Thirty-Two and a Half Complications
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“Oh, God,” Violet said, hurrying across the room, picking her way through the debris. She rounded the corner and searched the shelves and the floor.
“Violet.” Joe made his way over to her. “What are you looking for?”
“The deposit bag. I had to pick up the kids and I didn’t have time to get to the bank, so I put it under the counter to keep it safe.” She started to cry.
I was grateful I hadn’t given her the check I’d been paid the previous day for the Timberland job. I brushed back my hair. “Most of our sales are usually by credit or debit card, right? We’ll be fine.”
“That’s just it. I haven’t gone to the bank for several days. We had several thousand in cash.”
I started to laugh and all three of them looked at me like I was a two-headed cow. “That’s how this all started—because Violet didn’t go to the bank and we lost thousands of dollars. It seems fitting for it to end this way too.”
“With all due respect, Rose,” Violet said in tightly controlled voice. “Losing cash is one thing, but we’ve just lost almost everything in the store. All the preparations for the Christmas Open House have been ruined. So not only do we not have the money to pay off our debt, we have no income to keep us going. All thanks to you.”
“Violet.” Mason’s voice was harsh. “Your insurance will cover this loss.”
“But not in time. We’re sunk.”
Mason groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s three o’clock in the morning and we’re all tired and upset. Let’s not start making accusations that we’ll regret in the light of day. We’ll let the police and sheriff conduct their investigation and go from there.”
We left soon after, while Joe and Violet stayed. Despite our animosity, I grieved for my sister. My money may have been tied to the store, but my heart wasn’t. My heart belonged to the dirt and the plants of the outdoor jobs I’d been handling with Bruce Wayne.
“I know it looks bad, Rose, but insurance will cover this.”
“It won’t be the same, but it’s all just stuff. Violet and I, though… Well, this will only make things worse. I’m not sure we can fix them.”
“I know Violet’s done some incredibly hurtful things to you, but don’t give up on her. I suspect you’re right in thinking you’d be better off splitting up your business, but… Well, I’d give anything to have Savannah back, imperfections and all. Violet is your family. That means something.”
He squeezed my hand, and I found myself wishing someone would give the same speech to Violet because it sure felt like she’d given up on me months ago.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I couldn’t go back to sleep after we got home. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the destruction of everything Violet and I had put so much work into, destroyed. Even if Skeeter got our money back at this point, it wouldn’t be enough.
Instead, I went to the kitchen and tried to scrounge up enough ingredients to make a pumpkin pie. After I made enough dough for four pies, I sat at the kitchen table and nursed a cup of coffee, trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces of the Gardner Sisters Nursery and move on.
“Good morning,” Maeve said, standing in the kitchen doorway in her bathrobe and slippers. “You’re up early.”
I offered her a weak smile. “We had an eventful night.”
“You seem to have a lot of those, I hear,” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. My back bristled, but I couldn’t hear any hint of accusation in her words. She padded to the table and sat in the chair across from me. “Mason needs a bit of shaking up. You’ve brought some much-needed excitement into his life.”
My mouth parted in surprise.
“Didn’t expect that, did you?”
I released a nervous laugh. “No.”
“He hasn’t always been this serious. He’s got a heart of gold, and before his father died he used to be so light-hearted.” She took a sip of her coffee and cradled the cup in front of her. “Van’s death was hard on all of us. Everyone loved Van, and Mason was just like him. But for all of Van’s great character traits, it turned out that he was exceptionally bad at financial planning. We struggled after his death.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
A soft smile lit up her face and she patted my hand. “That was a decade ago. We struggled through it, but Mason changed. He thought he had to step up and be the man of the family, and he took that role seriously. So when Savannah began to act out, Mason took it hard. He tried to help her—we both did—but you can only help someone who wants to be helped, and no matter how much we loved Savannah, she didn’t want to change.”
I turned my hand over and covered her fingers with mine. “I can only imagine how difficult it was for you both.”
She pressed her lips together. “Mason felt like he failed her and he didn’t handle it well. He’d succeeded at everything in his life, yet he felt like he’d failed at the one thing that mattered. He smiled even less after that.”
“You’re right. He does have a big heart. He’s so accepting of all of my friends when other people in my life have been judgmental of them. So I can only imagine how hard it was for him when Savannah refused to get help.”
“Then you can guess at the rage and the sorrow he experienced after her death. He felt like he’d failed her all over again. And when he hurt that man and lost his job…” She took a deep breath and her voice broke when she spoke again. “I thought I’d lost him too.”