Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (13 page)

“Hello, Mayor. It’s me.” Emma’s voice warmed his ear.

“Hey, honey.” His day was at maximum capacity for stress and her voice was exactly the calming influence he needed.

“Have you heard back about the store?”

Rob sighed. So much for Emma curing his tension. “Maddie is not at all interested in selling her store.”

“That’s too bad. Though to be honest, I didn’t really think that she would sell anyway. She came back to town to reopen the store after all.”

“It was worth a try.” And he didn’t know what else to try.

“Maybe I’ll see if she’s interested in an assistant,” Emma said. “Much less hassle than running the entire store.”

“What?” Rob’s tension ratcheted up until the point that his shoulders were above his ears and his blood pressure was pushing him rapidly toward an aneurism.

“I can work part-time and still be able to keep up with the house.”

There was no way he was going to allow that to happen. Putting her at the scene of the crime, as it were, seemed a like a suicide move. “Emma, we’ll talk about this at home.”

“I’m sure we will.” There was an edge in her voice and he wasn’t entirely familiar or comfortable with.

A soft tap on the door alerted him moments before it swung in and Howard McAdams stood framed in the doorway with a frown on his face.

Perfect. This day couldn’t get any better.

Emma continued talking in his ear, but he paid little attention in the face of the county inspector who shifted from foot to foot and looked entirely uncomfortable at being there.

“I knew you weren’t really going to let me get a job. You’re always like this.”

“Sorry, honey. Bad time. I’ve got to go.”

Had he not been as distracted as he was by McAdams, he probably could have diffused the situation before she got irritated about it. Instead he gave her a brief, “I’ll see you at home around six.”

“Or six-fifteen or whenever you arrive.” Her tone didn’t bode well for his homecoming.

Back when they were first married, she’d had a will of steel and an imaginatively cruel streak which kept him in line. There was no revenge like your wife hiding all the rolls of toilet paper in your house to make you realize she meant business.

But that sort of nonsense had ended after the first year.

He blinked as he hung up the phone. He wasn’t used to the attitude from her now. She hadn’t stood up to him in years.

He didn’t like it. And he didn’t need it today. He made a mental note to grab a handful of toilet paper from the men’s room in case of emergency.

He swung his attention back to the county inspector as the older man took a seat across from Rob’s desk. He hadn’t seen McAdams so uncomfortable since Rob had called his bluff when he’d over-bet a couple of months before at their regular poker game. “What can I help you with?”

“I’ve finished the inspection of Millie Wilson’s antique store.”

“Already?” His stomach started churned.
Great.
“And what did you find?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the building. I have no idea why a condemnation order was ever put out there.”

“Huh. No idea,” Rob said, even though he was the one to do it. Anonymously, of course.

“I recommended that she have maintenance done on the heating system. But that’s a matter of changing the filters. The furnace is a couple of years old.”

McAdams ran his hand through his hair and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Millie Wilson,” he said nodding. “She was into some weird stuff.”

“Oh? What was that?”

“I’d really rather not say. But the old girl had depths that none of us knew.”

Fortunately, Harold McAdams was the one person in the entire city of Sudden Falls who could be trusted with a secret. As long as he didn’t tell his wife—who more than made up for her husband’s general unwillingness to gossip. Rob prayed that his revelations about Millie were too shocking to share with her.

Rob
had been aware of Millie’s depths and secrets. As had the other members of Silver Shadows. And the group missed Millie. She’d always hosted their get-togethers and she’d been a lovely host. Not to mention she had a stellar dungeon. Now that Maddie had returned, the new location would be a hotel in Cincinnati. And Rob wouldn’t make it to many gatherings anymore. The risk of getting caught outweighed what he got out of the parties.

He wished that he were in the same situation as much of the rest of the group. Having your spouse as your play partner made it a lot easier. He should accept that part of his life was over and move on. It wasn’t like Emma was going to pick up a flogger. The thought of his oh-so-proper, nearly uptight wife in black leather swinging a riding crop was almost comical it was so ludicrous.

Rob took a moment to recognize—if not appreciate—the irony that he wanted someone who was dominating in the bedroom, but still got annoyed with Emma’s newfound determination.

He cleared his throat. “Did Maddie see whatever it is that’s got you in such a tizzy?”

“I didn’t stick around long enough to see if they went down to the basement after I came back up.”

“They?”

“Yes. Eli Redmond was there as well.”

Good Lord. Yet another person in the know. His secret was going to get out in a New York minute.

He’d known Eli Redmond for years and the man was brilliant. He was bound to put two and two together and come up with four.

He managed to hustle McAdams out, all the while imagining Emma’s reaction when she found out. And the way things were going, it seemed to be
when
rather than
if
. The townspeople were sure to run him out on a rail if—
when
—they discovered it as well.

No one would understand. It wouldn’t make a difference how innocent of wrongdoing he was.

His career and his marriage were headed down the tubes.

“Yikes!” Maddie steadied herself on the wobbly ladder outside of the front of the store as she tried to tack up the vinyl “Grand Re-opening” sign above the porch.

Finally, she thought she had it straight and hopped down to check from the street. Thankfully, it only listed a little to the right and frankly, she valued her life too much to try it again.

She heard the phone ring from inside the store. She kicked the prop that had been holding the door open as she stepped through the door, letting it close behind her.

“Aunt Millie’s Antique’s. Maddie speaking,” she said in as professional a tone as she could muster while being completely winded.

“Hello, Maddie.” Even from a thousand miles away her mother’s tone of disapproval came through clearly. “Your phone greeting would be considerably friendlier if you actually greeted your caller.
Good morning. Thank you for calling Aunt Millie’s Antique’s.”

Maddie ground her teeth and took a deep breath to avoid slamming the handset back on its cradle.

“That’s a good idea,” she said with a relative degree of sincerity. She bit her lip when her mother didn’t continue. “What can I do for you?”

“I was calling to see how things are going.”

“Great! I’ve sent newspaper ads to
The Dayton Daily News
,
The Columbus Dispatch
and
The Cincinnati Enquirer
. I found a really reasonably priced and extremely talented web designer who’s finishing up our website and I registered the store with
Midwest-Antiques Magazine
.” She infused her voice with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

“Is the store clean and prepared for your first customers?”

She looked around at the furniture, much of it still under dust covers and the grime on the floor. “Mostly,” she said.

“Remember, no amount of good press will outweigh word of mouth.”

“I know, Mom.” Maddie prayed her mother wouldn’t bring up the past once again. Maddie was aware of her own mistakes. She didn’t need to be reminded of them again.

Fortunately, her mother was running late for a hair appointment. “Call if you need anything.”

As if.
“Will do.”

She set the phone down, took off the tool belt she’d had strapped around her waist when she was hanging the sign and dropped it on the counter. There were plenty of hours left today to get the store ready, even if the call from her mother had put a dent in her good mood. She started re-stocking a curio cabinet with Fenton glass figurines.

The bell above the door ding-a-linged as it opened and closed. Maddie turned around but couldn’t see over the dresser between her and the door. “We’re not open until next Monday,” she called out.

“Hello?”

Maddie prairie dogged up until she could see the newcomer.
Emma Watson.
She felt herself go suddenly cool.

“Hi. I was wondering if you were planning on hiring an assistant?” Emma asked hesitantly.

Before Maddie could answer, Emma continued on hastily. “I don’t need the money. I need to get out of the house occasionally. I’ll work part time and you can pay me minimum wage.”

Emma Watson would probably make a pretty good assistant. However, the woman had tried to buy Maddie’s store out from under her and that didn’t really make her feel warm and fuzzy.

On the other hand, the people of Sudden Falls
liked
Emma Watson. She could see it in the way that they’d greeted her at the town council meeting. Having an ally with the town could prove to be a very good thing. And so could help with everything she had yet to do.

“What do you know about antiques?” Maddie came around the counter to where Emma stood, her hands clenched together the only sign that she was uncertain.

“My whole house is filled with them. Mostly Shaker and Mission period. I also have some reproduction pieces I built from scratch.”

Maddie couldn’t help but be impressed, especially given her own lack of wood-working skill. “Really?”

Emma nodded. “Many of my pieces I found at auctions or garage sales that were in bad shape and I fixed them up. They were in such horrific condition that I couldn’t stand to see them junked and bought them to save them.”

Maddie thought about this for a second. “OK, I’m going to consider hiring you. Millie had the tools, because she liked to do the same thing. I, however, do not. There’s a small workshop in one of the rooms in the back.”

“Thank you.” Emma’s eyes lit with hope. “I never really wanted to own your store.”

“So why did you put a bid on it?”

“My husband suggested it.”

Maddie narrowed her eyes on Emma. “Is Mayor Watson that controlling?” She remembered the conversations she’d had with her own controlling—now former, thank heavens—husband.

Emma looked toward the ceiling and nibbled on her lower lip a second before meeting Maddie’s eyes again. “Not really that much. But I make it easy on him. I seem to follow every direction he gives.”

“Does he know you’re here now?”

A devilish twinkle entered Emma’s eyes. “Not yet. He might have if he’d paid any attention when we spoke earlier on the phone, but he was
busy
.”

Maddie couldn’t help but smile and be charmed.

“Alright, Emma Watson. You’re hired. You’re feisty. I like feisty.”

“A week ago, I might have disagreed with that but now I think you may be right.”

“When would you like to start?”

Emma looked down at her khaki slacks and knit pullover blouse. “Right now?”

Maddie tossed her a dust towel.

“I’m trying to get everything cleaned and dusted before the opening. There’s plenty to do.”

It had been a long time since she’d had girlfriends. She’d given them all up when she left her husband. All of them had been part of couples and it turned out, all were pretty superficial, or at least she tried to tell herself that since the division of his friends and her friends hadn’t gone in her favor during the divorce.

Hopefully that would be a benefit of starting over. She could avoid making the same mistakes… like superficial friends and falling for men with questionable dating habits like a revolving door on their bedroom.

A pang of sadness jumped through her at the thought that Eli wasn’t the former, but would probably always be the latter.

One single light burned in the hall window of Eli’s house. After the scene in the store’s basement, she didn’t know how she could face him without either dying of embarrassment or simply ripping his clothes off. Neither seemed to be the thing to do, so she didn’t even consider for a moment knocking on his door.