He smirked. “What do you want?”
She sat down in the chair in front of his desk, remembering the times in the past when he’d asked that question in a teasing voice with a twinkle in his eyes and love on his mind. She shook off those thoughts. Those days were gone. “I saw the Easy Rest guys leaving. I didn’t know you were meeting with them. What did they want?”
“What do you think they wanted? They want what they always want.”
“I thought you’d told them we weren’t interested in selling. You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”
He swiveled his chair so that he faced her. “You’re the only person in this room whose mind seems to change with every blowing wind. We agreed that we weren’t going to sell and I haven’t changed my mind. If I had, I wouldn’t do anything behind your back. I’d tell you.”
“Thanks for that, Sly.”
He leaned forward. “I know how much this funeral home means to you, Dawn. It means a lot to me too. Your grandfather and mine and our grandmothers put their lives into this place. I don’t want to lose it any more than you do. Maybe there was a time when I thought we should at least entertain Easy Rest’s offers, but we talked about it and you were right. This place is our heritage. We have to hold on to it.”
“You still feel that way?”
“Why are you asking me this now? I’ve told you I haven’t changed my mind.”
“I’m asking because I want to know. You don’t tell me things about the business.”
“You’ve never been interested before.”
“Well, I’m interested now.”
He studied her. “Why is that?”
“Because I don’t want to be the kind of wife who knows nothing about her financial situation.”
“Those sound like words from a lawyer, a divorce lawyer. Have you spoken with a divorce lawyer, Dawn?”
She sat back in her chair, shocked at the way his mind had turned. “No.”
He studied her, saying nothing.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Why should I?” he asked. “Maybe you’re ready to get out of this marriage. Maybe you’re so interested in the financial side of the business because you want to make sure you get your fair share in the divorce settlement. You think I’d try to cheat you, Dawn? Do you really think I’d stoop so low as to try to cheat you out of what our families built together?”
“No, I don’t think that,” she said. “I don’t know where you’re getting these crazy ideas. I haven’t spoken to a divorce lawyer and I’m not in here looking for hidden assets.”
She could tell he wasn’t sure if he should believe her, and that broke her heart. They were far apart now and she knew she had contributed to that distance. “Then why all the questions?” he asked.
“Because,” she said, “I’m your wife and your business partner. Why should parts of the business be off limits to me?”
“It’s not off limits, Dawn,” he said. “You’ve been content in the past to leave the business end to me. What’s changed? Do you think my cheating spread to the funeral home?”
Dawn felt those words as a slap to her face. “I can’t believe you brought that up! I can’t believe you even fixed your mouth to say those words to me.”
He smirked. “Doesn’t feel good, does it? Well, think how I feel every time you throw the words back at me.”
She took a deep breath and gave her emotions time to settle. “Look, we’re getting off track. I came in here to find out what the Easy Rest people wanted and to tell you that I want to be more involved in the business end of things.”
“And I asked you why.”
“Because it’s my business too. I have as much invested here as you and Francine do. I don’t see why I should be shut out.”
He gave a slick smile. “So that’s what this is all about. You want in because I asked Francine to work on a business idea with me.” He shook his head sadly. “What are we doing, Dawn, when you don’t even trust me around your sister? What does that say about where we are, where our marriage is?”
“It’s not about you and Francine.”
He lifted a brow.
“It’s not all about you and Francine. It’s about me. I want to be more involved, Sly. Why are you giving me so much grief about it? Are you hiding something from me?”
He shook his head, but not quick enough for her to believe him. “I won’t be shut out,” she said, standing.
“I hear you.”
“So you’ll include me?”
He nodded.
“Thanks,” she said. “That’s all I wanted. I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Dawn,” Sly called to her.
She turned back to him.
“Instead of being jealous of your sister, you need to talk to her. George Roberts got in her face at the bookstore last night. It really upset her.”
Dawn remembered the harsh words she’d spoken to Francine this morning and winced. “I didn’t know.”
“Now you do.”
Dawn nodded. “I’ll talk to her. Thanks for telling me.”
“No problem.”
She turned away from him, intending to leave. Then she turned back. “Sly?”
He looked up.
“I really am sorry about this morning.”
He nodded.
Knowing that was all she was going to get, she turned and left the office.
Chapter 11
I’m sorry that had to happen, Francine,” Mother Harris said, pulling her into a hug. She leaned back and looked into Francine’s eyes, squeezing her hand. “You’re going to have to be strong, young lady. George is hurting. He’s a good man, but he’s allowed the hurt to harden his heart. What you have to do is pray that the Lord will soften it again. Can you do that?”
Francine nodded. Mother Harris’s reaction to her run-in with George had been no less than Francine expected. She hadn’t told the older woman about Dawn and Sly’s troubles, but she knew she’d get around to telling her eventually. She figured one set of problems was more than enough to put on the shoulders of her dear friend, even though those shoulders were among the strongest Francine had ever encountered. “What about Monika? She had to listen to all of that and she has enough going on in her life as it is.”
“Don’t you worry about Monika. The Lord’s got her back. You be the friend to her that I know you can be, the friend she needs.”
Francine wasn’t so sure she could be that friend, but having failed at friendship before, she certainly wanted to give it a try. “I’ll do my best.”
“Not good enough. You’ve got to trust the Lord and let Him do His best. Proverbs tells us to trust in the Lord and not lean to our own understanding. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t use the mind that God gave you. It just means that you have to make sure that what you conclude lines up with what the Bible tells us before you do anything.” She patted Francine’s cheeks. “Now put a smile on that face and get to work.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to go. The bus for the convention leaves the church at four and I still have to finish packing. Will you be okay until Monika gets in? She should be here after lunch, around one or so. Sister Elaine’ll be helping out the rest of the week.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. As long as George doesn’t show up again today.
“I knew you would be,” Mother Harris said. She reached under the counter for her purse. “You know, I love this store but I also love having some time to do other things. Thanks for helping me out.”
Francine was amazed at how Mother Harris looked at things. “You’re the one who’s helping me. I needed this job and I needed to be around you and Monika.”
“Don’t we serve a good God?” Mother Harris said. “He’s met all of our needs with your coming here. Now that’s what I call smart.”
Francine didn’t have a response and thankfully Mother Harris didn’t require one. “I’ll see you at church when I get back on Sunday, won’t I?” the older woman asked. “It
’ll be good to have you back at Faith Central. We’ve missed you there.”
“You’ve missed me,” Francine said. “I don’t know about everybody else.”
“Now don’t you go worrying again. Trust the Lord, child. It’ll be all right.”
Francine frowned. “I still remember how I stood up during the Sunday morning testimony service and told everybody they were going to hell if they didn’t repent.”
“So?” Mother Harris said. “It’s true. If they don’t repent, they will go to hell.”
Francine pushed at the strands that had come out of her French braid. “You know what I mean. It’s the way I said it. I was accusing everybody—Pastor, you, everybody. I thought I had uncovered some secret of the gospel that everybody else had missed.” She closed her eyes. “I still can’t believe I was so stupid, so gullible.”
Mother Harris squeezed her hand. “Well, you were.”
Francine narrowed her eyes at Mother Harris, surprised at her words.
“Well, you were,” the older woman repeated. “Remember, the truth will set you free. Now you have to take the real truth, the truth you know in your heart, and use that to make things right.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“You fix it the same way you broke it. When you thought you were right, you stood up and told everybody, shouted it to the world. Well, now that you’ve found out you were wrong, you can do the same thing.”
“What does that mean? Do you want me to stand up in front of the church and tell everybody I was wrong?”
Mother Harris smiled. “It’s not what I want that matters.” She patted Francine’s cheeks again. “Now I’ve got to go. You’ll take Monika home tonight, won’t you?”
“Sure,” Francine said.
“Good. Now I really have to go.”
Francine shook her head as she watched Mother Harris leave the store. Only Mother Harris would issue such a challenge and leave. Smart woman, that one. She knew Francine would spend the day thinking about her words.
The rest of the morning passed relatively quickly for Francine. Being the only one in the store kept her pretty busy, and by twelve-thirty she was looking for Monika. Her stomach told her it was time to eat. She’d have the teen drop by the sandwich store and pick up lunch for them. The chime sounded and Francine looked up, hoping that it was Monika. It wasn’t.
“Hey, girl,” came the voice of one of her old friends, LaDonna Moss. “I heard you had the easiest job in town.”
Francine braced herself, unsure what else LaDonna had to say. She and George had been dating forever. “Hi, LaDonna,” she said. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is it?” LaDonna asked.
Oh, no, Francine thought, not again. Her first thought was that she was glad Monika wasn’t there. “Look,” Francine said, “if you’re here to tell me about myself, you’re too late. George beat you to it.”
“I know,” LaDonna said. “I’m sorry about that.”
Francine raised a brow.
“I am,” LaDonna said. “George and I are supposed to be getting married in September. That’s only three months away and, I have to tell you, Francie, things are not looking good for us.”
Francine dropped down on her stool. “I’m so sorry, LaDonna.”
“It’s not your fault, girl,” LaDonna said. “Unlike George, I don’t blame you.” She gave Francine a wry smile. “I don’t blame you now. Though for a minute there, I used your face as the target on my dartboard. Thank God, everything I learned in all those psych classes paid off. For a while there, I had to counsel myself.”
“I’m sorry, LaDonna,” Francine said again, even though she knew the words weren’t enough. “It’s all my fault.”
“Now, don’t go feeling all sorry for yourself. I might have to come down hard on you for that. I never could stand self-pity in a person.”
Francine chuckled. “It’s nice to see you haven’t changed.”
LaDonna came around the counter and sat on the stool next to Francine. “Why should I?” she asked. “I’ve got it going on.”
Francine laughed. “It’s good to see you LaDonna.”
“Didn’t look that way when I walked in the door.”
“I was worried about your reaction. We didn’t part on the best of terms.”
“Please, girl. I didn’t pay you or that trash you were talkin’ any attention. If I listened to everything everybody told me, I’d be stone crazy.”
“You’re serious?”
“As serious as my Gucci pumps and the Ph.D. in psychology that I have hanging in my office,” she said. “Besides, life’s too short. My only regret is that I haven’t been able to help George. Since Toni’s death, he’s living in his head, not talking to anybody about what he’s feeling. I’ve suggested counseling but he says he’s an action man. Did you know he tried to bring criminal charges against Bishop Payne and that church?”
Francine shook her head. “I had no idea.”
LaDonna’s lips turned down in a frown. “Probably because nothing came of it. They hadn’t broken any laws, so there were no charges to file. Believe me, George used every political connection he’s cultivated in his four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives. If there had been any case to build, he would have found it. The best he could do was put the IRS on notice, so at least they’ll have those guys breathing down their necks.”
“I wish he had found something,” Francine said. “What about civil court?”
She shook her head. “No standing. Toni may have had a case but George didn’t. He also thought about filing a formal complaint with a national church association, but he couldn’t do that because as an independent church Temple didn’t belong to any national association.”
Francine felt George’s frustration. She too wished there were some way to make them all pay. “I feel so sorry for him,” she said. “He and Toni were so close, even during those teenaged years when brothers and sisters often drift apart. I can remember him fixing our broken dolls for us when we were in elementary school. I can remember him bristling up at some guy who’d come on to Toni when we were in high school. It hurts to think that I was the cause of the biggest rift between them. First, I got her to leave home and come along with me, Bishop Payne, and the others.” She looked away. “Then I didn’t stand with her when she needed a friend. I should have been there for her and I wasn’t.”
“You know” LaDonna said, “you sound the way I think George feels.”
“How is that?”
“Guilty. He was always there for his little sister, prided himself on taking care of her. Though I doubt he’ll ever admit it, I know he blames himself for not being there for her with this Temple thing. Since he wasn’t there to protect her in life, he’s become obsessed with avenging her death. He has to make someone pay, Francine.”
“I know the feeling,” Francine murmured.
“Love is hard, isn’t it?” LaDonna said. “All the good things in life seem to be, don’t they?”
Francine guessed LaDonna was talking about herself. “How are you holding up?”
“You know me,” LaDonna said. “I’m like the tree planted by the rivers of water in Psalms 1. Girl, I’m here for the long haul.”
“I heard that,” Francine said. “Hey, I want to thank you for pulling together that list of psychologists for Dawn to give to me.”
“No problem,” she said. “It was pretty easy to do. Have you talked to anybody?”
“Not yet.” Francine shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure I will. I’ve been talking to Mother Harris a lot and it’s helping.”
“I can’t argue with that. Mother Harris is a wise woman, wise in the ways of the Lord. Sometimes all you need is a safe place to talk and be heard. When you don’t have that, or when you have it and don’t use it, like George, you run into problems. That’s when counseling can help.”
Francine agreed with LaDonna. Maybe she wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital if she’d had that safe
place. Maybe Toni wouldn’t have ended up dead if she’d had a safe place for herself.
LaDonna looked down at the two-carat diamond that George had placed on her finger. Then she looked back up at Francine. “Francine, I’ve got to ask you something,” she said. “I know I have no right, but I love George so I have to ask.”
Francine held her breath. “What?”
“George’s mother has decided that she can’t attend Faith Central if you’re going to start coming back there.”
Francine fisted her hand to her mouth to fight back a cry “Oh, no,” she murmured. “What have I done?”
LaDonna reached over for Francine’s hand. “I know it’s not right,” LaDonna said, “but that’s the way it is. She says it would be too hard for her to see you, be around you.”
“So she’s leaving Faith Central? The Robertses have been members of the church for as long as I can remember.”
LaDonna sucked in a deep breath. “I know, and so have I, but if Mrs. Roberts leaves, I don’t think George will be too far behind. I’ll have to go with him, Francie, and Faith Central is my family church too. I don’t want to go. I want to get married there, but now I don’t know if that can even happen.”
Francine looked away, thinking about the awful impact of her decision to leave town five years ago with Bishop Payne and his team of traveling evangelists. She’d deserted Sly without a word, breaking his heart and leaving him in the lurch in the managing of the funeral home. She’d abandoned her sister when she was still grieving over the deaths of their grandparents. With her words of hell and damnation, she’d swiped at the hearts of all the people who loved her. The final blow had been Toni. She’d led her like a dumb lamb to the slaughter, and knowing that she had been just as dumb didn’t ease the guilt she knew she would always carry. Now her sister’s marriage was crumbling and she wondered if she played a role in that too. Had Dawn spent too much time in the hospital with her and away from Sly? Had the problems with the funeral home, problems she’d caused, put too much of a strain on the marriage? Now Mrs. Roberts, George, and LaDonna were leaving Faith Central. Added to all of that, Monika’s fresh pain at hearing George’s condemning words. Would the impact of her foolishness have an end? She met LaDonna’s gaze and said, “You haven’t asked your question.”
Genesis House Inspirational Romance and Family Drama Boxed Set: 3-in-1 Page 60
