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“Wise words,” Liam said. “Wish I knew someone that smart. Clearly that saying came from some great philosopher, and not an ordinary guy from Clearwater.”
Jack elbowed him. “Shut up.”
“Hope to meet that wise philosopher some day,” Liam added wistfully.
“I do as well,” Mateo added.
Liam rolled his eyes, but smiled as I looked at him.
38
Jack
The next two days were a blur. Liam, Mateo, and I spent a lot of time helping Alyssa at the upholstery shop. We felt obligated since Brandi was in custody pending her arson hearing. Liam and I handled all the heavy lifting around the shop, while Mateo hammered away at the accounting.
“It still makes me laugh,” I said while pausing to drink water. We’d moved almost all of the remaining bolts of fabric out of the store, and Liam and I were glistening with sweat.
“What does?” Alyssa asked.
“When I realized you were the person renting my guest house, I thought it was the biggest coincidence in the world,” I explained. “It made me wonder if it was some huge sign from the universe. I should’ve known it was coordinated by your sister.”
“She’s more devious than I ever expected.”
“I’ll say,” I muttered.
Alyssa stared off. She had done that a lot in the past two days. “You must think I’m awful. My own sister is an arsonist and I never knew…”
“Hey now, none of that,” I said. “You’re not to blame for what happened.”
“But still. I never even suspected her. And you’re a firefighter! You must think she’s the worst person in the world.”
“Actually, I don’t.”
Alyssa gave me one of those skeptical stares that she was so good at. “You don’t have to be nice about it.”
“I’m serious. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not condoning arson or anything. But I understand where your sister is coming from. When I moved out, I wanted to burn my house down. Even just thinking about it now, it’s tempting. I would never do it, not least of all because another family lives in that house now. But man, I can understand the desire.”
Mateo came walking out of the office with a huge smile on his face. “It is completed. The last invoice. Everything is accounted for.”
“Really? It’s done?”
“There are fourteen customers with outstanding balances. We need to ensure they pay. But those are all that remain. The accounting is complete.”
“And?” Liam said, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Is our fair lady here wealthier beyond her wildest dreams?”
Mateo glanced at Alyssa, and looked away.
“Oh,” Liam said. “Well, shit. Didn’t mean to bring down the mood.”
“Assuming the remaining customers pay what they owe,” Mateo explained, “and assuming that the shop from Alabama arrives to purchase the nine bolts of cloth outside today…”
“Spit it out, bud,” Liam said.
Mateo winced. “This upholstery business will only be seven thousand dollars in debt.”
“Ah.”
Alyssa slumped her shoulders. “I guess it could have been worse. She had a hundred grand worth of debt when we started going through everything.”
