My mom gave me a little wave. “Hi, sweetie.” She leaned towards Sam. “What thing, exactly?”
“About the Ingvars, Jo, c’mon!”
I motioned for them to sit in the dining room while I got out three mugs. “Coffee or tea?” I asked, though I knew the answer already.
They both rang out with, “Coffee.”
I had turned into a regular hostess since living with Thomas. He always offered guests juice, tea, coffee, or at the very least water and something to snack on.
At some point - I really could not pinpoint when - I picked up the habit.
While I prepped the coffee, Mom started talking. “I heard you and Thomas have been having some trouble with Beth Ingvar and I thought I might be able to shed a little light on what’s going on.”
“Tell her the good bit,” said Sam, with a vulpine grin.
“Beth’s side of the family has been cut off from their inheritance for a while now. Beth’s parents were always the black sheep of the family and everything Beth has been trying to do, I wager, is to either get back into the good graces of the family or to spite them. Really, it could go either way.”
“How is that a good bit?” I asked.
“Well.” Mom motioned to the property records I had strewn across the dining room table. “If this is any indication of her holdings, she has spent a significant portion of what she has left to purchase these properties. Which means she’ll be looking for a seller. Soon.”
I crumpled my brow. “How did you find this out?”
Mom merely shrugged and flashed a coy grin. “I still have some connections. It seemed the elder Ingvar brother - Beth’s dad - was a severe disappointment. Nearly ruined the family name and fortune. He was cut off some years ago. His younger brother, Kirk, ended up inheriting what remained and he has done very well for himself it seems. There’s no love lost between Kirk and his brother.”
“What’s she’s saying is,” added Sam. “You can go to Kirk, who has a vest of interesting in seeing Beth go down.”
“Vested interest,” I corrected.
“Right, that’s what I said.” She shot me a challenging glare and I let it slide.
“The point is, we aren’t alone in this and I found something else out. Beth’s daddy has been bankrolling the Sherriff’s re-election campaign since he came of age, donating large amounts of new cars and gadgets. Only, now that they’re running out of money he can’t anymore.
“Not to mention, the election for both Mayor and Sherriff is coming up next year. It would be a shame, a real shame, if the Sherriff was to learn that he wasn’t going to get any more money to stifle his competition.” Sam waggled her brows ridiculously at me.
An idea started to form in my head, I had all the pieces assembled in front of me to launch a counteroffensive against Beth. One that would make sure she backed off for good and would free up all those properties.
“This is…” I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Amazing, truly. I can’t believe you both did this. Thank you!” I carried the coffee mugs to them and gave each of them a tight squeeze.
“I only have one piece of advice,” said Mom, reaching out to grab my hand. “Do not make deals with the Ingvars lightly. Anything you ask of them always has a price and they will come to collect when it is most advantageous for them. If you have to go through them, make sure you have no other options available.”
Mom had said about as much when she first came back and I learned the storied past of Sunrise Valley and the rivalry between the Sigruns - my ancient family name - and the Ingvars.
“I’m not about to get out from Beth’s crosshairs just to put myself under somebody else’s thumb. I appreciate the concern but I think I can get what we need without having to beg for any favors.”
I only hoped that I was telling the truth. Because if I was wrong, or their intel was off, the plan brewing in my head was going to blow up in all our faces.
I met Gary in a coffee shop outside of Sunrise Valley a few hours later. The last thing I needed was somebody else seeing us together in town. “Thank you for meeting me on such short notice, Gary.”
He waved a hand at me. “Please, it’s my pleasure.” He gave me a level look. “I hate to ask but I’ve been hearing some rather disturbing things about the townspeople being against foreign investors and not the kind from out of the country. Is that true?”
“It’s a ploy whipped up by a single person who is trying to stop this from happening. Give it time and it’ll die down, she’s on her last legs. In fact, I’m glad you brought it up, I wanted to talk to you about her.”
He motioned for me to go ahead while he took a sip from his comically small espresso cup.
“I would like approval to use part of the budget to buy up all the properties Beth Ingvar has purchased over the last several years.” I pulled out the papers to back up my claim, laid them in front of him to peruse while I drank from my own black coffee.
Lately, I couldn’t stomach anything else.
After a few minutes, he blew out his snowy mustache. “This is a real piece of work. Who buys up large properties and then leaves them to rot like that?”
“Exactly my point. That’s the kind of person we’re dealing with. And I want you to approach her about buying the properties.”
I grit my teeth and braced to the answer. If Gary said no, I didn’t know what I was going to do. But this had to work. If Sam was right and she was as strapped for cash, she would be hungry to get rid of the properties.
If she didn’t hate us so much, she would have been trying to sell to us.
“Do I need to lie?” he asked, looking up from the papers.
I paused. Did I want him to? Not really, but at the same time what if she asked if he knew me? Or if he was in some way associated with me?
She already knew something about our expansion though I had been keen on keeping the names of our business partners out of any inquiries. Wouldn’t she be curious when somebody came to town trying to buy her properties?
I sighed. “No, Gary. I do not want you to lie. Even if she asks if we’re acquainted I would not ask you to lie.”
Gary rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “We’re not acquainted,” he said softly. “We are friends. If I said no, that would not technically be a lie.”
I looked up, his moony face was lit up with the sweetest grandfatherly smile I had ever seen.
“So you’ll do it?”
He gave a brief nod. “I will, on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“I want a dozen apple cider donuts.”
You and your pastries, Thomas. I reached over the papers and shook his hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
21
Thomas
The protestors were beginning to wear on me. Despite all the good publicity from people posting on social media about the monk-like kindness I was displaying - their words, not mine - each day there were fewer and fewer people in line.
It was getting to the point that if people couldn’t walk into the shop and order, they wouldn’t come in at all. Which still meant I was doing brisk business but it was nowhere near the same.
Things were looking fairly grim.
Despite that, I was still looking forward to the Thanksgiving feast. The whole town was invited for a massive dinner party where all the town’s fare was on display.
Most of the other business owners had benefited in one way or another from the increased traffic to the town and were more than happy to donate food or items for the festivities.
I had even bigger plans in store for Christmas but I kept those to myself.
Gavin was coming along nicely. I had him working on sourdough that day. Which was not terribly hard to work but can be finicky at times.
“Remember not to over-knead it with the dough hook when you’re making a big batch,” I said over his shoulder, watching his work.
Normally I would like to do it by hand but there was simply no way that could be done. The
sourdough was one of the few items that wasn’t a pastry that was ordered the most.
The first and last stages were still done by hand but the bulk of it had to be done in my industrial style mixing bowl. I lamented the loss of traditional kneading by hand but there was nothing to be done about it.
“Got a sec, Thomas?” said Sam, sticking her head into the kitchen.
I dusted my hands on my black apron, leaving large flour handprints near my waist and came to join her. “What’s up?”
“I need a personal day off tomorrow,” she said in a rush.
The suddenness of it startled me and in its place washed in worry and concern. “Is everything okay?”
Sam pulled a face. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just have some personal stuff to take care of. I’ll only be gone a day, surely you can make sure your business doesn’t burn to the ground in the meantime.”
“I was managing this business before you came along, I’ll be managing it long after you’ve moved onto bigger and better things.”
It was Sam’s turn to look at me stunned. “What… do you mean by that?”
I raised my own eyebrow at her. “I don’t expect you to stay here forever, Sam. You’re brilliant and capable of doing way more than you currently are. I would be more than happy to write you an absolutely glowing recommendation letter to anywhere you want to work. That doesn’t mean I want you to go but I understand that this isn’t your dream job.”
She frowned but nodded begrudgingly. “Also, one of the protestors asked if they could get cream in their coffee this time.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Sure, would they like a back rub while I’m at it?”
“Probably wouldn’t hurt.”
The daily treat giving of the protestors and those who were still in line wasn’t really eating into my bottom line. It was the annoyance of doing something nice rather than something violent like I wanted to.
What I wanted to do was attach a fire hose to the hydrant across the street and spray them all down Main Street until they gave up their stupid little tirade. Did they really want the whole town to go bankrupt and dissolve? Did people really not understand that new life was being breathed into Sunrise Valley?
It made me ashamed to claim this as my hometown. To see people so bigoted and hate-filled. At least a lot of them had stopped. If Beth was constantly recruiting people and she still had all the previous protestors it would have grown into a truly terrifying mob of angry people.
But she kept losing more than she could gain. A quick peek showed she only had four people with her and a single sign among them. She could not use the megaphone without the Sherriff being forced to come down and do something about it either.
Not that he came himself. He sent a deputy to do it.
That man made it his life’s goal to dog me at every turn, harass me and make my life a living Hell. I wasn’t going to make it easy on him though and since he enjoyed following me around town so much I would cruise at the slowest possible speed without getting ticketed - which, I learned can happen - just to piss him off.
I sent pastries to all his deputies, pointedly leaving him out. There was no kindness that I could commit that would make him like me. Just like Beth, there was a hatred that simmered below the surface for no good reason I could think of.
I went back to the kitchen to see how Gavin was doing.
For a brief period, the nights had been filled with guests ordering right up until we closed. Now, they were back to being empty for the last hour.
Even though it wasn’t a catastrophic drop in sales, I couldn’t pretend like her efforts had no impact. I sat in the front of the shop around thirty minutes until closing enjoying a coffee with Sam. I gave the clerks the rest of the night off since we weren’t getting any more people and decided to take it easy.
“Want me to go out there and shank the bitch?” asked Sam.
“No, it’s not worth it. She’s looking for an angle, some slip up and I am determined not to give it to her. If this is all she can do we can weather it.”
Sam gave me a dubious look. “Yeah but she deserves a good shanking. Just saying.”
“Duly noted, Sam.”
“So what’s up with Claire?”
I looked up from my coffee. Sam saw the confusion in my eyes and made a noise of disgust.
“You men are all the same, probably wouldn’t see a pair of tits if they weren’t thrust into your face.”
“That’s a… very weird statement and still doesn’t explain anything.”
“Claire’s been acting all weird lately. Irritable then suddenly happy like she’s on something and then back to being grouchy. Now, I love the girl like a dorky sister I would pretend I didn’t know at school but would take home once all the cool kids left, but this is something else. You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
Things had been a little odd with her. She was a lot hornier than usual. I took that as a sign that things were better. They certainly felt good. A lot of the odd things were her changes in tastes.
While she used to love it when I played with her nipples, lately they were too sensitive or felt uncomfortable for me to touch. Not that I could tell Sam that. “She’s got an appointment with the doctor next week,” I said instead. “She’s been getting some weird reactions to certain foods she used to love. Can’t even have coffee anymore unless it’s black.”
“I didn’t want to say anything at first because I figured she was upset and stressed over all this stuff.” She waved vaguely towards the front of the shop where the protestors still stood chanting something barely audible.
“It’s put a strain on things, that’s for sure. I don’t get why Beth’s doing this, what is there to gain?”
“Some people are just mean-spirited, Thomas. We’re not all like you.”
“Like me how?”
Sam rolled her eyes at me. “A good person, kind. Shit like that. I bet you walk old ladies across the street, you freak.”
That made me snort into my coffee. I mopped up the spatter on the table with a napkin. “As always, you have a way with words.”
“It’s a curse.”
“So where are you going tomorrow?”
She opened her mouth, nearly about to answer then snapped it shut with an audible click. “You think you’re sneaky, don’t you? That’s my personal business and I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of it.”
I shrugged. “Can’t blame me for trying.”
“I can but because we’re such good friends I’ll let it slide.”
There was a sound in the kitchen, I swore it was the door and before I was out of my seat Claire came through the swinging door that divided the front from the kitchen. “We have a problem.”
22
Claire
I had just heard back from Gary. He’d gone to Beth and talked to her about selling but she wouldn’t budge. In fact, she let slip that the Mayor would soon be pushing for a new bill to pass that would - ridiculously - require any investors to live within town limits if they wanted to invest within the town itself.
Something that would effectively kill our plans to revitalize Sunrise Valley. A call to a Cynthia Rathborne - a high school friend who was now on the town council - confirmed that Mayor Gunther had, in fact, introduced a bill that would do just that and they were set to vote on it tomorrow without public opposition.
I hurried down to the bakery.
After sharing the news Gary, Frank, and Ryan had all decided to head back to New York and let things settle down. The protesting, public sentiment, and then the threat of legislation was just too much.
We had to find a way to cut this off before it passed.
Thomas was up and out of his seat, concern painted on his sculpted cheeks. I wanted to tear his clothes off and have him ravage me on the countertop and the sudden weight of the urge stopped me in my tracks.
My fiancé wrapped his arms around me, caught me up in them and pressed his hands to either side of my flushed face. �
��What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, trying to dispel the urge that was wholly inappropriate. “The Mayor is trying to push through some sort of law that prevents people who don’t live within Sunrise Valley from investing in the town limits.”
It took him two seconds flat to make the connection. A look of cold fury washed over his face and he never looked hotter to me than right then.
Focus, Claire!
“Gary told me that they’re heading back to New York already. I tried to have him make Beth an offer, hoping she would sell her properties but she didn’t take it and in the discussion let slip about the bill. I don’t know if she knows we’re working with them or not but we cannot let this pass.”
Thomas nodded, hugged me again. “It would kill the town,” he muttered. “What the hell do they think they’re doing?”
“Listen, I’m going to go pack for New York and see if I can’t convince them to come back and face the town council. We could lay out the whole plan for them before they can vote, but we need time.”
Thomas stood there, still. His arms wrapped tight around me. I don’t think he planned on letting me go. Ever. While I secretly loved it, I knew the only plan that would work would be if I could convince our business partners to come back and explain themselves to the council.
“No, don’t go.” There was a pleading softness to his voice.
I leaned my head against his chest. Speaking just for him. “I have to, babe. This has gone on long enough, it is past time to lay all our cards on the table.”
“I don’t want you to go,” he whispered into my hair. “Can’t you call them?”
I couldn’t hurt him again. I looked up into his eyes, saw the need and want there. I could see how badly he wanted me to stay but I didn’t understand why.
“It’s a short trip, I won’t be gone long at all. You’ll see. But…” I sighed and looked away. If I kept staring at his eyes I would stay despite it being the wrong thing to do. “If you do not want me to leave. I will stay, Thomas. I will stay for you and I will be okay with whatever happens.”
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