by Morgan Henry
“Well frankly, I don’t buy that for a second.” Mary plunked the plate of food down on the table hard enough that the pancakes jumped. “Yes, you’ve had a setback. This happens in business. You deal with it, get back up, and become better than ever. I think this town will support your business and your friends will help you. Allan and Zander have taken another week off to help.”
“Well, they’re not going to be around forever.” Wow, actually saying that caused a painful stab in her belly. Maybe she was the next ulcer candidate.
“What do you mean?”
“They were talking about taking a job up north last night. For a year or more. It will pay really well.” Karen thought she managed to keep most of the hurt out of her voice. “But hey, I get it. You have to have financial security in your life. That’s why I think I’ll give this up.”
“You must have misunderstood. You were too tired and distraught to hear properly.”
“I don’t think so.”
Mary grabbed Karen’s hand with a stricken expression on her face. “Men or not, don’t give up on this. You’ve been so happy here. Don’t throw that away. I know what it feels like to have a job that sucks away your soul.”
The two women stared at each other. Karen could see the pain on Mary’s face, and Karen wondered what Mary had thought about when she was in the hospital with the bleeding ulcer.
The silence was loud. Karen didn’t know what to say. On one level, she knew Mary was right. She should stay and rebuild. But she felt like she was in a pit.
At the top of the pit, far up above, was her happy life in Hardwick Bay, friends, and maybe love. The exit out the back was safe but kept her in darkness. Right now, she couldn’t find the energy or desire to scramble up the sides to the sunshine.
Chapter 20
A firm knock on the door made both Mary and Karen jump. They looked at each other blankly then Mary said, “Security guy?”
“Maybe,” responded Karen and she got up to go answer the door, Mary following.
She opened it to two men. One was tall, dark, and hawklike, the other shorter, dark, and bearlike.
The hawk gave her the big, tough predator stare. “Shouldn’t you at least be asking who it is? Or better yet, checking through the peephole?”
“All right, who are you?” Karen asked, but she was fairly sure it was the security guys.
“I’m Colin Wells and this is my partner, Marcus Gallo. We’re Hardwick Security,” the hawk informed her. Marcus just looked at the two women with a perfect ugly bear expression.
“Ah, yeah. I guess you want to look around so you can do an estimate?” Karen wasn’t sure she was going to need them if she was moving, but she didn’t want to piss them off by telling them to go.
Marcus’s face looked even more angry but he spoke softly. “Just going to let us in? Not even ask for ID?”
Karen was starting to feel a bit stupid and pissed off. Mary was standing behind her, not saying a word. What the hell was up with her?
Karen took a deep breath. “I haven’t asked you in yet. And yes, some ID would be nice.” She tried not to bite off the words.
Both men produced ID for her. They looked legit, but what would she know? And really, if they wanted in, they could have overpowered the two women at any point. She stood aside and waved them in.
Grumpy bear frowned. “How do you know the ID is legit?”
“I don’t,” said Karen flatly then changed her tone to light and airy. “But you haven’t killed us yet. Watch the broken glass.” She gave him a sickly sweet smile as they moved past into the store.
“Holy crap they’re scary,” Mary whispered.
“They are a little, aren’t they? I’ll have to ask Mike and Craig what their deal is.”
Another knock on the door made the two women look at each other.
“Who is it?” warbled Karen.
“It’s Graham Scott with some glass for you,” came the muffled answer. “Would you go and open the front door? It’ll be easier.”
“Okay.” Karen was shocked the glass guys were there already. She made her way to the front door and unlocked it. The jerks hadn’t broken the latch, just everything else.
Graham and his son came in with buckets to hold the glass shards and started to strip the caulking from around the window frame.
“Do you actually have the glass?” asked Karen.
“Oh yeah. We have the measurements from when we updated the windows to more efficient ones a few years ago. The new glass is on the truck. It’ll be done by noon.”
“Wow. Thanks, Graham. I’m amazed that you could do this so fast.” Karen felt very lucky she could get this fixed quickly.
“Hey, you’re part of the Hardwick Bay family. And this is a bit of an emergency. You need your windows to get back to business. This is your livelihood.” Graham looked around the store then gave her a lopsided grin. “And when you’re back in business, I’ll be here to buy some of your chili chocolates.”
“I’ll be buying s’mores ice cream,” Graham’s son chimed in. “Make it first, would you?”
“It’ll be high on the list,” Karen assured the young man. She felt some of the bitter anger turn into a gentler flame. One that could gently warm the numbness that was deep inside. She was getting windows because she knew the glass guy and because they cared.
Loud laughter came from the back room. Karen hurried back to find Allan and Zander there with a crew of friends. They were laden down with garbage bags, mops, buckets, and other cleaning paraphernalia.
“What’s all this?” she asked.
“We couldn’t seem to find a professional cleaning crew available today, so we asked for volunteers to do the dirty work this morning and they showed up.” Zander pecked her on the cheek.
“The insurance company approved cleaners will be here tomorrow to finish up, but the worst of the muck should be gone today. That way you won’t have flies and the smell to contend with as well.” Allan hugged and kissed her cheek, too.
Her army got to work.
Mike Barber vouched for Colin and Marcus, who went over all entry points with frowns, taking extensive notes. Karen let them upstairs to look at the apartment only after they swore not to hurt Sammy.
At least they appeared a little hurt that she would feel it necessary to tell the tough guys not to hurt the little kitty. A point in their favor, barely.
Hanna and her men, as well as Lisa and Craig, were working at their paying jobs, but Cailynn, the other tech at the clinic came, along with her fiancées, Andrew and Dan Harris. Andrew had a little chat with Mary about accountant work in the area.
Mary was of course there to help, and she teamed up with Logan and Derek Murray. Logan was a furniture craftsman and Derek was an optometrist. Karen was surprised to see Derek, but he told her that he only had a couple of appointments that day and none were urgent, so he rescheduled. Before long, the two men were making Mary laugh.
Karen was happy to see Mary at least having some fun, but she thought that Logan and Derek had a thing for Sharon, the veterinarian. She made a quiet enquiry to Cailynn.
“No,” came the answer from Cailynn, “they like each other well enough, but there’s no attraction there, you know? Sharon told Lisa to stop trying to throw them together cause it just wasn’t going to happen.”
Cailynn shrugged. “You can’t force what’s not there, and hopefully you’re not stupid enough to fight it when a really, really good thing comes along.” She gave Karen a pointed look, flicking her eyes back and forth between Karen and Allan and Zander.
Karen rolled her eyes. “I get it, okay. Are you Lisa’s protégée or what?”
“Hell no. Just looking out for my friend.” Cailynn grinned. “And I’m so not helping with that.”
She pointed to where Allan and Zander were scraping up the congealed and, frankly disgusting, melted ice cream. They were both gagging as they scooped the mess into doubled trash bags. Cailynn scampered into the main store to help Andr
ew and Dan.
“I see you two drew the short straw,” Karen said as she walked over to them. “Thanks for arranging all this.”
“This is absolutely revolting.” Allan’s voice was that of a man barely able to keep from vomiting. “I may never eat ice cream again.”
Both Zander and Karen laughed.
“We just sent out some texts letting people know what happened and to pass along that you could use a little help getting back up and running as quick as possible.” Zander patted her arm. “They’re here because you’ve made yourself a part of this town and helped others when they needed it, too.”
“Thanks,” she choked out.
“Hey, who needs lunch?” Gina from The Cottage poked her head in the back door laden down with platters of sandwiches.
“Oh my god, Gina!” exclaimed Karen. “What is this?”
“Well, we couldn’t help with the cleaning crew, but we could supply lunch for everyone.” She stopped at the worktable in the middle of the room and held the platters while Karen wiped the surface with a clean cloth. Setting them down, she turned and went back out the door saying, “Just a sec, there’s more.”
Karen gaped as she brought in a bowl of salad and paper plates and cutlery. Her husband Owen followed with a cooler of drinks.
“When you get back into production, we’re buying ice cream again,” he told Karen. “We’ve had to order some commercial stuff in for now, but don’t you think for one second that we’re abandoning our arrangement.” He gave her a one-armed hug.
“Thanks, Owen.” Karen’s semi-closed throat wouldn’t allow her to say more. She could barely keep from blubbering like an idiot as it was.
Graham came into the back room then saying, “All done with the glass, and it’s starting to look much better out there. George is here with the lettering. Hey, Gina, Owen! How’s it going?”
“Great,” answered Owen. “Help yourself to lunch.”
“I will.” Graham started to put a couple sandwiches on a plate. “Hey, George said to make sure you’re still going with the same color scheme before he puts all the letters on.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. I’ll go see him.” Karen walked out to the front of the store as her crew drifted to the back for lunch. Even the scary security dudes were mingling with the rest.
The store was looking a lot better. The rubble was gone and the floors were half mopped. Someone had gotten rid of the busted coffee machines but the sad, non-functional coolers for the chocolate and ice cream were still there. George was prepping the glass for the lettering.
“Hi, George, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Karen greeted the handsome older man.
“Are you kidding? When Marla got the text and told me what happened, I made sure to talk to Graham so we could coordinate and get you set.” George had a soft, deep voice that had always mesmerized Karen.
“But it’s so fast.”
“Oh, I had it all in my computer from when we designed it the first time. Just a matter of printing it out and getting over here. Thank goodness you’re not changing things, or are you?”
“No, I’m not changing anything. But make sure you add a rush charge to the bill, okay?” Karen felt guilty that everyone was here helping her get back on her feet quickly when she was thinking of pulling out altogether.
“No way.” George stood up and carefully took her hands in his giant ones. “Did you know Marla was ill in the winter?”
Marla was George’s wife and Domme. Karen heard she had a near miss, but didn’t know from what.
“The docs said that she likely would have died if they didn’t have the new CT machine at the hospital. The weather was horrible and the road to Port Seguin was closed. She wouldn’t have made it if they hadn’t had the info from the scan. I know you’ve fundraised for that scanner with your Halloween parties, and Valentine’s Day, and ‘ice cream for imaging Wednesdays.’ This is on me, for your help with Marla.”
Well that did it. Karen started to cry again. George hugged her until she could get herself back under control. “Seriously, George,” she said through her sniffles. “I need to pay you.”
“Did you not hear me, missy?” George’s voice rose in volume just a little. “Marla may be in charge at home, but I run my business and I’ve had my say here. Now you go and get to ordering more chocolate so I can get Marla some framboise creams.”
Chapter 21
Late in the afternoon, Karen sat at the single undamaged table and chair from her little coffee area. Her cleaning crew had gone and the store was almost spotless. There was some damage to the shelves that needed repair and paint, and her freestanding displays were ruined. It seemed pretty bare. But it didn’t smell like rancid candies anymore. And hey, this could be an opportunity to redesign some of the things that hadn’t worked as efficiently as they should.
She was reordering supplies from her laptop. After the outpouring of support from the town, she decided she had no choice but to stay and try again. Not that it was a hard choice to make. Mary was right. She wasn’t going to be remotely happy living in Toronto as a personal assistant, or whatever.
And if Allan and Zander left, she would deal with that. Maybe even deal with it gracefully. She hoped they would stay. She really wanted them to stay and give their relationship a try. A real try this time. They had convinced her that living somewhere other than the store had its benefits, and that it need not suffer if she wasn’t there every single hour.
But she didn’t want somewhere else, she wanted home. Their home.
She was nervous about what they would choose. She knew Allan had a thing about being financially independent and organized, so she could understand him wanting to go. Zander was more about family. But then, Allan was his main family, so he would go where Allan wanted to go. It would be nice if she had a crystal ball.
Finished with the orders, she pulled up her e-mail and checked for some purchase confirmations. Holy crap! There was a ton of replies to her résumés and cover letters from the morning. Most of them were the standard thank-you-for-your-interest replies, but there were a few interview offers. And there was an intriguing one from a college professor.
“I am unable to offer you a full-time position, but we are always looking for guest lecturers with real world experience. I have a section of a first-year business course in the winter semester that needs an instructor and I would like to discuss it further with you. I generally schedule meetings on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. If there is a date that would work for you, please let me know so we can discuss this opportunity further.
“You were an excellent student. I’m sad that you’re giving up your business, but this may open new doors for you.”
Wow. She hadn’t expected that. Karen wondered if she kept the store, would she be able to lecture anyway? She was slower in the winter, so it might be doable. The whole idea intrigued her. Could she be a guest lecturer? It needed further thought. And coffee.
Karen headed upstairs to get a cup, and stopped to pet Sammy for a minute. When she came down, she found Zander in the back room with some paint and repair supplies.
“There you are,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d gone far. Your computer is still on.”
“I got distracted by Sammy.”
“Yeah, well, I guess you’re not ready to go back to the house.” He looked at her coffee cup. Zander’s hands were in his pockets and he shuffled his feet.
“No, I can go. I don’t need the coffee that badly.” Karen wondered what was up with Zander. “I’ll grab the computer and we can go. Mary said she was cooking dinner for us.”
“’Kay. I’ll be in the truck.”
Karen collected her computer and climbed into the vehicle. Zander was quiet on the way home, too.
The day had been cloudy and cool, so Mary had made spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread and Caesar salad. After dinner the sisters sat in the living room with a glass of wine while the men cleaned.
“I could get used to this. Two guys
to clean the kitchen—awesome,” said Mary as she squirmed deeper into the chair and sipped her wine. “And what the hell is up with the men in this town? Do they all have to pass a sexy test before they move here?”
“Speaking of anyone in particular? I can’t vouch for Logan and Derek’s cleaning skills, you know.” Karen smirked at her sister.
Mary blushed. “I can’t help that they’re good looking. And funny. And damn it, I shouldn’t even be thinking about men. I just got rid of a total toad. It should just be Sammy and me for a while.”
“Keep trying to convince yourself.”
“Seriously. I need to get a life going before I can think of romance. Andrew did say there’s plenty of work locally for accountants. He was going to give me some names. Hopefully my sister will hire me to do her books.” Mary batted her eyelashes at Karen.
“I don’t know. Do you have references?” Karen drawled.
“Yeah. Bob hates me and our parents think I’m nuts.”
“Good enough for me. You’re hired.” They laughed hard together, both of them almost spilling their wine in giddiness.
A wave of gratitude stopped Karen’s breath for a second. She was so lucky to be able to laugh like a loon with her sister again.
“What’s so funny?” asked Allan as the two men entered the living room.
“Mary’s references,” answered Karen and the two women roared again.
Zander flopped in the chair opposite Mary, and Allan sat on the other end of the couch from Karen. They exchanged glances that clearly said, “women are crazy.”
There was an awkward silence. Karen wondered why Allan and Zander weren’t sitting with her. They always sat close by her.
Did this mean they were leaving?
She had planned to talk with them tonight when they were alone upstairs. She wanted them to know she loved them, even if they were leaving. Suddenly she was nervous. Heart pounding with sweaty armpits kind of nervous.
“Um, I was going to go upstairs and relax a bit before bed. Are you two coming?” Karen broke the silence. She was sure the higher pitch of her voice betrayed her.