Okay, at thirty-seven he was a lot older than she was, but her jibe stung. Maybe because he knew very well that he wasn’t getting any younger and that he needed to get cracking on his next major life goal.
Which would involve someone a lot softer and gentler than Susan Hayashi. “Listen,” he said, “I’m sorry about what happened. You should know that guy who caused the trouble is headed back toward the east coast even as we speak. And he’s not my friend, by the way. Just a client. Former client, now.”
She arched a delicate brow. “My knight in shining armor, are you?”
What was there to say to a woman who misinterpreted his every move? He shook his head, reached out to pat her shoulder, then decided it wasn’t a good idea and pulled his hand back. If he touched her, she might report him. Or throw a punch.
Definitely a woman to steer clear of.
There didn’t seem to be any sweetness in her. So it surprised Sam when, as he bid her goodnight, he caught a whiff of honeysuckle perfume.
* * *
The next day, even though she wanted to pull the covers over her head and cry, Susan forced herself to climb out of bed early. She’d committed to spend her Saturday morning helping at the church’s food pantry, and honestly, even that might not have gotten her out of bed, but she knew her best friend, Daisy, was going to be there.
“Come on,” Daisy said when Susan dragged herself down the steps and into the church basement, “we’re doing produce. Hey, did you really get fired last night?”
Embarrassment heated Susan’s face as she followed her friend to an out-of-the-way corner where bins of spinach and lettuce donated by local farmers stood ready to be divided into smaller bunches. “Yeah. How’d you hear?”
“That sweet little Tawny Thompson spread it all over town, how you rescued her from some creepy businessman. What were you thinking?”
“He practically had his hand up her skirt! What was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know, tell the manager? Honestly, I would’ve done the same thing, but I’m not in your position. You needed that job!”
“I know.” Susan blew out a sigh as she studied the wooden crates of leafy greens. Her hopes of funding the summer respite her mom needed so desperately had flown out the window last night. “Waitressing at a nice restaurant like Chez La Ferme is definitely the best money I can make, but I get so mad at guys like that. I thought Max would back me up, not fire me.”
“Can you even send your brother to camp now?”
“Probably not. I shouldn’t have told him he could go, but when I landed this waitressing job and found out it could be full-time as soon as school lets out for the summer, I thought I had the fee easy. I had a payment plan, everything. Now...” She focused on lettuce bunches so Daisy wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes.
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. And to top it off, I might have to move home for the summer.” Even saying it made her heart sink. She loved Rescue River and had all kinds of plans for her summer here.
“Why? You’re always talking about how you and your mom...”
“Don’t get along? Yeah.” She sighed, wishing it wasn’t so, wishing she had a storybook family like so many of the Midwestern ones she saw around her these days. “I love Mom, but she and I are like oil and water. If I go back, honestly, it’ll stress her out more. I just want—wanted—her to have a summer to garden and antique shop with her friends, maybe even go on a few dates, without worrying about Donny.”
An older couple wandered over. “You guys okay? Need any help?”
“We’ve got it.” Daisy waved them away and carried a load of bagged lettuce to a sorting table. “So you had a good plan. But you couldn’t help what happened.”
“I could have been more...refined about it.” A couple of tears overflowed, and Susan took off her plastic gloves to dig in her pocket for a tissue. “When am I ever going to learn to control my temper?” She blew her nose.
Daisy put an arm around her. “When you turn into a whole different person. You know, God made you the way you are, and He has a plan for you. Something will work out.” She paused. “Why would you move back home, anyway? What’s wrong with your room at Lacey’s?”
“Lacey’s got renovation fever.” Susan pulled on a fresh pair of plastic gloves. “Remember, she gave me my room cheap because she knew I’d have to move when she started fixing up the place. So now her brother—you know Buck, right? Well, he’s dried out and ready to help, and summer’s the best time for them to get going.” She gauged the right amount of lettuce for a family of four, put it in a plastic bag and twist-tied it. “And I don’t have money for a deposit on a new place. I’ll need to save up.”
“You can stay with me. You know that.”
“You’re sweet.” Susan side-hugged her friend. “And you live in a tiny place with two dogs and a cat. You have exactly zero room, except in that big heart of yours.”
Daisy pried open another crate, this one full of kale leaves. “We just have to pray about it.”
“Well, pray fast, because Lacey asked if I could be out next week. And even if I can land a job at another restaurant in Rescue River—which I doubt, with the non-recommendation Max is giving me—I won’t be making anything like the tips I could bring in at Chez Le Ferme.” She sighed as she dumped out the last of the kale leaves and stowed the wooden crate under the table. “I’m such an idiot.”
“I’ve got it!” Daisy snapped her fingers, a smile lighting her plump face. “I know exactly what you can do for the summer!”
“What?” Susan eyed her friend dubiously and then went back to bagging kale. Daisy was wonderful, but she tended to get overexcited when she had a new idea.
“You know my brother Sam, right? He was at the Easter service at church, and at Troy and Angelica’s wedding.”
“I remember. In fact, he was at the restaurant last night. He...actually said he could get me my job back, but I turned him down.” Susan felt her face flush as she thought of their conversation. She’d still been heated about the encounter with that jerk of a businessman, and she hadn’t had her guard up around Daisy’s brother, as she had the previous couple of times they’d met. She had the distinct feeling she’d been rude to him, but truthfully, he’d disconcerted her with his dominant-guy effort to make all her problems go away.
He was a handsome man, no doubt of that. Tall and broad-shouldered, an all-American quarterback type with a square jaw and close-cropped dark hair.
But he was one of those super traditional guys, she could just tell. In fact, he reminded her of her father, who thought women belonged in the home, not the workplace. Dad had wanted his wife to stay home, and Mom had, and look where it had gotten her. To make matters worse, her father had expected Susan to do the same, sending her to college only for her MRS degree, which she obviously hadn’t gotten. Which she had no interest in getting, not now, not ever. She was a career woman with a distinct calling to teach kids, especially those with special needs. Susan wasn’t one of those people
