Nipped in the Bud (19 page)

“Hazel,” I shouted above the clamor, “could you take the girls outside to find half a dozen primroses while I talk to Lisa?”

Hazel laughed and brushed the dirt from her hands.
“C’mon, girls.
We’ll get the flowers, and then I’ll make you some hot chocolate.”

“
Yay
,” they screamed and trailed after Hazel.

Cali
shot through Hazel’s feet, as the furry feline often did when someone opened the door first thing in the morning. She rushed past the girls’ outstretched hands and ran under a plant display.

I turned back to Lisa. “Let’s go to the office.”

She gave an absent nod and trudged beside me.

Cali
bolted from her hiding space and trotted just in front of my
feet,
pausing every so often to be sure I followed. This sneaky little one wanted to get into my office. One of her favorite spots to sleep was on my expensive desk chair. After a few punctures of the buttery soft leather when she was in the room with Mr. T, she was now only allowed in the office when I was present and Mr. T was up front. That didn’t stop her from trying to sneak in.

I took my chair, and
Cali
hopped onto my lap. She exposed her belly and immediately rumbled into a purr.

With a
tsk
, Lisa cleaned the mound of gardening brochures off the side chair and sat. “Why didn’t you tell me about your date last night?”

“First of all, you were so distracted this morning you wouldn’t have heard me even if I did tell you. And secondly, it wasn’t a date.
Just a working dinner.”
I grabbed an envelope in hopes of sorting through piles of mail on the desk while we talked.

She shrugged. “Same dif.
Especially
when Adam told Perry he wanted it to be a date.”

He
did
want to date me. Score!

Not wanting to burst out in joy when Lisa was so troubled, I stifled a smile and tossed a junk flyer for pest control into the trash. Hmmm, pest control. Maybe I should reconsider and use the service on pest Lisa.

For now I’d settle for outing her part in this supposed admission from Adam. “Guys do not talk to each other like that. Are you sure you didn’t get in on the conversation?”

“Maybe just the tail end.”
Her eyes turned impish, and she giggled.

I couldn’t help but smile over how much her face had brightened from when she’d arrived. Leave it to Lisa to giggle when she’d done something underhanded like talk to Adam behind my back. Normally I’d call her on it, but I didn’t want to risk returning her to her crabby state.

She leaned closer. “Did you have a good time, too?”

I mocked offense at her interference with a pout. “I’m not going to tell you. This is just like grade school. You’ll go running back to Adam with whatever I say.”

“Oh,
puh
-lease.
Admit it. You’re interested in him.”

I looked up and thought about it. Was I really interested in Adam? Was this the kind of guy I could build a relationship and future with? He seemed like a good candidate from what I had seen so far, but that’s the way most relationships started. Then the guy wanted to step in and take over. Wrestle away control.

“Earth to Paige,” Lisa said.

“Sorry, I was just thinking. Honestly I’m not sure about Adam. He’s not really my type.”

Lisa snorted. “That’s a good thing. You usually pick the bad boys.”

I chucked two bills onto the “to be paid” pile already threatening a landslide. “I’ll admit it. I do go for the troubled sort. Perhaps I’m only interested in Adam because I’m projecting my troubles onto him. Maybe once this is all resolved, I won’t find him attractive at all. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

She sighed. “Fine, I’ll be patient.
As long as you admit that Adam is a keeper like Perry.”

Perfect opportunity to change the subject.
“Speaking of Perry, he owes me a call.” I told her about Mrs. Gherkin’s news, the blackmail theory, and how I’d asked him to follow up on the cash.

“I can ask him about it. We’re having lunch.”

“Ooh-la-la.
A date with the hubby.”

Lisa’s face returned to her angst-filled scowl, and she sat back in silence.

What’d I do now? Everything was going along fine until we got onto the subject of Perry. The severity of this look was foreign to Lisa, at least since she’d gotten over Ben’s death. Alarm bells clanged in my head.

I sat forward. “Lisa, what’s wrong?”

She said nothing for a few uncomfortable seconds then blurted out, “Have you noticed that Perry’s been kind of unhappy lately?”

I dropped the rest of the mail onto the desk. If Lisa and Perry were having troubles, I needed to give her my full attention. “Unhappy? Not that I noticed. Why?”

“I don’t know.” More silence. “He’s been acting odd for a while.
Like he’s bored with his job, or me and the girls.”

I never felt more out of my league than now. I had nothing to base any advice on, and I really didn’t know what to say. “Are you sure you’re not imagining this?”

“I thought so, for a while. Then Perry reconnected with Adam. It seems to have gotten worse. Like Perry wishes he was doing criminal law. Or maybe he wants to be single like Adam.”

I wanted to blurt out that I’d go ahead and marry Adam if that would solve my best friend’s issue, but I knew better than to be flip when she was pouring out her heart. “Have you talked to him about it?”

“Nah, I can’t seem to bring it up. What if I do and he says, ‘yeah, sorry babe. I want my freedom. See you later.’ ” Her pain distorted her voice, sending a fresh wave of worry over me.

She was way off base on this, though. Perry wasn’t that kind of a guy. At least, I hoped he wasn’t. “You know Perry would never do that. You just said he was a keeper, and he is. Talk to him. Find out what’s going on.”

She sighed again, this one long and drawn out like a leaking tire. A commotion in the background drew my attention, but barely fazed her.

“Lori, it’s not a good idea to dump that on the floor,” Hazel shouted.

A crash split the silence, followed by the sound of breaking pottery, jolting Lisa out of her stupor.

She slowly pushed to her feet. “I better go before the girls tear your store apart.”

Unable to come up with a way to relieve her concern, I let her go and sat back.
Cali
, who’d curled into a tight ball in my lap and purred even through all my mail-sorting maneuvers, shifted. I scratched her head and stared at the door. Lisa’s news was almost as bad as being accused of murder. She could be overreacting and maybe nothing was wrong, but I couldn’t help worrying about her and Perry. And I had no idea how to help her resolve things. The same feelings of helplessness surged through me like they had when Ben died.

Cali
meowed and looked up at me. I rubbed my thumb down her nose. “Life is much easier with you than a real family, isn’t it?”

Maybe I didn’t ever want to get married. Maybe life with a cat and a bird was just fine.

“And now, enjoy the best of Through the Garden Gate with your beloved host, Paige Turner.”

“Hi, this is
Perplexed
. I wanted to add a caution to your advice about hedge trimmers.”

“Hello, Perplexed, I’m so glad you caught the show when I suggested to our listeners who find themselves surrounded by hedges to invest in a hedge trimmer. They’re inexpensive, do the work in no time at all, and they’re right there in your shed or garage whenever you need them so you don’t have to run out and rent one.”

“I agree with you on your first two points. It’s the last one I want to caution others on, or they might just lose their hedge trimmer like I did.”

“Oh, goodness, this sounds serious.”

“Well, it is. My hedges were perfect until I heard your show and asked my hedge trimmer if he minded living in my garage so he’d be available whenever I needed him. Hector gave me a crazy look and stormed off the job. I haven’t seen him since.”

Lisa, Lacy, and Lori had departed, and since the containers hadn’t arrived yet, I decided to go to the library. With a promise to Hazel to return shortly, I left the shop and schlepped into the now overcast day. Springtime weather in the
Willamette
Valley
was unpredictable. Once we hit the Fourth of July, the sun shone almost every day, and little rain fell until October, when it consistently drizzled until May. Then we had a mixed bag of sun and rain, rarely experiencing thunder and lightning.
At least not outside my head.

The musty aromas permeating the old library brought back my past and helped me force a warm approach. Stacey doused it with another cool reception. While she retrieved the newspapers, I looked around her personal space for any clue as to why she might have something against Bud or me. What I found were hints to her personality. A designer purse like Lisa’s peeked out the top drawer of her desk, the latest
smartphone
sat on the desk, and today a quality leather jacket hung over the white sweater. Common items you might find in a work space.
Nothing that would tell me if she killed Bud, or why she didn’t like me.

Unless, of course, she had something against all women who wore little makeup, dressed practically, and often had dirt on their clothes and under their nails. Still, it took a lot of money to support the trendy items I’d found, and a librarian in Serendipity was not likely well paid. I made a mental note to add this piece of news to my suspect list and pulled back my shoulders as the subject of my thoughts approached.

“I could only carry two boxes. You can start on these.” She dropped the boxes on the counter. “When I’m free I’ll get the last one.”

Free? Free? I was the only one in the place. Not a silent person by nature, I literally had to clamp down on my tongue. No way
I’d
alienate the woman who stood between me and the last box of papers I needed to review. I took my boxes and went back to the same corner as yesterday.

I flipped through older papers and worked my way forward through the month
Nancy
claimed she spoke to the council. After several stacks, one thing became clear. The name Fulcrum came up often, but not in relationship to Bud. And conspicuously absent was
Nancy
’s attendance at any meeting. I did confirm that Gus
Reinke
was the council chairman at that time, and I made a note of the other council members’ names. Still, I plodded on, occasionally glancing at the “About Town” column and shaking my head when I spotted personal snippets that described dinner or lunch guests and the menu served.

Finished with the boxes, I sat back and let my mind wander to the copy that would appear in “About Town” if any one reported my dinner with Adam. It would be especially embarrassing if someone followed me home and saw the incredible male specimen run from the idea of kissing me.

Before letting my mind drift too far away, I stacked the papers in proper order and exchanged them for the final box that Stacey had left on the counter. Thankfully, there was no sign of Stacey, and I avoided another scolding.

On the way back to my little corner, my cell vibrated. I pulled the phone from the
holder,
and upon seeing Adam’s name, tamped down my excitement and greeted him with an even tone.

“Hi there.”
I purred into my phone much the way
Cali
had purred on my lap.

“Hi to you, too.
I just called. . .” he stopped for a dramatic pause.

‘To say, I love you.’
I internally finished the first line of Stevie Wonder’s song.

“To say I’m sorry.” He rushed the words out as if apologizing was tough for him.

Oops, wrong song. Hold up, sorry? Why did he have to apologize? What did he do? Did the forensics come in? Did he fail to keep me out of jail?

“Sorry?
For what?”
I asked tentatively.

“I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you last night. We agreed to a professional relationship until you’re cleared, and I didn’t abide by that decision.”

I exhaled the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “You don’t have to apologize for that.”

“Yes, I do. I wasn’t much of a gentleman.”

“You are more of a gentleman than any other man I’ve dated.” I didn’t think it necessary to mention that the list of men I’d had relationships with in the past was about as long as the guest list at a party on
Gilligan’s Island
. “The only thing you need to apologize for is not following through on the kiss.”

“Aw, Paige, c’mon.
You’re
killin
’ me here. Don’t distract me like that.”

“I thought I only did that when I looked at you.”