The Wrong Sister (19 page)

“What about Vickie?”

He scoffed. “What about her? You think she can do this? She has her hands full and can barely manage the house right now.”

She frowned. “Did you tell her about almost losing the house?”

“I did. I told her everything. The money is tight and almost gone. I told her where we are in every way.”

The blush again. He didn’t mean
everything,
did he? As in…

“Everything… within reason,” he added after observing her reaction.

“Are you sure that was a good idea?”

“Why are you so sure it wasn’t? Besides, Vickie and your mother were all for it. Who do you think suggested you when I mentioned I needed to hire additional staff?”

They knew?
Crap!
Now it would look weird if she said no, when only yesterday she was bemoaning to both of them that she could not figure out where to find work or what to do. She was torn between finishing her school program, just so she’d have something to put on her resume, and the sense of urgency that she needed an income now, not a year from now. “Who else are you hiring?”

“No one. You would handle office admin stuff. You’d be kind of in charge of everything else office-related. What do you think?”

He was now talking the way he used to. Brisk and blunt and to the point. His gaze was fixed on hers as one eyebrow rose while he waited for her answer. His impatient manner was real and seemed like he didn’t have any issues about being near her.

“Um. Okay? I don’t know what else to say.”

“I’d like you to take this job. We get along well. Why not take advantage of that?”

Get along well? Sure. Great. That was one way of looking at it.

“So what? I just show up tomorrow?”

“Yes. If you want to.”

“I guess, I want to. I mean, I want to. I’m just surprised and confused and unsure… you know?”

His gaze drilled into hers. “I know what kind of person you are. And I have no issues with hiring you for this position.”

She nodded. “Okay. Thank you. You know…”

He smiled with only half his mouth. “Yeah, I know. The same things I feel. See you tomorrow.”

She shut the door behind him. He did not even step one foot inside. He offered her a job. A job in the field she had some training in. She was his sister-in-law. She was looking for work. She needed an income. He was right, of course, he had to offer it to her. Naturally, Vickie suggested it and her parents endorsed it.

So why the heck wouldn’t she do that?

She would. She was definitely going to.

TRACY HAD NOT HAD a job in a decade. Prior to that, she temporarily worked as a receptionist at the local community swimming pool. She had no marketable skills. After she got the girls off to school the next day, she drove straight to Donny’s office. It was located in downtown Calliston. It was a small office on the main street and set among other shops and businesses that ranged from a lawyer to an insurance broker to a small coffee shop next door. The front was brick with a deep overhang that provided a covered walkway up and down. She had been there before although she couldn’t remember the reason, and recalled that it was small, but neat and orderly. She could see the waiting room and what would be her desk from the storefront windows that offered a view into almost the entire office.

Gretchen’s former practice was only one block over, and a few blocks behind Donny’s present location. Tracy used to go there often to take Gretchen to lunch and occasionally, dinner. Her heart tugged with nostalgia. She missed Gretchen living in town. Especially now. She would know just the right thing to say to Tracy today. It was hard to contemplate working in the real world when she never really did it before. Even if her “boss” was Donny, it was still venturing out into the real world for her. Further than she’d maybe ever been. Her hands were slick with sweat as she parked her mini-van into a slot nearly right in front of Donny’s office.

Gretchen could have talked her through this. Gretchen had been supporting herself for many years, and made a good living. Tracy’s lack of work experience had not bothered her before this year. She was content with her daily life. Her babies were born almost back to back. For many years, she was so busy tending to them, she had to give up showering some days. Being that busy in her early twenties, it would have been a joke to say she didn’t “work.” She knew she worked as hard as anyone, being the mother of two kids who were only fifteen months apart. Kylie came as a bit of a surprise. She and Micah wanted another kid, just not back to back. But it wasn’t that big of deal to them in the end. Micah had just gotten hired at a finance company and was about to make a decent living. They had also moved from their first tiny apartment together, into a two-bedroom, little house. The girls shared a room.

At twenty-three, when she crossed the threshold of that small, two-story house, she felt like the queen of a castle. She felt like the richest, most lucky girl in the world. She never regarded it as a small, unfancy, starter home. To her, it symbolized all her dreams coming true.

She missed that house, the place her kids were just babies in. Things were simple, on a small scale, and wonderful. Her world existed within the confines of that house and the well-being of her babies. Micah was her only conduit to the outside world. Gretchen was well entrenched in med school and finally moved to South Carolina with her then, husband. Vickie was off being Vickie. For many years, it was just Micah and she and the babies. Her kids, however, drew her parents to visit her more often than they did before, simply because there were no other grandkids. Despite how ho-hum they were about Tracy, they were really good grandparents. She saw them almost everyday then, especially after her dad retired, when Ally was five.

Micah eventually started making real money. Money that allowed them to move to the lake house, and buy vehicles and furniture and take fancier trips.

She never worried about money from that day forward. Micah never acted as if he, alone, earned the money. He always talked of
their
money,
their
stuff,
their
life. She never considered that he was the breadwinner although she didn’t technically have a penny of her own. But Micah never acted like he controlled it all. It was always both of theirs.

Until the day he decided it was all about him.

But now? She was on the verge of working at a job for real. She frantically put together an outfit she must have gotten for someone’s funeral or wedding. It was about the only business-like attire she owned. She’d have to get some new clothes if the job worked out.

She opened the storefront door and entered Donny’s place of business. This time, it felt like she was a complete stranger. She took it all in with fresh eyes. It was a small space, with three tiny offices that converged on the rectangle-like reception. There was a little waiting room on the left, and a desk with shelves behind it and office paraphernalia. Potted plants perked up the interior almost as much as the blue paint job.

Donny glanced up when the front door chimed at her entrance. His office was all glass and faced the reception. Half-pulled mini-blinds gave him some degree of privacy. He rushed into the entry.

“On time, as usual,” he said, glancing at the clock. He indicated for her to follow him to the desk on the other side of the reception. “Nervous?” he asked as he rolled another chair next to the one that was already there.

She nodded mutely, but had no idea what to say. Here, in this environment, Donny seemed like a total stranger. The other programmer was named Xavier, who merely glanced at her with a blank look. Donny waved for him to come over.

“Tracy, meet Xavier. This is Tracy, our new office-girl.”

Office-girl?
Her hackles rose. How dare he call her that? It sounded so condescending. Granted, she was not exactly an impressive career woman, but she didn’t relish being called “office-girl” like she was sixteen and interning for the summer.

She glared at Donny. He finally glanced at her after she crossed her arms over her chest and kept piercing him with her eyes. He was logging onto the computer and caught her stance and frown, which made him chuckle. “Not office-girl, huh? I meant to say: our administrative assistant/accounts receivable/accounts payable manager.” He smiled at his own exaggerated title to prove his point.

Tracy turned her back on him and held her hand out to Xavier who shook it. He smiled politely before going back to his office.

Donny sat down in the chair before the computer, and clicked away as he typed at unbelievable speed. “He’s not real sociable. Lucky for you, he rarely engages in idle chit-chat. He’s worked with me for four years; and I think he has a dog. That’s about all I know about him. So sit, let’s get started.”

She sat down after rolling up the chair. She learned very quickly that Donny had one speed at work, and that was fast. He didn’t spend more than a second lingering over anything. She had to follow what he said, and did so while taking quick notes. She followed the majority of it, but had to eventually slow him down when he got into the quarterly taxes and federal deposits. “Uh, okay, you’re starting to get over my head. Can you slow down a bit?”

He glanced up and made a slight cringing face. “Sorry. Why don’t you take your lunch break? Do you think you can find a few things to do with what I’ve shown you?”

“Yes. Overwhelming amounts.”

He grinned and ran a hand through his hair, tousling the brown strands about his head. “I know. That’s why I’m hiring you. We’ll start there and add a few things as we go. Does that sound like a plan?”

She nodded. He stood up, towering over her. “Aren’t you taking lunch?” Tracy asked.

He glanced back after reaching his office door. “I eat while I work. We’re swamped right now.”

With that, he turned back to his desk and started to work. He didn’t look up even three times to see what she was doing. She started to breathe easier as she dove into her work. She grabbed the stack of invoices and began to wade through them. They were months behind and it would take weeks of industrious work to get the business even caught up. He wasn’t kidding. But as she started her task, she began to relax and soon found a rhythm. She knew more than she realized. The accounting program was one she worked with extensively at school so she knew how to approach it. Applying that program to real world invoices was easily transferable, more than she ever figured it would be.

The longer she worked, the less she glanced Donny’s way to see if he was noticing her. She relaxed when she realized he didn’t seem to remember she was even there. He was oblivious to everything and everyone around him as he worked on the computers. Thank God. For one, he didn’t seem to care she was physically there. Or worry about what she was doing, which took the pressure off, and made it much easier for her to accomplish something.

Thus, her new career started. Donny spent a few hours with her each morning. He was as hurried and brisk as he was on the first day, and didn’t linger over coffee to indulge in any idle chit-chat. Not with her, or Xavier, or any client. He finished one thing and swiftly moved on to the next. She had no idea he was so intense at work. Or so boss-like. But he was. He didn’t act anything at all like he did when he came to her house. Here, he was all business, all the time. But in an abstract, preoccupied kind of way. He treated Xavier exactly the same. He never seemed to have the time or inclination to talk or socialize, or even say hi. He just might have qualified as a certified workaholic.

It took Tracy a month to get his books up to date and all figured out. He made many mistakes while doing them himself. He incurred late fees for missed bills, and lost checks, as well as client fees. He wasn’t kidding when he said he needed an office girl, and she embraced the title now. She found she liked office managing as much as the bookkeeping. She handled all the phone calls, and made sure the office was supplied with everything they needed. She tended to the office necessities as well as she did to her house and kids for the past dozen years. She was good at multi-tasking. She was also good at taking care of people in contained environments.

She added a bit of personality and warmth to Donny’s business. Clients came in and her smiling face was the first they saw, as she chatted in warm, engaging small talk. She was especially adept at making people feel welcome when they were around her. Donny also noticed that. She was surprised when he first insisted she sit in on a new client meeting to help him sell his company. He got so technical in his details, which he could whiz through, that he sometimes forgot most people didn’t understand him. Tracy was good at dumbing it down and making it seem like interesting material.

After she helped land the local branch of a manufacturing firm contract, he beamed at her. “You are a damn natural at this.”

She shrugged. “I was Micah’s arm-candy at many business dinners and parties. I had to learn to schmooze with the best of them.”

“I truly would have never guessed you could do it so well.”

“I should have more modesty than to admit this, but I was always an asset to Micah work-wise. I can make small talk with anyone.”

“So I see.”

“That’s not supposed to be the thing nowadays. I should stand on my own feet and be proud of my career, but I was busy at home with the kids. It was easy for me to be charming and engaging for Micah’s work. I never really cared if I were a cliché or a stereotype.”

He looked at her oddly. “That wasn’t being arm-candy. You could sell snow to an Eskimo. I’m not kidding. You’re so gracious and warm, they instantly respond to you, and believe you. I think, Tracy McKinley, you have severely underestimated your career potential. As have I. For now, I need you, but eventually, you should maybe try something in sales. You would be really good at it.”

She scoffed.
Yeah, right.
As if she could just go hire on at a corporation because she formerly used to dress up and charm people her husband wanted to impress. Sure. She could do that.

Still, she was working. She soon decided working was good. She got better and grew more confident by the day. Donny spent less time explaining things, or fixing her mistakes. He was nice, friendly and polite. He was Donny, her brother-in-law, again. Her relief was almost tangible, it became so evident. She could not handle the guilt that previously accompanied their strange slip-up. No. This was better. So much better.

Her mom picked up the girls after school and took them to Vickie’s, so she got her kids from Donny’s house. He never left the office before seven so she never saw him at home. Everything was almost normal. Or perhaps, a new version of normal. The longer they worked together, the less awkward, and intense were the moments when they spoke only through their eyes, or felt things more than they should have.

It seemed like Donny was too busy to decide whether he liked his wife or not. He seemed back to the Donny she knew before, but didn’t really comment about Vickie and his personal life. He mentioned Julia still, but the strange intimacy that they developed seem to slowly erode the longer they worked together and Vickie was home.

It became something Tracy nearly got on her knees in grateful prayer almost daily about. She was no longer in danger of betraying her sister and ruining her life more than it already was. Vickie often came into the office to say hi, and spent half an hour or so in Donny’s office around lunchtime. She was usually on her way home from her classes when she did, so she didn’t have Julia with her. She sometimes even brought Donny lunch. They sometimes shut the blinds to Donny’s office, but Tracy never asked why. She usually chose those times to leave and go next door to get her own sandwich and coffee.

****

Donny did everything in his power to become, once again, a generic, distant, polite brother-in-law. He never let his gaze linger too long on Tracy. He never spoke to her about anything beyond work or the family. He quit asking personal questions. He pretended he never really got to know her, like he had no knowledge of her or her true personality.