Fool's Gold (12 page)

“Why does it have to be?” Mel stared at the wall, which seemed easier than facing Addie. “If you’re talking about the lawsuit, you have a good chance of winning. But if for some reason you don’t, you still have options. You could take a mortgage on the inn—”

“And pay it how, exactly? The guests haven’t been clambering in since I opened the doors. I know I need to advertise, and business will get better in the summer. But a mortgage is a year-round thing. Without one, I can survive the lean months. If I’m in debt up to my ears, I’ll worry about it every day.”

“So, worst case scenario, you have to sell the inn. Move in with me and find another job here in Cattle Valley. We’d be together, Addie, and I think that’s the most important thing.”

“I’m not sure I could do that,” Addie replied softly. “My energy and focus have been on the inn for a while, now. If I lose it, I’ll need to figure out what’s next for me. It’s not a step I could take lightly.”

“You’re so stubborn,” Mel spouted. She tried to blink back her tears, but it wasn’t working.

“Hey,” Addie gazed down at her, wiping them away with her thumb. “Don’t cry. We aren’t sure what’s going to happen. We just need more time.”

Mel sat up. “I know what I’d like to happen. I’d like to get rid of my apartment and move in here. If I’m paying rent, it might as well be to the inn. And maybe my contribution would be enough to finish the attic space. I’d love to make that my room, a place for all my stuff, and a sanctuary you and I could retreat to whenever we wanted.”

“Whoa!” Addie sat and turned towards her. “That’s why you wanted Hal to look at the attic?”

“It is.” Mel nodded. “I’d even thought about coming to work for you here. But Naomi told me yesterday she’s pregnant. She’s going to have to cut back her hours and needs me more than ever at the bookstore.”

Addie blinked, an expression of disbelief crossing her face. “You want to work here?

And live here? Holy smokes, girl, you’ve taken a leap off a mountain I haven’t even climbed yet. And Naomi is pregnant? I thought she lived with that Courtney woman.”

Mel felt the tears welling in her eyes again. She sniffled and nodded. “She does. They used a donor and invitro fertilisation. I think the sperm might have come from someone we know, someone around here, but she won’t tell me. She just smiles.”

“Wow, that’s really something. I’ve never thought about anything like that. Have you?”

“I don’t know. Naomi and Courtney talked about it from the beginning. They told me next time Courtney wants to carry the baby. So I guess they want more than one.” Mel stood and started gathering her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Addie watched her.

“I need to get out of here. I’ve made a fool of myself, and I feel humiliated. I need to go.”

“Oh, stop it.” Addie stood up and grabbed her hand. “You’ve done no such thing. You were thinking ahead, and I haven’t been able to do that, yet. With this lawsuit hanging over me—”

“It’s more than the lawsuit.” Mel jerked her arm away. “I told you I loved you and wanted to be with you. You couldn’t say the same to me so apparently, I’ve really gone off the deep end.” She quickly dressed and headed out of the room.

Addie folded her arms across her chest. “I said I have strong feelings for you, Melissa. I wish I could say more, but I’m not going to lie.”

Mel shot her an irritated glance. “Oh, no, you couldn’t do that. You’d never lie.” She turned and walked out.

The rest of the weekend crawled for Mel. Her phone never rang, and she was too humiliated to return and admit she might have been hasty. They’d only known each other a few weeks. So what if Addie failed to jump head first into love with every woman she dated?

That’s a good thing.
But Mel had felt the deep connection they shared and couldn’t understand how Addie didn’t. They’d become great friends and had fun together. There was so much more to their relationship than just a dynamite time in bed.
But there was that.

She dragged herself through the workday Monday and, by evening, had determined that no matter how much crow she had to eat, Addie was worth it. She would go to the inn and apologise for getting carried away. She drove there straightaway and paused at the front door. It felt awkward walking in unannounced, so she rang the bell and waited, her heart pounding.

The door opened, and Mel’s heart thudded to the pit of her stomach.

Chloe stood there wearing sheer baby doll pyjamas and a sneer on her face. “What do
you
want?”

Addie washed her hands in the kitchen and hurried to dry them. “I’ll be right there,”

she called loudly, but when she got to the front room, she found Chloe had already answered the door.

“It’s nobody,” Chloe told her.

“Oh, good grief.” Addie rolled her eyes at the aggravating blonde woman and bumped her aside with one hip. “Come in, Mel. Chloe, I told you the inn is open, now. You can’t go parading around like that.”

“Too much clothing?” Chloe peeled off her top and wiggled her breasts at them.

“You’re right. You’d probably get more business if I answered the door like this.”

Mel’s eyes were as big as saucers. She stammered for a moment then fell silent.

Addie grabbed the pyjama shirt from Chloe’s hand and shoved it at her. “Put this on, for christ’s sake. Can’t you find something to do for a bit? I have some business to discuss with Mel.”

“I’ll stay.” Chloe made a show of raising her hands and allowing the silky top to slide over her. “I’d like to learn more about the inn business since I’m here.”

Frustrated, Addie grabbed Mel’s arm and tugged her towards the kitchen. “It’s not inn business, it’s something else. We’ll be right back. Please stay here.” She dragged Mel off before Chloe could respond.

In the kitchen, Addie made sure the swinging door closed before turning to face Mel.

She looked as if her head might explode, but Addie couldn’t tell if the expression were one of anger or hurt. “I was going to call you.”

“To tell me what? That Chloe is back?” Mel blinked rapidly.

Please don’t cry
. Addie hated seeing Mel cry. “No, of course not. I wanted to call you yesterday, but she showed up out of the blue. Somebody dropped her off, and she has no money and no place to stay.”

“So she came here.”

Addie shook her head disgustedly. “God knows why. We’ve been apart almost as long as we were together. I don’t pretend to understand how her mind works. All I know for sure is she got bored in San Francisco and hitched a ride back this way.”

“Do you want her here?” Mel asked with trepidation.

“Of course not!” Addie pulled Mel into her arms and hugged her. “She’s staying in one of the guest rooms. I want
you
here. I missed you like crazy.”

Mel collapsed against her. “I missed you, too. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Addie kissed her temple. “You were right. I need to make some decisions in my life. Maybe I’m too deliberate and over-think things, I don’t know. That’s just who I am.

Please, can I have a little more time to figure this out? Don’t give up on me.”

“Get her out of here,” Mel whispered.

“I want to. But if I offer to buy her a ticket somewhere, she’ll know I have money. I was trying to avoid that, because if she finds out I have anything…”

Mel nodded. “She’ll drain you dry. I understand. I just want her out. Tell her you borrowed some from me or something.”

Addie rocked Mel back and forth. “I guess I’ll have to. The crappy thing is, I know she really doesn’t want to stay. She told me Cattle Valley is too small a town for her. But unless I pay her way out, she’ll hang around here until something better comes along.”

“Paying her to leave is preferable to letting her stay. I’ll give you the damn money if you want.” Mel held her tight.

“I’ll take care of it.” Addie cupped Mel’s face and kissed her lips. She was happier than she had been for the past few days, and even dealing with Chloe didn’t seem like such a chore. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I am, too.” Mel kissed her deeply then pulled back. “And now I’m leaving. Chloe doesn’t like me. I think you’ll get along better without me. That is, as long as you’re sure you can keep her in the guest room.”

“I’m absolutely sure. When she took off with Del and Rita, it sealed it for me. I want nothing more to do with her.”

“I believe you and I trust you.” Mel laid one hand on her shoulder. “Good luck. Call me tomorrow?”

“Absolutely. Hopefully, I’ll have something figured out by then.” She gave Mel one more quick kiss.

“I’ll just slip out the back door and walk around to my car.” Mel wiggled her nose.

“Chicken.” Addie grinned at her.

“You really don’t want me to punch her. She might bleed all over your new furniture.”

“True. See ya.” Addie watched her go. She could slap herself for not committing to the beautiful woman and taking Mel’s worries away. It wouldn’t be so hard to say ‘I love you’, and she’d mean it. But something didn’t feel right. A worry niggled at Addie. She was sure she hadn’t heard the last of her mother and the lawsuit.

Returning to the front room, she found Chloe curled up on the sofa reading a magazine.

There’s a familiar sight
. If she stayed here, Chloe would become a permanent fixture in that spot, reading, smacking gum and chain smoking instead of helping out.

Of course she isn’t staying! What was I thinking?
Addie just didn’t know how to make her leave. “I’m going to eat a sandwich and turn in early. You want anything?”

Chloe looked up at her and batted her lashes. “What are you offering?”

“A sandwich, Chloe. Nothing more.”

Chloe got to her feet and moved closer to Addie. “Are you sure? It used to be so nice between us. It can be again.”

All Addie could see when she looked at the wild, blonde hair and excessive makeup was an image of Del and Rita smirking at her. It’d probably been
nice
between Chloe and a
lot
of people since she’d left here. Addie shivered. Maybe she should get a check-up at the clinic now she could afford it. She could only pray the woman hadn’t given her some disease that she unwittingly passed on to Mel.

“On second thought, I’m not hungry. Clean up after yourself if you make a mess, okay?” Addie went to her bedroom and locked the door, in case her guest decided to take a middle of the night stroll. She wasn’t taking any chances.

Chloe was still sleeping when Addie fixed herself a huge breakfast the next morning.

She phoned Mel and touched base, then set about vacuuming and dusting in the front room.

She’d made a schedule for herself and was determined to stick to it, guests or not. She had to keep busy.

Just as she finished and put the vacuum back into the closet, the front door opened.

“Anybody home?” a familiar masculine voice called.

Addie smiled and strolled around the corner. “Hi, Nate! What brings you here?”

He held up a small painting of a child playing in a field of yellow flowers. “I found this and thought it would go perfectly in the front mustard bedroom. You know that one bare wall.”

She stepped closer and examined the picture. “I prefer ‘gold’, if you don’t mind. But this is beautiful and it’s perfect. Want to help me hang it?”

He raised his eyebrows. “As long as no one is sleeping in that room.”

Addie shook her head. “So you’ve heard Chloe is back. No, she’s in the back bedroom, farthest away from me.”

He lowered his voice. “You’ve got to get rid of her. What are you going to do?”

“Not sure.” She shrugged. “I’m working on it.”

“Throw her ass out. You don’t owe her anything.”

“I couldn’t do that. Besides, I don’t want her hanging around Cattle Valley. I’d like to buy her a plane ticket to somewhere.”

“Bus,” Nate corrected. “All she needs is a bus ticket.”

“And a way to get to Sheridan to catch the plane…or bus.”

He seemed to think about it.

Addie grinned. “While those little wheels are a-turnin’, I’ll get a hammer and nail.”

“I beg your pardon,” Nate followed her. “Nothing of mine could be considered ‘little’.”

“Oh. Sor-ry. Here we go.” She found what she’d been looking for, and they climbed the stairs to the gold bedroom. She positioned the painting, he gave his approval, and Addie drove the nail.

They stood back and admired it. “It’s just lovely,” Addie murmured.

“The minute I saw it, I knew it’d be perfect.”

She squeezed his arm and placed a small kiss on his cheek. “You’ve been such a help to me. I don’t know how I can ever thank you.”

“I had an idea about that.” His eyebrows rose again.

Addie chuckled then stopped as Chloe strolled into the room wearing nothing but the same baby doll pyjamas. “Hey, Chloe.”

“Good morning.” She yawned and inspected Nate top to bottom. “I’ve seen you before.”

“Lucky girl.” He turned to Addie. “So all of your rooms will be available tomorrow night when the ladies come to town? There’ll be at least a dozen people. They’ll need every bed you’ve got.”

She looked at him with surprise, having no idea what he was talking about.

Nate winked. “The Tulip Festival is always such fun. Mrs. Cavendish is a hoot. She’s about seventy and feisty as can be. Her friends are, too. Be careful, or they’ll keep you up late at night playing canasta. The inn will be rocking, I assure you.”

“The Tulip Festival,” Addie repeated, going along with his obviously contrived tale.

He nodded. “A huge draw for the senior set. The town will be crawling with them this weekend.”

“Oh my god,” Chloe drawled. “They’re staying here? Somebody kill me, now.”

Nate smiled at her pleasantly. “I could probably arrange that. Or—I could get you a room at the new lodge on the edge of town. It’s much more your style. I’m sure you’d be very comfortable there. You’d only need a few hundred to stay through the weekend.”

“I’m not moving to some lodge.” Chloe looked at Addie. “I’ll stay in the room with you.

You need me here to help take care of all the guests. Cooking, cleaning—”

“None of which I’ve ever seen you do.” Addie stared at her. “Besides, this is a
bed and
breakfast
, remember? There’ll one be one meal a day to cook, and I can handle that. What I can’t handle is the thought of you sleeping in my bed again. And I can’t keep up the nice act any longer, Chloe. I’m sorry, but you’re not welcome here. You need to leave.”