Chapter 36
RAQUEL
Ispent the better part of the morning trying not to overhear Avery on the phone, fighting for his life against the bank representative he was begging for a loan. Usually, the shop was my favorite place in the world, but lately, it’d been feeling more and more like a sinking ship.
While my brother had shut himself into Dad’s office for the conversation, the walls were paper thin and Avery’s volume control seemed to be broken.
At this point, our only saving grace was that all the mechanics and technicians were out back, working on several junkers Avery was hoping we could salvage for parts to sell.
“No, that’s not what happened,” he barked, shoving a hand into his hair as he paced the length of the office once more. “It was a fraudulent scheme and I have a letter from the doctor confirming my father’s diagnosis.”
I sighed and tightened another bolt under the hood of a pickup that’d come in this morning.
In the weeks that had passed since Theo had left, my brother and I had reached an uneasy truce.
We still weren’t really speaking, but as his conversations with the bank had grown increasingly desperate, I’d offered him the check Theo had left.
Naturally, he’d torn me a new one as a thank you and then stormed off, refusing to talk to me at all until he’d had to when a new truck had come in.
It killed me to hear him on that phone day in and day out, knowing the means to put an end to this was sitting right there in my wallet, but he wouldn’t even consider it.
I’d even thought about going to the bank behind his back, but that wouldn’t end well, so for now, I was just keeping my head down and doing my job. Just as I set my wrench down on the work table, my phone rang and I frowned when Frieda’s name lit up my screen.
In all the time I’d known her, which had been most of my life, I wasn’t sure she’d ever called me. Unease wound through my gut as I wiped my hand on a rag before swiping my phone up from the table.
“Frieda, is everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused. “I need you to swing by the motel. Now would be great. Thanks, honey.”
Without another word, she hung up and I blew out a heavy breath, my head shaking as I slid the phone into my back pocket. What the hell?
I had absolutely zero idea what this was about, but I knew better than to ignore a summons from our self-appointed town matriarch, so I grabbed my keys and left. For a beat, I considered letting Avery know I was heading out, but he was still on the phone, pacing and snarling.
Besides, he probably wouldn’t even notice that I was gone. I glanced back at him through the office windows when I reached the main doors, wondering when my brother had become this person. It didn’t even feel like I knew who he was anymore.
Between him and my dad, I felt increasingly like a stranger in my own family. I shook it off though, reminding myself that crawling into a ball and crying for the rest of my life wouldn’t help anything.
Things had gone from bad to worse over the last couple weeks. Maybe it was just my heartbreak talking, but shit. Nothing felt right anymore. Even the shop felt more like a battleground than my happy place these days.
One thing that’d changed for the better, however, was the motel. As I pulled into the parking lot, I couldn’t help but think about how Theo’s presence had turned it from a faded, roadside relic to a place that practically glowed as a haven to those in transit.
His handiwork was evident everywhere, from the fresh paint, to the trim, the siding, and the repaired railings. There was new landscaping, clean walkways, and no more hanging or exposed lightbulbs.
No matter what Avery thought, Theo wasn’t just another rich guy who wanted to rub his wealth in everyone’s faces. Hell, we hadn’t even known he was rich until he’d been here for over a month, but my brother conveniently neglected to remember that.
Frieda was sitting outside her office smoking a cigarette when I parked in the spot closest to her. Curious, I climbed out. “I was surprised to hear from you. You doing okay?”
“Wonderful. You’re finally here,” she said without bothering with pleasantries, but she was known for jumping right into it. “Theo did a real good job at helping me fix this place up, but it needs a woman’s touch.”
I frowned. “Okay.”
She waved her cigarette around, vaguely gesturing at the motel in general. “The landscaping is great. The paint looks nice. Everything works, but the rooms still look like they were decorated by a recently divorced trucker.”
My eyebrows shot up, but I laughed. “To be fair, back when they were decorated, that was probably the market the owner was trying to appeal to.”
“Exactly.” Frieda took another long drag of her cigarette, speaking around the plume of smoke she exhaled. “That’s why the place needs a woman’s touch. All this work Theo put in doesn’t mean much if the rooms are still ugly and stale.”
Ah, shit. What am I supposed to say to that? They are ugly and stale, but she’ll hate me if I say it.
“Some of the details could probably use a bit of a revamp, but the bones are good.” For a place that was probably built in the sixties or seventies and hadn’t been redecorated since.
“Do you want me to drive you over to Sue’s linen shop for some new bedding?
She’s on the other side of the Pass, but?—”
“Theo couldn’t stop talking about your knack for design,” Frieda said, interrupting as casually as if I hadn’t been speaking at all. “Seriously, he wouldn’t shut up about it. The last couple weeks he was here, he told me all about your work ethic and your eye for detail.”
My stomach fluttered. “What?”
“Come inside.” She stubbed her cigarette out in the overflowing ashtray beside her and stood up, leading the way into her office. “I’d like you to take a look at something.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, not really sure where she was going with this, but curious enough to follow anyway.
“Sue would probably offer you a discount for placing such a big order. I’ve never purchased anything from her myself, but I fixed up her van last year and she’s a nice lady. I bet you’d like her.”
“That won’t matter,” Frieda said, apparently intent on keeping the mystery going until she was good and ready to let me in on why she’d called me over here in the first place. “It could be useful that you already have a relationship with her, though.”
I frowned. “Do you want me to talk to her for you?”
That would be a bit odd, especially since I knew Frieda generally insisted on handling everything herself. She was a hard ass who drove a hard bargain and got the hard stuff done, all of which was to say that she didn’t usually shy away from the challenge of doing things herself.
“No, not for me. I want you to talk to her for you.” She opened her office door and strode inside, waving a hand toward her desk.
I stopped short when I saw the fabric books and paint samples on it, squinting as I tried to make out what was underneath it all. “Is that a mood board?”
“Yes, but it’s a useless fucking tool. I have no idea how it’s supposed to help.
” She walked around her desk and dropped into her chair, leaned back and looked directly at me.
“How much would it cost for you to repaint and redesign every room in this motel from top to bottom? I’m talking from the ground up. ”
I stared at her for several long seconds, my head spinning and my ears turning warm. I would’ve been less shocked if she’d made a pass at me. This was…
Shit, I don’t even have a word for it. “What are you even talking about?”
“You’ve been in Theo’s room recently, and there’s no need for blushing or denying it. I know you saw my dilemma firsthand, which means you already know that this old place needs a complete makeover.”
Heat flooded my cheeks and I blinked rapidly. “I mean, yeah. The rooms are probably a little dated.”
She arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow at me. “Probably? This ain’t going to work if you’re not honest with me, honey.”
“Okay, fine. They’re fully dated, but I’m not a contractor.”
She shrugged. “Neither are half the people on those home renovations shows, and I’ve seen what they can do.”
“I’d be more than happy to help you.”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking you to do,” she said. “So, how much?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I could just help you pick out some things.”
“You are a terrible businesswoman.” She sighed as she grabbed her cigarette pack and started tapping it on the desk, almost like it was as much of a habit as the smoking itself. “Don’t worry about that, though. We’ll work on it. Can you give me a ballpark figure?”
My brain started doing the math of its own accord.
Since I’d been so busy with my house recently, I had a general idea of the prices of things like paint, flooring, fixtures, furniture, and window treatments.
It would be a lot just for all that, even without accounting for labor, materials, or time.
“I don’t know.” I lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of my nose. “I really would be happy to just give you some advice, but even then, it wouldn’t be cheap.”
She folded her arms on the desk, exasperation shining in her eyes.
“You’re not hearing me, Raquel. I don’t only want your advice.
I want you to do it for me. If I thought I could do it myself, I would have done it years ago, but I don’t have the eye, the patience, or the inclination to learn how to do it properly. Would fifty thousand suffice?”
The number ricocheted through my mind. Fifty thousand dollars, the exact amount missing from the shop. The exact amount Avery had been desperately trying to replace.
Very slowly, I narrowed my eyes, not missing the sneaky gleam sparkling in hers. “What are you up to, Frieda?”
She shrugged. “You’ll probably need to call Theo.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Why? We’re not talking anymore, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“You’ll have to get a list of everything he did around here and what he was working on before Avery ran him out of town.”
I winced. “Theo decided to leave. He wasn’t run out of town.”
She looked up at me again, the expression on her face quite clearly suggesting she thought I was an idiot. “Of course, but the fact remains that you’re going to have to give him a call. Unless you want to skimp on your very first contracting job, that is.”
“No, but Theo and I are done and one phone call isn’t going to change that.”
Frieda laughed, finally rising out of her chair again and grabbing another cigarette from her pack. I frowned as I watched her move back toward the door. “What’s so funny?”
“You.”
I groaned. “Well, I’m glad I could entertain you, but I should be getting back to the shop.”
“In a minute,” she said happily, shuffling toward the door and lighting the cigarette as soon as she hit the porch.
I followed her out, leaning against the railing as I watched her take a long drag. “Are you serious?”
“About the work that needs to be done on the rooms?” She blew smoke toward the sky in lazy circles that floated up before dissipating. “I never joke about this place, honey. Kit loved it and so do I, but before long, it’s going to be so out of date that no one will want to stay here anymore.”
I couldn’t argue with that. As it was, I knew most travelers slept in any town other than ours, social media pointing them toward places that were authentic or quirky. The Blossom Ville Extended Stay Motel didn’t currently qualify as either of those things.
“I’ll write the check right now,” Frieda said, surprising the heck out of me. “You’ll need to get licensed and bonded, of course.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sure you’ll also need some personal work supplies.” She pointed the cigarette at me. “Oh, and a truck, right? For the business.”
I cleared my throat, anxiety threatening to choke me now that she’d spelled it all out like that. This was going to take a lot more than just taking another quick trip to the hardware store. “Right.”
“It’ll probably be, what, about a hundred thousand to get your new business off the ground?”
As I gaped at her, the world seemed to tilt slightly. “Oh my God. Are you a witch or something?”
She grinned. “Get started, honey. Avery’s driving a sinking ship and I’m throwing you a life raft, but it ain’t going to drift forever.”