“I got busy. Appraisal stuff. You know.”
“I know.” He paused. “Are you okay? You sound sort of…different.”
Becca jammed the spoon into the ice cream. “Stop asking me that. I’m fine. What do you want?”
“I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Okay. Talk.”
Jack paused again. “Well, I miss you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“What do you mean? I do. Are you sure you’re okay? Did something happen?”
Becca jabbed the spoon into the ice cream more forcefully. She was starting to slash a serious fissure into the Chocolate Ecstasy. “You lied to me.”
“Lied? I don’t think so. About what?”
Becca slurped some chocolate off the spoon and rammed it into the container again. “I thought you were moving on.”
“I am. Actually I wanted to talk to you about that. I talked to Joel today.”
“What does he have to do with that?” The ice cream was beginning to melt around the gash she’d created. Becca scooped up a slippery hunk of ice cream and slurped it into her mouth. “I mean moving on from your marriage.”
“Oh. Well, yes I said that. And I am. Three more days.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Yes. I told you. On Thursday it’s all final. Remember? Pearl Harbor Day.”
“I know that. Do you think I wasn’t paying attention?”
“No. You always pay attention.” Becca could hear the smile in his voice. “That’s one of my favorite things about you.”
“That’s nice. Tell it to you wife.”
“What? Annie?”
“Yes. The woman you love. Remember her? The one you said you didn’t love, but that you obviously still do. The one you lied about.”
“I never said I didn’t love her.”
“What? Well gee, Jack, that’s just fantastic to hear now. I have no idea what you were doing with me. Just a little revenge sex to get back at Annie or something? Whatever it is—or was—I wish you hadn’t. And I really wish I hadn’t.” Becca slammed the spoon into the ice cream one last time. Her stomach churned, and it was a toss-up whether she was going to be sick or burst into tears in a horrendously mortifying way. “I’ve gotta go.”
She hung up the phone, threw the ice cream in the sink, and went to bed. The sound of the TV and Mr. Rap Dude’s horrible tunes reverberated in her head. Putting a pillow over her ears, she curled up under the covers and cried quietly for a while. The phone rang a few times and the answering machine clicked on. Mona jumped up on the bed, curling up into a ball next to Becca. The little dog never got up on the bed, but it seemed like she knew something was wrong. Becca reached out from under the covers to touch the dog’s soft coat and stroked it until she fell asleep.
The next morning Becca woke up with an ice-cream hangover. Consuming copious amounts of dairy products for dinner was not a good idea. In addition to having a crampy, queasy stomach, her eyelashes were gluey from all the crying. Ugh. She needed to get to work. Coffee. Shower. Now.
Before she walked out the door with Mona to go to work, she pressed the button on the answering machine. At the sound of Jack’s voice, she hit the erase button and unplugged the machine. There was no way she was talking to him again.
Over the next few days, Becca made an effort to resume her normal life. It was time to figure out what she was going to do next. She was getting close to having enough hours to get her certification as a residential appraiser. It was sort of unbelievable. Her goal had been to complete the 2000 hours within a year and it looked like it was actually going to happen.
Becca was sitting at her computer in her office, trying ignore the date in the corner of the screen letting her know that today was December seventh. The day that would live in infamy. Jack was now divorced. Unless he’d changed his mind. Becca had gone to the library and done a little research on summary divorce. Or dissolution, as the state called it. Apparently, if one party or the other filed a form, the divorce process could be stopped. Maybe that’s what they were talking about in the parking lot. Probably. What was the un-dissolving of a marriage? Reconstitution? It sounded like a chemistry experiment.
Shaking her head, Becca chastised herself for dwelling on that topic again. That was not a train of thought she should be following. Right now, she needed to find a new apartment. Mr. Rap Dude had been expanding his CD collection into even louder and more obnoxious music every day. Mona was starting to look anxious when it was time to leave her spot under the desk and go home. It was so sad. Poor Mona.
Because Mona was so unhappy in the apartment, Becca had looked into some yoga classes that were in the afternoon instead of after work, so she could let Mona stay at the office under the desk and nap. Becca tried really hard to listen to the instructor, but at the end of the class when they did corpse pose and she was supposed to clear her mind, she couldn’t. It never worked. Her thoughts tended to drift to being in the loft in Joel’s cabin with the sound of Frank snoring and Jack sprawled out on the sofa downstairs. Clearing her mind was going to take some effort. She’d just have to keep trying.
Pat tapped lightly on the door of Becca’s office, disturbing her from her thoughts. She looked up at her uncle. “Hey, what’s up?”
He was holding some file folders in his hand. “I want to talk to you about a new assignment.”
“Come on in to my palatial office.”
“I know. Now that it’s looking like you’re going to get your certification, maybe we can think about finding you a better space. Or maybe move some of these file cabinets out of here. Some of the files stored in those things are really old. I can look into off-site storage.”
Becca knew he’d never do that. Storage cost money and Pat was not exactly known for his willingness to part with cash. His thrifty nature undoubtedly benefited the business though, keeping the overhead low. “Sure, Pat. I can make a few calls about that if you want.”
He leaned on one of the cabinets. “That would be great. How’s the apartment hunt going? Did you look at that place I told you about?”
“Yes. The apartment was okay, if a little boring. But I think the neighborhood is going downhill. I talked to one of the people who lives there. Or, actually, I think she is moving out, since she was loading stuff into her car. Anyway, she told me someone drove by and shot at the first-floor windows.”
His eyes widened. “Oh Becca, I’m sorry. I never would have suggested it if I’d known that.”
“You know what they say—location, location, location.”
Pat placed the files he was holding on the stack in her in-box. “On another note, I got another job on a place in Alpine Grove. You did such a great job on the Edgewater house, they seem to have told their friends.”
“Well, that’s good news for you, particularly if their friends are as loaded as they are.”
Pat smiled widely. “It seems so. It’s a summer place. They need an appraisal for tax reasons, which means it could be a little complicated.”
“The dilemmas of the filthy rich, huh?”
“Something like that. Anyway, since you seem to know every nook and cranny of the county and the real estate offices up there in Alpine Grove, I’d like you to take it. By the time you’re done, you’ll probably get those last few hours in and I can sign off on everything. You’ll be an official residential appraiser!”
Becca shook her head. “I’m not going to Alpine Grove again. I’m never going back there again.”
Pat crossed his arms across his chest. “Is this about Jack?”
She looked up quickly. “What? No. I told you, I met him because of the snowstorm. He fed me trees, remember?”
“I know. So why does he keep calling? I think Jenny is starting to get the hots for him. Or his voice anyway. She claims he sounds like a hottie on the phone.”
“Our sweet new receptionist shouldn’t be flirting with callers, should she?”
“This guy is very persistent, and you won’t
take his calls. Jenny said he claims you won’t talk to him at home either. But maybe you could tell him to stop harassing us. This is a place of business, you know.”
Becca straightened some papers on her desk. “I’m sorry, Pat. I’ll talk to Jenny.”
“You are so stubborn. This is just like when you were a kidlet, and I couldn’t make you go to bed when you stayed over at our house. Would you just talk to the guy, Becca?”
Becca shook her head. “Can’t Joanne do Alpine Grove appraisals, now that she’s back?” Becca pointed at her in-box. “I’ve got all this other stuff to do. I’m so behind! In fact, I’m coming in this weekend to get caught up.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Pat uncrossed his arms. “We’ve talked about this, Becca. I don’t expect you to work weekends. In fact, I don’t want you to work extra hours. It’s important to have some balance between work and the rest of your life. You need to consider your health.”
Becca raised her eyebrows. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with me working Thanksgiving weekend.”
“That was an extenuating circumstance. And believe me, I got a long lecture about it from your mother.” He waved at her desk. “You know none of that is going to take you very long. It’s just piddly stuff and you’re here all the time as it is.”
“I really don’t want to go back to Alpine Grove. My car isn’t up for it. What if it snows again?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. Rent another one of those four-wheel-drive things. Just think about it, will you? Joanne is so distracted with what’s going on with her mom’s illness, I don’t want to overload her.”
Becca sighed. “I’ll think about it. I appreciate you putting your faith in me.”
He reached across the desk and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. “It’s been easy, Becca. You’re very good at appraisal work. I know you can do it.”
As Pat left her office, Becca looked down at Mona, who had raised her head and appeared to be listening to the conversation. “Well Mona, that makes one of us. Because no matter what Pat says, I am not going back there.” Mona wagged her tail and cocked her ears, giving her an encouraging look.
That Saturday, Becca was sitting at her desk, typing numbers in her appraisal software program. It was incredibly boring, but she needed to get caught up. If she ever found a new apartment, she’d need to take some time off to pack, so it was better to get a little ahead of things now. So far, the to-do list for the apartment-hunting program was utterly depressing. The only apartments she could afford were either in a slum or had some tragic flaw like roaches the size of small cats scampering through the kitchen. That place had been particularly disturbing. It was all she could do not to run screaming out of the complex. Instead, she’d managed to retain some small level of professional decorum and politely explained to the property manager that she didn’t think the apartment was a good fit.
Maybe she should just stay where she was. Her apartment was located in a safe neighborhood. And it certainly had great fire protection. She could buy a big package of ear plugs. Of course, then she wouldn’t be able to hear the TV. Maybe she could get headphones for the TV. But Mona was miserable there. Becca put her forehead down on the desk and took a deep breath, trying to get the chatterbox in her head to just shut up for once.
Mona emerged from under the desk and faced the door, wagging her tail. Becca raised her head and Mona looked back at her expectantly. “We just went outside, Mona. Come on. You can’t possibly need to go again.”
A noise came from the hallway and Mona moved toward the door. Becca’s heart began beating loudly in her chest. No one was supposed to be here. Pat had said he was spending the day watching football, and no one else ever came in on the weekends. There was another clunk outside the door and Becca leaped up from the desk and looked at Mona. “Did you hear that?” Mona wagged in response. “You did! What kind of lousy watchdog are you?”
Becca ran toward the door and pushed the button on the lock. She crouched down next to Mona. “You’re right. Good girl! Just be quiet and they’ll go away. No one knows we’re here.” She put her hand to her throat and sat down on the floor with a thump. Oops. They probably heard that. She put her arms around Mona’s body and squeezed her eyes shut. Wait a minute. What was she doing? She was like one of those idiots in scary movies. The ones that get chopped up into little pieces because they were dumb enough to go hide in a closet. Those were the characters on the screen you ended up yelling at. “No, don’t do that, you fool! He’s right there with the chain saw!” Was she really that much of a brainless moron?
Leaning her forehead on the dog’s side, Becca tried to stop what was happening, but it wasn’t working. She couldn’t breathe and the pounding in her ears was deafening. Her heart was beating so hard, it was like it was going to explode out of her chest. She tried opening her eyes. Maybe her vision would just go back to normal this time. Maybe not. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes as she shut them again. Oh please, no. Not again. More noises arose from the hall, but they were starting to sound far away. Someone was shaking at the door knob. They were going to get in. It was really going to happen. She was going to die in an appraisal office. Uncle Pat would probably find the pieces of her lifeless body on Monday. That would be horrible. I’m so sorry, Pat! At least she’d fallen in love before she died. But she’d never told Jack how she felt. He’d never know.
There was a distant sound of swearing, a popping noise, and then something hitting the floor. Mona was pushed away and there was pressure on Becca’s upper arms. Someone who sounded like Jack was saying, “Becca! Look at me! Open your eyes. Look at me now!”
She opened her eyes and saw Jack kneeling in front of her. His face was inches from hers and his blue eyes were intense. Everything was blurry, but it looked like he was wearing a leather jacket and a faded Harley Davidson t-shirt. Maybe she really was dead. The biker look on Jack was totally hot. At least she’d die with a sexy memory of him. A fuzzier-than-usual version of Frank pushed his huge slobbery head into her face. Okay, maybe she was still alive, after all.
Jack pushed Frank away and said, “Frank, get out of the way.” He turned back to Becca. “Are you okay?”
Becca took a deep breath. Then another. Her vision cleared and she shook herself out of his grasp. She wasn’t dying and it wasn’t a sexy biker dream. But she was angry at Jack. “What are you doing here?”
Jack sat back on his heels and rubbed his eyes. “Trying to find you.”
“How did you get in here?”
“Your uncle let me in.”
Becca looked around. “Where is he?”
Jack sat down heavily on the floor next to Frank, who was taking up most of the remaining floor space. “In his office, I guess. He said I had ten minutes, then I had to get out.”
“I can’t believe he let you in here.”
Jack put his elbow on his knee and rested his forehead on his hand. “I think he’s a little sick of me.”
“Why are you harassing my uncle? And me? What is your problem?”
He lifted his head to glare at her. “My problem is you. Why won’t you return my phone calls? Why won’t you talk to me? I’ve been worried that something happened to you.”
“There’s nothing to say. Go be with your wife. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“No. And that’s ex-wife, by the way.”
“So what, now you can just live in sin or something? That’s probably more exciting, right? Gotta keep it exciting.”
Jack reached out to touch her arm. “Becca, what are you talking about?”
Becca pushed his hand away. “Your wife! You love her. I saw you. And then you said it yourself.”
He shook his head. “Saw what?”
“Before I left, I was going to stop by your place and say…well…stuff. But I saw you in the parking lot with Annie. You gave her this huge hug.” Becca put her hand over her face for a moment, then looked at him. “That was not just a friendly hug,
Jack. We huggers know these things. I thought you were going to jump her right there in the parking lot, so I left.”
Jack looked down and stroked Frank’s head thoughtfully. “I had no idea you were there.”
“Well, that was obvious. You certainly looked happy though.”
“Annie gave me a photograph.”
“What? Of her naked?”
He scowled. “Jeez Becca, no. It was a picture of Annie’s brother, his wife, and their new baby. They’ve wanted kids for so long, and I had no idea Sarah was even pregnant. Annie said they want me to be the little girl’s godfather.”
“What? Okay. That’s nice, I guess.” Becca took a deep breath. “But why were you in the parking lot?”
“She came up to the apartment, but I wouldn’t let her in. Frank was barking, so I told her we needed to go outside to talk.”
“You wouldn’t let her in?”
“No. She’d been leaving messages about getting back together. There’s a form you can fill out to stop the divorce. I never called her back. Then she just showed up.”
Becca nodded. “I read about the form. I figured you’d do it.”
“Why would I do that?”
Becca raised her palms toward the ceiling. “Hello? Because you love her.”
“Of course I do. I’m sure I always will in some way. Don’t you have more than one person in your life that you love? That doesn’t mean I want to live with her again. Much less be married to her. I’m not in love with her, which is a good thing because, against my better judgment, I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Becca put her hand on her chest. “What? What did you say?”
Jack turned to look behind him down the hallway. He lifted his hand and waved slowly. “Hi, Pat.”
Pat walked up to the doorway and Mona and Frank stood up to greet him. Pat stroked Frank’s head and asked, “Why are you two sitting on the floor?”
“I only have one chair. A guest chair won’t fit in here,” Becca said.
Pat said, “Are you done yet? I’m missing my game. Jack, your ten minutes are up. Get out. Becca, go home. Your mother will kill me if she finds out you were here on the weekend again.” He shook his finger at Becca. “Don’t you dare come back here on the weekend, or I’m going to change the locks on this place and not give you a key.”
Snow Furries (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 4) Page 20
