What didn’t fit on a shelf was shoved on the floor along the aisle.
The bell over the door jingled as the door slammed behind him.
“Where’s Harry?”
Brady turned and saw a brown-haired man, about his age, struggling with a box of parts. He hurried forward as the box began to slip and caught the opposite end.
“Thanks.” Brady helped carry it to the counter. “What is all this?”
“Parts from a failed attempt at an electronics repair shop.” They dropped it on the counter. The guy seemed familiar but Brady hadn’t placed him. He held out his hand. “Josh Michaels. You’re one of Luke’s brothers. Brady, right?”
Brady shook Josh’s hand, trying to place him. “In town for a few days. You graduated with Luke?”
“Yeah.” Josh glanced around the shop, probably looking for Harry.
“The salesman is in the back. He should be out any minute.” Brady hoped, at least. He needed to get back out to the farm and then Maggie’s.
“White hair, looks like Rip Van Winkle?” Josh asked. Brady nodded.
“That’s Harry. You could be here for an hour before he finds anything in that storeroom.” Josh settled against the counter. “How long has it been since you’ve been back?”
“Years.” Brady picked up one of the phones and messed with the settings a little. “A lot has changed.”
“The biggest blow was the Phantom Plant closing. Lot of good people had to move to find a job.” Josh pointed toward his box. “The rest of us are just trying to make ends meet. Unfortunately, most people prefer to buy new than repair these days.”
“I’m surprised they shut the plant.” Brady hadn’t followed the local news. With shrinking margins in most industries, downsizing seemed to be the only option.
“Businesses fell like dominoes in Owen after that. Money grew tighter until no one was spending anything and no one was hiring anyone.” Josh nodded toward the back room. “Even old Harry threatened to close the shop. But I convinced him to carry cell phones. That seems to have brought in some traffic.”
Brady turned over the cell phone in his hand. “Smart idea.”
“One of my better.” Josh smiled, obviously pleased with himself, but his smile fell. “Wish I could turn the whole town around. Get these people back on their feet and give them a reason to be proud again.”
“It appears I have some time.” Brady nodded his head toward the back room where they could hear Harry moving things around. As far as Brady knew, the old man might have forgotten he was out here. “Want to talk about some of your ideas?”
A few hours later, Brady’s mind was churning as he headed toward Maggie’s. Harry had called in a favor and should have a new phone for Brady by the morning. But what had him excited were the prospects for Tawnee Valley and the neighboring town, Owen. Josh had a lot of ideas. While some weren’t great, some could work. If Josh could find a backer.
Brady had a lot of experience working on new projects and knew what it took to get them off the ground. He was already envisioning the layers of work that would be required to get Kyle to give the approval to go ahead with this project. Brady could help breathe life into this town and make his company a lot of money in the process.
There was almost an extra skip to his step as he walked to Maggie’s front door. He felt invincible as if he could handle anything else that life intended to throw at him. What he wanted to do was sweep Maggie into his arms and forget to breathe for a while.
He pressed the doorbell and tried to squelch the half smile from his face. No one answered the door. He checked his watch. The bus should be arriving any minute. It wasn’t like Maggie to be late, at least not in his experience.
He rang the doorbell again and waited. His elation from his good business sense was slowly fading to apprehension. What if something had happened to Maggie? What if something had happened to Amber? He didn’t even have a spare key to get in to make sure everything was all right.
Leaning over the railing, he tried to peer into the window. Finally, he left the front and walked around back. Maggie’s car was in the driveway. He could feel every muscle tensing in his arms and neck.
Whenever things seemed good in his life, something always happened. It was no one’s fault, just bad timing. His mother’s funeral had been two days before he was supposed to start college. His father had died the day before he turned sixteen. He got Maggie pregnant before he left for England and he didn’t return until now to find out about Amber. Nothing good happened to him without a touch of tragedy.
He’d lost so much. He couldn’t lose this, too. Not before he could figure out what it would mean to him. He pounded on the back door. They had to be okay.
“I’m up. I’m up.”
He heard her over the pounding of his heart and tried to take a deep breath. The door swung open. Maggie stood in a pair of yellow pajama pants and a cat T-shirt with a robe hanging off her shoulders. Her hair was wild as if she’d been running her fingers through it and had attempted to pull it into a ponytail holder. Purple smudges highlighted under her eyes.
“Hey, Brady.” No emotion entered her voice, but she looked like she hadn’t slept in days or at least last night. Her eyes briefly glanced at him before her hand dropped off the door. She turned and shuffled toward the cabinets.
“Is everything okay?” Brady hesitated as he walked into the house and closed the door behind him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m just great.” She emphasized the words with a huge yawn. She held a coffee cup. “Sleep is for wusses.”
“Where’s Amber?” He felt as if he’d walked into an alternate universe.
“She’s in watching TV.”
“Didn’t she go to school?” Brady knew today wasn’t a day off, which meant one of two things. His heart stopped inside his chest. “Is she sick?”
“It’s a twenty-four-hour thing.” Maggie waved her hand as if waving away his concern would be that easy. “We only have—” she squinted at her watch and sighed “—five more hours to go.”
“Mommy!” Amber’s voice was rough and had an edge of panic to it.
Maggie snapped to attention and changed before his eyes. The sleep was gone as she raced into the living room. He followed, trying to make sense of all of this in his mind. He’d left them last night and everything had been fine.
“It’s okay, baby. Let’s get you to the bathroom.” As she passed him on the way, she seemed to realize he was there. “You should go home, Brady. You don’t want to get sick.”
Amber tried to smile at him but her face was pale and sweaty. They went into the bathroom and Maggie closed the door.
Brady stood undecided. Should he go? Maggie seemed to think so, but from the looks of it both she and Amber were on their last legs. He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over the dining room chair.
Returning
