Thirty-Three and a Half Shenanigans (9 page)

I considered lying to him, but this felt important enough to share. “No.”

He grabbed my elbow and helped me slide out of the truck. “What happened?”

My feet hit the pavement, and a frigid breeze blew my hair around my face. I suddenly felt foolish. I shook my head. “It was probably nothing.”

“Don’t tell me it was nothing. Something has you shook up, which automatically makes it something. You’re not the sort of woman to react this way over nothing.”

I took a deep breath.

Still holding my arm, he tugged me away from the truck and shut the door. “Let’s go inside, okay?”

“Okay.”

Joe unlocked the door with his own set of keys that Violet had given him and pushed the door open. He led me to the back room, where my potting bench and stool still remained in their proper places. After gently pushing me onto the stool, he squatted in front of me. “Tell me what happened.”

“I had a vision.”

His eyes widened. “Was it something bad?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It didn’t seem bad, but I just don’t feel right about it. I guess it left me with the notion that something bad is about to happen.”

“Tell me what you saw.”

I relayed everything, which made me feel even more foolish, since it was, on the surface, one of my tamer visions.

“Don’t dismiss it, Rose,” Joe said, standing. “It might be nothing, sure, but it could be
something.
Who was the person associated with the vision?”

“Eric Davidson, the assistant manager of the Burger Shack.”

His eyebrows lifted. “You know his name? You make it sound like you know him.”

I held his gaze. If I wanted his advice, I needed to tell him a bit about the mess I was in. The question was where to draw the line. “It’s not how it sounds. You know when you saw me with those guys at church? He’s one of them.”

Irritation clouded his eyes. “So you
were
talking to them?”

“Not intentionally. I really did want to talk to Samantha Jo about the bank robbery. But I had a vision and told them they were getting ready to rob something.”

His eyes flew open. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I shrugged. I couldn’t very well confirm his suspicion that Neely Kate and I had been trying to track down the bank robbers ourselves. “You were angry with me.”

“Rose.” His voice was heavy with disappointment. “Tell me that you at least shared this with Mason.”

I remained silent.

“Why would you keep something like that to yourself?”

“It was a vision, Joe. Neither of you would have been able to use the information.”

“Rose,” he said, exasperated. “You told a group of men, some of whom had a criminal history, that you knew they were gonna rob something. You could have been in serious danger.”

“But nothing happened,” I insisted.

“It was a huge risk.” He sounded so disappointed that it stole my breath. “You were lucky.”

He had no idea. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”

He waited, his face expressionless.

“I think I know who killed Mr. Sullivan.”

“What? How?”

How was I gonna explain this one? “I figured it out from my vision.” Which was partially true. The killer had confessed his crimes in one of my visions, but it wasn’t until the auction on Thanksgiving that I’d pieced together his identity. Ever since, I’d been trying to think of how to tell Joe or Mason the truth about him without giving everything else away. “He’s the large-animal vet. Mick Gentry.”

“Did you at least tell Mason about
that?
”

“No,” I said, ashamed that it had taken me so long to pursue justice for poor Mr. Sullivan. “I only just put it together. Besides, he disappeared.” I felt bad about lying to him, but I couldn’t help wondering if justice had already been served vigilante-style by Skeeter Malcolm.

Joe’s gaze pierced mine. “Does he have any way of knowing that you know?”

“No. I’m certain he doesn’t.” I sighed. “But it doesn’t matter, Joe. It’s like all the rest of my visions . . . it’s not exactly admissible in court.”

“We can try to link him to it. The fact that he ran off and disappeared doesn’t speak of innocence either.” His gaze softened. “It’s more helpful than you know.”

“You’re not gonna yell at me?”

“Why would I yell at you?” He paused. “I’m just thankful you finally shared your vision with me. Are you feeling better?”

“No. But I’ll be okay.” I hopped off the stool, feeling guilty. “Maybe all this got stirred up because of Neely Kate’s cousin.”

He stilled. “What about her cousin?”

“Her momma tried to file a missing persons report on her last night, and the deputy she talked to wouldn’t file it.”

He stared at me for a moment. “Dolly Parton Parker is Neely Kate’s cousin?” He shook his head, wearing an exasperated grimace. “Why am I not surprised?”

I grew indignant on my friend’s behalf. “What on earth does that mean?”

“She has some colorful characters in her family is all.”

“If you know her name, then why don’t you tell me why the deputy wouldn’t file the report?”

Joe held his hands up in defense. “Darlin’, this isn’t the first time her mother’s filed a report on her, and it’s not even the third. I looked over the previous instances with the deputy who took her call. She always turns up.”

“Oh.”

“She’s also got a bit of a criminal record, nothing dangerous. Shoplifting. Solicitation.”

“Solicitation?”

“She was arrested this summer and again a month ago, but the charges were dropped.” He rubbed my arm. “Still, I understand you wanting to help your friend. It’s one of the things I love about you.”

I worried that Joe was about to venture into dangerous territory, so I took a step back. “Thanks for the clarification. Now don’t we have some business to take care of?”

He looked relieved that I was going to let the whole Dolly Parton thing drop. “You wait here, and I’ll go get the paperwork. I was worried about you when I saw you sitting in your truck like that, so I left it in the car.”

I wandered into the retail space. There were more boxes than before. I found myself wondering what ideas Joe had cooked up.

After a moment, he came back inside and set a file on the shop counter. “I looked over all the paperwork. Everything looks to be in order. But since you wanted several specific clauses included, I thought we should be together when we signed it so there are no hurt feelings later.”

“Okay.” I moved next to him. “But are you sure you don’t want to let an attorney—” I stopped as I realized what I was saying. “Sorry. I keep forgetting you went to law school yourself.”

“I never fit the attorney mold. I found it too suffocating.” He cringed when I stiffened. “Rose, I wasn’t trying to insult Mason. Honest, that’s just how I always envisioned it.”

I relaxed. “Yeah, I have trouble seeing you as a lawyer.”

“I told you before that I only went to law school to appease my father.” He clicked his pen, getting ready to sign. “I’ve always wondered how different my life would have been if I’d stood up to him even then.”

The thought made me sad—not just for him, but for me. “When’s he gonna make you run for office again?” I asked softly. We both knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but when.

“I don’t know.”

He sounded wary, and I decided not to push it. We both knew he didn’t want to run, but he couldn’t turn his father down. J.R. Simmons would make me pay if he tried.

“I heard Hilary moved to Henryetta.” I still had a hard time picturing her living in such a small town, especially one as backward as ours.

He released a heavy sigh. “I didn’t ask her to do it, but it might make things easier in the long run.”

“But she’s not living with you out at the house next to my farm?” I asked, sounding more defensive than I’d intended.

He held up his hands in protest. “I know how it looks—”

Tears burned my eyes. “I don’t want to fight with you anymore, Joe. Every time we’re ugly to each other, it takes what we had together and makes it seem pointless.” I looked up at him. “But it wasn’t pointless. What we had was wonderful. You gave me so much to be grateful for. Even so, our relationship is over now.”

He studied me for several seconds, then swallowed. “I’m not moving out by you to start anything. The house is older and needs some work. Add onto that the fact that the banker’s body was found on the property, and no one else wants to live there now. The owner’s letting me rent the house for next to nothing in exchange for fixing it up.”

“Why would you do that?” I asked, incredulous. “You can afford anything you want.”

He shrugged. “Believe it or not, I like to fix up old things. It’s a solid house that needs some attention, and it’s something to fill my time.”

I didn’t respond.

“Look, it’s taken a while for me to accept that you’re really not mine. And while I’m not happy about it, I have to respect your decision.” His face softened. “I don’t want to fight with you either. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I don’t want to live without you. If I can only have you as a friend, then so be it. It’s better than not having you in my life at all.”

I smiled up at him, resisting the urge to hug him. “I’m happy to hear that.”

He studied my face for several seconds before giving his attention to the stack of papers on the counter. “And what’s more, our effort to get along will be advantageous to the business.”

We started to go through the papers, Joe reading all of it aloud, asking me if I had any questions when we hit a section containing a lot of legalese.

“Mason’s already gone over most of this with me, Joe. If you need to get back to work . . .”

“No,” he insisted. “This is important.”

After we read the entire document and signed and initialed everything, Joe broke out into a smile, looking happier than I’d seen him in months.

“Joe Simmons, business partner.” His grin broadened. “I like it.”

“Well, Joe Simmons, business partner,” I nudged his arm with mine, “tell me about your grand plans.”

For the next ten minutes, he told me about his ideas for the expansion and inventory, most of which had serious potential. I told him so, but then said, “I don’t want to sink more money into the nursery until it gets going in the spring. We don’t know what kind of fallout Violet’s indiscretion will have on the business, not to mention other things . . . The fact that the whole lot of us are steeped in controversy and scandal won’t help matters.”

He studied my face. “Are you really worried?”

“No . . . yes. But not enough that I’d change anything.” I brushed loose hairs from my cheek. “Still, the reason we almost lost it all is because Violet tried to build us too big, too fast.”

“Rose, I won’t let that happen again.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but there’s no reason to put everything at risk. Let’s just wait and see how it goes.”

“Sometimes great risk means great reward.”

He wasn’t telling me anything I hadn’t read in my business books. “Maybe next spring I’ll be willing to bet it all and let it ride, but right now I could use a little safe and easy.”

He grinned. “Since when do you do safe and easy?”

“I’d like to give it a chance.”

He studied me again, and a war waged in his eyes before he nodded. “Safe and easy it is, Rose. But when you’re willing to start gambling again, let me know.” As he gathered up the paperwork, I couldn’t help thinking that safe and easy was a pipe dream.

I left the nursery later than planned, so I texted Mason to let him know I’d signed the papers with Joe, and then called Bruce Wayne to check on the situation at the office.

“The phones and Wi-Fi have been set up without a problem. Now all we need is a working fuse box.”

“I’m going to go help Mason’s mom unpack. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I might need medical attention after breathing in the fumes from that mess in the plastic tub on your desk. The place stank to high heaven when I walked in after you left. I spent five minutes searching for Muffy, ’cause she’s the only thing I know that stinks that much.”

“Oh dear. Neely Kate left the gourmet food there, didn’t she?”

“It’s gone now. I tried to feed it to a stray dog out back, but he got close enough to sniff it and took off running. You know something’s bad when even starving dogs won’t eat it.” He laughed. “You’re gonna have to tell ’er, Rose. That or risk food poisoning.”

“I know,” I grumbled. “I’ll figure something out.”

I got to Violet’s house at right about the time Ashley came home from school. Violet had spent more time at home than at work over the last couple of weeks, and she genuinely did seem happier. She greeted me at the door with a bright smile. “Hi, Rose.”

“Hi,” I said, still wary.

“Ashley is so excited to spend the afternoon with you. Thank you so much for thinking of it.”

“Of course. I love her.” I paused. “I thought you should know that Joe and I signed the business papers today.” I handed her the folder tucked under my arm. “I brought them for you to sign too.”

“Oh.” She looked surprised.

I lowered my voice so Ashley wouldn’t hear. “I know you’re upset that you only have ten percent ownership now, but you still have a say in things, Violet.”

Tears filled her eyes. “It was
my
dream, Rose.”

A lump filled my throat, but I couldn’t back down. “I know, Vi, and I’m sorry.”

She nodded and turned, her face breaking out into a bright smile when Ashley emerged from her room. “All ready to go with Aunt Rose?”

Ashley nodded and gave us a wide grin.

Violet dropped to her knees and pulled Ashley into a hug, stroking the back of her head for several seconds before pulling back to stare into her daughter’s face. “Now you be a good girl for Aunt Rose and mind your manners with Miss Maeve.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ashley’s head bobbed.

Violet gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You have fun now.”

“Do you want me to go over the papers with you?” I asked as Violet stood.

She shook her head, tears shining in her eyes. “No. I know what’s in there.”