While my brother had shut himself into Dad’s office for the conversation, the walls were paper thin and Avery’s volume control seemed to be broken. At this point, our only saving grace was that all the mechanics and technicians were out back, working on several junkers Avery was hoping we could salvage for parts to sell.
“No, that’s not what happened,” he barked, shoving a hand into his hair as he paced the length of the office once more. “It was a fraudulent scheme and I have a letter from the doctor confirming my father’s diagnosis.”
I sighed and tightened another bolt under the hood of a pickup that’d come in this morning. In the weeks that had passed since Theo had left, my brother and I had reached an uneasy truce. We still weren’t really speaking, but as his conversations with the bank had grown increasingly desperate, I’d offered him the check Theo had left.
Naturally, he’d torn me a new one as a thank you and then stormed off, refusing to talk to me at all until he’d had to when a new truck had come in. It killed me to hear him on that phone day in and day out, knowing the means to put an end to this was sitting right there in my wallet, but he wouldn’t even consider it.
I’d even thought about going to the bank behind his back, but that wouldn’t end well, so for now, I was just keeping my head down and doing my job. Just as I set my wrench down on the work table, my phone rang and I frowned whenFrieda’sname lit up my screen.
In all the time I’d known her, which had been most of my life, I wasn’t sure she’d ever called me. Unease wound through my gut as I wiped my hand on a rag before swiping my phone up from the table.
“Frieda, is everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused. “I need you to swing by the motel. Now would be great. Thanks, honey.”
Without another word, she hung up and I blew out a heavy breath, my head shaking as I slid the phone into my back pocket.What the hell?
I had absolutely zero idea what this was about, but I knew better than to ignore a summons from our self-appointed town matriarch, so I grabbed my keys and left. For a beat, I considered letting Avery know I was heading out, but he was still on the phone, pacing and snarling.
Besides, he probably wouldn’t even notice that I was gone. I glanced back at him through the office windows when I reached the main doors, wondering when my brother had become this person. It didn’t even feel like I knew who he was anymore.
Between him and my dad, I felt increasingly like a stranger in my own family. I shook it off though, reminding myself thatcrawling into a ball and crying for the rest of my life wouldn’t help anything.
Things had gone from bad to worse over the last couple weeks. Maybe it was just my heartbreak talking, but shit. Nothing felt right anymore. Even the shop felt more like a battleground than my happy place these days.
One thing that’d changed for the better, however, was the motel. As I pulled into the parking lot, I couldn’t help but think about how Theo’s presence had turned it from a faded, roadside relic to a place that practically glowed as a haven to those in transit.
His handiwork was evident everywhere, from the fresh paint, to the trim, the siding, and the repaired railings. There was new landscaping, clean walkways, and no more hanging or exposed lightbulbs.
No matter what Avery thought, Theo wasn’t just another rich guy who wanted to rub his wealth in everyone’s faces. Hell, we hadn’t even known he was rich until he’d been here for over a month, but my brother conveniently neglected to remember that.
Frieda was sitting outside her office smoking a cigarette when I parked in the spot closest to her. Curious, I climbed out. “I was surprised to hear from you. You doing okay?”
“Wonderful. You’re finally here,” she said without bothering with pleasantries, but she was known for jumping right into it. “Theo did a real good job at helping me fix this place up, but it needs a woman’s touch.”
I frowned. “Okay.”
She waved her cigarette around, vaguely gesturing at the motel in general. “The landscaping is great. The paint looks nice. Everything works, but the rooms still look like they were decorated by a recently divorced trucker.”
My eyebrows shot up, but I laughed. “To be fair, back when they were decorated, that was probably the market the owner was trying to appeal to.”
“Exactly.” Frieda took another long drag of her cigarette, speaking around the plume of smoke she exhaled. “That’s why the place needs a woman’s touch. All this work Theo put in doesn’t mean much if the rooms are still ugly and stale.”
Ah, shit. What am I supposed to say to that? Theyareugly and stale, but she’ll hate me if I say it.
“Some of the details could probably use a bit of a revamp, but the bones are good.” For a place that was probably built in the sixties or seventies and hadn’t been redecorated since. “Do you want me to drive you over to Sue’s linen shop for some new bedding? She’s on the other side of the Pass, but?—”
“Theo couldn’t stop talking about your knack for design,” Frieda said, interrupting as casually as if I hadn’t been speaking at all. “Seriously, he wouldn’t shut up about it. The last couple weeks he was here, he told me all about your work ethic and your eye for detail.”
My stomach fluttered. “What?”
“Come inside.” She stubbed her cigarette out in the overflowing ashtray beside her and stood up, leading the way into her office. “I’d like you to take a look at something.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, not really sure where she was going with this, but curious enough to follow anyway. “Sue would probably offer you a discount for placing such a big order. I’ve never purchased anything from her myself, but I fixed up her van last year and she’s a nice lady. I bet you’d like her.”
“That won’t matter,” Frieda said, apparently intent on keeping the mystery going until she was good and ready to let me in on why she’d called me over here in the first place. “It could be useful thatyoualready have a relationship with her, though.”
I frowned. “Do you want me to talk to her for you?”
