Where Azaleas Bloom Read online

  She looked into his eyes, a gray-blue shade she’d never noticed before and filled with kindness. “I seem to spend a lot of time thanking you lately, but I have to say it again.”

  “Don’t,” he said. “You’ll be solving a problem for me.”

  She smiled. “I guess we’ll see about that, won’t we?”

  “I’ll be over first thing in the morning, then, as soon as the kids have left for school. Is that okay?”

  She nodded. “That’ll be perfect. I don’t have to be at Raylene’s shop until ten. I’ll be home just after two and can jump right back into whatever you need me to do.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “And I’ll stop by before I head home at the end of the day, in case you have any questions. Or you can just run next door if something crops up that you don’t understand.”

  “This really is a blessing, Mitch. Thank you.”

  “No more thanks, understood? This is a business arrangement, okay? I need help. You’re looking for a job. It works out well for both of us.”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. I can’t promise you I won’t keep thanking you. I have the funniest feeling you’re my guardian angel.”

  The remark seemed to fluster him. “Sweetheart, I can assure you I’m no angel. You can ask anyone in town about that.”

  Lynn shook her head, not buying it. “I think you’re wrong about that, Mitch. I’ve never heard a single bad word ever said about you.”

  “Then you never spoke to Nettie Rogers, who swears I trampled her azaleas when I was rebuilding her screened-in porch. And then there’s Sissy Adams, who accused me of changing the sunny shade of yellow paint she chose to mustard just to annoy her, never mind that the woman is flat-out color blind. I could have painted her walls bright orange and I swear she wouldn’t have been able to tell that from neon pink.”

  Lynn laughed. “You’re exaggerating, but those aren’t exactly the sort of sins I was thinking about.”

  He grinned at her, a surprising twinkle in his eyes. “Now sins are an entirely different kettle of fish,” he said. “I think we’d best save those for another day, or you’ll quit this job before you’ve even started. Now head on out of here. I want to see you safely on the road before I drive away.”

  “See you in the morning, then,” Lynn said, turning on the engine and putting the car in gear. She was about to open her mouth to utter another thank-you, but the expression on Mitch’s face stopped her. He looked as if he were just daring her to say the forbidden words again.

  Lynn waited until she was out of sight before murmuring one more time, “Thank you, Mitch. You are my guardian angel, no matter what you say.”

  Who knew that a guardian angel could come in the guise of a guy in blue jeans with red hair, twinkling gray-blue eyes and one very sexy butt?

  3

  Despite the relief she felt at having a job lined up, Lynn’s stomach remained tied up in knots as she drove toward the center of town. She hadn’t forgotten her promise to Lexie to find out where Ed was and when he was due back. She had her own valid reasons for wanting to know those things, as well. She knew that trying to wrangle information out of the very loyal and discreet Noelle over the phone would be a waste of time, but face-to-face, Ed’s secretary would have a lot more trouble holding out.

  The success of Ed’s insurance business was ostentatiously showcased in the large brick building he’d built just off Main Street. Personally, Lynn had always thought it was pretentious, but he’d insisted it was good for business, especially the insurance business, to look impressive and solid.

  Lynn parked in the large lot out back and went in through the closest entrance, drawing startled glances from several of Ed’s colleagues who hadn’t laid eyes on her since she and Ed had split up. Assuming they’d taken his side and not wanting to put any of them on the spot, she nodded politely and kept right on walking to his large suite of offices in the front.

  “Hi, Noelle,” she said.

  Ed’s secretary uttered a small gasp, but recovered quickly. “Mrs. Morrow, how are you?”

  “Just fine, Noelle. And you?”

  “Doing all right. What can I do for you? Ed’s not here.”

  “So I’ve gathered. Any idea where I can reach him or when he’ll be back?”

  “As I told Lexie when she called, I’m not entirely sure.”

  “On either point?” Lynn asked skeptically. “I can’t recall a single time when Ed has ever been out of touch with you.”

  “Well, of course, I speak to him if there’s an emergency,” Noelle said, looking increasingly uncomfortable. For all her loyalty to her boss, she was also a sympathetic woman and a single mother herself. Lynn thought she probably understood the situation all too well.

  “Then how about sharing with me how you go about contacting him?” Lynn requested. “Please, Noelle. You spoke to Lexie. You know how much she misses her father. And there are things I need to discuss with him that can’t wait.”

  “He’ll be back soon,” Noelle said, holding firm.

  “How soon?”

  “Next week at the latest, maybe sooner.”

  Lynn shook her head. “Not good enough. I want to speak to him today.”

  Noelle regarded her with what appeared to be genuine sympathy. “I really wish I could help you, but I need this job. I can’t violate his confidence. He’d fire me.” She gave Lynn an earnest look. “You know he would.”

  Lynn sighed. Unfortunately, she knew that all too well. Even before she’d walked into the building, she’d known she was going to be putting Noelle in an impossible position. The last thing she wanted to do was to get another single mom fired.

  She was struck by a sudden thought. Ed always kept petty cash in his office in a secret compartment at the back of one of his drawers. Since he’d failed to send his support check, she figured she was entitled to get that money however she could.

  “Would you mind if I left a note on his desk?” she asked Noelle.

  “No problem,” Noelle said, looking relieved that Lynn wasn’t going to keep pressing her.

  “Thanks. I’ll just be a minute.” She walked into the office she’d worked so hard to decorate for him, choosing colors that were warm and inviting and furnishings that were tasteful and, at Ed’s insistence, far more expensive than they’d needed to be.

  She sat in his ergonomic leather chair behind the oversize mahogany desk and opened the bottom drawer. Reaching into the compartment hidden behind a stack of company stationery, she plucked out two hundred-dollar bills and guiltily stuffed them into her purse.

  To make good on the request that had gotten her into the room, she removed a piece of stationery and jotted a quick note asking Ed to call her immediately on his return, folded it and shoved it into an envelope, then tucked it into a corner of the pristine blotter centered on his desk.

  “All done,” she told Noelle, exiting quickly. “I left the note on his desk. Please make sure he reads it, okay? As soon as he sees my handwriting he’ll toss it in the trash, otherwise.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Noelle promised, then regarded Lynn apologetically. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.”

  “You helped enough,” Lynn assured her.

  Back in her car, she found herself trembling for the second time that day. No matter how strongly she felt that she was owed much more than that two hundred dollars, she couldn’t help thinking that she’d turned into a thief. That’s what this divorce
was doing to her.

  Then she thought of her kids and squared her shoulders. She’d done what she had to do and if anyone should be ashamed of their behavior these days, it was Ed. And she’d tell him exactly that if he had the audacity to make an issue of this.

  * * *

  Even with the promise of another paycheck soon and the money she’d stolen from petty cash in her purse, Lynn couldn’t bring herself to go on a spending splurge at the grocery store. Who knew what other crises might arise before Ed finally paid up the way he was supposed to?

  She left the store with two small sacks of groceries and a heavy heart. This would barely get them through the weekend, and then what? A couple of hundred dollars seemed like a fortune, but it wouldn’t last long. It would barely cover the electric bill, much less make any dent in the overdue mortgage.

  After putting the few pitiful purchases into the refrigerator and pantry, she knew she had to do something more to address the situation. Not even another paycheck was going to solve things, not with interest and late fees adding up on their bills. Reluctantly, she picked up the phone and called Helen.

  “The support check hasn’t come again,” she told the attorney. “I just spent practically the last dime I have on enough groceries to get us through the next couple of days.” She drew in a deep breath, then confessed, “I actually resorted to taking money from petty cash in Ed’s office. I know it’s theft, but what was I supposed to do, Helen? Let my kids starve?”

  Helen uttered an epithet that would have blistered Ed’s ears had she said it in court. “Look, I can’t very well condone stealing, but let’s pretend you never told me about that. Believe me, I get how desperate you must have been to resort to that.”

  “It’s not going to make a dent in the bills,” Lynn said in frustration. “But it will cover groceries for a couple of weeks and one or two other things, if I pinch every penny.”

  “I’ll stop by with a check before the day’s out,” Helen promised her. “And before you say no, believe me, I will get it back from Ed, even if I have to take it out of his sorry hide!”

  Lynn smiled. “I want to be there for that,” she said. “Just anticipating it will be the one huge bright spot in my life.”

  “What about those bills you mentioned?” Helen asked. “Are you managing? Is Ed covering what he’s supposed to be covering—the mortgage payment, the utilities?”

  Lynn drew in a deep breath, then told her, “I just got a notice from the bank. They haven’t received the last two house payments. They’re threatening to foreclose. The electric company has given me two weeks to pay or they’ll disconnect service.”

  “That scum!” Helen said fiercely. “Does he really want to take the roof from over your heads?”

  “I don’t think he cares about anything but himself these days,” Lynn said. “I’ve managed to find a part-time job at Raylene’s shop, but in this economy the pay’s terrible. And today, Mitch Franklin hired me part-time to handle his billing and payroll, but even with both jobs, there’s no way I can keep up. And the kids need clothes and supplies for school. I can’t bear the looks in their eyes when I tell them there’s no money for something they need, never mind for a few extras like seeing a movie with their friends. Forget putting gas in the car. Until today when I went looking for a second job, I hadn’t driven anywhere in weeks.”

  Once she’d started, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from pouring out all the frustrations and fears she’d kept bottled up. Helen listened without comment, then said with quiet reassurance, “We’re going to fix this, Lynn. I promise you that.”

  “Before I’m homeless?” Lynn asked wryly.

  “Absolutely,” Helen said. “I’ll speak to the bank. If need be, I’ll get the court to intervene while we straighten this out.”

  Lynn breathed a sigh of relief. She could bear just about anything, she thought, except the thought of being on the streets with no place to go. Her parents had died several years ago. Her sisters lived in other states. If they knew how bad things were, they’d try to help, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to endure the humiliation of asking them. She’d been saving that for a truly desperate last resort.

  “I’ll be by in an hour or two with that check,” Helen promised her. “You’ll still have time to get to the bank to cash it. In the meantime, I’ll call Jimmy Bob West and put the fear of God into him about his client’s behavior. Once I get to your place, we’ll take a look at those bills and see what we can work out, okay?”

  “Thank you, Helen. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you in my corner. If it were just me, I could walk away. Start over, even from the very bottom. But I owe the kids better than that.”

  “You’re a strong woman, Lynn. Try to remember that. You’ll do whatever it takes to keep your family healthy and safe. I just wish you’d told me about this sooner. Maybe I could have done something before things deteriorated so badly.”

  “I was taught that asking for help was a sign of weakness,” Lynn said. “I kept thinking I could figure things out or that Ed would shape up.”

  “Turning to friends, and especially to your attorney, is not a weakness,” Helen replied emphatically. “Remember that. I’ll see you soon.”

  “Thanks,” Lynn said, her spirits marginally improved.

  But then, as if to mock her, when she went to wash her hands in the downstairs bathroom, the cold-water knob came off in her hand.

  “This is just the bloody last straw,” she muttered, sitting down on the toilet and letting the tears come. She wasn’t sure which was flowing harder, her tears or the water leaking in the sink.

  “This is not solving anything,” she muttered, making an attempt to find the shut-off valve, only to discover it was stuck. She thought of Mitch. She doubted he’d had any idea what he was letting himself in for by offering to help her out. These days it seemed the disasters in her life were way too plentiful. Still, he had offered and he was right next door.

  She splashed water on her swollen eyes, ran a brush through her hair, then hurried to Raylene’s. At her knock, Raylene opened the door at once. She frowned when she saw Lynn.

  “Are you okay? You’ve been crying. What can I do to help?”

  “Just a frustrating day,” Lynn told her. “Is Mitch here? Do you suppose I could borrow him for a minute? I have an impending plumbing disaster and I’m at a loss. He offered to help out if I ever needed anything.”

  “Of course he will,” Raylene said. “I’ll get him and send him right over.”

  “Thanks.”

  Raylene started away, then came back. “Lynn, if you ever need anything at all, you know Carter and I will be happy to pitch in. Mandy adores Lexie, and we love having her over here anytime she wants to come. You and Jeremy are always welcome, too. I imagine it’s been tough since Ed left. I put that much together when you came to me for a job.”

  “We’re managing,” Lynn said tightly, wondering if Helen had filled Raylene in on how bad things were, if Raylene had only given her a job out of pity. She immediately stopped herself from even considering such a possibility. Helen’s ethical standards were too high for her to be blabbing about her clients’ woes.

  And after all Raylene had been through—her first husband’s abuse, a bout with agoraphobia and a final confrontation with her ex after his release from jail—Raylene was quick to lend a hand to everyone these days. She said it thrilled her to finally be able to repay some of the kindness extended to her when she’d b
een psychologically trapped in her own home for so long.

  Lynn forced a smile. “Thanks for offering, though. You’ve already done plenty for us.”

  “We’re always happy to help. I mean that.”

  Lynn nodded. “I know you do.” For the second time that day, she’d been reminded that she did have friends, people who would be there for her if only she asked.

  “Okay, then,” Raylene said, then left to get Mitch as Lynn walked back home.

  When Mitch appeared at her house and immediately set to work on repairing the knob, she couldn’t help noticing how quietly competent he was. He was also a man of few words. She liked that he didn’t ask a lot of questions about how she’d managed to break the stupid thing in the first place. Ed would have turned the whole incident into a flurry of accusations about her incompetence.

  When the job was done, Mitch washed his hands, then smiled at her. “Good as new,” he declared. “Or as good as a twenty-year-old fixture is likely to be. You might think about replacing it one of these days.”

  “I’ll put it on the list,” she said.

  He gave her a chiding look. “Is this one of those long lists that no one ever gets to?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “I could get one for you at cost and replace it in no time,” he offered.

  Lynn shook her head. “That’s okay. This one will have to hold up a while longer.”

  “Okay, then,” he said, not pressing. When they got to the kitchen, he hesitated. “Other than that knob coming off in your hand, has something else happened since I saw you earlier? You look even more stressed.”

  “How flattering.”

  He winced. “Sorry. I’m not up on polite chitchat. If I want to know something, I figure the best way to find out is to ask. The kids are okay?”