Out of Bounds (21 page)

“Chloe?”

Chloe’s hair and makeup were as flawless as usual. She folded her hands and gave Angel a glare before saying, “I know you probably don’t want to talk to me and I don’t blame you. I thought I should tell you, though, that I’ve worked out a deal with the Fallons. I can’t drop the charges against your mom, but I’ll do everything I can to see that she’s treated fairly.”

“Why?” Posy asked. Angel struggled in her arms. The last thing she wanted was to invite the other woman in, but she didn’t want the dog to escape. She held the door open wider and backed up. “Come in, if you don’t mind.”

Chloe stepped just far enough inside to let the storm door close behind her. Posy put Angel on the ground and the little dog immediately retreated to the next room where she stood, growling.

“Wes put a proposal together,” Chloe said. “The Fallon Foundation is going to sponsor a series of posts on my blog so we can teach other bloggers how to partner with nonprofits safely and legally. He lined up a series of experts—lawyers, marketers, an accountant. When the series is finished, I’m going to write a handbook and the Fallon centers will develop a workshop curriculum.”

Posy put one hand behind her and leaned against the wall. “He put all that together today?”

“He seems intent on protecting your mom.” Chloe shook her head. “I had planned a fairly damning post for tomorrow, which I’m going to delete when I get home. I promised him I’d stop by. He’s been trying to call you, but can’t get through.”

Angel growled again and Posy faced her, glad for the disruption. “Go to your bed.”

The dog stood her ground for a second, but then reluctantly turned away.

“She listened to you.”

“We’ve been practicing.” Posy turned back. “What does this mean for my mom?”

“It means I’m not going to throw her to the wolves on my blog. I hope the issue will stay local and that the deal for a suspended sentence will go through.”

Posy was so surprised that they’d been able to salvage anything from this mess and so deeply grateful that Chloe had agreed to the plan, that she said, “Thank you,” and she meant it sincerely. “I’m sorry that my mom was irresponsible with the money. I wish this had never happened.”

Chloe crossed her arms on her chest. “It’s all working out fine in the end.”

Fine, except Wes was staying here in Kirkland and she wasn’t.

The other woman opened the storm door and walked onto the porch. “Good night,” she said.

Posy lifted her hand. “Thanks again, Chloe.”

She watched as Chloe crossed the street and walked up her own driveway. They were never going to be friends, not with the years of animosity and competition between them, but that was all right. Chloe was getting what she needed and Trish’s deal would more than likely be okay.

She needed to thank Wes, but she thought she might cry if she heard his voice. A couple days. She needed a few days and then she’d be able to handle talking to him without thinking about what-ifs.

* * *

D
EACON
DROVE
UP
for the meeting with the town board. The waiver passed in a unanimous vote. The Hand-to-Hand program was a go.

Jay made a speech after the vote. He said that Kirkland was proud to stand with the Fallon Foundation. He touched on the fundraiser without getting into specifics, and then moved right on to welcoming the Hand-to-Hand program to town.

Ryan stayed behind and Wes introduced him to Deacon.

“Ten bucks you’re the one who wrote that speech for the mayor,” Wes said.

Ryan wiggled his hand back and forth. “Wrote it? Not quite. I did explain the finer points of what went on to Jay and helped him to see how we might want to discuss it in public.”

Wes shook Ryan’s hand. “I appreciate that. You made us look good in a situation a hair on the sketchy side.”

“Ryan is a big fan of the Fallon centers,” Deacon said. “As soon as you start filling jobs, you should ask this guy for his résumé.”

Ryan grinned. “The center’s going to have to field a rec-league team. That’s the only reason you’re trying to poach me from the mayor’s office.”

“On second thought,” Wes said, “forget about applying. We need somebody who can actually play defense.” He tried to ignore the sick feeling he got every time he thought about his new job and all the ways he was being tied more tightly to this town. He wished he could have shared this with Posy, but that was impossible.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I
N
THE
END
she didn’t have to have a going-out-of-
business sale at Wonders. She started to write an ad, intending to put it in the regional papers, but then remembered her mom’s blog. The stupid thing had started all this trouble. Maybe it could help her out here at the end. She wrote a quick blog about the store closing and posted it. Then she remembered that Trish had a database of customers who’d been shopping at Wonders for years. She brought her laptop out to the deck and sent a note about the sale to the mailing list.

Her in-box was immediately inundated with notes from customers begging Trish to keep the store open. Mixed with the flood of Oh No! messages was one marked with a red Urgent flag. The subject line read,
Read this before you hold the sale.

The email was from a woman named Emily Weaver. She and her daughters ran a Christmas shop near the Canadian border. She’d been trying for years to get a commission from the man who made the nativity sets her mother sold, but he had a waiting list and she wasn’t going to get any for that holiday season. She told Posy she would pay almost double the wholesale price for the nativity sets Trish currently had in stock.

Posy replied and told her she could have the nativity sets, but only if she agreed to take either the snow globes or the nutcrackers. She’d barely hit Send when the reply came back with an agreement for the snow globes.

The next urgent message came from a man who had a chain of model-train stores in northern Pennsylvania. He said he’d take Trish’s entire inventory of miniatures off her hands, but only if he was allowed to pack it himself. She sent him back a list of what she had on hand and he sent her back a price. Posy cross-checked it against the wholesale prices and figured that even though it was a little low, her mom would not only get rid of all the miniatures, she’d get paid for every one of them. If they held a retail sale, she couldn’t hope for that kind of return. Posy wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to object to in terms of packing the boxes, a job she certainly didn’t want, so she told him he was welcome to come.

The line of hand-painted German ornaments and individually signed Advent calendars went next. Another email came through with a buyer for the nutcrackers. Before the day was over, Posy had agreements for three-quarters of the stock in the store. Her mom’s apparently excellent taste had paid off. Who knew the objects crammed into Wonders were almost all exclusive and almost all worth something to someone?

Once she was down to odds and ends and small lots of unique items, she sent another note to the mailing list letting them know the sale was canceled, but offering holiday surprise packages at a set rate of twenty dollars each, plus shipping. She took orders for a hundred packages and then told the list the stock was sold out. She might end up with some leftover items, but she didn’t feel up to fussing with the details. She’d donate anything she couldn’t ship out.

She called a few moving companies and found one that would send a crew to Wonders to pack the surprise packages for shipping. All the merchandise was being picked up by the buyers or their representatives on Saturday, so by Sunday morning, the Wonders of Christmas Shoppe could close its doors for good. Posy would be able to pay her aunt back and have a little left over to apply to the second mortgage she’d taken out.

* * *

O
N
S
ATURDAY
MORNING
, Emily, the woman from upstate, came for the nativity sets on the dot of nine o’clock, along with her two daughters. Posy was waiting for her outside Wonders with Angel on her leash. When the van pulled up, she unlocked the door of the store.

The cinnamon scent was still strong, but the place looked a little neglected. She closed the door behind her and let Angel off her leash. The dog leaped up into the front-window display, which had always been her home base when she came to work with Trish.

“I’ll get some lights on and then we can pack them up.”

Posy had a bag of packing supplies, tape, markers, labels and some bungee cords, but Emily had her own boxes and she and her daughters made short work of the packing. They were barely out the door when the crew she’d hired from the moving company showed up and then the man from Pennsylvania who wanted the miniatures.

She kept the dismantling organized and everyone was working carefully, but she was still on edge. As much as she’d looked forward to this day, it felt wrong. Or, maybe not wrong, but sad. Lonely? After this, she’d have no more tether to Kirkland.

That had always been her dream, but that dream had started to seem tarnished. For one thing, she had no idea what she was going to do with Angel. She walked over to the front window and spotted the dog sitting amidst the remains of a display that had been taken apart and separated into surprise boxes.

Angel wasn’t the type of pet who could be put up for adoption. Some poor family would think they were getting a standard, garden-variety schnoodle. Instead, they’d be living with a fluffy, white hell beast.

She’d started working with Angel on some basic commands and the dog was doing well, but knowing how to sit on command wasn’t going to change her basic nature.

Posy snapped her fingers and Angel trotted over to be picked up. She didn’t always enjoy snuggling, but there were times when Angel was content to pretend to be a lapdog. There were also times when Posy was happy to have a lapdog.

She traveled too much to have a dog.

Someone knocked on the door. She was still holding Angel when she greeted the man standing on the sidewalk. “I’m Mitchell,” he said. “We made arrangements about the nutcrackers.”

She stepped back to let him past her into the store, but he held his hand out. “It’s very nice to meet you, Posy.”

“You, too.”

He was looking at her more intently than was comfortable, so she shifted the dog in front of her. Angel would bite him if he made a wrong move, she was positive. He let her hand go, though, and looked through the window at the store. “So this is Wonders. Is Trish here?”

“No,” Posy said. “She’s on a retreat.”

“I see.” Mitchell had parked a big silver Cadillac at the curb and he returned to it to pull some plastic bins out of the back.

She picked up one of the bins and led him inside the store to show him where the nutcrackers were stored. There was a display on the main floor and then several cartons in the storeroom in the back.

Mitchell didn’t say much as they worked, but Posy caught him watching her a few times. She didn’t feel entirely comfortable being alone in the store with him, so she wound up putting Angel on her leash and taking her for a walk.

When they got back, he was tying the trunk of his car down with a bungee cord. “Thank you, Posy,” he said. “You’ve done a wonderful job. Your mom must be grateful after all she’s been through.”

“She’s doing just fine.” Posy didn’t know what he’d heard about her mom or how, but she didn’t feel like stretching the conversation out just to dig for details.

“I’ve been out of the town,” he said, apropos of nothing. “I have a country home in France. It’s quite nice, but remote. No internet or cell service. I like it that way. I saw your message about the sale the day I landed in New York. I’m glad I didn’t miss it.”

“Me, too,” Posy said. She wasn’t sure why he was telling her all this, but she hoped if she agreed with him he’d move along.

He held his hand out again. “Very nice meeting you.”

She shook his hand and then watched while he went around to the driver’s side of his car. She wasn’t sure the bungee cords were going to hold, but he seemed to think the ropes were secure.

As she was checking out the trunk, his license plate registered, “Dr. Train.”

Mitchell. Mitch.

She banged on the trunk and then motioned for him to roll down the window.

“You’re Mitch from Mitch’s Train Yard, aren’t you?”

“I am.” This time when he smiled, it was a genuinely delighted grin. “I didn’t know how much your mom told you about me. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise if you didn’t know about our plans.”

She felt ridiculous. What was she supposed to do now? Ask him what those plans were?

“My intentions are completely honorable,” he said, reading her mind. “Your mother is the light of my life.”

“I don’t think she should move to Ohio right away,” Posy said.

Mitch rubbed the tip of his nose with his index finger as he considered that. “I’m going to leave it up to your mom. What do you say?”

What could she say? It was what she’d wanted all along. Her mom, making independent decisions. If she was going to let her mother clean up her own mistakes, she was going to have to let her make them in the first place. Although she’d proved overly adept at that in the past.

“I memorized your license plate,” she said. “And I’ve got your email and cell phone info from the sale.”

“Excellent,” Mitch said. “It was nice meeting you.”

Posy had no idea if he was insane, creepy or one of the gentlest people she’d ever met. She would have to let her mom make that call.

She and Angel went back inside the store.

Thick dust was gathered on some of the display shelves and the floors desperately needed to be swept now that all the clutter was gone. She’d brought cleaning supplies with her, but faced with the huge empty space, she couldn’t find the motivation.

She was leaving. The house was on the market, Wonders was closed, her mom was on probation and might be staying at the retreat center or might be heading off with her surgeon. All Posy had to do was figure out a plan for Angel and she was free and clear.

She felt like crying.

She missed Wes.

“Angel,” she called. “Let’s go.” The dog leaped off the window seat and skidded to a stop in front of her. They’d been working on some of the basic commands at night. Angel was a fast learner, especially when there were biscuits involved. Posy clipped the leash on the collar and straightened just as the door opened.

Wes.

“You’re really leaving?”

“The last ornament got boxed up not twenty minutes ago. Now I just have to figure out what to do about Angel and I’m on my way.”

He hadn’t come all the way into the store—instead he was half in the front door, holding it propped open with his elbow and heel.

“You’re giving Angel away?”

Posy tightened her grip on the leash. “I can’t keep her. You saw how I live.”

“But you...”

He’d been about to say, “But you love Angel,” but he couldn’t finish the sentence. She did love Angel, he knew that. The same way he knew she loved him.

“I’m going to miss you, Posy,” he said. “It won’t be the same without you here.” He’d practiced saying that. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself or embarrass either one of them by fumbling around looking for words. He’d wanted to say goodbye and that was done.

She shrugged. All of a sudden, Angel gave a loud bark and lunged to the end of her leash. Posy’s grip must have been loose because the leash slipped out of her hand, whipping behind Angel as the dog bolted for the entrance.

“Shut the door!” Posy yelled, but he couldn’t slam it because Angel was on her way through and he was afraid he’d crush her. He tried to step on the leash but it slid past too quickly and then the dog was gone.

Posy was running toward him and then they heard the screech of brakes outside and a high-pitched yelp. Then nothing.

He was back in Madrid, only this time the truck missed him and hit the dog. This time it wasn’t him being flung across the street, it was Angel.

Posy stopped short, her hands over her mouth. “Oh, God, Wes. Did she get hit? I can’t look. I can’t look.”

He couldn’t see. There was a knot of people in the street now, standing around a black SUV that was stopped in the middle of the road. He didn’t see Angel no matter how hard he looked for her to come racing toward him.

“I don’t see her.”

“I can’t go out there,” Posy said, but she walked up to him, put her hand on the doorjamb and then went out and down the step to the sidewalk.

He caught up to her and put his arm across her shoulders. She picked up the pace as they got closer to the people gathered in the road. “Excuse me,” she said to a woman standing at the back of the crowd. He heard her voice, shaky in a way he’d never have expected from Posy and he stepped in front of her.

“I’ll do this, Posy. You wait here.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “No. We’ll go together. Okay?”

He took her hand. It had been too long. If Angel hadn’t been killed, someone would have been running for help, for a vet, for blankets, for something. He cleared a path and the two of them moved through the crowd and then suddenly they were in an open space. Angel was lying on the road, the leash limp behind her. A teenage girl knelt near her, sobbing.

“I didn’t see her. She came out of nowhere.”

A man was coming from the other side of the crowd with a blanket.

Wes and Posy made their way over to the small body.

“Damn it,” Posy whispered. “I wasn’t going to give you away. I was just talking.”

Wes took the blanket from the man and knelt next to Posy. She reached out and stroked the dog’s head.

“Wes, she’s still breathing,” Posy said.

She was right. The dog’s sides were moving up and down steadily. Now that he was paying attention, he didn’t see any blood, either.

He grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “We need a vet.”

A woman stepped forward. “There’s one around the corner, next to the old post office on Brand Street.”

* * *

S
HE
DIDN
’
T
REMEMBER
exactly how they got to the vet. Wes carried Angel, she knew that. They ran. She remembered being glad she was wearing her sneakers. The two of them were side by side when they got to the vet’s office and they were side by side when the doctor examined Angel.

They were side by side when the dog woke up and bit the nurse who was trying to trim the fur away from a cut on her foreleg.