heirloom?” They turned at the center of town and headed back toward their office.
Their office. It sounded odd in his mind. It was his office. He must keep his focus on the ownership of the newspaper and all the responsibility that went along with that. If someone in town was stealing things, he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Solving a crime would show the people of Pine Haven that he was serious about the paper and about bettering the community.
“People misplace things all the time. Especially small things. I daresay Doc Willis picked it up, just as Jasmine suspected.”
He shook his head. “But you don’t know that. Aren’t you making a lot of assumptions?”
She opened the door to the office and went inside.
He followed her, waiting for an answer.
“I am not. It is not an assumption to refuse to believe that a trusted friend is a petty thief. It is an assumption to suspect someone you don’t know when you aren’t even sure there’s been a theft.”
“I’ve only been here a few days, but I’ve seen you rely on your opinion of situations more than once.”
“My opinions, as you call them, are based on years of experience in the newspaper business and a personal knowledge of the parties in question.”
Her shoulders stiffened. Even though she stood on the opposite side of his desk, the friction between them filled the room.
“You did not know the newsagent from the train, yet you dismissed him as innocent without interviewing him.”
“There was no crime there, either.”
“True, Elmer Finch didn’t shoot the man in the saloon, but he is harboring a secret. One I think needs to be investigated.”
“Really, Mr. Ivy, you do go on.” She picked up her pad and pencil from the desk. “If I were to run the paper by following your imaginations, we could become the biggest work of fiction in Texas before the judge arrives.”
His mother had ignored him. Even hidden truths from him. But she had never dismissed him out of hand.
Jared mustered all the strength of character he possessed to answer her charges. “Objectivity is the cornerstone of good journalism. I suggest that your years of association with the people in Pine Haven may have dulled your sense of neutrality. Once you become allied with anyone, you lose your ability to consider them in any light other than the one you’ve cast upon them.”
“Your grandfather trusted my instincts. I have yet to err in my assessments of the good people of Pine Haven. I stand confidently on that record.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Then, as the Good Book says, take heed, lest ye fall.”
Mary Lou looked out her front window on Tuesday morning. Her heart still stung from the rebuke Jared had laid at her feet on Monday.
She’d come across as arrogant. Confidence had united with stubborn defensiveness and she’d allowed them to rob her of her objectivity.
Lord, please help me not to be lifted up in myself. I know You give grace to the humble. And I feel like I’m going to need a lot of grace to get through working with Jared Ivy until the judge comes to town.
After checking her hair one last time in the mirror by the front door, she added another earnest plea to her prayer.
Please let me keep the paper. It’s all I have.
When she entered the back of the office, she found Jared at her desk.
“Good morning, Mr. Ivy.” She wasn’t surprised when he followed the pattern of his grandfather and ignored her. He filled another page with the words that flowed from his pen before she cleared her throat with deliberation.
The pen stilled and he looked up at her. “Oh, good morning.”
“You’ve taken great liberty with the use of my desk.”
“I consider it to be my desk, Mary Lou.”
“And that’s another thing. I am uncomfortable with your use of my given name. We are business partners, not friends of long standing.”
“So you admit that I am an equal partner in the newspaper?”
He was quick with a turn of phrase. “I do not. I point out that you have taken liberties without so much as a by-your-leave.”
Jared stood and offered her the chair he’d just vacated. “Please do have a seat and let us work out the details of these liberties.”
She twisted her hands together behind her back and said, “I’ll sit here,” as she lowered herself into the chair facing the desk.
The corners of his mouth tweaked for a brief moment but he turned the threatening smile into a neutral expression and sat. “Let’s talk of the office and desk first.” He put his palms flat on the desk. “I think we can share the desk. In the mornings, I like to make notes on what I’d like to accomplish during the day. If that works for you, fine. If not, I can come in earlier and use the desk before you arrive.”
“I use the desk to write articles for the paper. I have no idea from one day to the next what time I will need it.”
“What if I’m willing to relinquish my time to you in the event you need to write a story?”
He was being reasonable. Rational and reasonable. If she didn’t accept, he could tell the judge she’d refused to cooperate. If she did accept, she’d have to watch him work at the desk every morning. Watching the confident way he put pen to paper without pause reminded her of the elder Mr. Ivy. He always knew what he was about. Never did he stop and question his course.
She wished she could be that bold. The boldness she exuded was manufactured nightly in earnest prayer that she wouldn’t falter with each new day. Could she keep up the facade of successful business owner, ready to face the world on her own, in the presence of his natural confidence?
He must have taken her silence for disagreement. He offered another solution. “What if we decide to treat everything as belonging to the Record? The furnishings and everything. Then it won’t be as if either of us is using the other’s personal property. It will be both of us sharing the duties and responsibilities of the paper.”
“That seems reasonable.” She had taken ownership of all the contents of both buildings when Mr. Ivy died. Save her clothing, there really wasn’t anything here that belonged exclusively to her.
The front door swung open and a gust of October wind came in with Andrew.
Jared stood again. “Andrew, just the person I need to see.”
Andrew closed the door and cast a leery glance at Mary Lou before turning to Jared.
Jared came from behind the desk. “I need to buy a horse. Mary Lou tells me you reside at the livery.”
