her a look that seemed to say she wouldn’t be thanking him once she opened it. Which is why she waited for Delaney to leave before she did.
“Julia, what are you going to do? You’re not moving to Texas, are you?” Lenny asked as the door closed behind Delaney.
Julia opened the envelope. “I don’t know, Lenny. I honestly don’t know. Hazel and I were close once. Maybe if I speak to her without Delaney around I…”
“Julia, what’s wrong? What is it?”
The print on the registered letter blurred. “The bank just called in my loan. I have a week to pay it off.”
Lenny slowly sank down on the stool beside her. “Why is this happening to you?”
She told him about Hazel and Josh and Mrs. Bradford, whose husband owned the bank. Now that she no longer had the Gallaghers or the mayor in her corner, Julia supposed she was easy prey.
Lenny stood up, his face flushed and angry. “Don’t worry. I won’t let them get away with this.”
There was something in his eyes that concerned her. She put her hand on his arm. “It’ll be okay, Lenny. I promise. If I can’t come to some sort of agreement with Hazel, I can find another space to rent. My apartment’s too small anyway. And the loan… There’s other banks, right? I’ll just…I’ll figure it out,” she said, trying to sound confident for Lenny’s sake.
He shook his head. “They can’t do this to you and get away with it.”
“Lenny, don’t do anything—” He stormed from the store, the wind catching the door and slamming it shut behind him. She ran to call out to him. But when she finally managed to get the door open, he’d disappeared on the crowded sidewalk.
Her mom used to tell Julia that something good always came out of something bad. She might not see it right away, especially when she was in the middle of the storm, but eventually she would. And that one day she’d look back on those bad times and know they had to happen to get her to where she needed to be.
As Julia tucked the letters inside one of the boxes, she wondered if the eviction and the bank calling in her loan were signs that she should move back to Texas. The one thing she could always count on was her family. She gathered up the boxes and carried them to the back of the store. She had a decision to make, and she had to make it today.
At the tinkle of the bells, she turned, praying it was Lenny. It wasn’t. She bowed her head and put down the boxes beside the storytime chair. Her heart hurt as she walked back to the coffee shop, where Ava, Sophie, and Lexi were taking seats at the counter.
“If you’ve come to run me out of town, you’ll have to get in line.”
“What are you talking about, and why are you in your pajamas?” Lexi asked, and then added, “Before you explain that and also why you didn’t at least confide in us, your friends, about Josh, could you get me a coffee, please?” She nudged her head at Sophie and Ava. “They dragged me from the manor before I could—” Lexi gave Julia an alarmed look and raised her hands. “No, do not start crying. They’ll blame me.”
Julia sniffed back tears. “I thought you all hated me. I didn’t think any of you would ever speak to me again.”
“That’d be a little hypocritical, don’t you think? The three of us have kept secrets, too, Julia. We just wish you had told us. You didn’t have to deal with this on your own,” Sophie said.
“I couldn’t. I wouldn’t put any of you in a position where you would have to lie for me to your husbands and Colin.” Swallowing hard, trying to keep the tremor from her voice, she asked, “Does he hate me?”
Ava gave her a gentle smile. “No, of course he doesn’t hate you. And neither do Griffin, Liam, or Finn. But this opened everything back up again. In the end, it’ll be for the best. They’re all just a little raw right now.”
“H-how’s Aidan?” It didn’t escape her notice that Ava hadn’t mentioned him along with his brothers.
The three women exchanged a glance, and then Lexi opened her mouth. Suddenly afraid the other woman would confirm what Julia already knew in her heart, she held up her hand. “It’s probably better if you don’t tell me. I honestly don’t know how much more I can take today.”
Lexi got off the stool, took Julia by the shoulders, and sat her down. “Talk. We’re not leaving until you tell us everything.”
By late that afternoon, Julia had decided to leave Harmony Harbor. Her friends hadn’t made the decision easy for her. Several hours after Ava, Sophie, and Lexi left at eleven, half the owners on Main Street dropped in for a nip of Christmas cheer. When she told them about Hazel and the bank, they’d sprung into action.
Mackenzie, who owned Truly Scrumptious, didn’t deal with Mr. Bradford. Her grandmother, who’d started the bakery, couldn’t stand the man. Mackenzie called her bank manager and set up an appointment for Julia first thing the next morning.
Poppy and Byron, who rented from Hazel, too, called to tell the mayor they’d be giving their notice if she kicked Julia out and that the Gazette would back whoever ran against Hazel in the next election. Hazel told them she’d get back to them.
The Gallagher women must have been working the phones as well because Julia had received a call from Olivia to tell her she’d lend her the money if the bank wouldn’t.
Still, sales at Books and Beans were way down. She’d be lucky if she rang up a hundred dollars today. And she didn’t see that changing anytime soon. But the reason she’d decided to leave had nothing to do with her business. It was because she’d cause the two people she loved more pain by staying here. They’d made it clear they didn’t want her around. Hazel had been more obvious than Aidan, but his silence spoke just as loudly.
As Julia walked through to the children’s section, her eyes filled with tears. It wouldn’t be easy to leave. She went to sit in her storytime chair and tripped over the boxes from Hazel, knocking one over. Papers, folders, and knickknacks spilled out. She frowned, kneeling down to pick everything up.
Just as she began to think that Delaney had brought her someone else’s box, she recognized a yellow pen with a rubber emoji on the end, a sushi stapler, and the cheeseburger timer she’d given to Josh. She turned the box upright. It was his things from the writer’s shed. She pressed her hand to her mouth to hold back a sob and then slowly began picking up each of the items, smiling at the memories they evoked. She drew a coiled purple notebook toward her and flipped through the pages. It was the screenplay Josh had been working on before he died.
She leaned against the chair and began to read. Like she’d done in Warrior’s Kiss, some of the characters in Josh’s screenplay were thinly disguised. It wasn’t difficult to see the resemblance of Josh, Hazel, and herself to the three main characters. This was the man she’d been going to marry, the man she had loved. He’d loved her too. It was as if he kne
w that one day she’d stumble upon the notebook. It was his love letter to her, a goodbye and his blessing.
She didn’t realize until that moment how much guilt she’d been carrying around. It was time to let it go. Time for her to finally forgive Josh. Because while she’d defended him to Aidan, she hadn’t truly forgiven Josh herself. She saw that now, felt it deep inside. She picked up the emoji pen and flipped to the empty pages at the back of the purple notebook to write him a letter. Six pages later, she was finally able to write the words I forgive you and just as important, I forgive myself. I did my best. She put down the pen and closed the notebook, closed that chapter of her life. It was over now. She could move on.
Sitting with her back against her storytime chair, she looked around the bookstore. She’d worked so hard to make her dreams come true, and now she was leaving without a fight. When had everyone else’s dreams become more important than her own? Was she really going to give up on the life she’d made for herself because the two people she loved no longer loved her? No. Julia thought, no she wasn’t.
For once, she was putting herself first. She wasn’t leaving Harmony Harbor. She’d convince Mackenzie’s bank manager that she was a good risk. And if Hazel wouldn’t back down, Julia would find somewhere else to live and set up shop. She smiled, feeling more like the person she used to be. A woman who wasn’t weighed down by secrets.
* * *
It was after seven when Julia stood up from dusting the last of the shelves in the store. She took the buds from her ears. She’d been humming along to “Where Are You Christmas?” by Faith Hill.
“Tammy, why don’t you go home early? I can…” She trailed off at the sight of Aidan standing behind her. “I didn’t hear you.”
It had been a week since she’d seen him, and she drank him in. He was still big and beautiful, and, like the other night, he wasn’t smiling. She realized she was. It seemed she couldn’t help herself where he was concerned. Hope was a horrible thing.
“Maybe because you were singing.”
“Maybe.” Her lips lifted the tiniest bit at what appeared to be a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Can I help you with something?”
He looked down at his boots and then raised his gaze. “I have to take you in for questioning, Julia.”
“What? No. Why?” She backed into the shelf. “I know what Hazel’s saying, but it’s not true. I didn’t let Josh die because I didn’t love him anymore. I would never do something like that. He’d… he’d been drinking, and staying out all night, and not helping at the store. I was tired of it. Tired of being the only responsible adult in the relationship, and I let his call go to voice mail. That’s it. Do you not think I haven’t beaten myself up over it? Asked what would have happened if I had taken his call? Or listened to my messages earlier?”
Her knees went weak, and she sat on her storytime chair, wishing she could curl up and disappear into a make-believe world. Was this what she got for trying to take back her life? “I don’t know why I took the letters like he asked and ran instead of calling the police. Maybe because I’d just seen the man I’d once loved lying dead on the floor and was in shock.” Guilt weighed her down once more. She gave herself a mental shake and lifted her chin. “But there is something I’m sure of. Nothing I’ve done since that night was done to hurt anyone.”
He crouched in front of her. “Julia, this isn’t about Josh’s death. No one is investigating you for that, okay?”
“Then I don’t understand. Why are you taking me in for questioning?”
“Mrs. Bradford is missing, and her husband is pointing the finger at you.”
No, no, no, Lenny, what did you do? Julia did her best to keep any emotion from showing on her face. She didn’t say anything and waited for Aidan to continue.
“Did you receive registered notification that your loan was called in this morning?”
“Yes, I did. I also received an eviction notice from Hazel. I have two weeks to clear out my store and apartment. She’s not missing too, is she?” She was being half sarcastic and half serious.
“Don’t, okay? This is serious. If I’m going to help you, you need to tell me the truth.”
“Why would you want to help me? You made it pretty clear how you felt about me the other night.”
“I can’t do this now, Julia. And unless you have an alibi for between noon and one today, I’m going to have to bring you into the station.”
“I don’t. I was here by myself. No customers to vouch for me either. Business pretty much dried up when word got out about Josh.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve any of this.”
“No, I don’t. And I didn’t deserve how you treated me at the gallery that night. And I don’t deserve you taking me in for questioning either.”
“Then give me something. Other than you, do you know of anyone who’d have reason to harm Mrs. Bradford?”
She pretended to be thinking, but what she was really doing was wiping any sign of guilt from her face when she said, “No, nobody.”
He crossed his arms. “You’re lying.”
She lowered her hand from her Rudolph earring. “No, I’m not. I’m also not going to the station with you.” She didn’t have any time to waste. She had to find Lenny.
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, I do. I know my rights.” She leaned over and picked up her phone from the floor.
“Julia, come on. It’ll look better if you come in of your own accord. You don’t need a lawyer. I’m not going to let anyone…”
“Hi, Daddy. I have a detective standing in front of me, and he’s trying to force me to go to the police station with him for questioning. Okay.” She smiled at Aidan. “My daddy would like to talk to you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Are you awake, Daddy? It’s Christmas Eve day,” Ella Rose whispered in his ear.
He frowned, wondering what his little girl was doing at his dad’s place. Aidan felt like he was hungover and pried his eyes open with his fingers. “Hey, pumpkin. What are you…?” He looked up at the canopy, and things started to click into place—storytime with Ella Rose at the manor. And a dream, one weird-ass dream that he’d been talking to GG. A chill ran up his spine at the memory of how real it had seemed. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he’d been visited by her ghost.
“There’s something wrong with daddy, Mommy,” Ella Rose called out to her mother in the next room.
“Daddy’s fine, pumpkin. I’ve just been working a lot of hours, and I guess I was more tired than I realized.” It totally explained why he’d been talking to his dead great-grandmother about Julia. Or maybe it had nothing to do with how tired he’d been and everything to do with how much he missed Julia.
And maybe the GG in his dream was right. Learning that Josh had been responsible for Aidan’s mother’s and sister’s death had opened a wound that had never really healed. From the moment he’d read the pages from GG’s journal, all the anguish and anger had oozed from the tear in his heart until now there was nothing left and it was slowly healing over. It wasn’t fair that Julia had gotten caught in the backlash. Like GG said, she’d paid a horrible price for a sin that was not of her making. All she was guilty of was trying to make things right.
After seeing her yesterday at Books and Beans and learning what she’d suffered since the night at the art gallery, he had a feeling her forgiveness would be hard-won. But that was the least of his worries right now because, unless they’d found Mrs. Bradford in the middle of the night, Julia’s legal problems were just beginning.
He ruffled Ella Rose’s hair and sat up. He was fully dressed. Jesus, he felt for his gun. It wasn’t there.
“Your daughter’s right. You don’t look well.” Harper sat down beside him wearing tailored slacks and a cream mohair sweater. She handed him a cup of coffee and smiled at Ella Rose. “Darling, why don’t you go to your bedroom and get dressed?”
“Can we go to the spec
ial brunch in the dining room?”
“Yes. Now give your daddy a kiss goodbye. He’s going to be late for work.”
“’Kay.” Ella Rose gave him a hug and kiss and whispered in his ear, “Uncle Liam says we’re going to track Santa on NORAD, so be sure to come back here tonight.”
“Wouldn’t miss it, pumpkin.” He grinned at Harper when Ella Rose skipped to the other room. “You’re being an awfully good sport. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Over the past couple of days, everyone’s been talking a lot about your mother and sister and how much they loved the holidays. You rarely talked about them, you know.” She gave her head a frustrated shake. “That’s what I did for a living, help people deal with their pain. And once upon a time, I was very good at my job.”
“I think you still are. You just let fear get in the way.”
“Like you did with Julia?”
“Maybe in the beginning of our relationship. But this thing with Josh, that was anger, pure and simple.”
“Anger is never simple, and yours had many layers you had to work through. You’re a complicated man, Aidan. And while it’s understandable that Julia was trying to protect a woman who had taken on the role of her mother, she hid the truth from you, a man she claimed to love. She hurt you, and it got conflated with the pain you were feeling at being forced to confront your mother’s and sister’s deaths again. But as painful as it’s been for all of you, it’s something you needed to go through. You even more than your brothers and father, I think.”
He gulped back a mouthful of coffee. “You’re right, Julia… Jesus, that’s it.” He kissed Harper’s cheek. “Thanks. It’s time for you to go back to work.”
“I don’t under—”
“My gun.” When she got up and walked to the closet to get it off the upper shelf, he said, “You’re good at what you do, Harper. You just helped me figure out the only other person who has motive to kidnap Mrs. Bradford. Julia lied to me yesterday, and the only time she lies is to protect someone she cares about. It’s Lenny.”