Small-Town Girl

by Jessica Keller

  Brice forgot that he wasn’t going to get close to her and rushed back to her side, grabbing her elbows. “What’s wrong?”

  Her nostrils flared as she sucked in two deep breaths. Then she locked eyes with him. “Will you hold my hand and not let go, even if things get weird?”

  “Weird?”

  “Will you?”

  “Yes.” He offered his hand. She slipped hers into his and they laced their fingers together as if they’d been holding hands that way for years. Her hand was shaking. Hard.

  He gave her a reassuring squeeze as his mind spun trying to think of a medical condition she could have. “You can trust me. If you want to tell me what’s wrong, I’ll listen.”

  Kendall cleared her throat. “I saw you duck behind that boat at the end of the pier. You might as well come out now.”

  Whom was she talking to?

  Brice pulled Kendall up short. Goose Harbor was normally a very safe place, but crime wasn’t known to spare any town. If someone lurked nearby, why hadn’t she alerted him right away? Brice moved so he was angled a bit in front of Kendall.

  A petite woman stepped out of the shadows. “I see you wasted no time finding a new man to cling to. How long will this one stick with you, Kenny? I’m thinking he looks like a runner with maybe a week or two in him max. Mark my words—he won’t stick with you for long.”

  Brice volleyed his gaze between the two women. “Who—”

  Kendall tightened her hold on his hand. “What do you want, Mom?”

  Well, she sure hadn’t lied about things getting weird.

  Chapter Three

  Kendall clenched her teeth and tried to calm down. One. Two. Three. She let air hiss out of her mouth slowly.

  Her mother never responded to subtle hints, only clear, to-the-point statements. But Kendall wanted to be careful what she said in front of Brice because he hardly knew her. She didn’t want him to judge her harshly based on this interaction. The adult child and parent relationship was a difficult one to navigate. She knew she needed to respect and honor her mother, but that didn’t mean obeying her any longer. Especially when her mother’s moral code was so different than Kendall’s own. But what did that all look like when acted out in real life? It was hard to know. Especially with an emotionally imbalanced mother thrown into the mix.

  Mom staggered forward a few feet. Drunk. “I need some money. As much as you can spare.” Her words slurred a bit. “You’ll help your mom out, won’t you?”

  A big part of Kendall’s reason for leaving Kentucky had been to get away from her mother. The woman had been a constant drain on Kendall’s savings, even after Kendall moved out of their trailer as a teenager. Not to mention the number of times her mother had stumbled into the country club, causing trouble for her. How had Mom found her so quickly? Kendall had left Kentucky without a trace. No forwarding address. No friends to leave information with. Had Mom followed her from the get-go and hung back, waiting until just the right moment? Well, what a moment to pick. Embarrassing her in front of her new friend while they were trying to plan a business venture together. He’d probably back out now, and Kendall couldn’t blame him.

  Still, she dug her nails into the back of Brice’s hand. Poor man. “You need to go back home. I don’t have any money to spare.” Brice probably thought she was being a mean person, sending her mother away. If only he knew everything that had led up to this moment, maybe he’d understand. Maybe he’d take her side.

  As if he could read her mind, Brice offered her hand an encouraging squeeze. At the touch, something inside her stomach unknotted. Kendall straightened her spine.

  “No money to spare?” Her mother’s eyebrows arched. “I’ve got to say, I don’t know if I believe you, Kenny.”

  “I’m not sure how you found me, but you need to go back home. I have to start fresh here. Don’t you see that?” Kendall pleaded. “It’s my only chance.”

  “If you don’t have money, then you must be getting it from somewhere—or someone—else. Is this the man paying your bills?” She pointed at Brice. “He won’t keep you long. You realize that, don’t you? I can see now he’s too good for you. He’ll tire of you quickly. Like they all do.”

  The muscles in Brice’s arm coiled. Was he offended? More than likely, he was angry at Kendall for forcing him to be a part of this conversation.

  Kendall’s throat clamped up. While she didn’t put much stock in anything her mom said, the woman knew exactly where to place a jab. But she knew better than to take Mom’s words too much to heart. How could a daughter have faith in a parent who couldn’t ever find money to pay the electric bills but had found plenty to purchase Gucci handbags and Christian Louboutin shoes and go on beachside vacations while her child sat at home shivering because unpaid bills had let the heat get cut off?

  Kendall shook her thoughts from the past away. Revisiting negative memories from her childhood was like taking swigs of slow-burning poison—stupid and damaging. Besides, Mom was all she had. The woman might have been a terrible mother, but she had stayed. That was more than could be said for her father.

  She opened her mouth, planning to relent and offer her mother a few hundred dollars if she promised not to come back to Goose Harbor, but Brice cleared his throat, stopping her.

  “Ma’am, I mean no disrespect cutting into the conversation this way, but I think you’ve said enough. Kendall has stated her mind, so there isn’t much left to do but go our separate ways.”

  Her mother rounded on him. “Are you the one giving her money? How is she starting a business? I had the log-ins to all of her accounts and I know she doesn’t have a nest egg that large anywhere.”

  “Mom!” Kendall fisted her hands. Her mother had promised to stop trying to get into her accounts, but Kendall should have known better. With a long string of criminal-minded friends, Mom always had someone willing to help her...for a price. If her mother had figured out her new passwords, then that explained how she’d located her in Goose Harbor. It also made her incredibly dangerous to have around. Did she know the password to Kendall’s email account, as well? Fear seized her heart, causing her muscles to freeze. What if her mother knew about Sesser Atwood? She could ruin everything before Kendall even had an opportunity to succeed.

  She thought back over the meeting with Sesser and Claire. How had they explained the final term of the contract? Should the partnership become public, Mr. Atwood had the right to back out of his deal with her and call in her loan in full.

  Thinking of the loan, plus the cost of the furniture in her office and everything else Sesser had given her, Kendall swallowed hard. It would take her years and a lot of hard work and sacrifice to pay the loan back if he called it in. More important, she’d lose her business—her dream.

  Brice angled his body in front of her in a protective way. “Like I said, it’s best if you leave.”

  Her mother peeked around him to make eye contact. “Looks like you found a dog with some bark this time. But we both know he won’t last. Not with you. You’re too much like me, Kenny. Neither of us can keep a man. That’s why we need each other.” She gave a small wave and headed back down the pier. “I’ll see you later.”

  Brice held on to Kendall’s hand while her mother staggered across the beach. His eyes never left her, as if he was on high alert. Neither of them said a word, even after her mother disappeared from view.

  Finally Kendall broke contact and dropped her head into her hands, grabbing fistfuls of hair. “I’m so sorry you had to hear all that. What must you think of me?”

  “I’m not sorry.” Brice placed his hands on her upper arms, getting her to meet his eyes again. “I’m glad I was here...glad she listened. Here’s hoping I’m around next time she shows up too.”

  “I don’t think she would have left so easily if I had been alone.”

  His
eyebrows formed a V. “Is she always like that?”

  “Sometimes worse.” Kendall tried to offer a smile but failed miserably. “You must think I’m a horrible person, speaking to my own mother like that and telling her I won’t help her.”

  He let go of her and blew out a long stream of air. “Believe me, you couldn’t be more wrong. My own family...” He turned away and scanned the boatyard before turning his attention back to her. “How she speaks to you... It’s not kind.”

  “You get used to it.” Kendall pulled his coat tighter around her middle.

  “You shouldn’t have to.”

  She shrugged. “I tried to leave without letting her know where I was going so I could get a clean start away from her. You see how well that went.” She gathered her hair in one hand, catching it all at the nape of her neck so it would stop whipping into her face.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “What can I do?” She let her hair go so she could toss up her hands. “She’s my mom.”

  Brice steepled his fingers and pressed the tips to his lips for a moment, thinking. “My father isn’t the best man. He has a pretty bad reputation in town. If you stick around long enough, I’m sure you’ll hear about him sooner or later.” He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “All that to say, we don’t get to choose our family, but we can choose how we let them affect us. We choose the type of power they have over us.”

  “Easy for you to say. It looks like you have more than just your dad.” An image of Evan and Brice hunched over the wood carving together projected onto her mind. “For me? It’s only the two of us. I get her or I get no one. Not the best set of options if you ask me.”

  Brice’s lips tugged with a sad smile of understanding. “Anyway, if you ever want to talk about it... I’m around and I’m willing to listen.”

  “I’ll try to remember that.”

  * * *

  Brice watched Kendall like a hawk the whole time they were talking. He’d misjudged her yesterday. Completely. He’d pegged her as a cheerful woman without a care in the world. What other type would start a date-planning service?

  But he’d been wrong.

  A quote the new young pastor at the church was fond of repeating filtered back into his mind. Something about being kind to every person because there was always something going on in everyone’s life—a battle—that the outsider looking in may never even know about. Kendall proved that. The beautiful woman Brice met yesterday hid a lifetime of emotional scars delivered by one of the people a daughter should have been most able to trust.

  Not unlike his own upbringing.

  Brice touched the scar on his cheek. “Will she follow you home? Will you be safe on your own?”

  “She’d never actually hurt me.” Kendall started down the pier and reached the landing. A cool summer breeze whistled in between the boats in the harbor, causing some of them to bob back and forth. Masts with bells jingled.

  Brice trailed her. “Words count as hurting.”

  “I can handle her.”

  It didn’t look like it. He bit back the words he wanted to say. If he’d read Kendall correctly, she’d been seconds from caving to her mother’s demands for money before he stepped in. Her mother would approach her again. Then what? But they didn’t know each other well enough for him to press the point, so he dropped it.

  Besides, he was one to talk. How much money had he given his father over the years just to keep the peace? He knew full well all that money ended up being used to gamble on the riverboats and not on food or items for the house as his dad had promised. Just like the money Dad had demanded in the latest voice mail. But his parents still had Laura in the house to take care of. Brice was never able to say no when his father dropped his sister’s name and said she needed something. So foolishly, until last year when Laura became old enough to have her own cell phone when Brice could call and check in on her, he’d still been handing over a lot of money to his parents.

  Technically he was the worst person imaginable to advise Kendall on dealing with her mother. It would be best if they steered clear of family conversations going forward.

  He fell into step beside Kendall. “Let me at least walk you back to your car. Where’d you park?”

  “Next to that warehouse.” She pointed.

  Brandon Hankman’s warehouse? Oh no. In Hankman’s world there was only black and white—no gray. If someone broke a rule, he was sure to point it out and want to see them pay a penalty.

  Brice’s gut twisted. “Not in a spot?”

  “I wasn’t able to find any spots...” Kendall’s words faltered as they rounded the warehouse. She froze. “Where’s my car? It was right here.” She grabbed his arm and jiggled it as if he’d been the one to move her vehicle. “Where’d it go? My mother—”

  “She probably has nothing to do with this.” But Hankman no doubt did. “It’s been towed.”

  Her eyebrows shot up into her bangs. “Towed?”

  “And you won’t be able to get it until Monday. The city’s lot is only open during business hours.”

  “Until Monday?” Her voice got higher. “What kind of town is this?”

  “A small one that can’t staff the lot on the weekends.”

  “Maybe these are all signs. What if my business is doomed to fail? I should never have tried to make all this happen.” She looked as if she might start crying.

  Brice’s stomach twisted into a knot. If there was one thing he was even worse at handling than parental relationships, it was crying women. Please don’t cry.

  Help. How can I encourage her?

  That thought shocked him. Usually Brice was introverted, but something about Kendall put him at ease. Perhaps it was her open way of talking. Whatever it was, if he thought about it any more he’d clam up.

  His favorite verse instantly came to mind. “Now, don’t talk like that.” He offered her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear. That discouragement isn’t coming from Him, so toss it away. God gives us strength and...” What was the rest of that verse? “God doesn’t want you giving up on a dream He’s given you.”

  “Do you really believe God cares about our dreams?”

  “I’d like to believe He does.” Brice motioned for her to follow him. “My car’s by my building. I’ll drive you home.”

  His shipping business was located two buildings down. He should have given her the address and explained where to park when she called earlier, but phone conversations made him uncomfortable and he always tried to end them as quickly as he could. “From now on, when we do these sunset cruises or if you need to come down to the docks for any reason, you can park by my warehouse and your car will be fine there.”

  She bumped her shoulder into his. “So, after everything, you still want to go on this adventure with me?”

  Adventure? The word pulled at something deep in his gut.

  It had been a long time since he’d had one of those.

  Brice couldn’t help the smile that crept across his face. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  While he wasn’t overly thrilled about the idea of being a part of a date-planning service, he was smart enough to admit that he needed the money that it could potentially bring in. And if he was being honest, Kendall intrigued him, and he wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to spend time with her every week. A woman like Kendall would be sought after once some of the other bachelors in Goose Harbor discovered her. He’d lose her undivided attention quickly, but Brice could enjoy her company while it lasted.

  His hand closed around his car keys, letting the metal bite into his palm.

  This wasn’t like him at all—entertaining daydreams of spending time with a woman he hardly knew. No...make that spe
nding time with any woman at all. He’d set the desire for a wife and family to the side. He had his shipping business to worry about, his little sister to watch over, but most important, he’d decided ten years ago that relationships weren’t for him.

  A man tended to think like that after the woman he was dating responded to his marriage proposal by laughing right in his face.

  He shook his head.

  Maybe he was overtired or stressed. Brice rubbed his jaw. He hadn’t been sleeping well. That had to be it. Because it couldn’t be that he was attracted to Kendall. That didn’t fit into the plan he had for his life. Not one bit.

  Chapter Four

  “I’ll check into the hot air balloon idea, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” Kendall smiled as she spoke into the phone because she’d learned early on in her event-planning career that doing so made her voice stay pleasant despite her stress level. The man on the other end of the line was planning how to propose to his girlfriend; of course Kendall would do everything she could to make the date perfect.

  “Great. Do you know when you’ll be able to call me with a ballpark figure?”

  “By Monday at the latest.” Kendall wrote a note in her planner along with the man’s phone number.

  “That’ll work.”

  “She’s blessed to have you.” She turned toward her computer and opened a new web browser. “You sound very thoughtful.”

  “Not as blessed as I am to have her.”

  The bell that hung above the door to her building rang as Kendall ended the phone call, but she turned away from the entrance, back to her computer, determined to find a good deal for the hot air balloon date. So far, yesterday and all of today, not once had the creaking front door meant someone was entering her portion of the divided building. Although a very steady line of customers—mostly women—entered Evan’s woodshop.