To Be With You

by Daphne Abbott

  “She was the one that lived over in Pine Isle, right?”

  “Yeah. Well, after my divorce, I moved in with her for a few months, and she declared me unfit for society because I couldn’t cook.” Leo’s grin looked a little sheepish. “So she started teaching me all the old recipes she’d learned from her mom and gran. Old German and Hungarian recipes, canning and preserving, even baking.”

  “Wow, and you ditched the day job and open this place?” I spun around again to absorb the busy café. “This is amazing, Leo. You should be so proud of yourself.”

  “Wait till you try the food,” Olivia said and tugged on my arm. “Let’s sit over there, and Leo can wow you with his spaetzle and paprikash. And If you’re good, I’ll order an apple fritter for dessert.”

  We sat at the front of the restaurant in the big picture window that was covered in more murals. “I can’t believe Leo’s a chef,” I muttered. “This was the guy that thought pizza rolls were the best culinary invention since sliced bread.”

  Olivia laughed and took a sip of her iced tea. “Yeah, I have to admit when he came to me and asked for help in finding a space, I was a little skeptical. But he brought me a sample of some things he was planning to serve, and I knew he’d make a success of it.”

  “I knew the divorce from Ginger was hard on him, but I didn’t think he’d drop a successful career as a financial planner to follow some new dream. What do Debbie and Dean think about this?”

  Olivia shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. You know your aunt and uncle; they’re not always the most understanding of people.”

  I snorted. “That’s an understatement. Last I heard, they were still pulling for Ginger and Leo to reconcile.”

  “Like you said recently. A lot has changed in town, but some things will probably always be the same.”

  She sounded a little sad, so I reached out to cover her hand with mine. “Tell me about the theater next door. Did I really see that they were showing a double feature of Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Birdcage?”

  “Yeah, the owner always puts on a bunch of classics for Pride Month.” She smiled. “Wait till you meet Kenny and his partner, Stephen. They’re a hoot.”

  Pride Month was something I hadn’t learned about until my time in college. Now this town had iconic gay movies at the small theater and rainbow flags hanging from multiple storefronts. My cousin was running a farm-to-table restaurant, and tourism was thriving more than the boom years in the 80s.

  “I guess a lot’s changing. This place, the theater, and Pris and Pru have an antique store? When did that happen?”

  “About five years ago now,” Olivia said and smiled when a server put down a plate of salad in front of her, then me. “Thanks, Josie.”

  The girl grinned. “Yeah, no prob, Liv.”

  “Josie…” I picked up my fork and pierced a bright yellow piece of tomato. “Not Josie Kapellan?”

  “The very same,” Olivia agreed as she bit into a forkful of salad. “She’s going to UW Madison for school, but comes back each summer for work.”

  “God,” I groaned. “I remember when she was born. How old does that make me?”

  “According to her? We’re ancient.” She laughed. “She tells me all the time that I’m out of touch, and I have to change my hair and clothes to be more current.”

  “That’s nuts. You look beautiful every day.”

  Olivia blushed, and I realized that I probably had never said something like that outside of the bedroom. It was crossing a line. In fact, having lunch together and living together was also probably across the line she’d tried to define weeks ago. We didn’t discuss our relationship, ever. But I knew I’d dropped all pretense of not involving feelings the night someone had trashed her RV.

  Was she feeling the same thing?

  How could I ask her without revealing my own feelings?

  Instead of having the conversation we needed, I kept up a light banter with Liv about work and the house throughout lunch. We were laughing about how the new movie selection at the theater would shock the prude who used to own the place when Liv and I entered the rented office space to meet with the board.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Ida from her spot at the head of the table.

  “You had to be there,” I said as I tried to stifle the last of the giggles.

  Stella and Natalie smiled and called their greetings from the coffee area while Liv and I sat down at our usual seats around the conference table. I looked around the room, surprised to see several whiteboards on wheels had been added to the space, each one blank except for a manilla envelope taped to one side.

  Olivia glanced at her watch. “Okay, I have a date with a bottle of wine and my best friend at eight-thirty. So that gives us five hours to get through ten proposals. Jake’s sending dinner over at six from the Loon’s Nest. We’ll break then, and if anyone needs to leave before eight, we can regroup next week.”

  Everyone nodded their agreement, and I got up to grab the first envelope. I pulled out a sheet of paper and nearly choked when I saw the request.

  “You okay?” A look of concern crossed Olivia’s face.

  “Yeah,” I snorted and tossed the proposal on the table in front of her. “This is a request for twenty thousand dollars to do repairs and renovations on Foxie’s strip club.”

  Ida hooted a laugh. “I vote yes. Those girls work hard and deserve a nice place to dance.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes. “Ida, fixing Foxie’s isn’t preserving the history of the area.”

  “Bullshit,” Ida said. “There’s been a titty bar in Eagle Creek since the 40s when this place was only a glorified fish camp.”

  I covered my mouth to smother the laughter that threatened. Olivia noticed and shot me a quelling look. “Just because something’s always been in the area doesn’t mean it has historical value.”

  “I don’t know, Olivia. I think I might agree with Ida,” Natalie said. “I spent some time last year interviewing women at the club for a case I was working on. Beau loves how much money those clubs make him, but he isn’t pouring that cash back into improvements the girls need. You’re friends with Cassie Unger. Hasn’t she mentioned the conditions to you?”

  Olivia had a friend that danced at Foxie’s? This was news to me and completely in opposition to the clean-cut good girl image she had. Every day I spent with her led me to new discoveries about Olivia, but this was by far one of the most interesting yet.

  “Look, I’d love to give them money and help the girls out. But this doesn’t help improve the town, so we can’t use the endowment fund,” Olivia said. “I vote to decline the request. What are your votes?”

  The rest of the women gave their votes, and I recorded it all on the whiteboard. In the end, there weren’t enough in favor of renovating the old log cabin that served as the local strip club.

  “Are we good to move on to the next?” Olivia asked, and when no one had any objection, she turned and smiled at me. “Good, let’s hope this one’s better.”

  Chapter 18

  Olivia

  “I cannot believe Beau sent in a request to fix Foxies,” Lucy said as she dug a chip into the gooey artichoke dip I’d just put on the coffee table.

  “I can,” I said. I sat down in the soft chair, kitty-cornered to Lucy’s spot on her couch, and picked up my glass of wine.

  We were having a girl’s night in, our first since Cal’s return to Eagle Creek. I knew it would turn into an all-night booze and question session since we had barely seen each other in weeks. I’d come prepared tonight with an overnight bag, comfy clothes, and a ton of snacks and wine.

  Luce laughed and crunched another chip. “Yeah. If there’s one thing Beau has, it’s audacity.”

  I grunted and picked up an olive from the meat and cheese board and chewed thoughtfully. “Problem is, the rest of the requests w
eren’t much better.”

  “You just opened up applications,” Luce argued. “Give it time. The really good stuff will come soon.”

  “That’s what Natalie said, too. I’m worried we’ve only got Cal for the summer, and we cannot use his help because people are only submitting shit.”

  “Fab said they were going to keep consulting when they left,” Lucy said.

  “Yeah, but they won’t be here. It won’t be as easy to talk to them when we have questions.” I picked up a cube of cheese and popped it into my mouth.

  “Are you concerned about not having Cal and Fab around to consult? Or are you worried for a personal reason?”

  I felt my cheeks heat. “No. We agreed this was just for the summer. Nothing more.”

  “Sure. But people change. Especially when they’re in love.”

  I choked on the sip of wine I’d just taken. “Excuse me?” I asked through my coughs.

  “Love. You know that thing you avoid like the plague.” Lucy’s smile was smug as she laid on her back with her ancient cat, Tonks, on her stomach.

  “Yeah, I know what love is,” I said when my coughing subsided. “What I want to know is why you think I’m in love with Callum.”

  Lucy grinned. “I see the way you look at him when you think no one’s looking. You get all moon-faced.”

  “I don’t love.”

  “You did once,” she argued and sat up. She put a comatose Tonks on the opposite seat. “Before Peter fucked you over.”

  “Yeah, and I learned my lesson. I’m not built for romance.”

  Lucy laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed until I thought I’d have to gag her. “Are you kidding me? You’re renovating the mansion your ancestor built for the love of his life. You are opening a wedding planning business and a flower nursery. And you named the business Primrose, Pine, and Promises. You’re such a romantic. I bet I’ll find at least one Jane Austen adaptation in your movie queue and romance novel on your e-reader.”

  My cheeks felt like they were the color of tomatoes by the time she completed the list. “I like romantic stories. That doesn’t mean I like romance for myself.”

  Lucy just grinned. “Liv, you are having a fling with the one that got away. This is so romantic we should call Lifetime because I’m sure they’ll want to option the story for their next movie.”

  I wanted to argue more, but I couldn’t deny she was making a certain amount of sense. “Okay, I agree. This fling has gotten a little out of hand.”

  “A little? You’re living together, working together, and having some seriously awesome sex.”

  “What do you know about our sex life? I haven’t said a thing about that yet,” I asked.

  Lucy shrugged. “Fabián and I have been hanging out.”

  “Really, now that’s interesting. I thought you didn’t like Fabián?”

  “I thought I would not like any friend of Cal’s. But after that first dinner, I realized Fab’s awesome. We’ve been hanging out because you and Cal barely leave the bedroom.” She picked up her wine and took a sip.

  “I admit things got a little too close when I moved into the cabin.”

  Lucy nodded. “Yeah, and I warned you, it would only make it harder to break things off. Ruby’s asked him to help with the haunted house for the Fall Festival, even though Fab tells me they have a job lined up in San Francisco for the end of September.”

  I’d heard the men discussing the renovation of one of the famous painted lady houses. Logically, I knew the thing between Cal and I had an expiration date. Yet, every time the topic came up, I avoided the discussion.

  Because I was in too deep, and I knew it.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

  “Or you could try talking to him,” Lucy argued. “You know, like freaking adults.”

  “I’m sorry, Pot, did you just call me, the Kettle, black?”

  Lucy’s face turned murderous, and she chucked a pillow at my head. I caught the pillow and threw it back at her, all while laughing my ass off.

  “Luce, let’s just agree to leave love lives off the table for now, okay?”

  “Fine, then let’s discuss the vandal that tossed your shit and why your brother can’t find him.”

  I rolled my eyes and got up to pour another glass of wine. “We don’t know that there’s anything more to that incident than some kids looking to break stuff.”

  “Not according to my source at the sheriff’s department, who told me that Liam says he’s sure it wasn’t kids.”

  “Your source wouldn’t be Beth Drummond, would it?” Lucy shrugged. “Because if you’ll remember, our friend Beth got in trouble for the eavesdropping she did when Ruby’s mom went missing. You wouldn’t be putting our friend and her job at risk just to get gossip, would you?”

  Lucy looked like she’d swallowed bile. “She’s not doing anything wrong. He told her right to her face he didn’t think it was kids.”

  “Fine, but tell your mole to keep it legal. The last thing I need is to have her lose her job and have that on my conscience.”

  “Right. If it’s not kids, who do you think it was? My money’s on Mary Beth.”

  I snorted. “Why would my ex-mother-in-law trash my stuff?”

  “She’s still pretty pissed about the whole turning over evidence to the state cops. Or that you refused to go against Rose’s wishes and add her to the endowment board. Or maybe you bought your last car from the import dealer in Pine Isle instead of one of their dealerships. Take your pick.”

  Lucy’s words hit me like a ton of bricks. After the divorce, my therapist, Dr. Waters, spent hours counseling me about Peter and his family. We’d worked hard to bring me the closure I needed, and mostly, I never thought about the MacPhersons, or my time in their family, unless one of them came directly into my sphere. Since this didn’t happen often, I’d spent years blissfully ignorant of their activities.

  That all changed when the money from Rose became public knowledge. These days Mary Beth and her husband seemed to be everywhere I turned. They didn’t engage with me. Instead, they just were there—at the periphery of my life. Eating at the same restaurants, shopping in the same stores, having a drink on the patio at the Loon’s Nest.

  With dawning horror, I said to Lucy, “I think they’re stalking me.”

  Lucy looked just as shocked as I felt. “What? I was just throwing ideas out there. Do you really think they’re stalking you?”

  “Think about it, Luce. How often did we see the MacPhersons in town before we announced the endowment? Once, maybe twice, a year?”

  Lucy pursed her lips and looked off to the side. “Yeah. They usually go to the swanky stores in Garrett.”

  “Right. They never shop at the Junction for food. They don’t eat dinner at The Lodge. And they never have a drink at a local bar. And yet, I’ve seen them in all three places in the last few weeks.” I sat back in my chair, regretting the wine that was sloshing uncomfortably in my belly.

  “Coincidence?” Lucy shrugged, but I could tell she was trying to downplay her own worry.

  “It’s possible. Cal and Liam seem to think Dad could have something to do with the vandalism, but that seems a stretch to me.” I picked up Tonks from his spot on the couch and cuddled him close to my chest. His warm body and the vibrations of his purrs helped melt the ball of ice that was forming in my chest. “I honestly think it was just some kids, and we’re all overreacting.”

  “Liv, they shredded your underwear. That doesn’t creep you out?”

  “Of course it does. But it also feels like something an idiot teenager would do and not an adult that was after my money.” I buried my face in Tonks’s soft orange fur and sighed. “I wish I could just hand the money over to someone else to deal with.”

  “Agreed. Rose really tied your hands with that gift,” Lucy said
. “I know she wanted to help improve the town, but what about you and your sanity? She had to know that the money would bring out the leeches in this town, and they wouldn’t give you a moment’s rest.”

  “Do you think she set me up to fail on purpose?” This idea had been floating in my head ever since we read the will.

  “No.” Lucy’s voice was forceful, and she sat up from her spot on the couch to put a firm hand on my knee. “Rose loved you like a daughter. There is no way she did this to make you fail. She gave you this responsibility, and not Liam, Pris, or your dad because she believed in you.”

  It didn’t feel like that.

  It felt like dispersing the money was an exercise in futility. I was Sisyphus, and the money was my boulder. The submissions for the individual dispersals were laughable, and the community projects Callum and Fabián had come up with were being sent to a special town meeting for a vote.

  A vote instigated by dear old dad.

  I had to admit my dad was slimy, egotistical, and vain. He hated anything that didn’t benefit him. Hated accepting responsibility for mistakes. Hated that his children refused to be pawns in his political career. And he especially hated when Rose had made it clear for years before her death that his place as the sole heir to the Van Ess house and money was not guaranteed.

  “I think you also need to consider this isn’t about the money or your ex,” Lucy said after several long moments of silence.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on, Liv, the underwear thing is creepy. Aren’t you just a little worried that someone is obsessed with you?”

  I couldn’t help but let out a startled laugh. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a beautiful woman who’s been living on a remote piece of land for weeks. You don’t think maybe some scuzzy dude wouldn’t notice that and maybe try to take advantage of it?” She shuddered and rubbed her hands over her shoulders. “I worry about it, and I live in an apartment complex with hundreds of other people.”