Where Azaleas Bloom

3

Despite the relief she felt at having a job lined up, Lynn’s stomach remained tied up in knots as she drove toward the center of town. She hadn’t forgotten her promise to Lexie to find out where Ed was and when he was due back. She had her own valid reasons for wanting to know those things, as well. She knew that trying to wrangle information out of the very loyal and discreet Noelle over the phone would be a waste of time, but face-to-face, Ed’s secretary would have a lot more trouble holding out.

The success of Ed’s insurance business was ostentatiously showcased in the large brick building he’d built just off Main Street. Personally, Lynn had always thought it was pretentious, but he’d insisted it was good for business, especially the insurance business, to look impressive and solid.

Lynn parked in the large lot out back and went in through the closest entrance, drawing startled glances from several of Ed’s colleagues who hadn’t laid eyes on her since she and Ed had split up. Assuming they’d taken his side and not wanting to put any of them on the spot, she nodded politely and kept right on walking to his large suite of offices in the front.

“Hi, Noelle,” she said.

Ed’s secretary uttered a small gasp, but recovered quickly. “Mrs. Morrow, how are you?”

“Just fine, Noelle. And you?”

“Doing all right. What can I do for you? Ed’s not here.”

“So I’ve gathered. Any idea where I can reach him or when he’ll be back?”

“As I told Lexie when she called, I’m not entirely sure.”

“On either point?” Lynn asked skeptically. “I can’t recall a single time when Ed has ever been out of touch with you.”

“Well, of course, I speak to him if there’s an emergency,” Noelle said, looking increasingly uncomfortable. For all her loyalty to her boss, she was also a sympathetic woman and a single mother herself. Lynn thought she probably understood the situation all too well.

“Then how about sharing with me how you go about contacting him?” Lynn requested. “Please, Noelle. You spoke to Lexie. You know how much she misses her father. And there are things I need to discuss with him that can’t wait.”

“He’ll be back soon,” Noelle said, holding firm.

“How soon?”

“Next week at the latest, maybe sooner.”

Lynn shook her head. “Not good enough. I want to speak to him today.”

Noelle regarded her with what appeared to be genuine sympathy. “I really wish I could help you, but I need this job. I can’t violate his confidence. He’d fire me.” She gave Lynn an earnest look. “You know he would.”

Lynn sighed. Unfortunately, she knew that all too well. Even before she’d walked into the building, she’d known she was going to be putting Noelle in an impossible position. The last thing she wanted to do was to get another single mom fired.

She was struck by a sudden thought. Ed always kept petty cash in his office in a secret compartment at the back of one of his drawers. Since he’d failed to send his support check, she figured she was entitled to get that money however she could.

“Would you mind if I left a note on his desk?” she asked Noelle.

“No problem,” Noelle said, looking relieved that Lynn wasn’t going to keep pressing her.

“Thanks. I’ll just be a minute.” She walked into the office she’d worked so hard to decorate for him, choosing colors that were warm and inviting and furnishings that were tasteful and, at Ed’s insistence, far more expensive than they’d needed to be.

She sat in his ergonomic leather chair behind the oversize mahogany desk and opened the bottom drawer. Reaching into the compartment hidden behind a stack of company stationery, she plucked out two hundred-dollar bills and guiltily stuffed them into her purse.

To make good on the request that had gotten her into the room, she removed a piece of stationery and jotted a quick note asking Ed to call her immediately on his return, folded it and shoved it into an envelope, then tucked it into a corner of the pristine blotter centered on his desk.

“All done,” she told Noelle, exiting quickly. “I left the note on his desk. Please make sure he reads it, okay? As soon as he sees my handwriting he’ll toss it in the trash, otherwise.”

“I’ll do my best,” Noelle promised, then regarded Lynn apologetically. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.”

“You helped enough,” Lynn assured her.

Back in her car, she found herself trembling for the second time that day. No matter how strongly she felt that she was owed much more than that two hundred dollars, she couldn’t help thinking that she’d turned into a thief. That’s what this divorce was doing to her.

Then she thought of her kids and squared her shoulders. She’d done what she had to do and if anyone should be ashamed of their behavior these days, it was Ed. And she’d tell him exactly that if he had the audacity to make an issue of this.

* * *

Even with the promise of another paycheck soon and the money she’d stolen from petty cash in her purse, Lynn couldn’t bring herself to go on a spending splurge at the grocery store. Who knew what other crises might arise before Ed finally paid up the way he was supposed to?

She left the store with two small sacks of groceries and a heavy heart. This would barely get them through the weekend, and then what? A couple of hundred dollars seemed like a fortune, but it wouldn’t last long. It would barely cover the electric bill, much less make any dent in the overdue mortgage.

After putting the few pitiful purchases into the refrigerator and pantry, she knew she had to do something more to address the situation. Not even another paycheck was going to solve things, not with interest and late fees adding up on their bills. Reluctantly, she picked up the phone and called Helen.

“The support check hasn’t come again,” she told the attorney. “I just spent practically the last dime I have on enough groceries to get us through the next couple of days.” She drew in a deep breath, then confessed, “I actually resorted to taking money from petty cash in Ed’s office. I know it’s theft, but what was I supposed to do, Helen? Let my kids starve?”

Helen uttered an epithet that would have blistered Ed’s ears had she said it in court. “Look, I can’t very well condone stealing, but let’s pretend you never told me about that. Believe me, I get how desperate you must have been to resort to that.”

“It’s not going to make a dent in the bills,” Lynn said in frustration. “But it will cover groceries for a couple of weeks and one or two other things, if I pinch every penny.”

“I’ll stop by with a check before the day’s out,” Helen promised her. “And before you say no, believe me, I will get it back from Ed, even if I have to take it out of his sorry hide!”

Lynn smiled. “I want to be there for that,” she said. “Just anticipating it will be the one huge bright spot in my life.”

“What about those bills you mentioned?” Helen asked. “Are you managing? Is Ed covering what he’s supposed to be covering—the mortgage payment, the utilities?”

Lynn drew in a deep breath, then told her, “I just got a notice from the bank. They haven’t received the last two house payments. They’re threatening to foreclose. The electric company has given me two weeks to pay or they’ll disconnect service.”

“That scum!” Helen said fiercely. “Does he really want to take the roof from over your heads?”

“I don’t think he cares about anything but himself these days,” Lynn said. “I’ve managed to find a part-time job at Raylene’s shop, but in this economy the pay’s terrible. And today, Mitch Franklin hired me part-time to handle his billing and payroll, but even with both jobs, there’s no way I can keep up. And the kids need clothes and supplies for school. I can’t bear the looks in their eyes when I tell them there’s no money for something they need, never mind for a few extras like seeing a movie with their friends. Forget putting gas in the car. Until today when I went looking for a second job, I hadn’t driven anywhere in weeks.”

Once she’d started, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from pouring out all the frustrations and fears she’d kept bottled up. Helen listened without comment, then said with quiet reassurance, “We’re going to fix this, Lynn. I promise you that.”

“Before I’m homeless?” Lynn asked wryly.

“Absolutely,” Helen said. “I’ll speak to the bank. If need be, I’ll get the court to intervene while we straighten this out.”

Lynn breathed a sigh of relief. She could bear just about anything, she thought, except the thought of being on the streets with no place to go. Her parents had died several years ago. Her sisters lived in other states. If they knew how bad things were, they’d try to help, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to endure the humiliation of asking them. She’d been saving that for a truly desperate last resort.

“I’ll be by in an hour or two with that check,” Helen promised her. “You’ll still have time to get to the bank to cash it. In the meantime, I’ll call Jimmy Bob West and put the fear of God into him about his client’s behavior. Once I get to your place, we’ll take a look at those bills and see what we can work out, okay?”

“Thank you, Helen. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you in my corner. If it were just me, I could walk away. Start over, even from the very bottom. But I owe the kids better than that.”

“You’re a strong woman, Lynn. Try to remember that. You’ll do whatever it takes to keep your family healthy and safe. I just wish you’d told me about this sooner. Maybe I could have done something before things deteriorated so badly.”

“I was taught that asking for help was a sign of weakness,” Lynn said. “I kept thinking I could figure things out or that Ed would shape up.”

“Turning to friends, and especially to your attorney, is not a weakness,” Helen replied emphatically. “Remember that. I’ll see you soon.”

“Thanks,” Lynn said, her spirits marginally improved.

But then, as if to mock her, when she went to wash her hands in the downstairs bathroom, the cold-water knob came off in her hand.

“This is just the bloody last straw,” she muttered, sitting down on the toilet and letting the tears come. She wasn’t sure which was flowing harder, her tears or the water leaking in the sink.

“This is not solving anything,” she muttered, making an attempt to find the shut-off valve, only to discover it was stuck. She thought of Mitch. She doubted he’d had any idea what he was letting himself in for by offering to help her out. These days it seemed the disasters in her life were way too plentiful. Still, he had offered and he was right next door.

She splashed water on her swollen eyes, ran a brush through her hair, then hurried to Raylene’s. At her knock, Raylene opened the door at once. She frowned when she saw Lynn.

“Are you okay? You’ve been crying. What can I do to help?”

“Just a frustrating day,” Lynn told her. “Is Mitch here? Do you suppose I could borrow him for a minute? I have an impending plumbing disaster and I’m at a loss. He offered to help out if I ever needed anything.”

“Of course he will,” Raylene said. “I’ll get him and send him right over.”

“Thanks.”

Raylene started away, then came back. “Lynn, if you ever need anything at all, you know Carter and I will be happy to pitch in. Mandy adores Lexie, and we love having her over here anytime she wants to come. You and Jeremy are always welcome, too. I imagine it’s been tough since Ed left. I put that much together when you came to me for a job.”

“We’re managing,” Lynn said tightly, wondering if Helen had filled Raylene in on how bad things were, if Raylene had only given her a job out of pity. She immediately stopped herself from even considering such a possibility. Helen’s ethical standards were too high for her to be blabbing about her clients’ woes.

And after all Raylene had been through—her first husband’s abuse, a bout with agoraphobia and a final confrontation with her ex after his release from jail—Raylene was quick to lend a hand to everyone these days. She said it thrilled her to finally be able to repay some of the kindness extended to her when she’d been psychologically trapped in her own home for so long.

Lynn forced a smile. “Thanks for offering, though. You’ve already done plenty for us.”

“We’re always happy to help. I mean that.”

Lynn nodded. “I know you do.” For the second time that day, she’d been reminded that she did have friends, people who would be there for her if only she asked.

“Okay, then,” Raylene said, then left to get Mitch as Lynn walked back home.

When Mitch appeared at her house and immediately set to work on repairing the knob, she couldn’t help noticing how quietly competent he was. He was also a man of few words. She liked that he didn’t ask a lot of questions about how she’d managed to break the stupid thing in the first place. Ed would have turned the whole incident into a flurry of accusations about her incompetence.

When the job was done, Mitch washed his hands, then smiled at her. “Good as new,” he declared. “Or as good as a twenty-year-old fixture is likely to be. You might think about replacing it one of these days.”

“I’ll put it on the list,” she said.

He gave her a chiding look. “Is this one of those long lists that no one ever gets to?”

“Pretty much.”

“I could get one for you at cost and replace it in no time,” he offered.

Lynn shook her head. “That’s okay. This one will have to hold up a while longer.”

“Okay, then,” he said, not pressing. When they got to the kitchen, he hesitated. “Other than that knob coming off in your hand, has something else happened since I saw you earlier? You look even more stressed.”

“How flattering.”

He winced. “Sorry. I’m not up on polite chitchat. If I want to know something, I figure the best way to find out is to ask. The kids are okay?”

She smiled at his determined attempt to try to pry information out of her. “They’ll be home from school any minute. I’m sure you’ll see Lexie next door and can determine for yourself how she’s doing.”

He looked vaguely chagrined. “Okay. Message received. I didn’t mean to pry. Sorry if I struck a nerve.”

“I’m the one who’s sorry, Mitch. It’s just been a tough day,” she said. “You were right. I am stressed out.”

“Take a break and put your feet up,” he advised. “I’ll be over in the morning.”

“See you then.”

He started to leave, then turned back. “Hey, I don’t suppose you could convince Lexie that it would be politically correct to play the local country station at full volume, rather than that crazy stuff she and Mandy like?”

“I haven’t had any luck around here,” she said. “That would be my preference, too. The country music Travis and Sarah play on the radio station here in town is much more my taste.”

“Mine, too. I think I’ve lived a lot of those lyrics.”

“Haven’t we all?” she agreed. Lately, she had a hunch her experiences could provide lyrics for an entire CD of love-gone-wrong songs. Maybe that should be her new calling.

Mitch stood there awkwardly for a moment longer, then shrugged. “I’d better get back over there. If I’m gone too long, my crew’s liable to put up a wall where no wall was intended to be.”

She laughed. “Something tells me you have them trained better than that. It looks amazing from over here. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”

“You’ll have to let me give you a tour one of these days. Raylene has a hard hat she can loan you, assuming she can find the thing. Near as I can tell she enjoys making my heart stop by coming into the addition without it.”

“I’d like that,” Lynn said. “We always talked about building an addition to this place, but we never got around to it. Now it will never happen.”

She waved off the revealing comment as soon as it was out of her mouth. “Spilt milk,” she muttered. “Thanks, again, for helping out with the plumbing crisis, Mitch. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Anytime. I told you that.”

She watched him walk away, fascinated yet again by the way his faded, well-worn jeans curved quite nicely over an incredibly sexy posterior. As soon as the outrageous, totally inappropriate thought crossed her mind, she slapped her hand over her mouth as if she’d said it aloud.

What had gotten into her today? She was completely flipping out over finances, she’d stolen money from her husband’s office and she was still thinking about how appealing Mitch looked in a pair of jeans? Crazy. The last thing she needed in her life these days was another complication. And Mitch Franklin, sweet and sexy as he might be, would most definitely be a complication.

Starting tomorrow morning she was going to have to be on full alert to make sure she kept these wayward thoughts of hers in check or working for the man was going to be incredibly awkward. Even as she reminded herself of that, she wondered if just maybe that was why he’d hesitated before offering her the job. Was he as aware of her as she suddenly was of him? Or had he just noticed that she’d developed this insane appreciation for his backside?

Either way, she reminded herself sternly, tomorrow morning needed to be all about business. She would keep her eyes on the computer screen and far, far away from Mitch or any particularly intriguing part of his anatomy.

* * *

When Mitch got back to Raylene’s, his crew had gone for the day and she immediately gave him a speculative look. “You were gone a long time. Problems making the repair?”

He frowned, bothered by what he thought was a hint of censure in her voice. “You don’t mind that I went over there, do you?”

She immediately looked chagrined. “Of course not. I actually meant to tease you. I thought maybe fixing the sink or whatever was broken was the least of what was going on.”

Mitch regarded her with a narrowed gaze. “Don’t you start! I get enough meddling from Grace.”

“So, Grace has seen you with Lynn, too?”

“I am not having this conversation with you,” he said flatly.

“Not even if I tell you that we’re having roasted chicken for dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy?” she taunted. “I made it just for you.”

“Bring me a plate while I work,” he said firmly. “I need to catch up on a few things before I leave.”

Raylene shook her head, a glint of amusement in her eyes. “You eat at the table like a civilized person or you don’t eat. That’s what I tell the girls and it applies to you, too.”

“I could just leave now,” he retorted. “I’m not on the clock.”

“You could, but I know roasted chicken is your favorite. Would you deny yourself that just to avoid a few innocent questions?”

“There is absolutely nothing innocent about any of your questions, Raylene. You could give those 60 Minutes reporters a run for their money.”

“Then you must know it won’t do any good for you to try to dodge me,” she said cheerfully. “See you at the table in a half hour.”

For a man who’d been bemoaning the loss of the most important woman in his life and the ensuing loneliness, he suddenly had a surplus of bossy, know-it-all women around him. Once he was back home tonight, he was going to have to think about exactly how he felt about that.

* * *

“I may have some idea about what’s been happening to that money Ed’s supposed to be paying,” Helen told Lynn when she stopped by with a check.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she glanced around guiltily. “Are the kids here?”

Lynn shook her head. “Lexie’s next door and Jeremy’s down the street playing with friends in the park.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want them to overhear this.”

“What’s happening?”

“Jimmy Bob is supposed to be taking care of those payments, right?”

Lynn nodded. “That’s what Ed told me.”

“Well, Jimmy Bob’s nowhere to be found at the moment.”

Lynn regarded her with surprise. “You mean he’s vanished?”

“Vanished, gone on vacation, who knows? All I know is the office was closed up tight when I stopped by, and there was a sign on the door that said the law practice was closed indefinitely. I called my investigator and asked him to see what he could find out.”