by Jean Oram
"Relax, Mandy."
"Don't tell me to relax—this is my livelihood!"
"I was touching the metal, not the tire. And you all but dumped this catering shit on me."
"I saw you touch the rubber! Wash your hands." She pointed to the wash up area tucked by the back door. "This is commercial food preparation. Where's your hairnet?"
"It was itchy."
"Seriously?" Mandy looked at the ceiling and tried to remember some sort of move she could do that would settle her chi into a happy little ball in her center. She couldn't think of a single one that wouldn't prevent her chi from being blasted all over the place when she reached over and strangled her brother.
Never hire family.
Never. Ever. Again
"What?" her brother asked in a peeved voice.
"You're going to get me shut down before I even open!"
"I think Seth has already taken care of that," he muttered.
"What did you just say?"
"Don't take your frustrations with Frankie out on me!"
"Frankie has nothing to do with this!"
"You've been such a bitch since you and Frankie had that fight. Get over it already!"
"And you've been an asshole since the day you were born! Frankie and I didn't—"
"It's all over town, Mandy. I can't believe you told Frankie to follow his dreams. What the hell is Alex supposed to do with Frankie suddenly gone?" He gave her a look as if to say 'How could you?'
"That," Mandy said, trying to gain control over her voice, which was wobbling from anger, "has nothing to do with me. He makes his own choices."
"Sure. After you make them for him."
"That is not true!"
"He'd jump off a cliff if you asked him to and you don't even care."
"I do too care! I care a lot!"
"Then prove it!"
"Like you're one to talk, you moody old fart. You're too afraid to step out there and let anyone accept you as you are. Quit waiting to walk in order to live."
Her brother shoved his chair away from the counter, his expression dark. "Forget it. You just keep on living with your head up your ass."
The blood in Mandy's ears rushed like a river during spring runoff and she tried to pull in a steadying breath.
Her brother paused at the door. "I can't deal with this. It's too much stress—it's not good for me. I quit."
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Mandy grabbed her hair, trying not to succumb to the urge to yank it all out. "Right now?"
"Right now."
"Fine. Go. It would be faster and easier to do it myself." She moved to the table and began prepping sandwiches.
"You forgot to wash your hands," her brother said.
As he glided out the door, she whipped slices of bread at him, fuming as they gently rained around him, pattering to the floor. She shoved the heels of her hands against her eyes and pushed back the tears of frustration fighting against her eyelids. The phone rang and she snatched it off the hook, forcing her voice to sound cheery. "Wrap it Up, Mandy speaking."
"Mandy, it's Seth. We need to talk."
Chapter 14
Mandy blocked the exit to Seth's office-slash-apartment, refusing to let him leave, despite his harried, peeved look. The past fifteen minutes had involved a lot of him silencing the ringing phone and the two of them dancing verbally like sumo wrestlers, trying to keep the other from getting a good grip and shoving the other one out of the ring. Or in Seth's case, making his way out of the building after giving her flimsy excuses for why he'd called her into the city. She knew it wasn't just to tell her he'd been exonerated for scams and that the rest of her equipment might be a bit delayed.
"Mandy, step aside," he sighed, "I have to get to this meeting." He pushed up his suit sleeve to check his watch. "Proceed as planned. You have a tight timeline to follow. Just...no matter what, keep going according to plan, okay? No matter what." He paused to meet her eye. "I'll make sure it'll work out."
"With what? No décor, a half done kitchen, no furniture, no signs, no training and a menu that just changed!" She jabbed him hard in the chest. "I have less than four weeks!"
He wiped his face with a hand. "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just need you to trust me." He made a move to squeeze past her again, but her instincts told her to block him. If she let him by, she felt he'd successfully avoid her forever more.
"This isn't just about expanding too fast," she said as he went to protest her blocking him. "Is it? Why did you call me here? What's really going on?"
Seth's face paled, but he looked her straight in the eye. "You have no recourse but to continue. To back out at this stage would mean definite financial decimation." He tried to move past her again, but she placed her body between him and the space he planned to move into.
"Who said anything about backing out?"
Seth gave her a sad, pained look that would have made her back off if she hadn't invested her savings and put Frankie's inheritance on the line. The term invested held a whole new meaning to her now.
"Mandy, you are such an innocent." He tried to ease past her. "I'd like to keep it that way."
She glowered and blocked his way. She hadn't played ice hockey against her brothers on Blueberry Lake all those years without learning how to anticipate someone else's moves. He could try and deke her out all he liked but he wasn't getting past her until she decided he could.
Seth's shoulders rounded and he shot her a look of defeat. "Fine. Wrap it Up is in trouble."
She took a step toward him. "Everything I've put into this is everything I've never had. I can't afford to lose this, Seth."
"I know," he moaned. "I'm sorry. I thought you were..." He let out an anguished sigh.
She struggled to keep her emotions under control, as well as the strong urge to grip him around his throat and shake and shake him until his eyes popped out of his skull. "How bad is it?" she asked tightly.
Seth eyed the door and for a moment, Mandy thought he was going to knock her aside and race through it. Instead, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm being accused of money laundering and fraud."
Mandy's heart made a large ka-thump in her chest, then stilled. "Say that again?" Those were mobster charges...not for a guy like Seth—just some dude trying to act larger than his britches could ever be.
"It's a long story, but the short version is they don't like how I've financed things." He ran a hand through his hair and took several steps back, unable to meet her eye. "They think I've done something illegal, but I haven't. Everything is aboveboard and this publicity will actually be good for the brand because it will get us in the news. Except..."
"Except what?"
Seth waved a hand vaguely. "Expanding at the rate I have been—it's a financial balancing act. I have a lot of plates spinning on sticks and I dropped one. Lexi got mad—"
"Lexi?" Mandy breathed.
"It ended up hurting her because I had to increase the interest on her franchise loan."
"But you can't do that!" She was sure John had made sure the interest rate was set. Absolutely sure.
"Not with you, I can't." He gave her a half smile. "You've a good lawyer." His voice perked up and he said, "Don't worry. Wrap it Up will rise like a phoenix from the fire."
"That kind of implies everything is going to be reduced to ash first, Seth."
He sighed. "Bankruptcy."
She rubbed her forehead. "Can't you just give it to me straight, for once?"
Seth slowly wrapped her hands in his, his gray eyes gazing into hers with what seemed like real pain. "I never did anything wrong," he said softly. "In six months from now, this will all be over and I'll be exonerated—"
"You said you've already been exonerated!"
"Yes, but...I can't afford to go through this. I have retirement plans. I'm filing for bankruptcy."
"But you took my money. Why would you take my money if you..." She stared at him, seeing the shrewd businessman everyone else had seen—the one Franki
e had warned her about. Oh, damn. Ohhhh, damn. She took five steps back, hand on her chest as though she'd been stabbed. "You took my money with no intention of ever letting me open! That's why everything has been delayed. It's you!" She covered her mouth. "How could I have been so stupid?"
"Mandy, no," he begged. "I want you to open. I want you to do well."
She pointed a finger at him, peeved that it was shaking. "You better not fuck me over, Seth. You'd better find a way to get my place set up so I can open or I will—" Will what? Everything she could have used as a threat, the cops were already nailing him on. "I'll make you regret it like you wouldn't believe. You're not messing with city girls. You're messing with Blueberry Springs."
* * *
Mandy gunned her truck up the mountain pass to Blueberry Springs and brushed a tear from her cheek. She'd keep moving forward because she trusted John and his revisions to her franchise agreement, not because she trusted Seth.
And at the end of the day, what choice did she actually have? She was already losing everything. But to throw it all away preemptively so she could slink off and hide meant she was accepting her fate. And she would not do that—whatever it took. She was not her mother. She would never allow anyone to defeat her without her permission. She could see that now. She was different. Stronger.
She flicked on her wipers, driving past mounds of dirty snow that had slid off the mountain during very late season avalanches. The highest northern ridges were still snow-covered from the late spring storms, but with the summer heat wave suddenly upon them along with the rain, they were facing daily avalanches or flash floods along the road. She couldn't recall there ever being a year like this. Mother Nature's moodiness was matching her own moods stroke for stroke.
Her truck swished through the remains of an earlier flash flood and she pushed away pangs of loneliness. She flipped her sunglasses down as her truck roared into the sunlight at the end of an avalanche tunnel. Like a rebirth.
A rebirth she couldn't have. No mulligans. No do-overs. She had to fix things all by herself.
Frankie.
My God, Frankie. She brushed the tears from her cheeks. He was the only one who had ever truly understood her and what had she done? Discounted his feelings for years.
She raised her sunglasses again as she drove into the last avalanche shed between her and the lower meadows of home. As she entered, something felt off. She eased up on the gas and flicked on her lights. Something was definitely wrong. Her truck was rumbling and shaking, making her vibrate in her seat. Frowning, she checked her gauges and hit her flashers. She couldn't afford a breakdown. Financially or location-wise. Between here and home, there was nowhere safe to pull over, due to no stopping zones, avalanche zones, and a long runaway lane for trucks whose brakes had gone out on the long hill down into town.
She was almost out of the tunnel when a sudden bout of vertigo hit her. She blinked hard as thundering blocked out the sound of her stereo. Mandy slammed on her brakes as snow piled in front of her, sliding into a growing mound blocking the exit with dirty snow and broken trees.
She threw her truck into reverse, and with her heart throbbing madly in her chest, she backed up, watching snow continue to thunder down over the protective tunnel. Feeling as though she was being tumbled around in a clothes dryer, she closed her eyes to steady herself, waiting for the deafening roar to come to an end.
She peeked out at the snow, which continued to mound higher and higher, trapping her. She checked her rearview mirror to confirm that the same was happening at the other end of the tunnel. The air stilled and quieted and the remaining spilling snow slowly sucked the last bit of light out of her safe, concrete cave.
After the roaring and cracking, the tunnel felt frighteningly quiet. Snow had oozed into the tunnel and fear left a bitter taste on her tongue as she checked her phone's signal. Nothing.
She was trapped. Alone. The darkness felt complete and she fought for control of her breathing. She rested her head on the steering wheel, thoughts streaming through her mind. She'd be in the papers again with all her current failures—the franchise, getting trapped here. But she'd survived humiliations. And she would again. She'd survived having Oz dump her so he could pick up with harmless Beth instead of facing reality. Mandy had told him he should get out of his father's business and chase his passion. Which he eventually did, but when he was already with Beth. Dammit it all, she'd been good for Oz. He was just a shitty listener who took forever to follow through on advice.
She'd also pushed Frankie to get past his fears and try TV—to gnaw on the very marrow of his passions.
But again, the town had pointed their fingers at her—she was the bad guy for causing change.
For years, she'd lived with a giant hand of grief clutching her heart because of Frankie. Ever since that night under the water tower when he'd come flying toward the earth after she'd screamed his name, she'd been living in fear. Fear for how much she loved her best friend. Scared her love wouldn't be enough to make him stay, just as it hadn't been enough to keep her father from leaving her and her mother to go take up with a new family across town. And later, she'd been scared that Frankie would leave her the way Oz had left her for Beth. Twice.
But of course Oz wasn't the man she was supposed to be with. Oz was the one man in town she could easily pretend to love, but never be truly crushed by.
Not like Frankie.
Fear had made her cling to Oz, to do desperate things to keep herself from having to be alone. Of having to face Frankie head on.
And after all these years, Frankie still loved her. He'd waited. He hadn't allowed her to push him away. He was right there. Ready.
And she loved him. Loved him in a way that made her dizzy and breathless.
And it was time. She knew she was strong enough now. These disasters with her business hadn't led to her collapsing the way her mother had when faced with adversity. They had only made her more determined. But if she didn't leave her fears behind, she would never get to experience true love. She had to believe she was deserving and allow him to love her.
Goddamn it. She grinned at herself. She was in love with her best friend. Crazy in love.
How on earth had she ever managed to convince herself to stay out of his arms for all these years? When she got out of this tunnel, the first thing she was going to do was run to Frankie and make him hers.
She was ready.
All in. One-hundred percent. No holding back.
Chapter 15
It had taken all her courage to drive back through those avalanche tunnels between her and the studio where Frankie was working, but she'd done it. She'd ignored her lengthy to-do list and whipped up a batch of brownies for him.
Deep in the city, Mandy parked her truck beside several souped-up cars outside Studio B. Now all she needed was the guts to get out of her truck, step through those doors and tell Frankie the truth: that she missed him and she loved him.
Oh, man. She shook out her hands and bit her lips. Driving all this way had been the easy part. Now she actually had to do it. Let go. Put herself out there.
She closed her eyes and slid out of her truck, balancing the plate of brownies on her upheld hand. She took two steps forward, then turned back to her truck.
She couldn't do it. What if he rejected her? What if it was too late? What if he said yes but only wanted a weekend with her? What if he said yes and she fell so deep and hard and something happened to him?
She lowered her forehead to the warm metal of her truck. She couldn't do this. She wasn't strong enough. And she didn't have anything to offer him. She was a dragonfly's wingspan away from failure. From losing his inheritance. She wasn't a big fish. She wasn't even a waitress anymore. She was nothing. She wasn't even a good friend.
She closed her eyes against the tornado of emotions battling inside. She needed to get a grip on her fears. She couldn't let them run her life any longer. She wanted this. She'd already taken the first steps to changing her life. All
she had to do was keep up the momentum.
Sucking in a deep breath, she pulled her head off her truck, ignoring the oily smear she'd left behind, and marched herself into the studios. Huge walls rose up on either side of her and oversized doors led into various rooms. She paused in the dim halls until she spotted the man-sized door that hid Frankie. She stared at it. Was she supposed to knock? What if they were filming?
A woman came up, reached over and opened the door. "Those will be popular," she said, eyeing the plate wavering in Mandy's hand. She pointed to a darkened light to the right of doorjamb. "When the light is off, you're safe to go in."
"Oh, right. Thanks."
The room overpowered her with the scent of oil, gasoline, paint, and pretty much everything that made her heart ache for Frankie. Large fans struggled to keep the fumes out, providing a constant hum in the background. The old roadster sat under huge lights that were so bright, the rest of the room disappeared when you focused on it. A man in a t-shirt sporting the TV show's logo worked on a rusty fender. A few large cameras were set up around the room, and shiny toolboxes on wheels were scattered about, along with state-of-the-art tools that must have had Frankie drooling. A dream come true.
She smiled, knowing he had to be loving it and would come home inspired to get his bodywork business off the ground and leave parts stocking in his past.
She turned to leave, feeling as though she shouldn't have come, that the timing wasn't right, and caught Frankie's eye. For a second, she faltered and their eyes locked.
Frankie resumed his work and she watched his hands deftly move the metal to grind it into a perfect circle. Summoning her courage, she made her way over to him, stepping over the various cords and hoses taped to the floor.
