Thirty-Two and a Half Complications

by Denise Grover Swank

  He laughed. “What are you doing down here?”

  “The pilot light keeps going out. I was about to relight it.”

  “That shouldn’t be happening. Why don’t you let me look?”

  I wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but I couldn’t afford to have a repair man make a service call. Maybe he could give me a preliminary diagnosis so I’d have some idea what I was facing. When I started to get to my feet, Joe offered me his hand, but I ignored it and stepped back to give him room, brushing my hands off on my jeans.

  He took off the front panel and poked around for several minutes. “This thing is ancient. I can’t believe it’s still running, but I think I’ve figured out your problem.”

  I groaned. That didn’t sound good. “How bad is it?”

  “Honestly, you need a new furnace, but the immediate problem is there’s a scale buildup around your pilot light. If we scrape it off, you can make it limp along a little while longer.”

  “And how much would a new furnace cost?”

  “Several thousand dollars.”

  “I don’t have that kind of money,” I said before I thought to stop myself.

  He turned around to face me, shock in his eyes. “What about your inheritance?”

  “I don’t get access to all of it at once, remember? And I’ve used up what’s available to me until I turn thirty. That’s why I considered selling the farm last month. To pay for the expansion of the nursery. But then we got the SBA grant.” I scowled. “But you know all about that.”

  He looked exhausted. “Rose, I swear to you I didn’t know anything about my father setting up the campaign stop at the nursery or the strings attached to the SBA grant until it was too late.”

  Joe’s father had arranged the whole thing just to ensure I knew Joe and Hilary were back together…as well as to give Joe a not-so-veiled threat that something bad could and would happen to me if he didn’t stay in line. While I’d seen glimpses of the real Joe before, that day he’d shown up with the veil completely thrown off. I had seen Joe in all his non-glory.

  Not that it mattered. What was done was done. “The SBA grant can only be used toward the expansion at the store and, like I said, the rest of my inheritance is off limits to me for years. The money has to come from somewhere else.”

  “Rose, you know I can help—”

  “Stop right there. You’ll do nothing.”

  Strangely enough, he kept silent.

  I waved toward the furnace. “So I can scrape the scales off? If I do, how much longer will it last?”

  “A few weeks? Another year? It’s hard to say.” He reached for the gas valve. “I thought I saw a screwdriver over by the washing machine. Can you bring it to me?”

  I knew I should tell him to step away from my furnace and leave, but he was about to save me a huge repair bill. When I handed him the screwdriver, he took it without comment, then bent over and poked around inside the bottom of the giant tank. Within several minutes, he had the pilot light reignited. “That should fix it for now, but like I said, this thing’s old.” He replaced the cover at the bottom and turned to face me, looking serious. “You should ask Mason to help pay for it if he’s living with you. It seems reasonable.”

  “No. Our living situation isn’t permanent. He’s just helping with utilities and food until he finds a new place.” Why had I told him that?

  “How long has he been living here? Is he even looking for another place? You can bet I wouldn’t be if I were in his shoes. I’d be stalling just like he is.”

  “And thank you for that confirming character assessment.”

  “Hey.” He held his hands out at his sides. “When a man knows what he wants, he goes for it. Full throttle.”

  “And maybe that’s the problem.” I shook my head. I didn’t want to discuss us anymore. “For the record, he’s been waiting on his insurance check, but it should be arriving soon, so his mother is coming next week to help him look.”

  Joe laughed. “His mother?”

  “Shut up.” I rolled my eyes, heading for the stairs. “You’re one to talk, Mr. I-Let-My-Daddy-Run-My-Life.”

  “That was different,” he mumbled.

  “Yeah, Mason’s sweet mother is coming to help him out, while your father’s like Attila the Hun—determined to conquer and destroy everything in his path. Sounds pretty different to me.”

  “If Mason’s so wonderful, why’s he moving out? Why’d he move here in the first place?” Joe asked, stomping up the stairs behind me.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but Mason’s house was burned down by Crocker because of me. Then he broke his leg.” When I got to the kitchen, I turned around. “He had no place to go and I’d just decided to move out to the farm. It seemed like a good short-term solution.”

  “But not long-term? You don’t see this thing between you two going anywhere?”

  I released a loud groan. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.” I grabbed my tea kettle and filled it with water. “What do you want Joe, other than the obvious?”

  “The obvious isn’t what you’re insinuating, Rose. You and I are friends, remember?”

  “Oh, I remember. I wish to high heaven I could forget. What do you want?”

  “I tried to get the status of Henryetta’s progress on the robbery investigation, but not surprisingly, Taylor’s not being very forthcoming.”

  “I’m shocked,” I said in mock surprise as I put the kettle on the stove and turned on the burner.

  “I also wanted to tell you that I don’t think I’m going to be able to get that sketch artist after all. It’s going to draw too many questions. But there haven’t been any more robberies, so we might be safe.”

  I sat down at the kitchen table and Joe claimed the chair next to mine. “Do you think they still have my money, then? My nine thousand?”

  “I don’t know.” He ran a hand over his head. “I guess so.”

  “So if you catch them, I’ll get my money back?”

  “Eventually. But it would be taken as evidence.”

  “What? It’s my money!”

  “That’s the way the law works, Rose.”

  “Well, the law sucks.” I shook my head. I’d been holding out hope that the police would make headway on the case, but apparently it wouldn’t matter. We still wouldn’t get the money in time to save the business. “Wouldn’t your time be better served if you were out there trying to catch them instead of here bothering me? Or maybe Violet and her kids were busy so you didn’t have anything else to do.”

  His eyes widened in surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Why are you spending so much time with them?” I held his gaze while I said it.

  “Violet needs help. And you know that I love Ashley and Mikey.”

  “Is Violet interested in you?” I regretted the question the moment it left my mouth.

  “What? She’s supposedly getting back together with Mike, although that seems to have hit a snag. I think she’s still pursuing the mayor.”

  “Why would you think that?’

  Joe shrugged. “Violet has asked me several times to watch the kids for an hour or two so she could meet ‘someone’. Ashley and Mikey were caught in the middle, so what was I supposed to do?”

  Joe was the second person to volunteer their suspicions about Violet and Brody. I definitely needed to ask Neely Kate about this one. “How is it that my ex-boyfriend knows more about my sister’s relationship status than I do?”

  “Maybe it’s because you keep pigeon-holing us.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost six o’clock, then stood. “Never mind. We’ll have to discuss this later. I have to get ready to go, so you have to leave.”

  “Go where?” he asked, sounding surprised.

  “That’s none of your business, Deputy Simmons. Now go.”

  “I could argue that my friend status gives me the right to ask, but instead I’ll go wi
th the official explanation: I need to know so I can make sure my deputy doesn’t sit out there all night with nothing to watch.”

  “I’m going to Jasper’s for dinner, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

  “Are you going with Mason?”

  I put my hand on my hip. “Good night, Deputy. Thanks for the bad news all the way around.”

  He had the presence of mind to cringe. “I wish I had something good to tell you.”

  “Then tell me that you’ve convinced your father to destroy all the blackmail material he had against us.”

  He swallowed. “I wish I could, but I can’t.” He moved closer to me. “But I’m not running for office now. We can be together, Rose. I’ll protect you.”

  “You haven’t changed one bit.” I choked on the lump in my throat. “You’ve spent your entire life doing what you want and hoping everything works out, not giving two thoughts to what happens to the people around you if it doesn’t. You leave a trail of suffering behind you, while your daddy rushes in to save you from it.” I took a breath, anger boiling up inside me. “Your daddy owns you, Joe, and you’ve handed yourself over a piece at a time with every screw-up. And instead of waking up to that fact, you keep doing the very same thing again and again.” I shook my head, forcing the tears in my eyes to dry.

  “Rose.” The pain in his voice was almost too much to bear.

  “Sure, you’re willing to take the risk with me because you’ve got nothing to lose, not really. So you get me short-term until J.R. decides it’s time to pull you out of political retirement. Then if you don’t toe the line, I’m the one who will get destroyed.”

  He didn’t say anything, but his expression was shell-shocked.

  I charged toward the front door and opened it. “Get out.”

  His face hardened. “No.”

  “No?” I shouted. “This is my house, Chief Deputy Simmons! You have no reason to be here, which means you’re trespassing. Get. Out.”

  He moved in front of me. “This isn’t over, Rose. We aren’t over.”

  “You’re deluded, Joe. I’m with Mason. I’m exactly where I want to be.” I was shocked at the chill in my voice. “If you continue to harass me, I’ll have Mason file a restraining order against you.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “You’re wrong. I love you and I won’t let you destroy that.”

  “I don’t have to because you’ve already done that. Now get out.”

  He stomped out of the door and I closed it behind him, locking it with a shaky hand. I grabbed my phone out of my purse and called Neely Kate as I heard his car start and take off toward the highway.

  “Rose? Is everything okay?” she said when she answered. I never called around six because I knew she liked to fix dinner for herself and her husband Ronnie most nights.

  “No. Nothing is okay.”

  “What happened?”

  I told her about my fight with Violet and my impending financial ruin along with what had happened with Joe. “I’m destroying relationships right and left,” I joked.

  “You stop that right now,” she said, but her voice was warm. “Both of those relationships were already in ruins.”

  “The worst part of it is that Joe told me even if the police get my bank deposit back, it will be held as evidence for weeks. That’ll be way too late, Neely Kate. We need that money by Friday or I’m gonna lose it all.”

  “Then we are gonna have to find it. Between your visions and my insider information, we’ll easily outwit the Henryetta PD. Seeing the look on Officer Ernie’s face will be well worth the effort.”

  “I’m not sure it’ll be that easy.” I released a heavy breath. “Besides, I have another problem…”

  “Too bad problems aren’t worth money…you’d be rich.”

  “Very funny. I’m going out to dinner with Mason tonight and it now occurs to me that he’s going to order wine. How am I going to explain why I don’t want to drink any?”

  “Hey, I know. Tell him you might be pregnant.”

  “Ha ha. I can’t do that yet. I’m not ready, plus I’d like to fix all this other stuff first.”

  “If you’re waiting for your relationship with Violet to get patched up, you might want to reconsider. Your baby will be graduating from high school before that’ll ever happen.”

  “Very funny.”

  She was silent for a moment. “I have an idea.”

  “What?” I asked, skeptical after her other suggestions.

  “How about if Ronnie and I show up at the restaurant and the four of us eat together? You can pass on the wine by saying you’re skipping it out of solidarity.”

  “Oh!” I said, perking up. “I think that might just work. Now how do we make it happen?”

  “That’s the easy part. How about we accidently run into each other there around seven-thirty?”

  “That should work. I still need to get ready and Mason should be home long before then. Thank you, Neely Kate. I owe you!”

  “What are friends for?”

  I only wished two other people in my life would figure out what real friendship was.

  Chapter Ten

  My stomach felt like it had a baker’s dozen of hummingbirds flapping around inside it. I hoped this scheme worked.

  Mason and I were waiting for a table in the foyer of Jasper’s, but Neely Kate and Ronnie were nowhere to be seen. In hindsight, I should have just told Mason I’d invited my friends. He wouldn’t have minded. That’s one of the things I loved about him—he was so accepting of my friends, even the ones who were rough around the edges. But he’d made a big deal about this being a date night, and it might have hurt his feelings if he thought it was more important to him than it was to me.

  His arm was around my waist and he slid his hand down, letting his fingers curl around my hip. “I almost regret suggesting we go out tonight,” he whispered in my ear. “Do you have any idea how sexy you look in that red dress and those stiletto heels?”

  I gave him a suggestive grin. Neely Kate had convinced me to buy it the week before. I’d protested it was too clingy, but now I was glad I’d listened to her. “Patience, Mason Deveraux.”

  “I spent months being patient. In fact, I continued to exert patience after you decided you were ready to start a relationship with me. Now that the door is open, patience has flown out the window.”

  And therein lay the key difference between the two men who wanted me. One was willing to wait and the other was like a steamroller, trying to convince me I was wrong. “At least no one is gossiping about you being gay anymore.”

  He laughed, a rich, throaty sound that warmed my insides, then leaned down and kissed me. “And just imagine. I’m only getting warmed up.”

  “Warmed up to what?” Neely Kate asked.

  I pushed out a sigh of relief. “Neely Kate!” I said, trying to act surprised. “Imagine running into you here!”

  “Ronnie and I haven’t been out in ages!” She bounced her long blond curls as she spoke. “And I was in the mood for steak, so Jasper’s seemed the logical choice.”

  “I don’t know why we’re wasting our money on good steak,” Ronnie grumbled, but he cast an ornery grin at his pretty wife. “It ain’t gonna stick around in your stomach long enough for us to get a good return on our investment.”

  “Ronnie!” Neely Kate gasped.

  Mason kept his left arm around me, but held his right hand out to Ronnie. “You must be Ronnie. I’m Mason. I’ve heard wonderful things about you from your wife. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  Ronnie shook his hand, looking nervous at first—a common reaction for those who knew that Mason was the ADA—but more at ease as Mason spoke. “Nice to meet you too.”

  “Do you have reservations? If not, you two are more than welcome to join Rose and me. Our table should be ready any time now.”

  Neely Kate beamed. “We’d love to.”

  Seconds later, the hostess called Mason’s name and after he told her that our party
had grown by two, he waved for our friends to precede us. He leaned down to whisper in my ear, “If you wanted to have a double date with Neely Kate and her husband, you could have just told me.”

  I leaned back, my eyes wide as I searched his face. “I…”

  “But then you already knew that, which tells me that you’re up to something. I plan to take my time interrogating you later.” His voice was deep and full of innuendo. “So think about that while we’re at dinner.”

  I flushed with anticipation.

  A grin spread across his face. “Now let’s go eat with your friends.”

  “You really don’t mind?”

  “Why would I? After Jeff…” His voice trailed off. “Let’s just say I could use more friends in Henryetta.”

  We sat in a booth and looked at the menus. Mason mentioned ordering a bottle of wine, then glanced at Neely Kate. “I’d almost forgotten you can’t drink in your glowing state.”

  “I’m going to have to remember to call it that,” Ronnie joked, winking at Mason. “When she’s hanging over the toilet for the tenth time for the day.”

  Mason’s smile fell slightly. “Rose had said you were having a hard time of it, but I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

  Neely Kate waved her hand. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. Although I do confess I miss wine.”

  Mason lifted his water glass. “To a healthy baby and a bearable pregnancy.”

  We all lifted our water glasses and clicked them together while Neely Kate shot me a glance.

  Hopefully, that toast wasn’t applicable to me.

  “I’ll skip wine tonight too, Neely Kate,” I said. “I don’t want to tempt you with mine.”

  Mason shot me a glance, but he didn’t seem overly curious. Despite my worries about tonight, we weren’t big drinkers.

  The waitress came and took our orders, calling Mason “Mr. Deveraux” in a flirty tone, but he ignored it, focusing his attention on me and our guests. We were halfway through dinner—Neely Kate having eaten half of her steak—when a perplexed look crossed her face and she set down her fork and steak knife.