AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Change of plans. My Love and I need a word with you.”
Kimber slides Jake’s beverage over the glossy wood.
Jake catches it. His lips flatten a line and his brows pop at the first taste. “Sounds serious.”
He turns on his heel toward his office without inviting Trig and Kimber to come along. After he disappears, Trig gets up and Kimber hands me the rag she’s used to dry the water spots.
“Everything okay, dearest?” I wrinkle my nose.
“It will be. I saw Morgan at the mill and asked him to drop in to cover for you for a few minutes. When he gets here, come knock on the door.”
I’m surprised to hear I need coverage but, “You couldn’t pay me enough to waltz into that office without knocking first.” The place reeks of leather and sex.
“No kidding.” Kimber laughs. She glances up the hall, then back at me and sentimentality replaces glee.
I snag her wrist. “You’d tell me if it was bad.” Unless it’s an emergency, meetings go down here when audiences aren’t around. I prefer it remains that way. I don’t have a desire to be complicit in any of the other crap it’s rumored the men around here are involved in. Uncertainty keeps freaking Pandora’s box locked tight. I have Bhodi to care for.
“I swear it’s good, Holly. Really, really, good.”
Doubling her adverb sets me at ease and, like Kimber asked, I have Morgan take over after he’s squared away behind the register. The guys who work across the street know the ropes around here and are second to none at helping in a pinch.
I rap on the door and wait for Trig to tell me to enter before twisting the handle.
“You can’t do this to me!” Jake balks. “You… You bastard. I should go after you like her father on the porch with a shotgun.”
“We already have one kid together, so you’re a little late,” Trig responds sardonically.
“Your pregnant?” My jaw drops and the door snicks shut behind me.
Kimber lifts a finger to her mouth. Besides Jake, I’ve got to be the first in on the secret. She blushes, and as she moves it away, a second finger pops up making a vee.
It takes me a minute for the silent message to sink in. “You’re having twins?”
“I’m getting promoted to full-time mom.” She gushes with excitement. “You won’t have to put up with my decaffeinated antics too long this time. Congratulations!”
“I’m supposed to be the one saying that!” I give her the biggest hug, adding how excited I am for her.
“You know, just to be a complete ass, my new manager is getting your salary as a bonus on top of hers.” Jake barks at Kimber. He grabs my shoulders, pinching me as if I’m a possession Trig can’t have.
I’m unsure if the “huh?” of confusion is uttered or imagined until Kimber winks. “Break a leg, Holly. Looks like you are officially in charge of Sweet Caroline’s.”
________________
3
________________
The showroom is open until nine, but I don’t bother stopping back at the dealership to exchange cars. After skipping out of the management offices early to hang with Bhodi, someone working late is bound to want my attention. I’ve still got my mother, Davina, to deal with tonight.
In the driveway, I cut the ignition and stare out the windshield. The moon is rising over the massive brick colonial. My parents built it two decades ago when an increasing number of professionals from up north decided the standard of living was better in the south and took up the job relocation offers big companies were doling out en masse. My start-the-day-perkin’ grande at Baked Beans sets me back a pretty penny, so I’m not sure that’s the truth anymore. Yet, since the family business is selling cars, as long as the economy is doing well, the massive population increase benefits the dealerships.
Passing the hedgerow on the way inside, there’s a withering bloom on a tall magnolia. They only last a few days before the white tips turn brown. I think of the way Holly pressed the crushed petals between her fingers and sigh.
Davina Cass-Stanton gardened to keep herself out of the house while her husband was inside. Although, since before the doctors admitted Rex to the hospital, gardening hasn’t held her interest the way it had when I was a kid. More recently, Davina had been apt to hide out in the Outer Banks when Rex hadn’t insisted she was in Brighton. I guess some hobbies are born of necessity and others from genuine passion.
My father suffered a stroke on the back nine after a heated discussion outside the golf club’s lounge with none other than the owner of Sweet Caroline’s, Jake Ballentine. I haven’t felt any devotion toward Rex Stanton in I can’t remember when. I may never have at all. However, the one piece of worthwhile advice Rex gave me was during a company golf tournament and it was to steer clear of Ballentine. By then I’d learned to question my father’s motives. Rexy’s willingness to share how Jake extorted money from one of the dealerships top exec’s to hide a sex scandal meant there was a layer of self-preservation he was maintaining.
One of my father’s golf cronies mentioned a private, and heated, discussion between Rex and Jake before Rex and his companions hit the green. When the golf buddy asked Rex about it, my father snapped at him. I couldn’t help the gnawing in my gut that Ballentine had something to do with Rex’s hospital stay. It took me days to track the fucker down since Jake only goes into his own club when it’s closed. I confronted him and he acted like I was nuts. The funny thing? I wasn’t there to defend the family honor. Rex had apparently forsaken that decades ago. I just didn’t want Jake’s bullshit raining down on me.
