Thirty-Three and a Half Shenanigans (2 page)

Bruce Wayne stood and turned to me with a solemn expression and held out his hand.

I got up and looked him in the eyes. When I shook his hand, his grip was stronger than expected—another sign that this Bruce Wayne was a new man. “I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have as a business partner, Bruce Wayne. Here’s to a great beginning.”

His eyes twinkled. “If nothing else, it’s bound to be an adventure.”

Mason tucked the papers in his bag. “I need to get back to the office, Rose. Tonight we’ll talk about signing the paperwork for the nursery.”

That dampened my elation. “Okay.”

He leaned over and gave me a gentle kiss. “Mom will probably show up around six. Will you be home by then?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem. Will
you
be there?”

“That’s my goal. The sooner I get back to the office, the sooner I get home.”

I gave him a slight push. “Then what are you doing malingering in my office? Get going.”

He laughed and stole another kiss. “I love you, Rose Gardner.”

“I love you, too. Now get.” I gave him another push.

But the front door opened before he could get to it, sending a gust of cold air blowing in from outside. Neely Kate stood in the doorway, her cheeks pink.

“Neely Kate!” I called out in surprise. “How was your doctor’s appointment?” My best friend was in the first trimester of her pregnancy and had been fighting terrible morning sickness. She’d promised to call me after her doctor’s appointment, but I wasn’t all that surprised to see her at my doorstep instead. Bruce Wayne and I had only been in our new office for a week, and I swore she spent just as much time here as she did at the Personal Property Tax department. She hated her job.

“I’m stalling goin’ back to work.”

Mason grinned at her. “There seems to be a bit of that going around. How are you feeling?”

“A little better. The doctor seems happy.”

“Good. You take care of yourself. Rose and I have been worried about you.” He started to move past her. “Now I’ve really gotta go.” He glanced back toward me. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

He walked out the door, and I watched him through one of the big picture windows as he walked down the sidewalk toward the courthouse. Then I turned my attention to my best friend as she took several steps into the office. “What did the doctor really say?”

Bruce Wayne cringed, blushing again. “I’m gonna go call the landlord about the fuse box.” Then he shot into the back room with his phone in his hand, not that I was surprised. Any time Neely Kate brought up her pregnancy, Bruce Wayne disappeared soon after. It was a wonder he hadn’t changed his mind about becoming my partner, given how much Neely Kate had come over to talk about her nausea this past week. Muffy, apparently tired of the back and forth, hopped into her dog bed by my desk.

Neely Kate beamed with happiness, even if her face was thinner and paler than usual. “I had an ultrasound today, and now I have an official due date: July 1st. And my grandmother’s tea leaves were wrong. I’m not having twins, thank heavens.” She scowled at me. “No thanks to you. I’ve been completely stressed out about it. All you had to do was have a vision, and I would have known.”

“I know,” I said, sighing. “But you have to admit, the last few times I forced a vision, the results were terrible. I almost had to watch Samantha Jo and Moose have sex, not to mention that I saw Skeeter Malcolm die half a dozen times. What if I saw something bad about you? I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell you.” We’d had this conversation several times over the last week since her grandmother had seen twins in her tea leaves. “Besides, I’m not sure why you were so worried. You said your granny’s tea leaves are wrong more often than they’re right.”

She gave me an indignant glare. “Technically, Carla Sue’s leaves weren’t wrong. Her husband
was
having an affair.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call relations with a sheep an
affair
.”

She waved her hand. “Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. He was still sleepin’ around on her.”

“While he might have been meetin’ the sheep at three a.m., I suspect they weren’t
sleepin’
.”

She made a face. “For someone who has the world by the tail, you seem mighty contradictory.” Her lips turned up into a smug grin. “As punishment, I might not tell you who I saw at the doctor’s office.”

I knew I should ignore her dangled carrot. I had no doubt she was trying to torment me. Still, I couldn’t help myself. “Who?”

She waggled her eyebrows in an exaggerated manner. “Maybe you should have a vision and find out.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Neely Kate.”

Neely Kate unbuttoned her coat and pivoted to take in the small space. “You and Bruce Wayne sure have been busy. This place was a disaster when you got the keys last week.”

I gave her a smug grin. “Mason helped too.”

“
Mason?
”

I knew why she was surprised. Mason was clueless when it came to anything DIY. “He painted.”

“You got your computers, I see.”

I waved my hand toward Bruce Wayne’s desk. “But they don’t work too well without electricity.”

Neely Kate scowled. “I warned you about Old Man Darby.”

“Well, if he doesn’t send an electrician to fix it by tomorrow afternoon, Mason’s gonna give him a call. I need electricity by then to get the phone and Wi-Fi installed.”

“What’s the hurry? You’re not even opening for another month.”

“You know I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothing. And Bruce Wayne says if he’s getting paid, he might as well be working.” I shrugged. “So here we are.”

I sat in one the chairs by the window, and she sat in the brown chair beside me, tucking her feet underneath her. “You’re sure making it nice. How much time are you planning on spending in here?”

“I dunno yet. Since we don’t have any jobs to work on right now, I splurged and got us professional landscaping software. Bruce Wayne and I can spend our time learning how to use it.” I shifted in my chair, getting antsy. “So, are you gonna tell me who you saw at the doctor’s office or not?”

Her eyes lit up. “Lucky for you, I don’t hold a grudge.”

I could have argued that point, but wisely held my tongue.

“Hilary.”

“
Joe’s
Hilary?”

“Do we know any other?” she asked, incredulous.

“What was she doing there? She has a doctor in Little Rock. In fact, what’s she doin’ in Henryetta period?”

“She’s moved here.”

I bolted upright like someone had held a lit candle to my butt. “
What?
”

“I heard she rented one of those restored older homes off the square.”

“Why?”

She scrunched her nose. “You know why. She needs to be close to Joe to get him back. Have you talked to him?”

I shook my head. “Not since we had the argument over him going behind my back and hiring a company to clean up the nursery after it was vandalized.” It had been more than a week, now that I stopped to think about it.

“Are you still planning to make him an official partner?”

Joe had bailed out the nursery after my sister Violet overextended us financially. She’d missed multiple loan payments, putting us in danger of a foreclosure. It didn’t help that a bunch of cash had been stolen from me in the lobby of the Henryetta Bank before I could make a deposit. In any case, we’d been in trouble up to our eyeballs. Violet had gone behind my back to ask Joe—whose family was probably rich enough to own half the state of Arkansas—to loan us the missing payments. Instead, he’d paid off the entire loan. All one hundred thirty-six thousand dollars of it. Everyone kept reminding me that I hadn’t entered into any type of legal agreement with him, which meant essentially his money was a gift. But what he really wanted was to be a partner. He’d put so much work into the nursery since the very beginning, I couldn’t help but think that getting me back wasn’t his only motivation.

“Yes.”

Neely Kate groaned, then leaned her head back on the seat. “Rose.”

The disappointment in her voice hurt more than I cared to admit. “Mason’s fine with it,” I said. “Why can’t you be?”

She gripped the arms of the chair and leaned forward. “If you think Mason is fine with this, then you’re even more deluded than I thought you were.” She stood, putting her hands on her hips. “Mason’s toleratin’ it because he loves you and doesn’t want to make waves.” She pointed her finger in my face. “You better think long and hard before you give that man any legal rights to the business, Rose Gardner. You can’t go undoin’ it once it’s done. You’ll be stuck with him indefinitely.”

I paused. “I know.”

She shook her head once for emphasis, then gave me a soft smile. “You have a good heart, Rose. But sooner or later, it’s gonna bite you in the behind.”

I grinned. “Then let’s hope it bites me later.”

My cell phone started ringing, so I hopped out of my chair to retrieve it off the desk, nearly passing out when I saw the caller’s name on the screen.

Skeeter Malcolm.

Neely Kate stood and took several steps toward me. “Rose, you look as pale as a ghost. Who is it?” She grabbed the phone out of my hand and glanced at the screen. “SM.” She gave me an ornery grin. “I didn’t know you and Mason were into that. Is he trying to give you some secret code?”

I stared at her for a second until I realized what she was saying. “What?
No!
It stands for Skeeter Malcolm!”

“What’s with the initials?”

“I can’t very well have the new king of the Fenton County crime world’s name on my phone, now can I? Not with an Assistant DA for a boyfriend and a chief deputy sheriff ex.”

“Are you gonna answer it?”

I looked at the still-ringing phone. “I’m thinking. . .”

Bruce Wayne emerged from the tiny back room. “Darby promises to have someone here first thing tomorrow morning, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.” He took one look at the two of us staring at my ringing cell phone and stopped in his tracks. Fear crawled into his eyes. “It’s him, isn’t it?”

“What should I do, Bruce Wayne?”

He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders, shrugging off his fear as he moved forward a few steps. “Don’t answer it. I’ll call his brother Scooter to see if I can find out what he wants.”

I nodded, my heart racing. “Okay.” Whatever Skeeter wanted couldn’t be good. He was never going to leave me alone now that I’d used my visions to save his life . . . even though I’d spent the past couple of weeks pretending otherwise.

The phone stopped ringing, but the three of us continued to stare at it, as if we expected it to sprout legs and attack us.

“Don’t you be gettin’ mixed up with him again,” Neely Kate finally said. “You got off lucky last time. The next time . . .” She didn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t need to. There were a whole host of scenarios that could play out, not a single one of them good.

After Daniel Crocker, the previous crime lord, had died—at my own hands—his business had been put up for auction by his second-in-command. Before Crocker’s death, Skeeter had been the second most powerful criminal in the county, but he didn’t like playing second fiddle to anyone. So it wasn’t hard to figure out that he wanted Crocker’s business something fierce, which is why I’d gone to him with information about the guys who’d been robbing businesses around town—my bank deposit included—to collect money in an effort to outbid him. I’d hoped we would part ways permanently after he returned my money to me. I’d been naïve. Not that Bruce Wayne hadn’t warned me.

“Don’t worry, Rose,” Bruce Wayne said. “We’ll figure something out. You’re not alone in this.”

Neely Kate grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I’m sorry I was so hard on you. But Skeeter Malcolm is bad news.”

“I know. I’m trying to get out of it.”

Neely Kate’s newest ringtone—“Wildflower” by The JaneDear Girls—broke the silence. She dug into her rhinestone-covered purse and pulled out her phone. “Huh. It’s my aunt. She never calls.” She answered the phone. “Hey, Aunt Thelma.”

Bruce Wayne grabbed his coat off the back of his chair. “Rose, I’m gonna run by the hardware store to get more hangers so we can put up the other two pictures.”

“Good idea. Thanks, Bruce Wayne.”

I caught part of Neely Kate’s conversation as he went out the door.

“Nope, I haven’t seen her,” she said. “Did you check with Billy Jack? Last I heard, she was kinda living with him . . . What about her work?” She frowned. “Huh. Okay, let me know if you hear anything.”

She stuffed her phone into her coat pocket and plopped down in my office chair. I grabbed Bruce Wayne’s and rolled it next to her.

“Everything okay?” I asked, sitting down.

“My aunt’s worried because she hasn’t talked to my cousin in a couple of days.” Her teeth tugged on her lower lip. “Dolly usually checks in with her momma every day, but she’s been known to disappear for a day or two when she hooks up with a new guy. Still, this is a long time, even for her.”

I sucked in a breath. “Do you think something happened to her?”

Neely Kate shook her head. “Naw. She’s probably okay. Aunt Thelma’s branch of the family tree is a bit shaky.” Her mouth tipped up into a grin. “My aunt married a mucker.”

“
Excuse me?
”

“He mucks out pig pens. It’s dirty, stinky work.”

“And that makes her family tree branch shaky?”

“Heck no. There’s no shame in being a mucker, but it’s all he talks about. He’s a few cans shy of a six pack.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway.” She flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder. “Aunt Thelma married Melvin the Mucker—”

I held up my hands. “Wait. That’s what you call him?”

Neely Kate gave me a blank stare. “Well . . . yeah.”

“Okay, go on.”

“And they had three kids—Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, and Tommy Lee.”

My mouth dropped. “Oh, no.”

Her grin spread across her face. “Oh,
yes
.”

“Why didn’t I meet them at your wedding?”

She hesitated. “They couldn’t go. Uncle Melvin had a family reunion in Louisiana they had to attend. Dolly was supposed to be a bridesmaid, but her grandma on her dad’s side threatened to disown her if she didn’t show up for the forty-sixth annual Muston Family Fish Fry. Her granny’s half-owner of a shrimp boat, so you can see Dolly’s dilemma.”