Inn at Last Chance

by Hope Ramsay

  “Zeph, that’s a very generous offer, but you know I can’t let you work without paying you something.”

  “I guess I don’t mind being paid, but I don’t know what to charge. And I feel responsible for what happened. I reckon I should have told y’all about the ghost earlier.”

  Mr. Raintree rolled his eyes. Zeph saw the expression but chose to ignore it.

  “The truth is you didn’t make the chicken fly across the room, or the cabinet fall over. And I don’t see why you should be taking responsibility for a ghost who chose to throw a temper tantrum.”

  Zeph actually smiled at this. “Ma’am, I’ve tried my hardest to keep him from throwing tantrums. Sometimes he’s just like the teenager he used to be.”

  “How did you stop him from being obnoxious?”

  “By paying attention to what he wants.”

  “That’s just spoiling him. And that’s no way to live. I’ve given this some thought, and we need to find someone who can send this ghost on his way. And in the meantime, I’ll pay you whatever you think is fair to repair the furniture.”

  “Send him on his way?” Zeph said.

  “To the other side, or to Heaven, or exterminate him or whatever we need to get rid of him. I do not want him hanging around here breaking china for no good reason.”

  “But I—”

  Zeph’s argument was cut short by a knock on the door.

  “Oh, good Lord, that’s the Library Committee right on time, and I don’t have any muffins.”

  “The Library Committee?” Zeph’s black skin turned a shade paler. If Jenny didn’t know better, she’d say that Zeph was more frightened of the committee than he was of ghosts. Which probably revealed more about the Library Committee than it did Zeph Gibbs.

  “They’re here for me,” Gabe said. “I’ll get the door, you get the coffee. Zeph, I’d be obliged if you could finish cleaning up the trash in here. Anyone asks, the cabinet fell over because the floor is not quite level. Got it?”

  Jenny and Zeph both gave Gabe a look, which he chose to ignore as he strode off to the front door and opened it as if The Jonquil House was still his.

  Jenny hurried off to the kitchen only to discover that the coffee was already on, and the pie she’d made for last night’s dinner was sitting untouched right on the counter. Someone had gotten the pie server out of the drawer along with several everyday dessert plates. Jenny doubted that Zeph would have done something like that.

  So obviously Mr. Raintree had not forgotten about the Library Committee.

  Even more amazing, he’d resisted her pie. No one resisted her pies. Especially men.

  Zeph had just finished dumping the last dustbin of broken china into a garbage bag when his worst nightmare wandered into the dining room.

  “Oh, Zeph, I—” Nita Wills stopped talking as she took in the broken furniture. “Goodness, Zeph, what happened here?”

  “A little accident. I reckon the floor isn’t quite level, and the china cabinet fell over last night.” He thanked his stars that the cabinet was hiding the ripped-up wallpaper. “Mr. Gabe called me this morning and asked if I’d help Miz Jenny get the room set to rights. And to see if the furniture could be repaired.”

  Of course, that wasn’t the truth either. He’d knocked on the door early this morning and roused Gabe from his bed and offered to help with the cleanup. Gabe didn’t trust him, which he supposed was only natural. Gabe hadn’t yet accepted the fact that he was being haunted. But he’d come to it sooner or later.

  The time to save Gabe from the ghost had come and gone. Zeph had failed.

  Nita was staring at him as if she could read every one of these crazy thoughts. As if she knew he was lying. He often had this feeling when in her presence. He didn’t know where to look, so he looked down at the floor.

  “I was looking for the bathroom,” she said.

  “Oh, it’s just down the hall off the kitchen.”

  She left the room, and he heaved a huge sigh.

  But his relief was short-lived, because a moment later she strode into the room and began examining the floor like she was some kind of building inspector or something.

  She looked up eventually with a worried frown on her pretty face. “Zeph Gibbs, you know as well as I do that the floor in here is level.”

  He didn’t say a word as she strode across the room in his direction. She stopped when she was right in front of him, invading his personal space and making his hands go a little sweaty and his head go a little crazy. She was dressed in a tight brown tweed dress that hugged her body and made the spit dry in his mouth.

  He ought not to be noticing the librarian’s body. He was too old for that kind of thing. And besides, Nita was a well-educated woman. What use would she have for a man like him?

  “Zeph, something funny is going on around here. Jenny’s got all kinds of scratches on her face and a bandaged hand. You would tell me if Gabe Raintree is doing something evil to her.”

  “What?” He straightened up. “Gabe hasn’t done one thing to hurt Miz Jenny. I swear it. I’ve been keeping an eye on them. The cabinet fell over on its own, and that’s how she got hurt.”

  “Keeping an eye on them? How?”

  “I just have.”

  “Like you keep an eye on me sometimes?”

  “Ma’am?”

  “Don’t you ma’am me, Zeph Gibbs. I’ve seen you out there sometimes watching my house. And I’ve wondered about it because I don’t think you’re the kind of person who would hurt anyone. So have you been watching Jenny and Mr. Raintree?”

  He’d been caught. He could hardly believe it. He was good at hiding in the shadows. And now that she knew he sometimes watched her house, he was going to have to give it up. Because her knowing changed everything. She was going to think he was some kind of crazy stalker or something. He wished with all his soul that he could just quit fibbing and tell her the whole, unadulterated truth. But he knew that was crazy. He’d told the truth last night, and Mr. Gabe still didn’t believe him.

  Nita wouldn’t believe him either.

  “Speak up, have you been spying on Jenny?”

  “No, ma’am, I have not been spying. I’ve just been keeping an eye on Mr. Gabe, just to make sure he doesn’t have any trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble are you worried about?”

  Zeph shrugged.

  “Zeph, I know you feel some allegiance to Mr. Raintree. I mean, you knew him when he was little, and you’ve been taking the blame for something he did a long time ago. But I want you to stop doing that. I’m coming to believe that Mr. Raintree is a walking advertisement for trouble. And I wish I’d listened to you when you asked me to drop this idea of using him for the library. It’s too late to stop that now, but I just want you to know that I wish I had listened to you.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?”

  “As you can imagine, since I’ve asked him to help with the library project, and I knew there was this skeleton in his closet, so to speak, I decided I should do a little check on his background.”

  “Ma’am, what are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about Mr. Raintree’s reputation. Apparently he’s been in more than one public altercation. At least one of them was some kind of domestic dispute with a girlfriend, and it ended in an arrest, although no charges were brought. I’m beginning to think he might be a very violent man. He certainly writes very violent stories. And then there’s what happened to his brother.”

  “He didn’t intentionally hurt Luke. And just because he writes scary books doesn’t make him violent. Have you read his books? He uses beautiful words. And his heroes are always decent human beings,” Zeph said.

  Nita cocked her head. “Zeph, that is not the first time that you’ve said something to me that suggests you’re an avid reader.”

  “I am. I have a little library of my own at home, made up of secondhand books. It passes the time.” />
  “When you’re not standing outside my house or Jenny’s house keeping an eye on things?”

  He nodded, his whole body flushing hot with shame.

  “I wonder if your loyalty to Mr. Raintree is misplaced.”

  “It’s not.”

  She glanced at the china cabinet. “I have a hard time believing that a piece of furniture as big and heavy as that one just fell over for no reason. So I know you’re not telling me the truth.”

  “It wasn’t Mr. Gabe who turned it over. And if you don’t believe me, you can talk to the Methodists’ new preacher. He was here.”

  “And he’s going to tell me the cabinet just fell over?”

  “I don’t know what he’s going to tell you.” But Zeph had a feeling it was going to be something about demons. And half the population of Last Chance would believe him because he was a preacher. And that was going to cause a lot of problems in this town. Of course, Nita wasn’t going to believe any such thing. Nita was a woman of reason.

  Which was why he wasn’t ever going to tell her about the ghost.

  “Zeph, if I find out that you aren’t telling me the truth, I’m going to be so disappointed in you. I don’t want my library program to be associated with someone who hurts people. Do you understand that?”

  “I do, Miz Nita. But Mr. Gabe hasn’t done any harm to Miz Jenny. You can trust me on that.”

  “Can I trust you on anything else?”

  She didn’t wait for him to say another word. She just turned and walked away from him, her backside swaying in that tight dress.

  He swallowed hard in his dry mouth. It stung to know that Nita Wills thought he was a liar. And it was doubly hard to bear because it was true.

  CHAPTER

  13

  On Saturday morning, three days after the china cabinet debacle, Jenny helped her cousin move into the small one-bedroom apartment above the Cut ’n Curl beauty shop. It didn’t take all that long, because all of Maryanne’s possessions fit perfectly into Jenny’s old Fiesta and Maryanne’s even older Honda Civic.

  Of course, Ruby Rhodes, the proprietor of the beauty shop and Maryanne’s new landlady, made things easy for Maryanne. The apartment was fully furnished with everything she would need, including dishes. And Ruby had gone one better by donating a porta-crib and an old changing table that had once belonged to her two older granddaughters. So Maryanne and Joshua had a home of their own, and the baby finally had a real place to sleep. For the last few weeks, he’d been sleeping in a makeshift bed that Maryanne had cobbled together out of a bureau drawer and some big cushions.

  And bless her heart, she had steadfastly refused to take any help from her boyfriend, Daniel, who wanted to buy the boy a top-of-the-line crib, which would never have fit in the little apartment.

  Ruby’s donated porta-crib was the right size and the right price, and came from a source who didn’t want anything in return. Ruby had to be one of the kindest souls in town. She was always letting people stay at her apartment above the beauty shop. And half the time she didn’t even charge rent. Although Maryanne had insisted on paying her own way in that regard, too.

  They were just putting away Maryanne’s clothes in the closet and bureau when Sabina knocked on the door and invited herself in. She was carrying the most adorable little nursing rocker that Jenny had ever seen.

  “Hey,” she said, putting the rocking chair down in the middle of the small room. “Lucy was at an auction down in Bamberg on Thursday, and she got this gem for a song. I saw it yesterday, and I immediately decided that you and Joshua needed to have it. So it’s my housewarming present.”

  Maryanne’s eyes teared up. “Oh, my God, it’s perfect.” She sat down in the chair, and Jenny handed her the baby. “I can’t believe it,” she said, looking around the small apartment. “Everyone here has been so incredibly kind to me. Y’all don’t know me from Adam.”

  Jenny gave her cousin’s shoulder a squeeze. “Honey, you’re my kin, and Carpenters have been living in Allenberg County for generations. That’s all you need to know. No one thinks of you as a stranger.”

  “Besides,” Sabina said, “there isn’t anyone in town who hasn’t noticed the change in Daniel Jessup. And people love Daniel. I ran into Thelma Hanks at the post office the other day, and she’s overjoyed that Daniel is coming home and joining Eugene’s practice. Thelma said Eugene works too hard. And now that Eugene’s got a partner, Thelma’s hoping she and Eugene will be able to sneak away for a cruise or a second honeymoon or something. When you have Thelma on your side, it counts for a lot. She’s well liked by just about everyone in town.”

  Maryanne brushed a tear away from her cheek. “I never had a place where I belonged before.”

  “Well, you do now,” Sabina said as she crossed the room and flopped down on the daybed. “All right, I’ve kept my mouth shut for three whole days, but I can’t stand it a minute longer. Jenny, what the heck happened on Wednesday night?”

  Jenny had been ducking Sabina’s calls for several days because she didn’t know whether to confide in her or not. And lying to her oldest girlfriend didn’t seem right either.

  “Honey, everyone’s saying you threw a chicken at the preacher. That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “I didn’t throw any chickens, all right?”

  “Of course you didn’t. But how did it end up in his lap?”

  “How did you know it ended up in his lap?”

  “Because Reverend Lake apparently told Elsie all about how you threw the chicken at him, and it landed in his lap and then you… Well I won’t repeat what Elsie said.”

  “Oh. My. God. Does she think I threw it just so I could touch his lap?”

  Jenny started pacing. This was a disaster. Now that people were telling this tale it would be impossible to tell the truth. She couldn’t explain about the ghost. It would sound so lame, like those guilty people who always got up and said it wasn’t their fault because the devil made them do it. “Oh. My. God. What am I going to do?”

  Maryanne snorted. “You don’t have to do anything, hon. The minister regards you as some kind of brazen hussy.”

  “No.”

  “Yes,” Sabina said with a big grin. “I think that’s wonderful, don’t you?”

  “No. I’m not a brazen hussy. Oh, my God, how can I show my face in church tomorrow? And why are you grinning like that? I can’t imagine that Reverend Lake would be interested in anyone who threw a chicken at him and then tried to mop up the grease on his lap with a napkin.”

  “You never know. And I’m thinking that a woman who does a thing like that is way more interesting than a mousy little thing who teaches math to disinterested kids.”

  “Well, you do have that.” Jenny sat down with a sigh.

  “Honestly, Jen, what happened?” Maryanne asked.

  “I threw a chicken at the preacher,” she said, because there was nothing else she could say.

  “You did not.”

  “Did. He was being mean to Mr. Raintree, and I got annoyed at him.”

  Sabina and Maryanne stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  “He accused Mr. Raintree of being some kind of, I don’t know, evil person because he writes scary books with violence in them. If you really want to know, for all he’s so handsome, Reverend Lake was being downright ugly.”

  “Honey, you can’t throw chickens at people whose opinions you disagree with,” Sabina said.

  “I know. Something just must have snapped in my brain. But I’ll tell you one thing, Sabina, if Miriam Randall thinks I’m marrying that man, she’s got another think coming.”

  Sabina picked up a throw pillow and hugged it. “I think Miriam is getting a little senile. She came into the store yesterday, and she was wearing her fuzzy slippers, and I don’t think she knew where she was. I called Savannah, and she didn’t even know Miriam had left the house.”

  “That’s sad,” Jenny said.

  “Yeah, it is. Miriam was always someone you could count
on, you know? I’ve been hoping for years that she’d have some advice for me.”

  “Sabina, you shouldn’t be sitting around waiting for someday. You should just go live life to its fullest.”

  “By throwing chickens at ministers?”

  Jenny shrugged.

  Sabina gave her the evil eye. “You didn’t throw that chicken on purpose, Jennifer Carpenter, and we both know it. What really happened?”

  “It slipped. But I did try to mop up the grease. I don’t even know why. It was just an immediate reaction to the disaster of seeing the chicken fly across the table and land on him. But when I started pressing on his thigh, you know to raise up the grease, he stood up and knocked over his chair, which knocked over a plant, which knocked over the china cabinet. Apparently the floor isn’t level. That’s what happened.”

  “Oh, you poor thing. We’ll have to fix this. We’ll have to make him understand you weren’t actually trying to cop a feel. I’m sure he’ll give you another chance to cook for him, and once he tastes your cooking, he’ll be yours forever.”

  Jenny stifled the urge to roll her eyes. “Please don’t encourage him. It would be best if we just left things the way they are. I’m not interested in Reverend Lake. If you like him so much, you should make a play for him, instead of pining away for Ross Gardiner, who, I should point out, is your sister’s boyfriend.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. He’s better looking than Ross, too.”

  “Good, so you invite him to dinner at your house.”

  “But I don’t know how to cook.”

  “Well, that didn’t seem to get in the way of Hettie Marshall and Bill Ellis, did it.” Jenny crossed her arms and sat next to Sabina.

  “Honey, let it go,” Sabina said.

  “Right. I should.” But all Jenny could think about was how Gabe had allowed one of her apple pies to sit on a counter for something like twelve hours and hadn’t once touched it.

  Jenny ducked church on Sunday. The gossip about how she’d purposefully thrown the chicken was all over town. It was humiliating and embarrassing. Although Wilma Riley had called up late Saturday to congratulate her for seeing the light and recognizing that the last thing she needed was a husband.