Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Right.” I exhaled through my nose. “So they’re sending a manager from Kansas City to oversee the acquisition?”

  “Yes. Something like that. I told them they might as well just leave you all alone though.” Mr. Moss was still muttering curses at his phone. “After all, this team does just fine without anyone else micromanaging things. We have a good thing going here and they’d do best just to leave it be. Of course, they probably won’t.” More muttering. “Not that it’s my problem anymore. Oh! Here it is. Kevin Landau. That’s who they’re sending.”

  I felt lightheaded. No. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt like I was about to faint. I was going to totally freak out in about five seconds. The blood left my face and pooled in my feet and I actually had to put my hand out to steady myself against the doorjamb.

  “What’s wrong?” Mr. Moss asked roughly. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I suppose I have,” I managed to whisper. Then I cleared my throat. “I’m familiar with Mr. Landau.”

  “Oh yeah? Good. You can show him around then. I’ve got a fishing trip scheduled down in Florida that weekend. My first time out on the Gulf. I’m really looking forward to it. I hate Missouri in November. Who the hell can be thankful for anything when the wind chill is flaying you alive with subzero temperatures?”

  “Yes. I’m sure the weather will be much better in Florida,” I said weakly.

  I felt as though I were seeing Mr. Moss through a tunnel. It was getting farther and farther away. This was so bad. He had no idea how bad it was though. Sure. I’d show Kevin Landau around the office. It would be my last job as an employee of this company. I wasn’t just going to have to beg my brother-in-law for a job. I was going to have to beg him for a job in another city.

  Chapter Three

  Kevin

  I put my hand on the front door and braced myself for impact. Why is that you ask? Well, let me ask you this. Let’s say that you just signed—hypothetically of course, because I’m sure nobody has ever done this before—a three-year lease because you found an amazing apartment right smack in the center of everything downtown Kansas City has to offer. Now let’s say that the reason you did this happened to be because the rent was just a little out of your price range otherwise. Would you have the ready cash available to break your lease and move two hours away to a place you had no desire to return to?

  Yeah. Probably not. So the reason I braced for impact was because I was walking into my parents’ house.

  “Oh my God! Kevvie!” My mother appeared in the walk through between the kitchen and the living room almost as soon as I stepped inside the house. “George. George. George! Shut off the television. Kevvie is home! Oh my word, look at you! You’re just so handsome!”

  My mother was talking so fast and hopping topics so fast after that I’ll admit I totally lost track of what she was saying. Something about the neighbors and being so glad I was going to be home for Thanksgiving and that nice man at the deli down at the grocery store. In seconds I had a pounding headache.

  My father did not shut off the television. He was watching some hunting special about killing white-tailed deer. I didn’t see why anyone needed to bother making a study of that activity. If you’ve never experienced a white-tailed deer, you probably don’t realize that they’re the size of a large dog. St. Louis County has such a huge problem with them destroying people’s gardens that you could probably go and scoop one up with a net. Your only problem would be having them chase you down because they somehow got it into their heads that you had corn in your pockets.

  This was not sport in my opinion. It was sitting in a tree stand and taking a nap while you waited for one to walk up and stand two feet away from you. Not that my father cared. He was a typical Missouri born and bred former auto worker who preferred to spend his weekends hunting on land belonging to a friend of a friend of someone’s cousin’s brother’s stepdad. Yeah. That’s how we do things out here.

  “George!” Katrina Landau had always seemed to me as though she spent a whole lot of time regretting her decision to marry my father. Not that I could really blame her most days. “George, turn that damn TV off and come and say hello to our son!”

  My mother was a classy woman. At least she liked to pretend that she was. The truth was that living the life of a middle class housewife in the Midwest had worn her out. She had more salt than pepper in her once glossy black curls. I got my curly black hair from her and I could remember a time when she had always done her best to go to the beauty parlor at least once a month to get her hair trimmed. She had once worn cute dresses and heels. Now she was in a faded housecoat that zipped up the front and a pair of ratty slippers.

  Of course, Dad looked like he’d pulled on the first pair of overalls he encountered after rolling out of bed. His dull brown hair was sticking up at all angles. His ear hair was reaching epic proportions. And of course, his dirty white thermal long-sleeved shirt was half hanging out the side of his overalls because the last time he’d used the facilities he’d forgotten to pull up both sides. One strap was hanging over the side of his easy chair and his dingy gray wool socks were propped up on the footrest.

  “Your son? Oh how cute. Little Kevvie is home for the holidays!”

  I’ve had a few acquaintances in my life who have these fantastic, close relationships with their siblings. They hang out together and talk on the phone or text or facetime and they share all kinds of life events on social media, support each other through a crisis, and of course they spend their extra time worrying about what to do for Mom and Dad as they age.

  Yeah, my sister’s not like that.

  “Wow, Thayla, you’re still living at home?” I gave her a mock look of concern. “I thought I heard you moved out last fall.”

  “Yeah?” Thayla narrowed her close set brown gaze and curled her lip. I wondered if she’d had all her shots. “Well, I thought you moved out fifteen years ago. You know, right after your fiancée left you standing at the altar scratching your balls and wondering whether or not you were going to have to return all the gifts.”

  “Thayla!” Our mother swung around and glared at my sister with such heat that I was surprised Thayla’s dumpy little rayon sweat suit didn’t ignite right there on the spot.

  “It’s okay, Mom.” I stared at my sister. She was still short and round and looked exactly like my dad in a dress. “I think after forty-two years, Thayla is just sorry she hasn’t managed to get to the altar even once.”

  “Oh you!” My mother swatted my arm as though I hadn’t just leveled the worst insult ever at my big sister. “Now that’s just not true! Why Thayla has a wonderful fiancé that she’s planning to marry on Christmas Eve this year! And I’m just so glad that you’ll be here for the wedding. It will be so nice to have all of us together for your sister’s big day!”

  I actually thought my eyes would pop out of my skull. I stared at my sister, but her expression flickered and I could see a glimpse of something approaching fear and maybe even panic touch her dull round features. I felt a strange flicker in my midsection when I saw that. If anyone knew what it was like to have your nuptial bliss threatened, it was me.

  After all, Thayla wasn’t exaggerating when she said I’d been left at the altar. Yeah. Standing there. The minister kept checking his watch. The guests got really restless. And then finally fifteen minutes after we were supposed to start, my bride’s mother had marched to the back of the church and informed the rest of us that there would be no wedding. Talk about the most embarrassing moments of your life. I had scraped together everything I could and I moved to Kansas City the following month. I had not contacted that lying witch since then either. I hadn’t asked her why. I don’t even think I wanted to know. I just knew that she’d left me high and dry and that this wasn’t the kind of woman I wanted anywhere near me. Ever.

  “Well, Kevvie, come on into the kitchen and you can sit at the table while I finish up dinner so we can have ourselves a chat!” My mother was on cloud
nine. Great. She motioned to Thayla. “Why don’t you come have a chat with us, sweetie? I’m sure Kevvie wants to know all about Brock.”

  “I’m sorry did you just say Brock?” I gazed at my sister and hoped that my ears had just deceived me. “As in Brock Mortensen?”

  “Yes!” My mother’s expression filled with excitement. “Do you know Brock, honey?”

  Thayla’s cheeks started to turn red. That was enough to tell me that not only did I know Brock but that my sister had actually tried to hitch herself in marriage to the devil. I cleared my throat. “Brock Mortensen and I graduated together, Mom.”

  “Oh my!” This seemed to baffle my mother. She turned and looked at my sister in confusion. “Is that right, honey? I didn’t know that Brock was that much younger than you are? Was he five years behind you in school?”

  “Yeah.” Thayla sounded sullen. “He’s Kevin’s age. So what?”

  “Nothing, dear!” Mom said hastily. She patted my sister’s arm. “Was Brock coming to supper tonight? We haven’t seen him in a month or more. I know he’s been busy with that new job, but we’d sure like to see him come around the house to see Kevin now that he’s home for a spell.”

  “I don’t know if he’ll have time for that before Thanksgiving and all.” Thayla’s response sounded strange even to me. What was she hiding? Wait. I didn’t care. Thayla wasn’t my problem. If she wanted to lie to my parents about the demon spawn of the devil that she was dating, that was her problem.

  “Well then, sweetheart,” my mother beamed at Thayla. “Were you going to eat with us tonight or did you have to work.”

  “Gotta work,” Thayla mumbled. “Leaving now.”

  Hmm. My sister had a job? Oh my. Things had certainly changed. I felt a moment’s shot of guilt as I realized that I was being totally sarcastic about any efforts that Thayla had made to get out, get independent, and find a life for herself that did not include mooching off Mom and Dad. That wasn’t right. When had I become so jaded anyway?

  “It was good to see you again, Thayla.” I barely managed to get the words out. They sounded stiff and forced. But my sister seemed surprised enough to hear them that maybe the manner in which they were offered just didn’t matter.

  “Yeah. You too.” Thayla shrugged. She snagged a set of car keys off the hook. I noticed that the keychain said MOM. “Maybe we can catch up sometimes while you’re here.”

  “Sure.” I wasn’t going to hold my breath. But maybe just the offer was enough for now.

  It was certainly enough for my mother. She was practically teary eyed as she watched Thayla leave through the kitchen door on her way to the detached garage. Once Thayla was clear of the doorway, my mother threw her arms around my neck and gave me a huge squeeze.

  “Oh, Kevvie, it’s just so good to have you home!” Mom sighed and pulled back. I could see there was something bubbling on the stove. Potatoes. Right. Our family was a meat and potatoes kind of family. If I opened the oven there would probably be a dry roast in there. “It’s just been so long since you’ve come home to visit! I never thought when you left here after that… unfortunate incident that you wouldn’t come home even to visit for years on end!”

  “I’ve just been very busy, Mom.” I took a seat at the kitchen table because that was going to make Katrina Landau the happiest. “I’m sorry that I didn’t come home very often. But you and Dad could have come to Kansas City. I have an extra bedroom in my apartment.”

  “You do?” My mother looked thrilled with this information.

  Too bad I wasn’t in Kansas City to host her for a quick visit. It might not have been so bad to take Katrina Landau down to the local Kansas City hotspots where she could at least see something other than the strip malls of Tower Grove Valley.

  “Tell me about your apartment,” Mom begged. “And your job. Tell me about all of your friends at work. I bet everyone just loves my Kevvie!”

  I obliged her a bit. At least enough to tell her about my apartment and something about Kansas City. She ate up every detail and I could practically hear her reciting everything verbatim back to her book club at their next meeting. Unfortunately, I could not satisfy her on one thing.

  “Not dating anyone?” Mother’s big green eyes went wide open and she gaped at me as though I had just personally insulted her. “My Kevvie doesn’t have a single girlfriend? I can’t believe that! Aren’t those Kansas City girls good enough for you?”

  “Sure. I’m thirty-seven, Mom. It’s not like I’ve got one foot in the grave. There’s plenty of time for all that nonsense.” I shrugged. It wasn’t like I was really searching for Ms. Right these days anyway. Was it really that surprising that I dated very rarely over the last decade or more? “I’m just very busy Mom. I love my job. I spend a lot of time taking potential new hires out to dinner or to baseball games or football games or whatever it takes to get the best candidates for the jobs we need to fill. That doesn’t leave me a lot of time to spend with a woman. I’ve had girlfriends in the past”—like three over the last fifteen years—“but they just aren’t the right one for me.”

  “Oh, I suppose that’s all well and good.” My mother sounded bummed. “You know, it’s strange. But Eleanor Schulte is still single too.”

  “Excuse me?” I couldn’t breathe. I was pretty sure that I was about to pass out. Eleanor Schulte? Why would my mother just bring that up out of the blue? Why would she want me to know that Eleanor was still single? “I don’t care what Eleanor Schulte is doing, Mom. She could be a professional skydiver by now. I don’t care. I haven’t spoken to her since that day at the church and I don’t care to.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.” But my mother’s tone said anything but. “She was only nineteen when that happened. Such a silly little girl. I always thought you two were taking things a little fast anyway. But you were twenty-two. I couldn’t tell you anything.”

  What? She couldn’t tell me anything? That was news to me! What? She had never thought to mention to me that she thought my choice of bride was a little immature to be getting married?

  “Of course,” my mother continued, totally oblivious to my gut wrenching distress. “Back in my day we all got married at eighteen or nineteen. It was just the way things were done. Nowadays you see women who are nearly forty getting married!”

  “Like your daughter?” I reminded her drily.

  Katrina had a deer in the headlights look for a moment and then she nodded as she picked up the big pot off the stove and drained the boiling water into the sink. “Exactly like my Thayla. She just took a long time to find the right man. But that’s good because it means she’s waited long enough to make sure he’s the one.”

  Uh huh. I was pretty sure that the St. Louis County Police Department thought Brock Mortensen was the one too. But that was my sister’s problem and not mine. I had enough problems on my plate right now. I was in St. Louis. I had to get going on that stupid acquisition, do whatever it took to get out of here as soon as possible, and then hopefully find another job back in Kansas City so that I could go home.

  Chapter Four

  Eleanor

  I was a nervous wreck. There was no getting around it. I had been sitting at my desk for at least thirty minutes this morning and I hadn’t managed to finish a damn thing. Actually, I think I had done less than nothing. Did you know that was possible? This is what happens when you spend huge chunks of time staring out your window with what is most likely a slack-jawed look of complete bafflement on your face. That was me.

  It was gross outside. There was no other way to put it. My sister hates the weather here in the Midwest. She can’t stand the humidity. I don’t mind it too much. I’m inside most of the time anyway so I pretty much live in the air conditioning. For the most part, the landscape itself is green and the trees are leafy and grow super thick. In the fall they turn shades of red and gold, which is always a beautiful thing. And then the winters generally have some snow. I love snow. In my opinion there is nothing like waking up to a winter won
derland and seeing the expansive lawns white with snow and the trees hung with ice crystals.

  Today though? Ugh! It had started raining last night and now the gutters were overflowing. Water was sitting like a lake in our parking lot outside. And at some point I was pretty sure we were all just going to get washed into the Mississippi. The droplets spattered my window and all of the fall foliage was now scattered over the cars foolish enough to park underneath the trees.

  Maybe the weather was gross because it was warning me that today was going to be horrible. I could pretty much guarantee that. This was the day. The first day of an ongoing hell that would have Kevin Landau storming back into my life with a battle axe in hand.

  There was a knock at my door. That required me to do a personal check. Mouth closed. Check! Expression smooth. Check! I turned away from the window to face my door. I found that I was actually a little bit surprised to see Ruth Powers standing there. For once she didn’t look smug. She actually had an expression on her face that might have suggested worry in any other person. For Ruth I could not imagine what it might mean.

  She smoothed her hands down her pretty carnation pink dress. Her narrow belt matched the darker pink flowers on the skirt’s fabric. The thing sported a Peter Pan collar and she was wearing pink heels. Her flaming fake red hair was swept up into a high chignon and her eyelashes were dangerously caked with mascara that looked as though it might flake off and scrape her eyeballs at any second.

  “I don’t understand,” Ruth told me suddenly.

  I sighed. Apparently, I was going to add career counselor to my repertoire this morning. “What don’t you understand, Ruth?”

  “He just left!” Ruth put her hand to her throat. Her gaze was vacant. “Mr. Moss! He just left.”