Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chase worried about Maisy and her family and suspected the news she was so reluctant to share had to do with more than her grandmother’s health. The minute he was home from the office and had privacy, he sent her a text.
Are you ready to talk?
Not yet.
Answer the phone or I swear I’ll fly out there myself. He was serious and he’d do it, although the timing was rotten, with his father due to leave for Europe.
Please, Chase, don’t.
Then tell me what’s upset you to the point you can’t talk to me.
Three small dots appeared, indicating she was typing a response.
It has to do with my family. No one is hurt or dying. Can we leave it at that?
No. Don’t you understand how deeply I care about you and your family? Not knowing is driving me insane.
He found it impossible to ignore this silence any longer. He loved Maisy and her family. If this was a situation where he could help, he would move heaven and earth to make it happen.
Are you always this stubborn?
Not always, but when it concerns you and I know you’re hurting I can’t help myself.
Unwilling to continue typing and getting no answers, he punched her contact and was grateful she answered on the second ring.
“I wish you’d done as I asked and given me time,” she greeted him, sounding nothing like herself.
“Maisy, I did wait, but enough is enough. Tell me what’s going on and how I can help.”
“You can’t,” she insisted.
“Don’t you understand how difficult it is to stand by and do nothing when I know you’re hurting? Now please talk to me.”
He heard her swallow as if she needed time to gather her thoughts. “I would rather not, because I know you, and you’re going to want to step in and rescue us, and I can’t let that happen.”
He absorbed her words and remembered his promise that he wouldn’t come to her aid. Still, if this was a serious matter, he didn’t know if he could stop himself. “Maisy, I need to find out what’s going on.”
“I know,” she said, and her voice was little more than a whispered breath.
“Maisy, please trust me.”
Maisy sniffled. “Have you ever read the book of Job in the Bible?”
What an odd question. He wasn’t sure what a Bible story had to do with Maisy and her current situation. “No.” Chase knew the story, though. “From what I recall, a series of disasters fell upon him in a short amount of time.”
“Exactly.”
“Are you telling me your family has suffered a series of blows?” He knew that must have been the reason she’d mentioned this particular Bible story.
She sniffled again, and just hearing the pain in her voice was nearly his undoing.
“I hardly know where to start,” she said, after a drawn-out moment.
“You said something earlier about your grandmother. Begin there.”
“Okay. My wonderful grandmother has a heart condition that required surgery. While Patrick and I were in Chicago, Lloyd took Grams to the hospital, and she had three stents inserted.”
“How is she doing now?”
“Really well. I’ve been with her every day. In fact, yesterday she said it was time for me to bug out. She insisted she isn’t an invalid, and all this attention was suffocating her.”
Chase smiled. That sounded exactly like Eileen Gallagher.
“I’m not the only one keeping a close eye on her. Lloyd is right by her side, too.”
“Good.” Chase liked the older man. They’d exchanged a verbal tug-of-war over the luncheon bill. Lloyd won. “There’s more, though, isn’t there?”
“Yes. A lot more.”
“I’m listening.”
Again, a brief hesitation, as if unsure she should continue.
“Maisy?”
He heard her tight swallow. “While I was away, Mom and my uncle Fred decided it was time to put Gallagher Jewels up for sale,” she whispered, and her voice cracked with the news.
Chase didn’t consider that a big disaster. He was keenly aware the business was upside down financially. “That’s probably for the best, don’t you think?”
“You don’t understand,” she cried. “When my father passed, there was a lot of credit card debt that had accumulated. With all of us working, we’ve barely been able to keep up those payments.
Along with the house payment, house and car insurance, plus the credit card, we’re barely able to keep the family afloat month to month.
Mom planned to sell her share of the store to pay everything off. That won’t be possible now.”
Chase’s heart sank. “I can—”
“Don’t even say it,” she said emphatically, cutting him off.
“How do you know what I was about to suggest?” he asked, almost amused.
“You’re about to offer to help us financially. Please, don’t.”
“But I can help you. Consider it a loan, if you must.”
“No. I appreciate the offer, but it would hurt more than it would help.”
Chase didn’t see it that way. It was in his power to relieve the financial tension. Her stubbornness was unnecessary.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “What have you got against me helping your family? I’m a rich man, Maisy, and I care about you and your family. It’s tearing me up inside to see you worried about something that I could so easily fix.”
“Chase, you’re a good, caring man; I appreciate that you want to come to our aid, I do. It would be far too easy for me to agree, but I can’t, and I won’t.”
Her answer frustrated him. “I don’t understand you. Why would you refuse? My willingness to relieve this burden comes with no strings attached.”
“Don’t you see?” she asked. Her voice held a pleading quality.
“You and I have something good, something special. If you were to give us a loan, I would always feel indebted to you and so would my family. The money would always be a thorn between us. You would never know if I loved you for yourself or for what you could do for me.”
All Chase heard was the word love. “You love me?”
She hesitated, as if she hadn’t meant to let him know.
“I’m crazy in love with you, too, Maisy, and I want to help you.”
“I know, and I love you even more for it, but please, please understand that it would ruin everything if you did.”
This was hard to accept. He didn’t know if it was possible to stand by and do nothing.
“Promise me,” she insisted. “I trust you to be an honorable man. I won’t rest easy until you do.”
He exhaled and squeezed the phone so hard his fingers ached. After a long moment he nodded, even though she couldn’t see the action, and for the second time, he gave his word. “I promise.”
“Thank you.” The relief in her voice was evident.
Chase hoped he’d be able to stand by his word.
“That isn’t all that’s happened to us, though,” she added.
“You mean there’s more?” He didn’t know how much bad news this family could absorb.
“Yes, unfortunately. Sean’s truck and tools were stolen.”
At this latest hit, Chase briefly closed his eyes.
“To make matters worse, his boss said he wouldn’t be able to work without the necessary tools.”
“I could…” He stopped himself just in time. “I could do nothing.”
He could almost hear Maisy’s smile. “Thank you,” she whispered.
It wasn’t only for Maisy. Sean would hate it if Chase offered to purchase whatever he needed for the job.
“What’s going to happen?” he asked.
“Losing the truck is a blow as much as the loss of his tools. The police found the vehicle a day later. It was totaled—not that it was worth much to anyone but Sean. Katie has been driving him to work, but that isn’t going to last much longer, as she’s been sent to a different jobsite.”
“Then he was able to get what he needs, tool-wise?”
“Not exactly. His friends on the job have helped fill in with extra or older tools they have. Sean bought a few essentials.”
“Then he’s able to continue working.”
“For now, but he needs a vehicle, and soon.”
“How’s your mom dealing with all this?” he asked. Sophie Gallagher was a strong woman, but there was only so much one woman could take.
Maisy’s voice cracked when she spoke. “Mom is relying on faith. I want to believe, too. I’m weak, though, and keep considering the consequences of what will happen. I’m looking for another job, but I’m probably not going to earn enough to fill in for what Mom contributed as a substitute teacher.”
“I’m sorry, love.”
“I know you are. It’ll work itself out. It always does.”
He heard the forced enthusiasm and wasn’t fooled.
Maisy tried hard to have the same depth of faith as her mother did.
These blows to the family had devastated her.
It killed Chase to hear the fear and doubt in her voice.
It hurt him, too, that she didn’t feel comfortable enough to share with him what happened to the family.
—
The next morning, Chase went directly to his father’s office.
He knew Simon was busy getting ready for this all-important trip.
This meant Chase would be working long hours, curtailing the time he had to chat with Maisy.
The timing wasn’t the best, with Maisy needing his love and support now more than ever.
His father looked up from his desk when Chase entered. He must have noticed something in Chase’s expression, because he blinked and asked, “What’s on your mind, son?”
Chase took a chair. “It’s Maisy,” he said, without preamble.
“Something happen to her?”
He nodded, unsure how much he should share. “Her family is going through a financial crisis.” He explained what she’d told him the night before.
“And you want to help?”
“I do, but she’s pretty adamant that she doesn’t want me involved. She has this cockamamie idea that it would destroy our relationship.”
His father’s brows rose. “Will it?”
“Not on my end.”
“I like her, Chase. I’ll admit I had my doubts when you first mentioned her. All it took was that one meeting for me to recognize what you see in her. She’s as real as they come.”
Chase felt that way, too. “I don’t know what to do,” he said, returning to the problem at hand.
“Are you going to step up and help anyway?”
“Maisy made me promise that I wouldn’t.” He regretted that now, and wished he hadn’t agreed. Ignoring the fact that he’d given his word went against everything he believed. And yet he wasn’t comfortable standing by and letting the Gallagher family lose everything while he did nothing.
Chase had spent a sleepless night mulling over ways to intercede and still manage to keep his promise and had come up void.
“I suspect you believe I might have a solution for you,” his father said. He propped his fingers below his chin as he appeared to mull over the situation.
“I hoped you might have an idea.” Chase valued his father’s wisdom.
Simon leaned back in his chair as if he needed a few minutes to ponder the situation. When he spoke, it had nothing to do with Maisy.
“I ran into Harry Newman at the club two nights ago.”
His father hadn’t mentioned that earlier, which surprised Chase. He waited for Simon to relay the details.
“As you might imagine, it wasn’t a pleasant conversation. He’d made a fool of himself, announcing the wedding when there wasn’t going to be one. I overheard him telling a friend how you did his daughter wrong.”
Chase fully anticipated he’d be Harry’s scapegoat. It didn’t bother him as much as it apparently did his father.
“I wasn’t about to let him blame you for this, so I stepped in and made sure his audience heard the truth. Harry stepped way over the line in his effort to manipulate you and Astrid.”
“I’m fine with whatever Harry says about me.” And he was.
“I’m not, and I don’t believe Astrid is, either.”
Chase could see that his father had taken Newman’s rumor-spreading as a personal slight.
While he had his suspicions, Chase had heard Harry’s financial troubles were worse than before.
Recently there had been rumors that Astrid’s father was deeply in debt.
His financial situation might not be currently apparent, but it would be soon enough.
Harry’s house of cards was about to crumble.
Chase pitied the man and worried about Astrid and her mother.
“Astrid is a good woman,” Chase felt obliged to remind his father. “I wish only the best for her.”
His father agreed. “The right man will come along and appreciate her,” he said with confidence.
Chase nodded. He wanted that for her.
“Now,” his father said, “let’s talk about Maisy.”
“I’d appreciate your advice,” Chase said, which was the sole reason he’d stopped by his father’s office.
“I don’t know that I can be much help to you,” Simon started. “I think you need to do whatever it is that you feel is best.”
Chase shook his head. That was the problem. He didn’t know what would be the most helpful to Maisy. Nor was he convinced he could stand by and do nothing.