Chapter 7
7
H anna fanned herself with her right hand while gripping the steering wheel with her left. It was sure warm today. She pushed the blue arrow up, on her console to turn the air conditioning up a couple of notches.
Her stomach still fluttered with butterflies as she passed the other businesses in town to get to the bakery. Quinn Kurtz was as handsome as he was charismatic. That stopped those butterflies from flying. Was she nuts? The last thing in the world she needed was another charismatic man in her life. Hadn't Isaac twisted her around enough for the rest of her life? She should look up Quinn's number and call tonight off. This was a bad idea.
Just as she put her SUV in park behind the bakery, her phone rang. She jumped when it did. Her mind had been on other things.
She saw her friend, Jalyn's name on the screen and pushed the button on her steering wheel to answer the call. "Hey, girl. How are you?"
"What's wrong? You sound stressed. "
She let her breath out, and it also deflated her shoulders at the same time. "Oh, Jalyn. I'm a mess." Her bottom lip quivered. She had so many things going on right now. She could feel all the tears rushing to the surface even now.
"No! What's wrong?" She took a breath. "Wait. I'll come to the bakery around two o'clock. You can tell me in person."
She sniffed. "Okay." She managed to get out without bursting into tears.
"Okay. Hang tight. I'll be there then."
The phone went dead. Hanna sucked in a few breaths and got herself under control. Blowing out one last breath, she exited her SUV and trudged up the sidewalk to her bakery. One last big breath before entering. She plastered on a fake smile and opened the back door.
"Hey, there. That didn't take long." Her mom smiled brightly at her.
She watched her mom fumble slightly with the spatula as she moved the cookies off a baking pan and slid them onto the tray. Her hands didn't work like they used to. The arthritis had stiffened her knuckles and bent them out of shape. Her stomach dropped at the sight of the struggle, but she swallowed the lump that had formed and continued into the kitchen.
"No, it doesn't take long. Thank you for sitting here and helping out. I sure do appreciate it."
"Oh, honey. Of course. I kind of miss it, you know? So, I'm happy to come for an hour or so while you do deliveries."
"Thanks, Mom."
"Are you okay, honey? You seem down."
"Yeah. I'm fine, Mom. I'm just..." She was what? Dealing with Isaac's shit again? Some woman wanted thousands of dollars. Her own bank account had been drained. And, she made a date she had no business making with another man who was handsome and charming? She sounded simply pathetic.
"Just what honey?"
Stupid. She was stupid and gullible. "Tired."
"Oh, honey, between fixing up your place and the bakery, you're working far too hard."
There were those tears again. Her nose tickled as the feelings washed over her. Softly she said, "Yeah. I might close early today and take a nap."
"Oh, now that's a great idea. You can go right now if you need to. I can stay a while longer."
"Mom, I don't want you to have to do that."
"It's no problem, honey."
She let her shoulders fall. She stopped her hand from pulling her apron off the hook it hung on near the door. Her mind whirled around all she needed to do. But, a nap couldn't hurt that much, could it?
Deciding to take a break, she nodded. Thanks, Mom. I won't be gone long."
Her mom smiled and waved. She was still a pretty woman. Hanna had gotten her dark hair from her mom. She'd gotten her blue eyes from her father. Her height from her mom. She stopped growing at five foot one. She'd even gone so far as to sit in a tree as a young girl and Jalyn tied heavy rocks to her ankles using an old t-shirt and let them hang hoping her legs would stretch. Jalyn was tall. Five foot eight. But Hanna never did grow another inch. It was frustrating.
She silently stepped outside into the heat of a summer afternoon in Florida. The temperature was close to its high today. Ninety-five was the weatherman's announcement this morning. Stay hydrated, he'd said.
She climbed into her SUV and started it up. There was no time better than the present. She drove down the alley behind her business, and others’, turned left onto the square, and a slight left onto Main Street. Staying left at the fork, she drove past the fire station where Jalyn worked. She was Blossom Springs’s very first female firefighter, and Hanna was incredibly proud of her best friend. They'd been friends all through school and into their adult lives. Hanna moved away to go to college at her first choice in Colorado to further enhance her knowledge of baking and culinary skills. Jalyn went off to learn how to be a firefighter like her father was before her.
Jalyn was outside, polishing one of the fire trucks. Her friend waved at her and trotted toward her as Hanna lowered the window.
"Hey, what's up? Couldn’t wait to see me?"
"They have you out here polishing that damned truck? It's hot as blazes out."
Jalyn laughed. "Need I remind you I fight fires? Nothing's hotter than a building on fire."
Hanna shrugged. "Ya got me there."
Jalyn leaned her elbows on the sill where the window had been. "What's going on with you?"
"Mom's at the bakery and told me to go home and take a nap, but I won't sleep because I've got too much on my mind. I didn't know if you were off today or not."
Jalyn looked at her watch. "I'm off in five minutes. I was going to go home and shower before coming by you, but if you wait here, I'll run in and grab my purse and you can take me home while we talk."
"How did you get here if you need a ride? "
"I walked."
"You're nuts."
"I've been told. Hang tight." Jalyn patted the door and turned.
Hanna watched her tall, thin friend jog into the fire station. Two of the male firefighters were still polishing the fire truck. She waved and smiled, and they waved back.
Jalyn reappeared and jogged toward her car. She hollered goodbye to her co-workers and hopped into Hanna's SUV.
"Okay. All set."
Hanna put her SUV in drive and slowly pulled away from the curb.
Jalyn didn't wait too long. "Tell me what's up."
Hanna told her about the thrift store a couple of days ago and her pathetic bank account. "I called the bank yesterday to find out just what had happened, and after some back-and-forth phone calls most of the day, they came back with the news that Isaac had sweet-talked that new little red-haired clerk into giving him access. Apparently, he told her he was related to the bank president, and it would be okay this one time. He claimed I'd stolen money from him and he just wanted it back."
"That son-of-a-bitch."
"Yeah." Hanna turned into the subdivision Jalyn lived in. "That's not the half of it. Yesterday, a woman called me and told me Isaac had stolen more than twenty-thousand dollars from her and she wanted me to pay her back. Claimed I'm as much to blame as he is."
Jalyn turned in the seat and stared at her. "Are you making shit up?"
"No!" She raised her voice .
"Over the years, that stupid bastard has pulled some bullshit on you. My gawd, how many cars of yours had he gambled away?"
"Three."
"Three fucking cars. That you had to work your ass off to pay for when you didn't even have them anymore. Three! And I believe the last two he forged your name on the title. He should be in jail for that."
She yelled it as if Hanna didn't remember. It had been seared into her mind.
"And then, didn't he try to use your house as collateral on a football bet?"
"Yes."
"Yes. He sure as hell did. But did you leave him?"
Tears escaped her eyes and slid down her cheeks as her shame was tossed at her again. "No."
"No." Jalyn turned toward the windshield and crossed her arms over her chest as if she had been the one cheated and stolen from.
Jalyn sat quietly even though Hanna had pulled into her driveway. After a few moments, she turned her head toward Hanna. "I'm sorry."
Hanna swiped at the tears of shame that once again stained her cheeks. "I know you are."
"I love you, and I get so pissed when this fucker hurts you. We thought you were finished with him."
"I know." She pulled a tissue from the box in the center console and swiped under her eyes.
"What did he do to steal the money?"
He catfished her. Said he was going to marry her. Said he was starting a business. Said I was stealing her money from him and that's why he kept asking for more. So he could get away from me. "
"Mother. Fucker. Mother-son-of-a-whore fucker."
Hanna swallowed and stared out the windshield at Jalyn's house. It was pretty. Tan siding with a darker brick front on it. The landscaping was lush and thriving. Jalyn and her mom spent hours outside working on it. A lump grew in her throat. There'd been a day when she had a cute little house like this, back in Colorado. She'd spent so much time making it the perfect home for Isaac and herself.
"So, now what?" Jalyn softly asked. Her hand reached over and gripped Hanna's. They sat quietly in her SUV. It was still running, so they had air conditioning.
"She says she's going to find a lawyer who will agree with her that I'm partially to blame, so she gets some of her money back from me."
Jalyn shrugged. "She won't. She's mad. Lashing out. But, frankly, she freely gave it without checking out who that jackass was. There isn't a lawyer out there who won't see that."
Hanna nodded and frowned. "Yeah."
“How did this woman get your number?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask because, honestly, I didn’t want to engage her further in conversation. I was stunned stupid and didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”
Jalyn nodded. "What about your money?"
"The bank is making me whole because they have an admission from the redhead."
"That's a start."
Hanna nodded. "Yeah, and they are doing a forensic audit to see if there's more. Their insurance will cover anything I lost."
"Okay." Jalyn inhaled a deep breath and blew it out in a whoosh. "That bastard makes me so fucking mad. "
"I know. Me too."
"You need to tell your dad."
"I know. Thank goodness he's the bakery's money manager. I'm going to ask him to be a second on my bank account so he can watch to make sure Isaac isn't figuring out another way to get to my account."
"That's a great idea."
"And, I have a date tonight, but I think I'm going to cancel."
Jalyn whipped around in her seat and faced her. "Say what?"
"Date."
"With who?"
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Quinn Kurtz."
"Oh, lordy, he's as hot as they come." Jalyn fanned herself with her hand. "I wondered when he'd start dating again. That ex of his gave him a run for his money. She threw every stone she could at him. She threatened all sorts of bad things, and tried telling everyone in town he was terrible. That he hit her and treated her badly. Just to make herself look like the victim. But he handled it with grace and dignity. Kept his nose to the grindstone and worked." Jalyn grinned. "He asked you out?"
"I can't go."
"The hell you can't. Why on earth not?"
"He's charming."
"And the issue with that?"
"Isaac was charming."
"They are NOT the same kind of charming. Isaac is smarmy and sneaky and charming, so he can get something. Quinn is a southern gentleman, charming and raised right. He's raised his kids right too. They're both upstanding people."
She stared into her friend’s green eyes. Her dark ponytail was still perched high on her head. "But..."
"No buts. Quinn Kurtz is an absolute yes , Hanna. If you're talking to me to see if I'm going to talk you out of it, I am not."