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Shewasin for a surprise, but not the one she anticipated.
“There you are!” Trudy immediately pushed herself outside, backing Tove up against a window as bells jingled in the air. “I was wondering when you might stop by! Aw, look at you! Summer really suits you, Tove. You have the best tank tops in town, I always say. Look at those arms! Have you been hitting the gym? Yeah? Good for you! How are the cats? Did Chance get over his vomiting? I hope work hasn’t been too brutal for you this year. Oh! I need to step out for a bit. To the post office. Won’t take me very long, but why don’t you wait for me inside? There you go. See you in a bit!”
Tove was suddenly inside the darkened shop, her eyes direly attempting to adjust.What the hell?Why would she wait in here instead of outside? Or back at her own office? Apparently, whatever Trudy wanted to talk about didn’t matter that much…
As soon as her vision finally became accustomed to the “natural light only” vibes of the shop, she recognized the other person standing in front of the shelf featuring books by local authors – including one by Bjorn Fredriksson, who had self-published an epic about wildflowers.
“Oh…” Tove’s urge to be polite overcame her instincts to run. Because that was Kayla counting the books on the shelf, and the way she cut her denim shorts and tight T-shirt instantly struck Tove in ways that should not have been so easy on a woman who still nursed that cursed breakup from only two months ago. “I didn’t realize you were here.”
“Tove, wait.” Kayla put down her box and approached Tove before she darted out the door. “We need to talk.”
Tove was already at the door. So was someone else, though: Trudy, and she looked back at Tove through the glass with a big smile and two thumbs up by her face.
“Post office my ass,” Tove mouthed at the woman who only took a step back from the door when it was apparent Tove wasn’t about to bail. “What the hell is this about?” She turned toward Kayla, who stayed by the books. “Do you work here now?”
Kayla’s shoulders climbed toward her ears. “Kinda… I bought this place from Trudy. The sale went through a couple of days ago.”
Tove was convinced that she had worms in her ears. “You’re kidding,” she said. “Is that what Trudy wanted to talk about? Wait…” She laughed. “How haveyoubought this place? With what money? I somehow doubt you had saved up enough.”
“No…” Kayla straightened her back and pressed her hands against her hips. “I came into a windfall after we broke up.” She gritted her teeth in awkward anticipation. “It was your aunt who gave me the money. She thought it was to get rid of me. Well, I had every intention of leaving Bend this summer. With a hundred grand, I could do anything for a while.”
“Ahundred grand?” How had Tove not heard about this? Even if Kiersten pulled those funds from one of her private rainy day accounts, Tove was usually privy to such information.I’m the one person in the family who knows her finances better than she does.That included the various bank accounts both in America and beyond. Kiersten’s fortune was on par with her brothers’, but unlike them, she never had to spend it on a spouse and children. She also didn’t travel beyond the west coast that much anymore. Outside of her own expenses, the most she ever shared went toward Tove’s mother’s care in Eugene.
This? Tove had never heard of such a thing – after the fact, anyway.
“I didn’t want to leave empty-handed.” Kayla cautiously approached Tove, who was still too shocked to move. “I remembered our conversations about how much you loved places like these, and I knew you well enough to realize that you would never seize this opportunity for yourself. Not when you think you owe so much to a family that doesn’t even care about you. So…” The determination in Kayla’s demeanor reminded Tove of someone. Someone kind. Someone sweet enough to make her smile more than once.
My mother.
Except Lianne had been a doormat until the end. She may have capitulated to keep her daughter fed and poised to make something out of her life, but it had been one of her more unfortunate features, no matter the reason.
“So I promised to myself that I’d use however much it took of that hundred grand to give you this place.” Kayla’s hands clapped together once, the sound echoing in the otherwise quiet shop.That’s right. No music.Tove always thought that jazz would sound great in the store.
“You… bought Trudy’s Gifts…” Tove attempted to retain the information that didn’t make any sense. “For me?”
“That’s right. Before I leave town, I want to give you this place. This is your chance, Tove.” Kayla’s determination faded into desperation. “This is your opportunity to put behind you all of the crap that you don’t want to deal with. No more being your family’s ‘fixer.’ No more doing their stupid taxes because they think you owe them.”
A lump formed in Tove’s throat. Attempting to swallow it was about as successful as controlling her heart rate or barreling over Trudy to get away from this situation. “What makes you think I want to take your handout?” she asked with a flat voice.
Kayla already had an answer prepared for that. “If you don’t take my offer, then fine. Guess I’ll have to find a way to make this work on my own. Trudy has offered to stay and help with the transition through Christmas, regardless of who is running it. If it’s me… so be it. I’ve been a waitress my whole adult life. I think I can handle the temperamental customers of retail. Although…” She slammed her hands on her hips, a petulant child if Tove had ever seen one. “That would mean you can’t get rid of me. We’d be block neighbors unless you moved your office. Do you think you could handle that?” Kayla puffed out her chest and cocked her waist to one side. “Seeing this every day and remembering that you used to get with it every other night?”
Tove was more exhausted by that statement than anything else. “What is thisreallyabout? Don’t tell me you’re trying to get back with me. That ship has sailed.”
“Hmph. That’s some audacity. Thinking I want to date you again after the way you cast me aside for a stupid misunderstanding. You never even gave me the chance to explain myself!”
“Oh, yeah? Then why go through all of this for me? To stick it to my aunt?”
“Sure, that’s part of it! Fuck that bitch! Take control of your life for once! You’re fifty, Tove. When are you going to do somethingyouwant to do, and not something that your aunt makes you do because you think you owe her something? It’s been twenty years.”
Tove gritted her teeth. “Have you forgotten she’s helping pay for my mother’s care?”
“Yeah, about that…” Kayla sashayed her way. Was it a crime for Tove to briefly check out her figure before looking away again?If it is, guess I’m the next Fredriksson to end up in jail.At least she was from the “right” side of the family for that. “You claim to have nowhere near as much money as other members of your family, but you can’t blame me for thinking otherwise. I keep thinking about everything you bought for me. Your nice house may have been cheap back in the day, but you clearly renovated it. You have a nice car. You have a pretty cushy job as a CPA who helps a lot of rich people. Next, you’ll tell me that you only have a couple of acres instead of a whole ranch’s worth of land!”
“What are you talking about? I don’t own a ranch!”
“Maybe not, but you must lease that out, right?”
“Huh?” Tove dropped her purse to the floor. “Do you mean Garrett? He’s my neighbor! I only own the land my house is on, going up to the fenceline!”
