again.”
“I hope not,” GiGi said. “Maybe you should try to let this Grant girl be a good influence on you for a change....”
“You never know,” he said, rather than defend himself the way he might have done before the latest fiasco. “But for now I’d better get back to the office.”
GiGi nodded. As she reached to turn the water on again, she said, “You’re a good boy, Derek. I don’t know why you have such a soft spot for bad girls. Maybe you can turn over a new leaf.”
“Tryin’, Georgie, I’m tryin’.”
But even as Gia Grant’s oh-so-lovely face came to mind again, he wondered if he could.
* * *
“A chicken and steaks and a roast, Gia? You could freeze these, you know,” Marion lectured.
“I already froze a bunch. It’s cheaper to buy at the bulk warehouse, but I end up with more than I can use. You’re helping me out by taking some of it.” It was the same thing Gia said every time she brought Larry and Marion groceries. Their budget was so strapped that meat had become a luxury item. But pride wouldn’t allow them to let Gia provide that for them unless she made it sound as if they were doing her a favor. So that was the slant she put on it.
“Well, thank you. You’re too good to us,” Marion said as she put away the groceries that included some other things Gia knew they liked but couldn’t afford for themselves.
“Let’s open one of those beers right now,” Larry suggested.
Marion obliged her husband and opened the cupboard to get glasses. “Will you have some of this, Gia?”
“No, you guys go ahead,” she said. She declined their offers every time, too.
“I know you didn’t buy this for yourself,” Marion said as she poured the beer into two glasses.
Gia laughed. “And I know how much you and Larry like your little swig of beer before dinner,” she said, using the term they used.
They were in the Bronsons’ kitchen late Tuesday afternoon. Gia had left work at three o’clock, done some shopping and was now delivering groceries as a pretext for what she really came to talk to the Bronsons about.
The couple had been in such good spirits when they’d left the church the night before that Gia hadn’t wanted to dampen them by bringing up Derek Camden. But he’d somehow gotten her cell phone number and left a message this afternoon about the status of persuading Larry and Marion to let him help them.
Gia hadn’t returned his call yet, but his invitation to meet her for coffee at seven to talk had inspired this visit.
And given the boring evening she was facing a whole new spin....
Not that she was eager to see Derek Camden again, she told herself. Even if he had shadowed her thoughts since she’d first set eyes on him last night. It was just that she didn’t have anything else to do tonight and hopefully the evening would end up benefitting Larry and Marion.
When they were all seated around the Bronsons’ aged, scarred kitchen table, Gia said, “There’s something I want to talk to you guys about. You didn’t know it last night, but a Camden showed up at the church—Derek Camden....”
Marion looked alarmed. Larry was instantly angry.
“What’re they doing, coming for the money you’ve raised to help us?” Larry said.
“Didn’t they get enough when they took everything from us? Are those richy-riches even after our pennies now?” Marion said, her tone harsh.
This was the reason Gia hadn’t wanted Derek Camden to crash last night’s get-together.
“There’s no way they could get hold of what’s been donated—that’s in a secure account at the bank under your names and mine,” Gia assured them. Then she added cautiously, “Derek Camden said he came to help... I’m not sure how—”
“Some way that’ll put more in his pocket!” Larry again.
“They’re probably looking to take our house now!” Marion said, sounding genuinely afraid. “Like with the hotel—right when we were struggling to keep it, they swooped in and made it so we couldn’t. Now when the bank wants the house, they’re coming for that, too!”
“No, no, no,” Gia said quickly, trying to calm the elderly woman’s fears. “I’m sure they don’t want your house—”
“They probably want the whole block. The whole area for another one of their damn stores!” Larry said, getting more and more worked up. “You’d better watch out, Gia, they could be coming for your place, too!”
“They already have two stores nearby—the one that was built where your hotel was, and the one on Colorado Boulevard. And we’re zoned residential—”
“They pay off people to change zoning—don’t be fooled by that,” Larry contended.
Gia had known this was not going to be easy. “Okay, I know how you both feel about the Camdens—and with good reason—”
“You bet we have reason—they robbed us,” Larry ranted.
“I know—”
“Dirty crooks!” This from Marion.
“But what was done to you two was a long time ago, by H. J. Camden. And I’m not defending what he did—” Gia said quickly, because she could see that more comments were coming from the elderly couple “—but H. J. Camden is long gone and maybe—just maybe—the Camdens in charge now want to make up for what H. J. Camden did....”
“Did they say that? Did they admit what he did? Because we couldn’t prove anything, but if they confessed, maybe we can sue their pants off now!” Larry sounded excited by the prospect.
“He didn’t admit anything,” Gia said. “Derek Camden only claimed that he wanted to help.”
“How could we ever sue them even if they confessed?” Marion reasoned with her husband. “We’d still be going up against a million of their lawyers. And with what? Where would we even find a lawyer to take them on? Or hire one with no money? They’d crush us like bugs—again!”
“But the three of us know that they still owe you,” Gia said, hoping to ride the wave of Marion’s logic. “Derek Camden said they want to help financially, but that they also want to make sure you guys are taken care of all the way around. And we could use help like that....”
“Not from Camdens we couldn’t!” Larry proclaimed.
“We could, though,” Gia said gently. “We’ve raised a few thousand dollars and we have people coming over to help clean up the yard and paint the house, but a few thousand dollars isn’t going to keep the bank from foreclosing for long—the best it will do is pay some of the back payments and stall so we can sell the house after it’s been fixed up.”
Gia hated—hated—when she had to remind them of the cold,
