by Morgan Henry
Karen looked at Allan. He was trying to hold his face blank and Karen knew that meant he was hurting, too.
“I’ll take you to the store,” he said as he walked past her bag and out the door.
Karen felt like shit. Well, that and kind of angry, too. Damn it, she thought she had been clear from the start that this was just a fling. Some fun sex and that was it. No long-term commitments, no picking out china, just summer fun.
She wanted to tell herself that, but she knew all along they had wanted more. And she didn’t keep telling them otherwise.
And didn’t it just suck that she had lost her heart to them both. They made her feel like it was possible to have the store, have a life, and not worry so much about her parents. The past four weeks with them had been the best she’d had since moving to Hardwick Bay. And the fact that her sister was here and breaking out of the executive-with-a-pickle-up-her-ass mode should have been the chocolate sauce on top of chocolate mousse.
So what was the problem? Why couldn’t she stay here and let her sister have the apartment?
Well, there was a thought.
She left the bag at the door and got into the truck with Allan. He didn’t seem to notice she didn’t have the bag with her. At least he didn’t say anything about it.
Karen was trying to figure out how to apologize as they drove the couple of blocks to the store. She was preoccupied with sorting out the words when Allan slammed on the breaks.
The apology was gone in an instant. The instant that it took for her chest to seize up like an arthritic ninety-eight-year-old. The instant Karen’s heart hit her pelvis and tried to work its way to her toes. The instant that another part of her life shattered that day.
“No!” she screamed as she looked at her ruined store.
She leapt out of the truck and jerkily scrabbled toward the mess.
Someone had smashed all the windows in the night. At first glance inside, they had smashed everything inside the store as well. She walked carefully inside, her shoes crunching on the broken glass.
She started when her arm was grabbed.
“It’s okay, just me.” Allan stroked her arm. “Don’t go in yet. I’ll call the police.”
He took out his cell and made the call. “They’ll be here shortly. Zander’s already on his way.”
Karen just looked at him. She couldn’t feel anything right now. It was all ruined.
Everything she had worked so hard for was a gooey mess on the hardwood floor. She batted Allan’s hands away and walked further into the store.
Her glass display counter with all the handmade chocolates in it was smashed, glass shards hanging like jagged teeth, mocking her. Chocolates, candies, and other goodies were strewn all over the floor, broken and oozing like tiny dead bodies.
The ice cream counter was smashed and buckets of ice cream were thrown around and melting, creating a lake of multicolored cream. It looked like they had taken a hammer to her little coffee bar. Coffee and tea littered the immediate area and the machines were broken and dented, their insides exposed, and wires and tubes hanging out like some serial killer anatomy dissection.
She carefully stepped to the back room. She wheezed. The freezer and fridge were open and all her extra stores had been destroyed. Even the ingredients weren’t spared. Frozen berries were melting creating juice stains everywhere, cream and sugar had been dumped haphazardly, and her cocoa, her imported expensive cocoa, was stomped on all over the floor. She walked over to it and sniffed.
Good God, it smelled like someone had urinated on it.
She had fucked up her love life and lost her livelihood and it wasn’t even nine a.m.
* * * *
“Fine. Thank you.” Karen ended the call and looked up. “The insurance agent should be here in a couple of hours. If I’m not back from the doctor’s, could you help her get started, Mary?”
Mary nodded. There was a crowd sitting in Karen’s living room. Mary, Allan, Zander, and Hanna were perched on various pieces of furniture.
The store was temporarily closed up. At Allan and Zander’s request, Kent and Carter VanLindt had come over and helped put up plywood over the smashed windows and door, promising to come and help clean later. There was a sign saying Karen’s Kandies was closed but hoped to be open again soon.
Mary had arrived as the police did. Zander helped get Mary’s clothes and personal items upstairs while Karen and Allan dealt with the police. Sammy was locked in the bedroom for now, getting to know his new space.
Karen had answered all the officer’s questions in a numb fog.
No, she had no idea who would want to do this—no jilted lovers to be angry.
No, she didn’t have a security system. It’s Hardwick Bay for goodness sakes, hardly the crime capital of North America.
No, there wasn’t any money missing. They hadn’t got into the safe.
Unfortunately, though the police were sympathetic, they weren’t optimistic about catching the criminal. They did seem to think it was more personal than random, but Karen couldn’t help them figure out who she knew that would want to destroy her livelihood.
Karen sighed and stood. “I need to get to my appointment and get this damn thing off,” she said as she waved her right hand.
“I’ll take you,” Allan jumped up.
She eyed him warily. Would he want to talk about this morning?
“Why don’t I take you?” Hanna interjected. “These three can help the insurance person better than I can,” she reasoned smoothly.
“Fine.” Karen sighed. She felt exhausted and it wasn’t even noon.
They got into Hanna’s car and headed over to the clinic. Hanna plunked Karen in a chair in the waiting room and spoke quietly to the receptionist. A minute later, two coffees appeared in her hand and she gave one to Karen. Hanna settled beside her friend and sipped.
There was silence for a while, which Karen was grateful for. There was too much swirling around her head and she couldn’t make sense of it all just yet. Hanna gave her the quiet she needed.
Thank goodness the appointment with the orthopod was relatively good news. He took the big splint off, felt her finger, looked at the radiographs from last Friday, and pronounced her almost healed. He put a smaller brace on her finger, which she was allowed to take off for a few hours each evening, and wrote a requisition for physiotherapy.
“For my finger?” she asked skeptically.
“If you want to regain full mobility of it, you’ll go,” he told her. “Pardon my presumption, but I would guess you use your hands to make those delicious chocolates, so it would be in your best interest to have fully working fingers.”
She blinked at him, breathing heavily, unable to say that her store was ruined. “Okay.”
Karen was grateful he only looked at her a little oddly and didn’t pursue the reason for her discordant body language.
She arrived back at the store to find the insurance adjuster already there. It was several hours of taking photos, inventorying all the damage, and filling out form after form after form.
Late in the afternoon, Allan and Zander pulled her away from the store. Mary accompanied them to the house on the hill and sat out on the back patio with her. Allan brought them iced tea.
“I don’t think alcohol would be good for you right now,” he informed them and went back in the house.
“As much as I would really like a margarita, he’s probably right,” Mary said with a downward twist to her lips.
Karen didn’t say anything. She was still numb. What would she do now? It would take days, weeks, to get the store back in order. All the while, she would be losing income and having to pay for more supplies. She had no idea what the insurance would cover at this point. Maybe all, maybe nothing.
Maybe she should take the job as the personal assistant her parents were harping on.
Allan and Zander came back out to the patio then. They exchanged looks with each other. Ones that said, “Yep, we’ve got our united fro
nt down pat.”
Zander started. “Mary should stay with us tonight. We don’t know who did this, but we don’t think anyone should be staying at the apartment.”
Karen looked at Mary. Mary nodded.
“While you were going over stuff with the insurance agent, we did a bit of arranging for you,” Allan started. His words were slow and hesitant. He was being careful. “A friend of Mike and Craig’s is a security system expert. He and his partner are coming by tomorrow to set you up with a security system for the store and for the apartment. That way upstairs will be safer, too.”
Karen noted he didn’t say who might be living upstairs.
“The glass should be replaced tomorrow as well and there’s a cleaning crew coming that the insurance company approved already. That way, you can concentrate on ordering what you need to have replaced. You know, ingredients, equipment, products. That kind of thing.” Allan had sat beside her and taken her hand.
Zander sat on her other side. “It will be okay, Karen. Allan and I took another week off to help you out.”
Karen looked at each of them and burst into tears.
Chapter 19
Allan leaned on the door to the guest room and sighed.
“Well?” enquired Mary, shutting her laptop and turning from the desk to face him.
“She’s asleep. Zander is with her right now. I’ll go up later. She won’t wake up alone.” He scrubbed his face with his hand. He thought his heart was hurt this morning, but that stab was nothing compared to the pounding ache he felt for Karen right now.
“I don’t think I’ve seen her cry in years.” Mary’s face was screwed up a little, looking like she was going to leak a tear or two.
Allan hoped Mary didn’t cry, too. He couldn’t handle another sobbing woman tonight. “I love how strong she is. And I know she’ll get through this, but it was a lot to take today. She was so upset she was talking about getting another job.”
Mary snorted. “The personal assistant job at my ex-firm. Our parents have been pressuring her to apply for weeks. Not that she’d get it now. Bob would blackball her for sure.” She rolled her eyes. “The prick.”
“Is he going to cause problems for you?”
“Nah. He’s a jerk but he’s not a total nutjob.” Mary’s voice sounded sure, but Allan thought he saw her eyes tighten. It was fleeting, but it was there. He would have to talk to the security guys about that. Allan wasn’t going to let anything happen to Karen’s sister.
“Do you have everything you need? Are you sure you don’t want to bring Sammy over?” Allan knew from Karen how much Mary loved that cute cat of hers.
“I think it’s a little too much to ask of Sammy to get used to a couple of different houses in the same day. He’ll be fine. He has everything he needs and there’s enough of my stuff there that he should feel secure. Hanna brought over something you plug into the wall that releases happy cat smells to make him feel even better.” She smiled at him. “I know where everything is and I’m good. Go be with my sister. I know that’s what you want.”
Allan couldn’t deny that. “I’m going to get us a drink, then head back upstairs. Do you want anything while I’m in the kitchen?”
“Nope, I’m good.”
When Allan got back upstairs, Karen was deeply asleep and Zander was in one of the chairs near the fireplace. His eyes were unfocused and his shoulders were sagging.
“Here.” Allan handed him a beer. He slumped into the other chair.
They were both silent for a while, sipping slowly.
“Thanks for getting all of the cleanup shit organized,” Zander spoke first.
“Thanks for getting everyone fed and talking to all our friends. I’m glad Mike told us about his security buddies. Good timing that they’re setting up business here.” Allan was relieved they had someone who knew about Hardwick Bay helping out with the security. No ménage explanations needed.
“Karen kept mumbling about moving away after you went downstairs. Maybe.” Zander swallowed. “Maybe this was too much for her.”
Allan knew Zander had been hit hard by Karen’s bag at the door this morning. Hell, so had he. He didn’t know what to do. Sure, she didn’t take it, but Karen didn’t seem to believe there could be a relationship with the three of them. If she did, she wouldn’t be talking about that other job.
“Chad called me this afternoon,” Allan said. Chad was their supervisor at work.
“He pissed about the extra week?”
“No, he’s putting it in under family emergency.” Chad was a good guy, tough but fair. “He asked us about the job up north again.”
Zander and Allan had been asked to go and train some teams in Northern Ontario. It was tough work up there and hydro wanted some people to make sure the crews understood safety as well as the specifications on trimming and tree removal for lines. They were offered a one- or two-year contract and big money.
“It’s a good move for us financially. We could rent out the house to cottagers and pay the bills here, live cheap up north, and make a ton of cash for a year or more.” Allan had studied the financials extensively but his voice lacked any enthusiasm for the idea.
“Yeah, you went over it all with me.” Zander had agreed with Allan about the finances, but they turned the job down because they wanted Karen, and she couldn’t just move her store for a year. “I agree, it would pay out well in both the short and long term.”
“Yeah.”
* * * *
Karen heard Allan and Zander’s voices before she could really understand what they were saying. She started to hear words around the time the job offer came up. Too emotionally worn out and sleepy to take it all in, she drifted back off.
Waking the next morning was tough. At first it was like any other day of the past weeks, relaxed in the big bed with Allan’s hand on her belly and Zander’s across her thigh. Then reality came crashing back.
Broken hand.
Broken store.
Broken love.
If that was true then she had better look closer at that job in the city. She loved her store but that just didn’t cut it. Mary could be the new risk taker in the family and Karen could wear the suit. She wasn’t sure where Mary would live if she gave up the store. Well, there was Hanna’s little house that she rented before she moved in with Kent and Carter. That would be perfect for Mary.
Problem one solved.
The insurance money might pay off her remaining debt on her line of credit but she doubted it. She could sell the equipment that hadn’t been destroyed. Some of it was expensive. Maybe there would be enough left over to help her get started on her new life in downtown Toronto. If nothing else she could live with her parents for a little.
The thought of that made her stomach roll. Oh wait, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad since she was doing what they wanted. Yeah, keep lying to yourself, Karen. It worked so well with Allan and Zander.
Ah well, time to get up and face the present and her future as a suit. She may as well enjoy wearing jeans to work for the last couple of days that she could.
Sneaking out of bed carefully, miraculously avoiding waking Allan and Zander, she slipped into the bathroom. Downstairs, she started the coffee and pulled her laptop out of her bag. She had just finished updating her resume and sending out e-mails and cover letters to some of her contacts from college and other sources when Mary strolled into the kitchen.
Karen jumped in her chair and her ass planted itself on the floor. “Geez, Mary, you scared the shit out of me. I forgot you were staying here tonight.”
“Sorry.” Mary helped herself to coffee and poured Karen one, too. She joined her at the table. “What ya doin?”
“Updating my resume and sending out cover letters.” Karen tried to keep her voice neutral, but it came out somewhat bitter.
“Why on earth would you do that?” Mary blinked at her.
“Because my hand is broken and my business is in tatters and I have nothing holding me here.” Yep, bitter
. Bitter like the raw cocoa she used to turn into something wonderful.
“That’s not true. You love this town and you have plenty of friends here.” Trust Mary to try to get her out of the woe-is-me attitude.
“Yeah, well someone seems to want me out of business. And they picked a damn fine time to wreck the store. Makes me think it was someone from around here, and that’s just beyond horrible. Why would I want to stay around people who would do that?”
“Look, let’s go to the apartment and feed Sammy. I’ll make you some breakfast and we can talk.” Mary put a little sarcasm into voice and asked, “Maybe pretend to be sisters?”
“Okay.” Karen shut her computer.
Sammy was overjoyed to be let out of the bedroom to explore the rest of the apartment. He was an affectionate little orange cat, short-haired and sleek. He busied himself rubbing his cheek on every piece of furniture, between rubbing on Karen and Mary. He would come over, knead some bread on one lap or the other then head off to explore the next bit of space.
Mary made pancakes for them, knowing they were Karen’s favorite. She loaded them with blueberries and found some whipped cream in a can in the fridge. “I’m surprised you have this fake stuff,” she observed to her sister.
“I didn’t buy it. Maybe the boys did.”
Mary looked at her with the eager-eyed stare of a child. “Were they having whipped cream parties on your body?”
Karen blushed, remembering the ice cream they had licked off her body. “Ah no, no whipped cream…”
“That blush tells me you’re lying. Or at least not telling the whole truth.” Mary pointed her spatula at Karen. “Talk.”
Karen sighed, suddenly sad. Sad there would be no more ice cream licking with Allan and Zander. Sad there would be no more ice cream period. “Maybe another time.”
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on in your head right now, but you need to talk about it.”
“I just think this is over for me. I tried the business thing, tried the relationship thing, and it’s all ended in shit, so it’s time to move on.”
