“I don’t think that’s the way people around here think of you.”
“It isn’t. But it’s been a long day, and I’m ready for it to end. Only it can’t, because I’ve got to go home and get Chase settled in.”
“I think he’s old enough to settle himself in.”
“I know, but I haven’t introduced him to Tiny yet, and I want to put clean sheets on the guest bed, set up some ground rules. That kind of thing.”
“Unless he’s asleep when you get there. This is the first time he’s had a bed to sleep in in weeks. He’s probably going to take advantage of it.”
“Poor kid,” she murmured, reaching down and pulling off one of her heels and then the other. They weren’t the kind of shoes he’d ever have imagined her wearing, but she’d sure as hell made them work. “He’s had a rough road.”
“He made some poor choices. That’s what got him into the mess he found himself in. If he’d asked for help, your grandfather wouldn’t be in the hospital and Chase wouldn’t be obligated to a hundred hours of community service before he leaves town.”
“Would you have asked for help at his age?” she asked. “If I remember correctly, you had three jobs and never once told anyone that you were using the money to patch up the house you were living in.”
“Who told you that?”
“Gavin. He said that every cent you had went into keeping that house from falling in on your heads. He also said that you sent him money until he graduated high school, and that you offered to pay for his college.”
“He should have taken me up on it. Or, better yet, worked harder at school and at sports and paid for it himself.”
“He was going to night school for a while. Then Lauren got pregnant, and he decided he’d better try to get a second job so she could stay home with the baby.”
That was news to Sinclair. Gavin hadn’t mentioned anything about college, and he certainly hadn’t seemed intent on finding another job. “That doesn’t sound like my brother.”
“Then you don’t know him very well. He might have big dreams about writing a novel and becoming a millionaire off it, but he’s not a total slacker.”
He snorted.
“He’s not, Sinclair. He’s nearly finished his AA degree. A few more credits, and he’ll be done.”
“He didn’t mention that to me.”
“Maybe he wanted to finish and surprise you. Or maybe he was afraid that he wouldn’t finish, and you’d be disappointed.”
That was more likely the case.
Sinclair had always been more of a father to Gavin than an older brother. “I would have been disappointed, but I also would have been proud of him for giving it a go. I’ve always thought he could do well if he put his mind to it. His problem is he never puts his mind to it.”
“Lauren has been good for him. He’s been a lot more focused since they got married.”
“She’s good for him, but he’s not good for her. That’s the pattern of my family’s story. Men who meet women who can support and take care of them.” He’d said more than he’d intended, the words tinged with bitterness.
“She’s not supporting him. I already told you, he does web design. And he’s good for her, Sinclair. She’s a smart woman, and she wouldn’t have married him if he weren’t.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Adeline. Plenty of smart people marry people who aren’t good for them. Look at my mother—she liked to party, but she was a hard worker. And my grandmother? I didn’t know her well, but I’ve been going through the house, looking at some of the things she collected. She had a keen eye and the smarts to hide valuables from my grandfather. It didn’t do her any good, of course. She worked herself to death. At least that’s the way I’ve always heard it.”
“I’m not going to argue the point, but I’d like to think there are more smart people who marry smart than don’t.”
“Why? Are you planning a big wedding sometime in the future?”
She let out a snort of laughter. “Please! I gave up that idea years ago. The way I see it, I’ll be happy to spend the rest of my life in my own little house by myself.”
Adeline spending her life alone seemed about as right as a sunrise without sun or a winter without snow.
“You’re giving up on the idea of love because one guy broke your heart?”
“I’m not giving up on the idea of love. I think love is great. I think it’s a wonderful thing for people who want it. I don’t.”
“You may change your mind when the right guy comes along.”
“What would that look like, Sinclair? Because I don’t have any idea. Is the right guy the one who tells a woman she’s beautiful every day? Is he the one who buys flowers just because, or calls in the middle of the day to check in? Is he the one who listens to all of a woman’s cockamamie ideas and tries to support her goals even if he doesn’t agree with them?”
“I’m a man, Adeline, so I have no idea what the right guy would look like,” he said. “But if I had to venture a guess, I’d say he’d be the one who held her hand when she had no one else, the one who stood beside her when she was crying and laughing and all the times in between. Mostly, though, I’d think that the right guy would be the one who’d spend a lifetime with a woman and still think she was the most beautiful and fascinating person he’d ever met.”
“A lifetime is a long time, Sinclair,” she said so quietly he almost didn’t hear, “to take to figure out whether someone is the right person or not.”
“How could it take anything less? Being the right person for someone isn’t a five-minute deal. Not in my mind. It’s an all-out, forever kind of thing. Good and bad, better and worse, sickness and health, until death comes and steals one of you away.”
“Is that why you’re single? Because you don’t think anyone could be that person for you?”
“I’m single because I only want to be with someone if I can be that person for her.” He exited the highway, merged onto the country road that led toward Benevolence. They still had a long ride ahead of them, the two-lane highway dark and silent.
Sparse clouds drifted in from the horizon, shrouding the mountains that lay to the east and west.
There was something comforting about those mountains and that vista. Something beautiful and familiar. He couldn’t say he’d missed it when he’d been in Seattle. The west side of the state had its own kind of beauty, and he’d been too busy building his business to miss anything about the town he’d left behind.
He could say that he hadn’t appreciated the view when he was a kid. He’d been too busy rushing toward something different to appreciate what was there.
He didn’t want to do that anymore. He didn’t want to be so busy trying not to be one of those Jeffersons that he missed out on being something better.
An interesting thought. One he needed to delve into a little more. For now, he’d enjoy the moment, the mountains, the woman beside him.
He switched on the radio, turned it to an oldies station, and smiled as Adeline’s quirky off-key voice filled the truck.
Chapter Thirteen
The few days before the wedding flew by. And when Addie said flew, she meant it. She and Chase spent fifteen hours a day at the shop. When they weren’t there, they were at the house, getting the attic fixed up and ready for Chase to move into. There’d been a lot of stuff piled in the finished part of the house’s upper level. Stuff from previous owners, shoved in boxes and forgotten for years. She and Chase had carted it through a narrow doorway and into the bonus room.
Or what Janelle called a bonus room.
Adeline called it storage. Now the eight-by-ten area was packed so tight with stuff there was only a few feet of walking space in it. The other part of the attic was larger, the walls covered with 1950s wallpaper, the floor nothing but plywood over ceiling joist. Eventually, Adeline would put down padding and carpet, but all she had time for was moving in the bed that Janelle had lent and the dresser that May had donated to the cause.
She’d
had Chase hang curtains over the dormer windows and had given him a chair from the living room. There was no television, no computer, nothing that most kids his age would want to have, but he didn’t seem to mind.
That was good, because there wasn’t much she could do to make the place more comfortable. Not today anyway. It was finally the day May had spent close to eighty years of her life dreaming of. The wedding, and Adeline was supposed to be at Janelle’s house by six to get her hair and nails done by Doris and her team.
God help her, because no one else seemed willing to.
She’d begged Janelle to intervene and talk May into using someone else, but for once in her life, Janelle had decided to keep her opinions to herself. She loved May like an aunt, and she didn’t want to do anything that would take away from her special day.
That was great. It was wonderful. For May. For Addie? Not so much.
She glanced at the clock on her dresser. Five thirty. She had twenty minutes to take a shower and get going.
“Chase!” she called, grabbing the orange dress from the closet.
“Yes, ma’am?” He appeared in the doorway, his hair slicked back, his face freshly scrubbed. He’d been staying with her for a couple of days, working with her for a few, and he was always on time, always polite, and always eager to please.
“Are you sure you can handle the shop on your own today?”
“Do I have a choice?” he asked, and she smiled. He had a sense of humor, and just a touch of sarcasm. She probably shouldn’t have appreciated that as much as she did.
“Not really.”
“Then I guess I’ll be just fine.”
“It takes two hours to prep for opening,” she reminded him, because normally they’d have been out the door by five, Tiny in the car, ready to be dropped off with Sinclair.
Sinclair.
Someone she didn’t want to think about when she was in the middle of a mad rush to get to her mother’s place.
“I know, I just . . .” He glanced away. “Thought I’d wait until you left.”
“I won’t be out of here for twenty minutes or more, Chase. If you wait that long, you’ll never get the shop opened in time.”
He nodded. “Okay,” he said, but he didn’t move away from the doorway.
“I’ve got a bunch of turkey and roast beef in the fridge if you want to make yourself a sandwich. There are chips in the pantry. Pack what you want,” she prodded. Chase ate a lot. More than three people. She’d been to the store twice since he’d moved in. Once to stock up on food that the teen could eat and once to restock. If he stayed much longer, she’d go broke feeding him.
“You don’t have to feed me all the time,” he said as if he’d read her mind.
“I know, but you need to eat.”
“I can pay my way, ma’am. That’s why I needed a job, so I could do that.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, offering her a twenty from it. “I know this isn’t much, but it’s all I have left until I get paid next.”
“Then you keep it,” she insisted, making a mental note to pay him a dollar extra an hour. She’d already given him an advance on the next few paychecks. Part of his agreement with the sheriff was that his pay would be garnished to repay what he owed.
It all made perfect sense, but every time she looked at him, she thought that he worked too hard, was too good an employee for her to withhold any of his pay.
“I can’t do that and feel good about myself.” He pressed the money into her hand and backed away. “I guess I’d better go. I just wanted to tell you that I thought I heard mice in the attic last night. I’m going to put out some traps tonight.”
“Mice?” She’d never had a problem with them before, and she wasn’t all that excited to be having one now.
“Yeah. I wouldn’t worry about it, but if you hear something scurrying around, that’s probably what it is. I can go to the hardware store and get the traps for you, but . . .” He flushed, and she knew he was wishing he hadn’t given her back the twenty. Not that twenty would be enough. If there were mice, she wanted a hundred traps up there.
“Take this,” she said, handing the twenty back. “I have more in my wallet.”
“It shouldn’t cost more than this. I’ll just get one or two.”
“Get a dozen or more.” She dug into her purse, pulled out two more twenties. “Keep the change.”
“Adeline, I don’t want your money. You’re already doing too much for me.”
It was the first time he’d used her first name, and that did something to her heart, made it soften in a way she hadn’t expected. She liked Chase, but she hadn’t been feeling anything but overwhelmed the past few days. Now she felt something almost . . . maternal?
That surprised her. He was nearly nineteen, not even close to young enough to be her son, but he was alone in the world and that made her want to keep him close, take care of him, make sure that he had the things he needed. “I owe you some extra pay for taking Tiny to Sinclair’s this morning and for setting those traps. Now, hurry up and get out of here. Chocolate Haven has never opened late, and I don’t want to start today.”
He shuffled away, and she closed the door, rushed through her morning routine. She could not be late. Her mother was waiting at the house with her sisters, and they were all planning on trekking to May’s together. Willow and Brenna weren’t in the wedding, but they’d been invited for a bridal breakfast. Mimosas and breakfast casserole. God knew what was going to be in that, but Adeline had vowed to choke it down.
Hopefully May wouldn’t drink more than a sip or two of her mimosa. The woman hadn’t had an alcoholic beverage. Ever. This was a nod to the occasion, but there wouldn’t be an occasion if the bride didn’t show up for the wedding.
Addie yanked on yoga pants and a T-shirt. No sense dressing up when she was just going to have to get undressed and into the orange monstrosity. She snagged that, grabbed her purse and keys, and ran into the hall. She’d left her shoes on the top shelf of the coat closet. Thank goodness Tiny hadn’t gotten to them. May had had white satin shoes dyed to match the dress and had handed them to Addie at the rehearsal the previous night.
The only problem was that they didn’t actually match the bridesmaid outfit. Addie hadn’t thought it was possible for anything to be brighter and more garish than the dress, but the shoes were. Low-heeled pumps with huge bows on the toes, they were a strange neon orange that it actually hurt to look at. That might be for the best. Maybe the wedding guests would be so blinded by the shoes, they wouldn’t notice the dress.
She opened the front door and had one foot out when she heard something in the attic. A kind of sliding shuffle that sounded more like a dozen rats than a few mice.
She should probably go check things out, see if maybe a raccoon or squirrel had gotten into the attic, but with her luck whatever was up there would attack the dress and tear it to shreds.
Or worse, tear her to shreds.
She scowled, yanking the door closed and locking it. She’d given Chase a key, so he’d be able to get in after he closed, but she wasn’t sure she wanted him to go inside with whatever had taken up residence in the attic. She’d like to think that Tiny would chase it down and evict it, but Tiny was everyone’s best friend. That included every dog, cat, donkey, goat, and pig in the area.
Besides, Tiny wasn’t going to be home. Gavin had refused to go to the wedding without Lauren, and Lauren had refused to go to the wedding if the house wasn’t ready. They were at a stalemate, neither willing to budge. That meant Gavin wasn’t attending the wedding. He’d offered to keep Tiny for the night since May had promised that the reception was going on until the wee hours of the morning. Addie had a feeling it would end around nine.
Her phone beeped, warning her that time had run out. She was supposed to be at Janelle’s place. Now.
She jumped into her car, would have sped away, but Nehemiah hobbled out onto his porch, waving frantically as she backed out of the driveway.
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She couldn’t ignore him, so she parked the car and jumped out again, leaving the orange dress and neon shoes on the seat.
“Good morning, Nehemiah,” she called, and he gestured her over.
“Morning, Addie. You heading out for the wedding?”
“I am. Are you coming?”
“There’s going to be free food,” he responded, as if that answered the question. Maybe it did. Nehemiah loved to eat, but he wasn’t all that fond of cooking. His wife had been the one who took care of meals. After her death, he’d taken to eating at the diner or buying frozen meals from the dollar store.
“Lots of it,” she agreed. “May and a few friends made all the food. From what I hear it’s going to be delicious.”
“No doubt about that. Those women can cook.” He patted his stomach and smiled. “But I didn’t call you over here to discuss the wedding food.”
“No?” she asked, resisting the urge to look at her watch.
“I saw that boy outside of your house last night.”
“Boy?”
“The one who’s working for you. Saw him wandering around with his girlfriend.”
“He has a girlfriend?” That was news to Addie.
“He must, since I saw him walking around with her.”
“Are you sure, Nehemiah? Chase and I came back here at the same time last night. There’s no way he left the house without me knowing.”
“That’s what you think, Addie, but I can tell you right now, he was out there. I couldn’t sleep, and I looked outside and there he was, walking with a girl.”
“A girl?”
“Young woman. Short little thing. Reminded me of my wife. She was tiny, too. Remember? Never could buy clothes off the rack. She had to have them altered to fit.”
Addie remembered.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I saw them walking out here, just holding hands and looking like two lovebirds, and I started thinking maybe the boy needs a man to have a little talk with him. Set him straight on some things.”
“You’re sure it was Chase?”
“I have eyes in my head, don’t I?”
“Yes, but I didn’t hear Tiny, and I’m surprised that he wasn’t barking his head off if someone was wandering around outside.” Although, Tiny had been sleeping in her bedroom since Chase moved in, and he only barked when strangers were around.
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