in the other stack.
“Well, shoot me if I thought something might be worth knowing.” My aunt could actually make her voice ooze disapproval over the phone and when she did, I knew I was crossing from being annoying to being out of order.
“Sorry, I’m grumpy.” I rubbed my forehead, wishing away the migraine I felt coming on. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
I could almost hear the shrug my aunt had perfected over the years. “I guess so.” Her voice dropped. “I had a woman come in and ask about a job. Don’t worry, I told her no, that we were full up at least until after school starts. We’re growing so fast, we might need to hire then. But I’m getting off subject. Like I said, I told the woman we weren’t hiring.”
I still didn’t know the direction this discussion was heading. I sipped my water, waiting her out.
“The woman’s name is Ivy Corbin. She swears she’s Kathi’s sister.” Aunt Jackie paused, letting the news settle in.
Now my aunt had my attention. “I don’t understand. Kathi should have tons of openings soon, and could probably use her now to start planning the storefront. Why would she be looking for a job with us?” I put the glass down on the table.
“I wondered the same thing, so I asked her why she wasn’t working for her sister.” My aunt greeted a customer, then came back to the phone conversation. “She said that the two of them didn’t work well together. I guess she’s in town trying to mend their relationship.”
“Does Kathi even know she’s here?” I looked at the cabinet where I kept my chips. I had fresh salsa in the fridge. Deciding I was more bored than hungry, I walked the stack of mail into my home office and turned on the shredder.
“I don’t think so. Hold on a second.” I could hear my aunt ringing up an order, so I shredded some of the credit card offers I’d gotten that week. I could probably open a packing shop with all the shredded paper I created just from junk mail.
Finally, I heard my aunt back on the line. “Anyway, I called for something else. I wanted to talk to you about the finances for the library event. Can you come down and we’ll go over the plans?”
“Can’t I look at them tomorrow morning?” I glanced at the wall clock: two o’clock. Greg would be here at six, which left me time to walk back into town, but honestly, I wasn’t feeling it.
“No, I need to send out deposits today. It won’t take long and you need to be more involved in the planning.” The unspoken rebuke was clear in her tone. She’d seen through my plan to leave this event to her and Sasha, mostly because I didn’t like the whole event-planning part.
I knew my aunt wasn’t going to give in, so I turned off the shredder. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” I let Emma outside. She loved spending afternoons on the back porch, guarding her domain from the rabbits and any other little creatures that happened to visit. Typically, I’d be curled on the swing, reading and sipping a glass of iced tea. I know, rough life. Emma did three circles, then plopped down hard on her bed when I let her back in, showing her disappointment in our change of plans. Glancing at the shed-turned-Toby’s apartment, I didn’t see his truck and figured he was still at the shop. I didn’t spy or keep track of his comings or goings, but sometimes, I did feel a little safer knowing that the part-time deputy, part-time barista was only a few steps away if he was home.
I headed into town again. Traffic was busy, but most of the cars had the South Cove resident sticker on the bumper. The mayor, or probably Amy, had come up with the sticker as a way to keep the police from ticketing local cars for parking too long on the street. Of course, when festivals occurred, the sticker could also keep you from parking in visitor spots without getting a ticket. It was a double-edged sword, but I figured the mayor was making money off selling the stickers and ticketing the town folk. Mayor Baylor always had the bottom line in mind with his best ideas.
The tour bus had already loaded their charges and left town. The city council had bought advertising in the local tourist agency monthly, which got us quite a bit of bus stop visits. I’d seen an uptick in sales on days the tour bus came through. Or I guess I should say Aunt Jackie had noticed and shown me the increase. Starting in the fall, I was taking two classes in a Masters of Business degree. I had finally decided I needed to understand what my aunt was talking about when she went over the state of the business on a monthly basis.
Toby was at the counter when I entered the shop. He jerked his thumb behind him. “Her majesty is in the office. And boy, she’s in a mood today.”
“I got that feeling when I got my command performance notice.” I grinned at Toby Killian. He’d been Aunt Jackie’s first hire at a time I didn’t think we needed any employees. The good thing about hiring Toby was he brought in a lot of customers. I was considering doing a photo shoot with him for a Coffee, Books, and More calendar that we’d sell at the shop. I had all the months planned out. Toby fake-skiing for January. Holding a heart-shaped cake for February. It would at least sell to all of Toby’s girls, as we called the students from the cosmetology school who drove the ten miles into town for their coffee, lunch, and study breaks.
“Good luck,” he called out as I walked through the doorway into the back.
Aunt Jackie sat at what I still pretended was my desk and looked up at me when I came in. Her face was ashen. When she saw me come into the room, she sighed. “We’re in trouble.”
Chapter 3
My mind went first to her health. She wasn’t a spring chicken even though she acted like one. “Are you okay?” I stepped around the desk and put my hand on her forehead.
She slapped my hand away. “I’m not sick. I thought we’d go over the entire project, but then…” She pointed to the chair. “Sit down, we need to talk.”
“What’s going on?” Now I was worried. My aunt was typically in control of everything, but now, looking at her, a chill ran down my back.
“It’s about the check the city sent us to cover the space rental for the library event,” Aunt Jackie said, her gaze still focused on the empty desktop.
“Yeah, Amy told me the council voted down Mayor Baylor and we got the sponsorship. Are you telling me they backed out? Did he get the money blocked? Crap, I just talked to her.” I sat up in the chair. If this was true, I was going to march down to the jerk’s office and turn in my council liaison badge. He could find someone else to herd the cats, I mean, business owners in town. I’d done a good job. The least he could do was support a library event. It’s not like the money was going directly into my pocket. But then wouldn’t Amy have known about the problem at lunch?
“Calm down. The payment came through. I saw the envelope come from City Hall last week.” My aunt still wasn’t meeting my gaze.
“So what happened? Why are we in trouble?” I didn’t understand, but I saw the beads of sweat on her forehead. Seriously, she was going to the hospital if she didn’t perk up in the next few minutes.
“I can’t find the check.” My aunt finally met my eyes. “The day it came in the mail, Harrold and I had plans in the city so I slipped it into the desk and planned to deposit it the next day. But I forgot about it until today when I was finalizing the event details. I’ve looked everywhere, the check is gone.”
“Maybe you deposited it.” I started rummaging through the piles on the desk.
Aunt
