Through the Flames (The Lost Letters #1)

32. Lilly

Chapter 32

Lilly

T he numbers blur on the page in front of me. I've been staring at this accounting log for the last hour, trying to make sense of what I'm reading.

Even though Dad was an accountant, his record-keeping skills were subpar. I hope he did a better job for his employers than he did for himself.

I straighten up in my chair, arching my shoulders to release the ache. The office is a disaster. At some point, my organizational skills flew out the window. Especially when I attempted to separate the things that needed to be kept and what could be thrown away.

I put the black leather accounting book down and walk out of the office. I've been at this for two hours, so a break is needed. Nellie is at the table with a box of popsicle sticks and glue. She looks as content as I've ever seen her, building a structure from her materials. I didn't give her any parameters other than to create a building out of the popsicle sticks.

Her little tongue is poked out of her mouth in concentration as she squeezes another dot of glue onto the popsicle stick. I move quietly into the kitchen to avoid disrupting her to grab a snack, although, I highly doubt my movements, even if I am loud, would interrupt her thought process. She’s hyperfocused on her task right now.

I grab a Diet Coke from the fridge and go back to the office. Sighing, I plop into my chair. I have no desire to continue looking through these accounting books. It would probably be better to take it to a professional instead of trying to figure it out myself. I might ask Natalie if she knows anybody in town who could help me. I'm not even sure where these payments were coming from. Or if they correspond to actual deposits into a bank account.

Half of the entries are numbers, the rest are some combination of letters and numbers. None of it makes any sense.

As I’ve gone through this stuff, I’ve been placing things into piles I want to keep, trash, or donate, but I'm beginning to realize my system is not working. Mainly because I’ve been keeping the majority of it. I have no idea what most of it is, and I'm worried I might throw something away when I should’ve kept it.

Keeping that in mind, I start to reorganize my piles. I put everything I recognize or know what to do with into one area. Anything that’s not familiar, I place into another. Maybe Christine can help me figure out what some of this stuff is. I was hoping to do most of this on my own while she was gone, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

Time begins to melt as I go through stacks of files. Unfortunately, the unknown pile begins to grow bigger and bigger.

A text from Noah interrupts my flow.

Noah

I’m missing my girls today. What are you up to?

Happiness bubbles up my stomach and into my chest. How he can still turn me into a simpering teen, I’ll never understand.

I take a quick selfie and send it to Noah. Then I sneak out and take a picture of Nellie. His response is immediate.

Noah

She's so fucking cute. And you are more gorgeous than I can handle. It’s mean to tease me like that.

I roll my eyes even though I’m preening at his compliment. He sends a picture of the library’s front desk before I can respond as well as an entirely too sexy selfie. Since his arm is still healing, Natalie has put him to work, filling in when one of her employees needs time off.

Noah

It’s been boring as hell today.

Shit, I shouldn't have said that.

We're going to have some disaster I can’t handle on my own, and then Mom’s going to be pissed.

I laugh at his string of text messages.

Me

Nellie and I had a great morning. This afternoon has been beyond boring, though. For as smart as my dad was, his record-keeping skills were not good. Half the letters and numbers in here don't even make sense.

Noah

I’m sorry. It’s stressful enough as it is having to go through all that junk. To not understand what you're reading just makes it worse. Is there something more fun that you could do?

Me

I could start on the closet, I guess.

Noah

gif of man frowning with his hands on his hips

That's the opposite of fun.

I grin at my phone. He's got me there, but my parents were the opposite of fun, so going through their crap will be, too.

Me

Nellie and I might come see you when she’s done building her structure.

Noah

That would make my day.

Me

Then I’ll make it happen.

I set my phone aside, not waiting for a response from Noah. I’ve got a lot of work to finish if we’re making an impromptu trip to the library.

With my new system in place, I have more space in the office to start dragging things out of the closet.

I'm making decent headway through the paperwork when I knock over a box that was precariously perched on another. It crashes into the wall, popping open a hidden door in the back of the closet.

My jaw drops. “What the hell is that?” I murmur.

Reaching out, I open the door to see a safe embedded in the wall. “Well, how about that? Who knew my parents were cool enough to have a hidden cubby in their house?”

There’s a keypad on the front of the black safe. My mind goes completely blank on what the code could be. Mom’s birthday comes to mind. Even my birthday could be an option. What if it locks me out after too many attempts, though? There’s probably a user manual somewhere in the house. Mom always kept them when she got a new appliance. Waiting sounds like the best option all around.

Before I can test out a code or two, Nellie comes in to tell me her structure is complete. Checking the time on my phone, I see another hour and a half has passed since I'd gotten up to take a break. No wonder my muscles are protesting.

My jaw drops when I get out to the dining room table. Instead of one building on the table like I expected, there's an entire town across the surface. Nellie is practically beaming as she stands next to the table.

“Wow, Nellie. This looks amazing.” Some buildings are a single story while others are two or even three.

“I recreated the downtown area of Sonoma,” Nellie says. “Look, there's Blossoms and Bows and Paint and Paper. I even made the hardware store.”

Each building has been painted similarly to the buildings downtown. She's carefully written the name of each store at the top of the building and included little planter boxes outside the storefronts.

“I love this so much, Nellie. Would you want to show your dad?”

Her eyes grow wide with excitement. “Yes! Let's FaceTime him.” Nellie takes my phone and presses Noah's name to call him. He answers almost immediately, and a smile stretches across his face when he sees Nellie on the screen.

“Hey, Baby Bee, what are you doing?”

“Dad, I made Sonoma.”

His eyebrows scrunch. “You did? Can I see it?”

Nellie flips the camera around to show Noah the table.

“Holy shit, kid,” Noah curses, making Nellie laugh. “That looks amazing.”

She zooms in on some of the buildings and starts telling him about her creation. I sit back and watch our daughter glow with pride as she shows off what she made.

Nellie tells Noah all about the lesson we did on architecture and structural engineering, then promptly announces that she wants to be a structural engineer when she grows up. Noah encourages her, telling her she’ll be a great engineer.

A couple of months ago, Nellie wanted to be a chemist. It seems with each lesson we do, her interests become wider. I have no idea what will stick when she grows up, but I love how curious she is now. I hope she never loses that.

Another call interrupts Noah and Nellie. “Mom, Aunt Christine is calling. Dad, we’ll call you back later.”

Noah blows her a kiss and then shoots me a wink. “Bye, girls.”

When he hangs up, I answer Christine's call. “Hey, how are things going?”

“All good here. What are you girls up to?”

I put Christine on speakerphone so Nellie can tell her about our day. Naturally, Christine also wants to FaceTime to see Nellie's buildings.

When she’s done showing off, Christine asks her to hand me the phone. “Every day, that girl gets smarter and smarter. She blows my mind.”

“I know. I love the hell out of her.” I walk into the kitchen to put together a snack for Nellie.

“Are you sure you’re holding up okay?” Christine asks.

“We’re good. I promise. Once Nellie got used to the new stuff we had to buy, things settled down. How are things there?” Christine’s trip to Greensboro has turned into a much bigger deal than we ever anticipated. One of her part-timers quit, and her one full-time employee just announced she’s having a baby and is at risk for preeclampsia, which means she isn’t able to work at the store as much as she used to. Christine’s been able to pick up the slack, but that also means she isn’t able to come back to Sonoma any time soon.

“Oh, fine. They’re taking much longer than I anticipated. I’m trying to double up on inventory so I won’t have to worry about it for a while, but it’s slow going.”

“We’re doing fine here. Don’t worry about us.”

“I’m always going to worry about you.”

I carry the plate of apples and pretzels to the table, where Nellie is tweaking her project. “Hey, is there any chance my parents told you about a safe in their office?”

Christine hums. “Not that I can recall. I don’t even remember there being a safe in the office.”

I plop down on the couch. “It was hidden behind a wall, if you can believe it.”

“No way. Who would’ve guessed that?”

I laugh. “I said something similar. I’m going to try to find the manual today. Hopefully, there isn’t a lock override after too many attempts.”

“Glad you thought of that. I’d have just started pushing buttons,” Christine teases. “Oh, crap. A whole gaggle of women just walked into the store. I better go. I love you both. Stay safe.”

“We will. Love you, too.” I hang up the phone and sit on the couch for a bit longer, avoiding going back into the office. I’d love to solve the mystery of the safe, but there are way too many other things to finish before I do that.

Is it sad if attempting to open the safe is my reward?