Garth: Arranged Marriage (Members From Money Book 15)

by Katie Dowe

  The distance education business course she was doing was going well. Heidi was proud of herself for doing that. When she had money to manage, and she managed to make a brand out of herself, what she was learning would come in very handy.

  And then there was Mrs. Spinelli, who gave her free voice lessons. Mrs. Spinelli apparently had enough money to be going on with, and Heidi had a feeling that she could very easily live in a lovely condo where everything she wanted was at her fingertips.

  Apparently, that didn’t appeal to her, so she lived in the apartment building, across the hall from Heidi. They’d started talking to each other when Mrs. Spinelli gave Heidi an excellent critique on her blues style. Heidi had taken note, and baked her brownies to express her gratitude.

  That had turned into so much more. Heidi baked dessert, Mrs. Spinelli made her wonderful sauces, and they practiced until Heidi got better than she’d thought she could be.

  Mrs. Spinelli had stories, too, of how she had almost made it in opera, but she’d met her husband, Joe, and had never looked back.

  She’d never regretted anything, either. The couple of times she’d sung as backing vocals for a couple of big names – she still wouldn’t tell Heidi which big names, for some reason – kept her going.

  But she still had the voice of an angel. Even more precious, she had technique, and a willingness to teach.

  Well, thought Heidi as she walked her precious wards back to their homes, maybe she wasn’t so alone in the world after all.

  She had people who cared for her, who depended on her, and who believed in her.

  That was far more than most people could ever hope to have. She should be ashamed of herself, moping around as she was.

  Heidi barely noticed how heads turned when she walked by. Even if she had noticed, she would’ve put it down to the pack of six dogs she was walking.

  Dog walkers and dog sitters weren’t all that common, which was part of the reason why she could afford to support herself – just barely – doing that.

  One day, she was going to get a paying gig, thought Heidi as she dropped off Rover, who greeted his human by jumping onto the bed and licking him adoringly.

  When she got a paying gig, she would finally be able to call herself a real singer.

  That wasn’t an ‘if’. That was a ‘when’.

  As Heidi made her way back home, to hit the books for a while with something baking in the oven, she had her head held high, and she made quite a picture.

  She was tall, slim and had a grace that you were either born with or you never had. She seemed to move through crowds as if she were dancing through air, through motes that were there only to make her movements even more enticing. She rarely noticed how people noticed her. Heidi was far too engrossed in where she was going and how she was going to get there to pay attention to things like that.

  Heidi, with her hair tamed into a sleek bun for the day, clad in leggings and a loose, bright orange T-shirt, strode along, and used her key to let herself into the apartment building that she described as ‘full of character’.

  She knew that the character so described could very well be unsavory. She didn’t mind that, not really. That was colorful, too, and Heidi’s life was full of color.

  That’s exactly how she preferred it.

  There were aspiring actors, failed ones, dancers looking for a break and a chef who was sure that the next reality TV show would be his big chance, all in her apartment building.

  She fit in quite well, and she knew it.

  Heidi didn’t sneer at any of their ambitions or their hopes. Hers were just as unlikely as anybody else’s.

  The world was full of people with outstanding talent. It was a matter of getting lucky and being tenacious.

  Well, she had the tenacity down pat.

  As for the lucky break…

  Well, she was going to get it because she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  She would sing at every club she could find, and she would wow every audience she could get. She would put her songs up on YouTube, post on Instagram, keep up her Tumblr, and she would have as many real life meetings as she possibly could.

  Eventually, she would find a connection that would come through.

  She believed it, absolutely.

  After all, if she didn’t, what was the point of going on?

  Then, she would have all of those little comforts she had missed all her life.

  Whoever had said that money couldn’t make you happy had clearly missed the memo that said poverty couldn’t make you happy, either.

  So Heidi would go out and sing for every open mic night. She would find auditions open to her and go for them, no matter how many times she was told that she wasn’t the right type, or she hadn’t the right story, even if her voice was fine.

  There were plenty of pretty girls with good voices, she’d been told at so many auditions. Without something more, she didn’t have much hope of getting a real chance.

  Well, she planned to prove them all wrong, and how.

  But it would be nice to get a break soon, she thought wistfully as she opened her door, walked inside and looked around.

  Her home wasn’t messy. But it was cluttered.

  She had a habit of collecting memorabilia. Sometimes, it got a bit out of hand.

  When she could no longer remember how the collectible had made her feel when she decided to keep it, she threw it away. But she seemed to have the memory of an elephant when it came to stuff like that.

  Well, when she had a bigger place, it wouldn’t matter so much, she told herself, but there was a part of her that didn’t want to move away even if she could afford it.

  Could a fancy condo with everything running efficiently and smoothly ever have the charm of her apartment building? Sure, the boiler might be a bit annoying and the heating could be off. Sometimes, the thermostat decided to be as temperamental as the people who lived in the building.

  But the people were friendly, and they all knew each other. They all encouraged each other, valiantly believing in all the dreams even if nobody else might have. Even if it was more sensible to encourage each other to just find a stable living, none of them would dream of doing so.

  They all hoped to make it big, but secretly, somewhere deep inside, they were all sure that if only one of them made it, it would be them.

  Except Mrs. Spinelli, she reminded herself. She believed that Heidi was going to be a big name by the time she was twenty-eight.

  Well, two years left for that, thought Heidi as she decided to make chocolate chip cookies for dessert that day.

  The music was just a part of her. She hit play – her speakers were her only real extravagance – and she sang along to Mariah and Whitney, then Nina Simone, until she lost track of everything but the music.

  It was a good thing she could bake on autopilot.

  By the time she had everything together and was on her way to Mrs. Spinelli across the hall, she could smell lunch, and her mouth watered.

  “Mrs. Spinelli, I’ve got cookies,” she called as she let herself in.

  She was family, she’d been told, and that was quite a compliment. Mrs. Spinelli held family in very high regard.

  “You know where the cookie jar is. I’m just tossing this salad and I’ll be right there. Have you been practicing your arias? They were a little shaky still.”

  Heidi had to smile.

  “Mrs. Spinelli, there isn’t much call for arias in the music I do. I write blues, with hip hop beats.”

  Mrs. Spinelli, comfortably plump but still elegant and holding on to the vestiges of the rare beauty she had been a few decades ago, waved her hands as if that didn’t matter.

  “Being able to do arias makes it more impressive when you choose not to do them,” she declared, and Heidi couldn’t deny that.

  They had their half an hour of singing before they had lunch. That’s when Mrs. Spinelli pronounced the sauce perfect, though not yet Heidi’s singing.

  “Now,
tell me what you’ve got planned for the evening,” she said as they settled down at the dining table, with elegantly and precisely placed china and silverware, to eat the absolutely magnificent lunch.

  “Oh, this is so good. I’m so glad I walk so much. I’d never be able to eat all this glorious food otherwise, Mrs. Spinelli. So, tonight. There’s an open mic at Barney’s. He knows I’ll be there. He’s always glad for it. He says it brings people in. I wish one of these days, some of the many, many people I’ve sent my tapes to would be one of the people there.”

  The older woman smiled at Heidi affectionately.

  “It will happen, Heidi. I have faith in you. I saw the last video you uploaded on YouTube. I left a comment.”

  Mrs. Spinelli would still choose to send postcards and rarely used her phone for anything other than what a wall-mounted phone used to be for, so that was a big deal. She wouldn’t get over her aversion to technology for many people.

  Heidi knew what it meant that she’d not only gone on YouTube, but had also left a comment.

  “It will be the nicest comment there is. What did you think of it? I know it’s a classic, but I thought I could put a nice spin on it.”

  “I loved what you did with the guitar. And you did the falsetto very well, indeed. You shine and sparkle, my dear. You will not be here forever.”

  That sounded almost prophetic.

  Heidi grinned and tried to lighten the mood.

  “Oh, but then what would I do for lunch? What if I have to start paying for singing lessons? No, that wouldn’t do at all, Mrs. Spinelli. I plan to be right here for a long time. I just mean to be able to afford a lot more than I do now. Why, I saw these shoes today when I was on my way to pick up Apple, and I could hardly restrain myself. I could hear my credit card whimpering in fear, though, so I held myself back. It cost me, and a lot, Mrs. Spinelli. You should’ve seen them, wine red and glittery, with heels so high! I would’ve looked like a star in them.”

  Conversation turned to easier things, and soon, they were talking about Mrs. Spinelli’s stints as backing vocalist, and everything seemed to settle down again.

  Of course, soon enough, she brought up the other pet subject.

  “My dear, you need to date a few men. Why, you are lovely and young and smart and talented and interesting. There should be men queuing up to take you out to dinner. And dancing. And much more. The youth is wasted on the young. You should have at least one man and a spare.”

  Heidi laughed.

  Mrs. Spinelli, after she had given nearly everything up for love, had unconventional ideas when it came to Heidi’s love life.

  The more the merrier just about summed it all up.

  But Heidi kept disappointing Mrs. Spinelli there.

  She just didn’t have time to date.

  She was far too focused on her goal to waste time worrying about the silly rules of dating.

  Should you call? Should you text? How long should you wait before you sleep with somebody? How much should you eat on a date? Who should pay?

  The rules seemed to keep changing, and Heidi didn’t have time for it.

  By the time she had done the washing up for Mrs. Spinelli – she always told Heidi not to, but Heidi never listened – everything seemed to be back to normal.

  But Heidi couldn’t forget how Mrs. Spinelli had sounded when she’d predicted that everything would soon change, or near enough.

  It had almost sounded like a warning.

  That was silly, of course.

  Heidi made her way back to her apartment, and saw that it was about time for another session of dog walking.

  Dogs were uncomplicated. There was never any fear of weird conversations with them. You know what you got with dogs.

  Heidi set all misgivings aside and set off to do the work that paid her bills.

  Chapter 2

  That had absolutely not gone well, thought Christian Sanders as he stared at his phone.

  It wasn’t even as if he had wanted the date to go very well. He hadn’t really cared. He’d only really agreed to be set up on a blind date because his aunt had been badgering him since forever to find a girl and settle down.

  It wasn’t like he was looking for something of the sort. He was just twenty-seven, for crying out loud. He was definitely not ready to even start looking for anything along the lines of a ‘happy ever after’.

  But his aunt had gone on and on about that preschool teacher, and he had finally said yes.

  Boy, talk about incompatible!

  She liked country music, Gothic novels and knitting.

  While Christian agreed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of those, she had obviously found his chosen profession extremely frightening.

  He wasn’t sure if she’d expected him to turn up covered in soot and wearing smoking overalls, but she’d looked so relieved when he’d got there wearing jeans and a plain white shirt.

  They’d had a drink each, and then it had turned out that she was allergic to just about everything.

  That, too, was not her fault. He understood circumstances beyond your control only too well.

  But then she had claimed to love some rock music, too. Then she had elaborated: she loved Nickelback.

  There had been no going back from that, and Christian refused to feel bad about that.

  He would not feel guilty. He would not be manipulated into calling a Nickelback fan back for a second date, no matter how much Aunt Susie needled him.

  It was absolutely not going to happen.

  Oh God, he prayed, please don’t let it happen.

  It was odd how he was perfectly brave when he had to run into a blaze, risking injury and death, to rescue a damn cat. But when it came to standing up to any of his aunts, his courage failed him, completely and utterly.

  Maybe it was the knowledge that they were as courageous as he ever could be, just in different ways.

  When his mother added her voice to the aunts’, he was sunk.

  He really needed to head off a second date with Peggy the pre-school teacher with her wide eyes and her soft, curly hair before his mother got involved.

  What he could really do with, he thought, was a nice emergency to give him a good excuse to not reply to his aunt’s texts.

  But that was apparently asking for too much.

  “Hey, Chris! How was your date last night? You don’t look sleep-deprived.”

  He grinned as he saw Rick, his best friend and colleague, walking towards him.

  He would take the teasing and the banter over his aunt’s questions, any day.

  “She likes Nickelback,” he told Rick.

  Rick winced in sympathy.

  “I hope you didn’t leave her with the check, man.”

  Chris shook his head.

  “I paid. But there isn’t going to be a second date,” he said, firmly.

  Rick shrugged.

  “I can only be thankful not to have your aunts on my case. Though I have a feeling they were sizing me up at the last barbecue.”

  Christian laughed.

  “Oh, you’ll find yourself being pulled up soon enough. You might as well resign yourself to it.”

  Christian wasn’t big enough a man to feel bad about that. As the only bachelor in the family, he wanted somebody else to take some of the heat off him.

  He thought that was a fair enough expectation, considering how much chicken and potato salad Rick always managed to have at their family barbecues, where he was always invited.

  Of course he was invited. He was family.

  He was jolted out of the funk when the alarm went off.

  “Got a call.”

  They kitted out and went to the truck as the details were given, including the address.

  Apparently, it was an apartment that wasn’t one of the places they had down as potential fire traps, but the person on the phone had been quite hysterical.

  They were quiet as they got to the building, and swung into action. They barely needed any wo
rds to communicate.

  The training was far too thorough and ingrained. He could do this if he’d been asleep. He knew what to do better than he knew how to brush his own teeth.

  “Third floor. I’m on stairs. First in.”

  The announcement was made as if it were matter of fact. As it was.

  He and Rick worked very well together.

  Christian didn’t look back to see if Rick was following. He knew he would be.

  “Clearing the floors,” said Rick.

  They had their masks on. It didn’t look too bad, thought Christian, but it was in the part of his mind that he didn’t completely acknowledge. Now, it was all about letting the training take over.

  The source was spotted quickly enough. For one thing, the door was open.

  Christian ran in, and saw that it could be contained.

  To be honest, it could’ve been contained by a levelheaded civilian.

  Bet the damn apartment didn’t have a fire extinguisher. Well, he did, and there were no people in there.

  Quickly, methodically, he sprayed foam, noting the direction of the wind from the window that was wide open and countering it without even thinking about it.

  By the time Rick was in there, it was under control. But it was training for him to stand by his side and get every tiny lick of flame out.

  It hadn’t affected the exterior, but the smoke was bad enough for them to be grateful for their masks. The heat was not the worst he had known.

  The worst he had known was something he didn’t think about, too. If he did, he might have to quit. Sometimes, you needed to compartmentalize.

  Rick opened the rest of the windows, made sure that everything was safe, and made his way back out, his eyes stinging and watering.

  Christian wasn’t far behind.

  “I sure hope whoever owns that place has insurance,” said Rick, after he had pulled his head gear off and guzzled about half a liter of water.

  Their efforts always made the place look even worse than the fire. They even got complaints from irate owners about it.

  That’s the thanks you got, thought Christian, shrugging.

  There would be quite a bit of smoke damage in that apartment. Everybody on that floor would complain about the stench of the smoke.