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“I’m sure it will be that way. And don’t act like I did you a favor, y’all turned in the best bid. The decision was strictly based on business.”
“We’re going to do a good job. Crescent View needs this store in a bad way. We need the work now, and we need the jobs it will bring in the future. Did you know a couple of restaurant chains are now considering coming here?”
“I heard.”
“Things are going to turn out real good, I just know it. For years I’ve been putting everything I’ve earned back into my business. But now things might get a little easier. I might finally be able to put something in the bank.” Gazing off toward the twin water towers that marked the entrance of their town, population 5500, Lane grinned. “Shoot, I might have to start thinking seriously about getting married.”
“Married? I didn’t know you were seeing anyone special.”
“I’m not, but it’s about that time.”
“Remember when jobs and marriage seemed a lifetime away?”
“It used to be. ’Course, we had other things on our minds.” Looking into the distance, Lane said, “I was going to become a chemist or something.”
“You always were damn smart. All I ever wanted to do was move on.”
“You did that.”
“Yeah. And now I’m back.”
“So…how is being here? As hard as it used to be?”
“In some ways, yes.” Matt knew his buddy hadn’t asked the question lightly. Lane had witnessed his father yelling at him when he’d fumbled the ball and lost the championship game his freshman year. He’d also sat by Matt’s side during his father’s memorial service. Lane was one of the few people who knew that Matt was haunted by his past.
Changing the topic, Lane said, “My folks asked if you’d like to come over for dinner soon.”
“Thanks, I’d like that.”
“I’ll let them know. How’s the move coming along?”
“About as well as can be expected. Mrs. Wyzecki has too much stuff, but we’re getting there.”
Lane laughed. “She’s always had too much stuff. Some things never change. When are you going to officially move in?”
“I’m in enough. And there’s no hurry. Wanda’s new condo won’t be ready for another month and a half, sometime around the beginning of September.”
“I don’t know how you’re doing it, living with her again.”
“She and I get along great, and it’s not like there’s that much involved. She does her thing, and I do mine.”
“No curfew?” Lane asked with a grin.
Matt played along. “Nope, she’s been coming in before eleven, so I thought I wouldn’t press her.”
“You know what? I wouldn’t put it past her to stay out later than you!”
“Me, neither. That woman’s phone rings more than any teenager’s.”
After another hour, Lane went on his way and Matt stood alone, watching the trucks come and go and thinking for the first time that maybe Lane had gotten it all wrong. All this time, he’d been thinking how good it was to be in Crescent View because it felt familiar and like the only real home he’d known.
But as he thought of Wanda’s upcoming move to the retirement condo, the changes that SavNGo would bring, as well as his move back to Crescent View, maybe the opposite was true. Maybe nothing stayed the same. Maybe nothing ever did.
And if that was the case, Matt wondered what he was going to end up holding on to when he finally decided to trust someone besides Wanda Wyzecki.
Chapter Six
Sunday dawned bright and beautiful with yet another argument. Minnie was beginning to think that the sun wouldn’t come out without a whole lot of fussing from a certain curly-haired five-year-old. “You’ve got to come out of the bathroom sooner or later,” Minnie called out from her side of the door. “There’s no food in there.”
“I don’t care. I don’t wanna go to church.”
They’d already gone through this. Several times. “You don’t have a choice. It’s what we do on Sundays. Besides, last week you said you had fun.”
“I don’t remember sayin’ that.”
“I do. Come on, I bet some of those girls can’t wait to say hi.”
A pause lasted just long enough for Minnie to think she had won. Then all reason went out the window. “George should be able to go, too. I don’t want to leave him here.”
“Guinea pigs can’t go to Sunday school. You know that.”
“Then I’m gonna stay here, too. I want to be with George.”
Minnie tried the door handle one more time. Shoot, it was still locked. And because she was tired and frazzled and sick to death of trying to do her best, even when she didn’t know what that was, she snapped. “Kimber, if you don’t start listening, George is going to have to leave us and go to another home. The home of a little girl who minds.”
“Nooo!”
The scream and the wails that followed on its heels made Minnie feel like the Wicked Witch of the West.
And, the worst of all things, a liar. Minnie didn’t think she’d ever be able to actually give away that silly little guinea pig. George was pudgy and cute and almost cuddly.
Minnie supposed this was what she got for giving in to Kimber’s constant request for a pet. In a moment of true weakness, she’d bought the fifteen-dollar guinea pig and forty dollars’ worth of guinea pig supplies.
Kimber loved him, and that made Minnie happy. But after finally receiving what she wanted, Kimber had moved on to the next item on her willful agenda.
“Kimber, you’re going to have to learn to leave George home sometimes. He needs his sleep and you need to be with your friends. Don’t you think?”
“I don’t have any friends at church.”
No, she didn’t. And that’s why she needed to keep going to Sunday school. The teacher had confided that after a rough beginning, things were finally on an upward swing. Minnie was about to deliver yet another ultimatum when Kimber shouted, “There’s Matt! Hi, Matt!” Minnie heard a creak and a groan as the bathroom window slowly slid upward. “Hi, Matt! You coming over?”
His voice echoed through the crack below the door. “Maybe.”
“Please come over. Now. Minnie’s being so mean.”
“I find that hard to believe. Your Aunt Minnie’s about the sweetest person I know.”
“Not today she’s not.”
Minnie heard Matt’s boots on the front porch. Great. Just who she needed to see…the other person in her life who was attempting to drive her crazy.
After knocking a few times, Matt turned the knob and peeked in. “Minnie, how you doing?”
She leaned against the wall. “About how you might expect.”
“She wearing you out?” Minnie felt his eyes roam over her for a second before meeting her gaze. “Can I help?”
Her insides warred. She wanted some reinforcement, but she didn’t want Matt…did she? When Kimber kicked something in the bathroom, the offer of assistance won out. “Maybe. We’re in the midst of yet another battle. I seem to be losing.” Again.
His lips twitched, telling Minnie that her Kimber problems were not a surprise. “What’s this one about?”
“Sunday school, her lack of friends and one pudgy orange guinea pig.” A little more loudly, Minnie said, “Kimber, you’re about to be in a heap of trouble, and once more, Matt’s going to see you be in it.”
“You’re in trouble, too. I don’t like you, Aunt Minnie.”
Words from a fuming five-year-old weren’t supposed to hurt so much, but they did. Minnie closed her eyes to keep from reacting in front of Matt.
But obviously she wasn’t doing a very good job. “Hey,” he murmured, stepping a little closer. Close enough for Minnie to smell his aftershave and see the faint shadow of his beard. With the edge of a callused thumb, he gently brushed a wayward tear from her cheek. “It’s going to be okay.”
Even though she didn’t like him—Correction. Even though she didn’t want to like him, Minnie accepted his touch. “I know. I’m just tired of constantly battling.”
“One day, Kimber will be tired of it, too.”
“Promise?”
“I’ve been where she is, more or less. I promise.” After treating Minnie to one more reassuring smile, Matt stepped over to the door, rapped a knuckle against the wood and deepened his voice. “Kimber, I heard every mean word you’ve been saying, and I have to tell you, I’m kind of shocked. Little ladies don’t speak to their elders that way.”
After a pause, Kimber answered. “They don’t?” Her voice was small and insecure.
“No, they don’t. Nice girls remember how to listen and say yes, ma’am. Especially with people who love them.”
“But Minnie’s going to take George away.”
“George?”
“The guinea pig,” Minnie provided.
Matt’s blue eyes danced for a moment before he knocked on the door again. “Open up this door. If you still have that window open, I bet George is about to have heat stroke.”
One minute later, the lock clicked and the knob turned. Out peered a very flushed and freckled face. “I’m going to come out now.”
Matt crossed his arms. “It’s about time.”
Face all splotchy, Kimber stepped out, holding a cage tightly. “Minnie, are ya really going to send George away?”
“I should.”
Kimber pulled on Matt’s cuff. “Tell her no.”
“Why do you think I should say that?”
“Because Minnie likes you.”
Minnie felt her cheeks heat. “Don’t bring Matt into this.”
Kimber puffed up her chest like a medieval warrior. “But Matt, don’t you see—”
Matt looked tempted. But then he shook his head. “You’re making us late.”
“Are you going to church, too?”
“I am.”
“Really? Why?”
“Learn to be agreeable, Kimber.” Minnie felt her control on the situation slipping, which was actually pretty laughable, because she really didn’t have any control at all. She didn’t know what she was doing with Kimber. She didn’t know how to act around Matt Madigan.
Before Kimber and Matt had come back into her life, she’d thought she’d had everything she could handle with Carried Away.
Which just went to show what happened when you started thinking that everything was going to be just fine. Trouble came along. In spades.
Kimber was back to fighting about church. “I don’t wanna go. I never get to do what I wanna do.”
Minnie stifled a moan. Did that statement come from sheer willfulness and disappointment at their current argument, or was she speaking of other things? Like the fact that she’d been moved across the country and was still having to adjust to new people, new faces and new rules?
Kimber wasn’t spoiled, but she definitely had a stubborn streak, not unlike Paige’s. Added to the mix was the fact that she was still grieving. It sometimes made the simplest of decisions major battles.
And because the counselors had said that the best thing for dealing with losses like that was a firm, steady hand, Minnie did her best to be that way. “Kimber, we’re not going through this again. Say goodbye to Matt and go put George down.”
“But—”
“Or I’m going to pick up the phone and start calling everyone I know who might want him.”
After glaring at Minnie, Kimber looked sorrowfully Matt’s way. “Bye, Matt.”
“Bye, Kimber.” As the little girl marched to her room, Matt glanced at Minnie. Now that they were alone, she once again felt the tension that seemed to sizzle between them, just under the surface. “You going to be all right?”
“I’ll be fine. Thanks for your help.”
“No problem, Min. No problem at all.”
MATT HAD JUST SETTLED into the back pew and picked up a hymnal when his cell phone started vibrating. Quickly he fished it out of his pocket and noticed that it was Ben Lambright, the vice president of finance at SavNGo. This call had to be taken.
With a couple of nods in the direction of the folks around him, none looking too pleased that he was getting up and leaving before the service had even started, he moved to the entryway and answered. “Madigan.”
“Hi, Matt. Sorry to bother you on a Sunday. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time?”
With another nod toward the people entering, Matt pushed open the wide oak doors and trotted out to the parking lot, the bright sun blinding him as he did. “Not at all, Ben.” After all, if a guy at his level in the company was working on a Sunday morning, Matt couldn’t very well say he didn’t want to work either. Could he? “How may I help you?”
