by Natalie Ann
“I like your thinking, Lacy,” Hailey said. “But if you want to keep this quiet, give Eli a call. His director of security has a long reach and will be discreet.”
“I don’t want anyone else in the family to know,” she said.
“Why?” Hailey asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong other than to be naive enough to think this couldn’t happen to you. Let it be a lesson for the rest of the family, but no one will talk outside the family and many will help.”
She knew Hailey was right, but it was still an embarrassment that she didn’t think this could happen to her and it did. What a mess. “Okay. Once we get everything set at the bank and my accounts on hold, I’ll have Seth send everything over.”
“Oh, Seth Young,” Hailey said. “Great guy. He’ll help you out and lead you in the right direction.”
“Your name came up. He said I should call you. How do you two know each other?”
Hailey laughed. “My firm deals with all the Bond businesses on the island. Most of them go through the same bank and when Seth was named the new president a few years ago we had a meet and greet. Not to mention we’ve had some dealings.”
Which of course she should have realized but didn’t really get involved in her cousins’ businesses. She liked working for someone else and getting her paycheck. The last thing she wanted to deal with were those complications.
Of course she was still dealing with one now.
They finished up the call with Hailey and she took a few deep breaths. “The first step is done,” her mother said. “Hailey is going to lock up your social security number for you and take care of that right away.”
“No one is going to be able to access anything with my number,” she said. “But like Seth said, maybe they have other cards coming or are sitting on them to use now that some of them have been maxed or frozen for nonpayment.”
“Let Hailey deal with it. She knows what is best. If there is a way to track this person, Hailey and Griffin will do it.”
“Griffin?” she asked. “Is that the name of the guy that follows Eli around in the shadows at night?”
Her mother laughed. “That’s him. He’s some ex-military person. Eli says the guy would jump in front of a bullet for him.”
She shook her head. “I get Eli needs security, but that guy’s kind of scary when he stands around with his arms crossed in a suit like Eli and never says a word. And why does Eli need someone following him around like that?”
“Eli has always been a wild and smooth one. He traveled the world looking at different casinos to make his dream come true. When you’ve got money behind your name, sometimes people target you. Who knows with Eli? And no one asks. Could just be more a show for him too.”
Which was more likely the case. “Do you think that happened to me?” she asked, looking at her mother staring at her. “I don’t have much that anyone would want to target me.”
“You have enough and you just don’t know. This could be random. It could have been a hack on your computer. It could have been a lot of things and we may never know, but the first step is to take a step. To take charge.”
“I know you’re right. I already feel better. My bigger concern now is I might be stuck living in my condo in Plymouth when I start working here in June.”
“You can move in with us and you know it.”
“There comes an age where staying at your parents for more than a few nights crimps everyone’s style.”
Her mother sighed. “I know you’re going to be difficult about this but come June you might not have a choice. Rental properties aren’t that easy to find and if you try to rent from someone that isn’t a family member they will run a credit check on you.”
“Urgh. This is horrible,” she said, ready to bang her head against the table. “It’s so embarrassing on top of it. Hailey made me feel like I could have prevented this when it never crossed my mind.”
“I don’t think she wanted you to feel bad as much as she wanted you to be aware and make others aware. Let’s give it time and get things in place. Until then, I’ll keep my ear out for places to rent for you. Drew might know of something when you’re ready to talk to him about it.”
“I’ll reach out to him soon. I promise. But for now, I’ll call Seth and see if we can come in to get that account set up for you. I’d rather he do it than us go in together and have someone see us.”
“And if he can’t do it and has me meet with someone else, then that is exactly what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll go do that while you meet with him and get what Hailey needs. We don’t even have to walk in together. I’ll go in before you or after.”
“That’s probably best. No reason to raise any red flags.”
“That’s my girl,” her mother said, patting her hand again. “You’ll get through this.”
“I know. It’s going to take time, but I’ll need it to fix my bruised pride.”
6
Clouds Of Worry
Two weeks later, Seth was walking through the grocery store with Adele while he got his weekly food. With spring break next week, he’d need more snacks and lunch food in the house. His mother was going to watch Adele on Monday and Tuesday and then he had the rest of the week off.
Mary Young was going on a much-needed cruise with friends and would be returning the following week.
“I want tomato soup,” Adele said, walking next to the cart and holding onto it. He didn’t like her far from his sight. “With grilled cheese. Make sure we have that for lunch.”
Her new favorite. She’d latch onto something and eat it to exhaustion and then he’d be stuck with it in the house forever when she decided it wasn’t her favorite anymore.
“I’ll get enough for next week,” he said.
“But I want more than five cans,” she said when he put them in the cart. “I’m going to eat it every day for a month.”
“We’ll be here next week to buy more if that is the case.” He started to push his cart more but noticed Adele wasn’t moving from her spot. He turned to tell her to come on and bumped into someone. He started to apologize when he noticed it was Ava. “Hi,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” she said. She had a small basket in her hand with a few items.
He hadn’t seen her in almost two weeks. The first time they’d met, she’d left his office and he expected to get a call telling him to put a hold on her accounts. He hadn’t expected her to come back two hours later with a list of things for her attorney. He shouldn’t have been surprised though because Hailey was one tough and thorough cookie.
While Ava was in his office, she’d said her mother had just finished opening up a new account for her usage only. He was glad to hear that and knew it was something his own mother would have done too. He was going to suggest that if it came down to it as an option, but he found letting people decide that on their own was best.
Not everyone had the money to do that for a family member or wanted the risk. Though he was pretty sure there wasn’t any risk with Ava and her family.
“No problem. Funny meeting you here,” she said. She was smiling now and he could see that the clouds of worry weren’t surrounding her eyes anymore. He’d had some conversations with Hailey since. He’d supplied everything he could to help get things moving, but he was out of the loop at this point.
“The joy of food shopping,” he said.
“Daddy,” Adele said. “I’m going to add a few more cans of soup. Now it’s ten.”
He rolled his eyes and caught Ava grinning at him. “Looks like I aided in the shopping by stalling your departure of the aisle.”
He caught Ava’s eyes drift to his hand for a wedding band but tried to push the low drum of his heart aside. It was probably a normal glance. If he’d thought of her in the past few weeks, he was trying to tell himself it was curiosity over a client more than an attraction he hadn’t felt in years.
“Adele tends to get what she wants when she wants it, even if she’s told no a f
ew times.”
“What a pretty name that is,” Ava said to his daughter.
“Thank you,” Adele said. “My mom loved Adele, the singer. Have you ever heard her?” His daughter’s head was bobbing up and down. “Her music is the best. If you haven’t you should look her up.”
“I have heard of Adele’s music,” Ava said. “It’s beautiful.”
“Just like you,” Adele told Ava. “Isn’t she pretty, Daddy?”
He felt his face flush. “Ava, this is my daughter, Adele. Adele, this is Ava.”
“How do you know my daddy?” Adele asked. Oh boy, it was going to turn into twenty questions in the grocery store on a Saturday around noon before Easter and carts were crashing into each other.
“I met your father at the bank. He’s helping me with something.”
“My father is good at helping people. Dad, did you see how pretty the braid is in Ava’s hair? Maybe she can help you learn how to do that so you won’t have to watch a video when you try to do mine.”
There was a snicker behind him and he knew some were watching the show and being entertained. He hoped no one recognized either him or Ava. She might not like the attention. He wasn’t so sure what he was feeling though.
Ava grinned and he thought he should explain. “Adele wants her hair in braids and I’m not very good at doing much more than ponytails. My mother is even less talented than me.”
“If my mommy was alive I bet she would braid my hair, but she’s not. She’s in heaven,” Adele said, causing Ava’s smile to drop from her face. He’d seen sympathy enough in people’s eyes and didn’t want it now.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
He nodded his head since he’d heard it plenty in his life. “Thank you.”
“Can you teach my daddy how to do it?” Adele asked again.
“Honey, we are blocking traffic and it’s busy. I’m sure Ava has better things to do than stand here talking to us.”
“I can show you how,” she said.
“What?” he said.
“How to braid. I can show you how to do it if you want to learn. It’s the least I can do for all your help.”
“Yay,” Adele shouted. “Do you have a brush to show him now?”
Ava started to laugh, some of the sympathy gone and maybe something else replaced in her eyes this time. He wasn’t sure and was wondering if he was reaching or not. He was rustier than a tailpipe on a twenty-year-old car left out in the cold weather.
“I think your father is right,” Ava said. “This isn’t the place.” She looked at him. “I’m on the island all weekend for the holiday, but I’m sure you’re busy tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is Easter,” Adele announced. “Daddy is taking me to lunch when we are done here and then tonight we are going to color eggs.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” Ava said, moving out of the way for someone to pass.
“Can you go to lunch with us? Then you can show Daddy how to braid my hair. Do you know how to do more braids than just that?”
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed to her. This was getting out of hand that his daughter was trying to set him up on a date.
“I think lunch sounds like fun,” Ava said, shocking him.
“Don’t feel like you’ve got to,” he said, then wished he didn’t. What if she thought he didn’t want her there? He did, he just wasn’t sure he wanted it to happen the way it was.
Ava moved over one more time and then reached into her purse. She pulled out a card and a pen, wrote something on the back, and handed it over. “Call me when you’re done and we can meet somewhere. If I don’t hear from you, no worries. We can pretend you lost it.”
“He won’t lose it,” Adele said, then went to reach for the card. “I’ll hold onto it so he doesn’t, but Daddy doesn’t lose anything. He is always helping me find things.”
His face was on fire right now, more so when Ava laughed even harder. “Well then. Maybe I’ll hear from you soon. I’m just going to finish getting a few things for my mother for dinner tomorrow and get out of this zoo.”
“I wish we had a zoo on the island,” Adele said next. He knew if he didn’t start moving they’d never make it out of here and he didn’t care for the looks he was getting from people either.
“Are you sure about lunch?” he asked, nodding his head at his daughter. “You might need cotton balls for your ears.”
“I’m pretty tough,” she said. “I’ll see you soon.”
He watched Ava walk away in another pair of jeans that showed off her very fit body. She had little casual sneakers on her feet this time instead of boots, but she still looked much younger than she was. Maybe more so with her hair in the French braid that he had attempted and failed at three times. He was beginning to think his hands were too big for it.
That was his excuse at least and not that a simple braid was going to defeat him.
“She was nice,” Adele said when they were walking around the store and trying to finish up. Thankfully his mother was cooking dinner tomorrow and he didn’t even have to think about that.
“She is very nice,” he said. “And if we go to lunch with Ava and she shows me how to braid, you must remember to thank her.”
“I will. I promise. Because you thank people that help you,” Adele said.
“Yes, you do.”
7
Luck Of The Draw
Ava had a wide range of emotions as she drove back to her mother’s house.
One, she was thankful her mother forgot some of the items she needed for the pecan pie she promised to make, forcing Ava to the store to get everything.
Two, she was elated over the fact that she had a reason to see Seth again and thank him for all his help with her problem. A problem that there didn’t seem to be much of a solution to right now.
Three, sadness over the fact that he’d lost his wife. She didn’t worry that maybe he was seeing anyone. His daughter probably wouldn’t have asked her to teach her father to braid if there was another woman in their life.
Four, excitement over spending time with an adult other than a family member, even if there was a child there. She liked kids and Seth’s daughter seemed to be a riot.
“Did you get everything?” her mother asked when she walked in the door.
“Everything on the list,” she said. “The store was busy and I ran into someone.”
“Who?” her father asked. He was eating a sandwich at the island. He’d been very protective of her the past few weeks along with her brothers. It was bordering on smothering, but it was better than not having support.
She looked over at her mother who was watching closely too. “Seth Young.”
“Nice young man,” her mother said again.
“Did you thank him for all of his help?” her father asked.
She wanted to roll her eyes at them but didn’t. “No. He was there with his daughter and it was busy. But his daughter commented on my hair and asked if I could show her father how to do a braid that he can’t figure it out from watching videos. It was cute.”
She could see that Seth was embarrassed, but he wasn’t put off either. She thought she was good at reading people and maybe she saw something in his eyes. Or was it wishful thinking on her part for the roller coaster her life had become?
Everyone knew she was transferring to the island in June and were asking where she was going to live. The lease on her condo was up in July and she didn’t want to renew it for another year and hadn’t planned on it, but Drew hadn’t found a place for her to rent yet either.
Though Bond Realty had a ton of rental properties and apartment complexes, they didn’t have any openings. If something didn’t happen soon, staying with her parents might become a reality she didn’t want to have to consider.
She still had about six weeks so she wasn’t going to stress too much. Something would come up, she hoped. Though Hailey was working hard at trying to clear her name, they weren’t making a lot of progress and things we
re slow.
The accounts that were opened without her knowledge had all been contacted and notified it was fraudulent activity. Chances were the debt would be wiped clean at some point, but her credit would take longer to clear.
Again, she had to stop focusing on that and know she had family and a job and money and would get through this. She wasn’t broke. She wasn’t on the street.
“So you’re going to teach him how to braid his daughter’s hair?” her mother asked. “What about his wife?”
“He’s a widower,” she said. “Adele—that is his daughter’s name—she told me and then she wanted me to show her father in the store. Again, it was cute and funny but other customers were bumping into us. She’d put her father on the spot.”
“And you love watching people squirm,” her father said, grinning at her. “You’ve got a horrible warped sense of humor like that.”
“I do,” she said. “And he was squirming but not enough that I caught he didn’t want to learn either. Adele said they were going to lunch next and she invited me along.”
“Ava Marie,” her mother said. “Please tell me you didn’t accept on the poor man.”
“Poor man, my butt,” she said. “He didn’t seem all that put out over it. And yes, I did accept, but I gave him an out to lose my number if he wanted.”
No reason to say Adele jumped in and wouldn’t let her father do that.
“Whenever you go, if you go,” her father said. “Just thank him again.”
“I’ve got manners, Dad,” she said, reaching over and stealing one of his chips. He only snorted at her.
“If you say so,” her mother said.
“So now we’ll see if he calls me when he’s ready to go. If not, then I’ll make myself some lunch here and help you bake for tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll be back later to help with the baking.”
“Don’t think I didn’t realize you did this to get out of helping. You’ve never been one for baking.”
