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He read the excitement on her face, and his stomach churned. He had some money invested from the couple of lakeside cabins he bought cheap, remodeled and flipped for a profit. But not money to lend, like his brother, the ex-international motocross champion. His stash was to finance his move away from Paradox Lake when the right promotion came along. He needed to have a good long talk with his brother about putting him in this situation.
“Tessa, I don’t have that kind of money.”
“I know that. I wouldn’t think of asking you for money.”
But she’d ask Jared. He placed his hands palms down on the table. Just give him another five years and he’d be as successful in his own right as his older brother was.
“What I need from you is your brawn and brains.”
He burst out laughing. “Brawn and brains.”
“That doesn’t appeal to your masculinity?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
She was going to have him rolling on the ground soon.
Her expression grew serious. “Here’s my proposal. First, since I’d only be doing the dinner theater a couple of nights a week, Jared suggested I have the dinners catered by that new restaurant that’s opening on State Route 74, rather than add full kitchen facilities. I’d only need a refrigerator-freezer and an industrial warming oven.”
“That makes sense.” So much sense, he wished he’d thought of it, except he hadn’t been encouraging Tessa in her project.
“Second, in exchange for you helping me make the other necessary alterations to the theater building, you could live rent-free in the apartment over the garage adjacent to the theater and Grandma’s house. Then, once I open, I’ll give you a twenty percent cut of the Majestic’s profits until you’ve been fully paid for your time.” She tilted her head so the rays of the setting sun reflected the expectant look in her soft brown eyes. “What do you say?”
A great plan except that he didn’t expect there to be any profits to pay him from.
In response to his hesitation, she prompted, “The sale closing on the cabin is still next week so you have to be out, right? And you don’t have anyplace to live.”
No place but with one of his brothers or back with Gram and Harry again as he’d done when he first returned to Paradox Lake to take the job at GreenSpaces.
“Or did you find a rental?” she asked.
“The closing is next Thursday, and I haven’t found anything long-term, only a couple of places that are available to rent until late June when the summer people start arriving.”
“Then you’ll do it? I’ll have the attorney who settled Grandpa’s estate draw up a contract next week.”
Since he didn’t have much confidence in the project paying out, as a friend, he should say no. But as a friend, he knew how much it meant to Tessa to stay in Schroon Lake and run the Majestic, even though he didn’t fully understand why. She could do so much more with her life.
“Sure. It’s a deal.”
Chapter Two
Tessa hugged herself for warmth as she walked the short distance from the Majestic to her grandmother’s house. The unusually warm spring day had turned frosty with nightfall, and the light coat she’d worn to the wedding wasn’t enough to ward off the chill of the air or her thoughts.
After dropping her grandmother off at the house, she’d gone over to the movie house, figuring her part-time college student employee, Myles, would be closing up about then. She should have waited until he checked in with her in the morning as she’d asked him to do. The Saturday night—generally her biggest night—receipts were dismal. And she couldn’t attribute it all to the large number of people attending Connor and Natalie’s wedding. As her grandmother’s house came in view, the moon and streetlight spotlighted the shutter on the second-floor window the winter winds had knocked askew. The theater building wasn’t alone in needing work, although all the house needed was some cosmetic touches and basic upkeep. Maybe she could extend Josh’s contract to cover whatever she couldn’t do on the house herself.
Tessa trudged up the steps of the house she and her grandmother shared and stepped into the living room. She locked the front door behind her. Before she’d moved in with her, her grandmother had never locked her doors when she was home. She’d finally convinced her they should at least lock up at night. “Grandma, I’m back.”
“I’m in the kitchen,” she answered.
Tessa slipped off her coat and reached in the pocket for her phone when her text alert chimed. She frowned at the name.
“Your uncle Bob?” Grandma stood in the doorway drying her hands on a dish towel.
“Yes.” Tessa read the text.
I need you to work on your grandmother. Maybe she’ll listen to you. We’re going to lose the introductory price on the condos if she doesn’t agree soon.
“I just got off the phone with him before you came in.” Her grandmother sighed. “I guess I have to make a final decision. Maybe I should take the train down to Albany and let Bob show me around the community he and Kathy are moving to. But I can’t imagine living someplace where everyone is over fifty-five. I think being around you kids helps keep me young.”
Tessa smiled at her grandmother’s last comment as she hung her coat in the closet. “I thought you had decided you didn’t want to leave Schroon Lake and all of your friends.”
“Come on into the kitchen.” Her grandmother avoided her question, waving the dish towel toward the doorway. “We need to talk.”
Tessa tensed.
“I put some water on for chamomile tea. I shouldn’t have had that second cup of coffee at the reception. It’s past my usual bedtime, and I’m not at all sleepy.”
Tessa followed her into the kitchen. She could use something calming, too. An old longing awoke. Even after five years, the craving for alcohol was there deep inside her. She breathed in. Lord. And out. Help me. “Tea would be great.”
Grandma’s old metal teakettle began to whistle when they walked into the kitchen.
“Grab a couple of mugs, spoons and the tea tin.” Her grandmother bustled over to the stove, turned off the gas and lifted the kettle from the burner. “And the hot plate from the dish drainer. Since it’s just the two of us, I’m not going to bother with a teapot.”
Tessa had the mugs, tea and hot plate on the table when her grandmother brought the kettle over. She put a tea bag in each mug, and her grandmother filled them with boiling water.
They sat next to each other at the small round table.
“You’re the only one in the family who drinks tea plain, like me,” her grandmother said.
Tessa stirred her drink, watching the tea bag swirl around. She pressed it against the side of the mug and placed the tea bag and spoon on the table. “But we didn’t come in here to talk about tea or sugar. What happened to your decision to stay in Schroon Lake?”
Her grandmother dropped her gaze to the mug of tea sitting in front of her. “I found out how little you have left of the money your grandfather gave you to make a go of the Majestic.”
Tessa started. Grandma wasn’t a person to go snooping around in other people’s business. “How?”
“I went paperless with my bank statements and was having trouble printing them out from the bank’s website. I stopped in at the bank to see if someone could show me what I was doing wrong. Along with my other accounts, the bank officer gave me the statement from the joint checking account your grandfather set up for you when he was sick. He must have put me on the account, too.”
“I wasn’t hiding it from you.” Tessa couldn’t keep the defensive note out of her voice. The days when she purposely hid her actions were over. “I didn’t want to worry you while I figured out what we were going to do.”
Her grandmother reached over and squeezed her hand. “Honey, you don’t have to struggle for me. Your grandfather didn’t leave you the theater to tie you to it or me or Schroon Lake. He left it as an option, if you wanted to come and run it while you figured out what you really wanted to do. You didn’t seem happy with your engineering job with the State Department of Transportation in Albany.”
“I wasn’t. But I don’t want you to have to leave everything you love because I didn’t come through for you.”
Grandma and Grandpa had been there for her when her parents hadn’t been. They’d opened their home to her for school breaks when she’d been partying her way to disaster her first year at college because she was trying so hard to fit in. They’d given her nonjudgmental guidance to right herself with God and go back to college her second year. They’d stood by her when Blake had broken their engagement because he’d found even her “controlled” drinking a problem, and afterward when she’d fallen into a spiral of binging that had landed her in rehab.
“We loved you. You do for those you love. You don’t owe me anything. And it’s not like you’d leave me out on the street, or that I’d have to move away, unless I want to. Who knows, if I go see those condos Bob is hounding me about, I might like them. And Marie Delacroix has mentioned several times that she wouldn’t mind having someone share her house with her. It’s smaller than this monstrosity and easier to manage.”
“But you love this monstrosity, and I have a plan that will let us stay right here.” Tessa explained Jared’s loan and Josh’s agreement to help her with the work.
Her grandmother’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve thought this through, prayed on it? It sounds to me like you’d be taking on a lot. A loan, all that remodeling. How much time will Josh have to help you? Edna says he practically lives in his office at GreenSpaces. Besides, didn’t you tell me he wasn’t so keen on the dinner theater idea?”
Tessa raised her empty mug to her lips to hide the disappointment she was afraid would show on her face. She swallowed. “That was before Jared suggested a couple of ways to reduce expenses, and I offered Josh free rent on the apartment above the garage.”
“Has he seen the apartment?” her grandmother asked, her smile and the twinkle in her eye breaking the tension.
Tessa laughed. “No, I have my work cut out for me tomorrow.”
“You are so sweet to want to do this for me.”
“It’s for me, too. Grandpa had faith in me. I love the Majestic as much as he did.”
Her grandmother’s smile faded. “As long as you’re doing this for yourself and not for him. He wouldn’t want that.”
Tessa nodded and rose to rinse her mug in the sink. Grandma was right about her having to live for herself. She’d lived most of her life trying her best to do, be, what her parents wanted. So they’d be proud of her, love her. That certainly hadn’t worked out as she’d wanted.
“And to be an interfering old woman, watch that Josh Donnelly. You know his reputation. I would hate to see your heart broken again.”
She squirted dish detergent in the mug and turned on the faucet. “I know all about Josh Donnelly. You don’t have to worry about me seeing him as anything but a buddy.”
* * *
Midday Wednesday Josh pulled his pickup into the small parking lot beside the attorney’s office. When Tessa had called him about setting a time for an appointment to sign their contract, he’d asked her if she could schedule it at lunchtime today, so he wouldn’t have to take extra time off work. He’d already scheduled a half day of vacation for this afternoon to talk to his little sister Hope’s third grade class for career day. It wasn’t that he didn’t have vacation time accrued, lots of vacation time. But he was really into the project he was working on directly with the owner of GreenSpaces, Anne Hazard, and he might need some of that time later to help Tessa.
He tossed his shades onto the passenger-side seat and glanced in the rearview mirror, running his hand over his hair. He and Tessa didn’t need all the formality she was insisting on. She couldn’t think he’d bail on a less-formal agreement. She was his best friend, probably his only real friend, except for his brothers. There were the people he hung out with at work, the singles group at church and the vets at the American Legion in Ticonderoga, but they were more acquaintances. He hadn’t connected with any of them like he had with Tessa. As for his high school friends still in the area, they were better avoided.
A motion in the mirror caught his eye. Tessa waved from the sidewalk in front of the law office. He unfolded himself from the truck and strode over, battling the uncertainty that he couldn’t seem to shake about the wisdom of this deal.
“Hi,” Tessa said, “right on time.”
“Would you expect anything less?” He opened the door to the building and motioned her to go in first.
“Not with you and a business deal.”
He let the door snap shut behind him. Ambition was a good quality. He bristled. It kept food on the table.
The attorney met them in the reception area. He was probably anxious to get to his lunch. At the thought of food, Josh’s stomach rumbled. He hadn’t had lunch, thinking he and Tessa could grab something together quick before he had to be at the school.
“Ms. Hamilton, Mr. Donnelly, come right back to my office. I have the agreement all ready.”
Josh and Tessa took the two seats in front of the desk.
“How’s that little sister of yours?” the attorney asked.
“She’s doing well with Jared and Becca. Fits right in with Becca’s two kids.” Tessa’s attorney was the same one Jared had used to get custody of their orphaned half sister, Hope, last year. “I’m going over to the school to talk to her class about my job for career day when we finish here.”
“Let’s get going then.” The attorney gave each of them a copy of the contract. “Take your time. Read it thoroughly and ask me any questions you have.”
Tessa skimmed over the two pages and placed them on the desk in front of her, while Josh read every word. He went back to the clause about paying him 20 percent of the Majestic profits until his time was paid for at the rate he and Tessa had agreed to verbally.
“What would happen if the profits aren’t enough to pay me my percentage and cover Tessa and her grandmother’s living expenses?”
Tessa bristled. “Don’t worry, Josh. You’ll get paid.”
He shook his head slowly. Maybe she didn’t know him as well as he thought she did. He was ambitious, not callous. “My concern is for you being obligated to pay me money you might not have.”
She pressed a fist to her lips and dropped it to her lap. “Then why did you agree to do the work?” The hurt in her eyes spoke her unsaid words. You don’t think I’ll succeed.
Now he’d insulted her. But he did have doubts about the project’s viability and didn’t want to put Tessa and her grandmother in financial straits again.
“Do you two need a moment to discuss things?” the attorney asked, glancing at the clock.
From what Josh figured Tessa had told the attorney, the man had probably thought this was a ten-minute slam-dunk done deal.
“I want to do the work.” Josh looked from the attorney to Tessa. “Can we add a profit threshold where payments to me would kick in? It could be based on the average monthly cost of living for a two-person household in Essex County.”
“I could do that,” the attorney said. “Let me check that figure. Or do you need to think about it, Ms. Hamilton?” He typed into his computer while he waited for her answer.
“I can come back later, after I’m done at the school,” Josh said.
“It’s fine,” Tessa said in a tone that didn’t support her words.
“I’ve got that figure.” The attorney wrote the numbers on a pad and turned it toward them.
“The amount looks reasonable to me,” Tessa said.
Josh thought it looked low, compared to what he brought in as a senior drafter at GreenSpaces and what he knew Tessa must have earned as a civil engineer for the state. He pressed his lips together to prevent any of the brain-mouth disconnect he’d suffered with Tessa last Saturday. “Okay, Tessa will be obligated to pay my cut only after the safety-net amount has been reached. And, as it already reads, if I can’t finish the work for any reason, she’ll owe no royalties and I’ll reimburse her fair rental for any time I’ve been in the apartment.”
Tessa hadn’t liked that clause, but he had to protect her, both of them, if he received a promotion offer from one of the other GreenSpaces offices.
“Correct,” the attorney confirmed. “If you have ten minutes, I can type the change in and print out a new agreement for you to sign, unless you have any other questions or problems.”
“No, I’m good, and I don’t have to be at the school until one.”
“I can stay, too,” Tessa said. She pulled out her cell phone and tapped on the screen while the attorney made the changes. The room was quiet, except for the click of the computer keyboard, followed by the whirr of the laser printer on the other side of the room.
“I’ll get those.” Josh was out of his seat before the attorney could even push his chair away from the computer.
Taking his copy from the top, he handed the other one to Tessa, sat and reread the revised clause. When he’d finished, Tessa already had a pen in hand, ready to sign.
“Looks okay to me,” he said, picking up the other pen the attorney had laid out on the desk.
“Hold off on signing until I get someone to witness your signatures.” The attorney left them alone in the office.
“You are all right with my change?” Josh asked, breaking the silence.
“I guess I have to be. No one else will do the work as cheaply as you will.”
“You got other bids?”
“No,” she shot back. “But I thought you had more faith in me.”
“I have plenty of faith in you. It’s the tourist trade I’m not so sure of.”
The attorney returned with Josh’s former girlfriend. “This is Lexi Zarinski. She’s filling in for the next few days while our receptionist is on vacation.”
“I know Josh and Tessa from church. Hi.”
“Hi.” Josh and Tessa signed and dated the agreement. The attorney took both agreements and placed the second sheet with the witness signature line on top.
Lexi signed them both with a flourish. “I’m taking my lunch break now. Do you guys want to join me at the diner?” Although Lexi had included Tessa in her invitation, her gaze rested on Josh. He rearranged the pages of the agreement on the desk in front of him.
“Sorry, I’ve got to get over to the school. I’m telling Hope’s class about my job for career day.”
“And I told Grandma I’d go with her to her doctor’s appointment in Ticonderoga.”
“Okay, maybe another time.” Lexi made her exit.
The attorney rose and shook their hands. “Nice seeing both of you again.”
“Thanks,” Tessa said.
Josh nodded. He looked around for Lexi lurking as they walked across the reception area to the door. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to get some lunch, but I don’t have time now.”
“I would have taken you up on the offer. Maybe even treated to make up for my outburst about you getting paid.” She stopped when they reached the sidewalk and looked up at him. “You know, I could just hug you for what you’re doing for Grandma and me.”
After the way Tessa’s glamorous appearance at the wedding had affected him, he was glad she didn’t.
* * *
Josh grabbed his laptop from behind the driver’s seat before he headed into the building that housed the Schroon Lake Central School, grades kindergarten through twelve, his alma mater. He signed in at the main office with Thelma Woods, who’d been the office manager for as long as he could remember.
“The third grade room is the same as it’s always been,” Mrs. Woods said.
“Okay, and I’ll be taking Hope home after school.”
She leafed through a small pile of papers clipped together. “Yes, I have the note from Becca right here. You’ll need to sign out before you leave.”
“Will do.”
“Josh.” Hope called to him as he left the office.
He waved at his sister.
A middle-aged woman was leading a group of kids including Hope down the hall past the office. She stopped. “Mr. Donnelly?”
“Josh.” He offered his hand.
“I’m Merilee Bradshaw, Hope’s teacher. We’re on our way back from lunch. You can walk with us.”
He stepped in line with Hope.
“Is that your daddy?” the little boy in front of her asked.
“No,” Hope huffed. “Like I told everybody, Josh is my brother. I have three big brothers. Jared, who I live with. He talked to our class last year. Mrs. Bradshaw said we had to have different people this year. Connor. He’s the pastor at my church and on his honeymoon with Natalie, so he couldn’t come today. And Josh.”
Josh shook off the pang of hurt that he was apparently Hope’s third choice. “Who’s your friend?” He nodded at the little boy.
“Owen Maddox, and he’s not a friend. He’s a boy.”
“Can’t boys be friends? Tessa is my friend, and she’s a girl.”
“You’re a grown-up, and she’s your girlfriend. That’s different.”
“No, she’s just a friend who’s a girl.”
Hope looked skeptical. Gram at the wedding, now Hope. What was so hard for everyone to get about Tessa and him being friends, not a couple?
“Our room is the next one,” Hope said.
“I know. It was my third grade room, and Jared and Connor’s, too.”
Mrs. Bradshaw stood at the classroom doorway, counting heads as the kids filed in. She closed the door behind her last student. “Everyone put your lunch boxes in your cubbies, so we can hear Mr. Donnelly’s talk.”
Josh waited for his sister and, when she finished, she led him to the middle of the room. “This is my desk, and this is my friend Ava.”
“Hi,” the little girl at the desk beside Hope’s said. She eyed his laptop. “Are you going to show us racing videos like Hope’s other brother did last year? They were really cool.”
Yeah. Josh was sure they were. Jared was cool. “No, we’re going to design a solar-powered go-cart.”
“But you didn’t bring any wood or stuff.”
“On the computer. You’ll see everything we do on the screen up front.” Josh had thought the kids would like brainstorming ideas for a go-cart and using the computer-aided design program to draw plans. His talk was hands-on. He planned to let the kids come up and use the program to add their details. And he’d gotten permission from his boss to print out copies of the plans at work for Hope to bring in and hand out to everyone on Friday.
“Oh,” Ava said.
“Mr. Donnelly, we’re ready.”
Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Hope’s friend Ava, the talk went as well or better than Josh had hoped. The kids had some great and outlandish ideas. And Josh seemed to have made a friend in Hope’s non-friend, Owen. The little boy latched on to him to the point of asking if he wanted to sit next to him at his desk for the second job presentation of the afternoon. With Hope’s permission, he did.
“Class, let’s thank Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly for talking to us today,” the teacher said when the other speaker had finished her presentation.
“Thank you, Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly,” the classed chimed.
A bell rang.
“That means the buses are here,” Hope said.
“Everyone get your things together and line up,” Mrs. Bradshaw said.
She led the queue of third graders to the main door while Jared and Hope headed to the office to sign out. Owen trailed behind them.
Josh stopped. “Owen, don’t you need to get on your bus?”
“No, I wait for my mom in the office. She’s a teacher’s aide. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” Josh hoped he wouldn’t regret his hasty agreement.
“You know a lot about go-carts. Have you ever made a Pinewood Derby racer?”
“No, I haven’t. I wasn’t a Boy Scout. But my nephew made one.”
“I want to make one, but Mom doesn’t know anything about building things.” Owen stared at his feet. “And my dad’s at Dannemora. We moved here so it’s not so far to drive to visit him.”
Josh swallowed the lump in his throat. The maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility. Although his father had never been in more than the county jail for a few days, Josh could certainly relate to an absent father.