Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Michelle stepped into the tiger lily room, observing the handymen with interest. The two men were squeezed into the closet, talking in low voices and using terms she didn’t understand.
She heard “welding” and “drywall”, and those she understood, so she gathered they were figuring out how to finish up the repairs on the leaky pipe.
“How’s it going?” Michelle asked, smiling pleasantly.
The men turned around and blinked at her for a second before returning her smile.
The older man, the one who they’d officially hired through Evan, was smiling in a genuine way, but the other one looked a little wary.
He was young and skinny, and she had a feeling he was worried she was just there to check up on them and fuss about what they were doing.
“Pretty good here, Michelle,” the older man, whose name was Frank, said.
He nodded slowly, a gesture that reminded her of her few memories of her grandfather.
“We need to do a tiny bit more welding on this pipe, just to make sure the leak is good and fixed, and then we’re going to start the work on the drywall.
Once that’s had enough time to sit, we’re going to sand this whole wall and redo the paint. ”
“Sounds perfect. And don’t bother with the paint, actually—I was thinking it would be fun to paint the inside of the closet a bright orange, to match the theme of the room, so we can do that ourselves.”
“Orange walls, huh? I like it,” Frank said with a chuckle.
His assistant made a scoffing noise, implying that he didn’t, and Frank gave him a harmless punch in the shoulder to shush him.
Michelle hid a smile. These two could have started their own comedy routine as far as she was concerned. “I want to find a silver lining in all this, you know,” she said. “Get something good out of it.”
“Mmhmm.” Frank nodded. “It’s hard when things go wrong.”
Michelle nodded, and she swallowed as she thought of her mother.
Audrey was acting very strange—she’d invited Evan to dinner the night before, but then not come down from her room, texting all of them to say that she had a migraine.
The lasagna that she’d made would have been burnt to a crisp if Elaine hadn’t happened to come inside, smell it, and rescue it.
It had been a little too brown on top, but still delicious—however, Michelle had been unable to enjoy her meal fully because she’d been worried about her mother.
Elaine and Evan had been quiet too, and she’d had a feeling they were worried also.
It wasn’t like Audrey to disappear without a real explanation.
Headaches weren’t usually enough to keep Audrey from explaining herself in person.
Pushing her concerns about her mother to the side for the moment, Michelle returned her attention to the two repair men.
“We’ve got plenty of coffee and pastries in the lobby downstairs,” she told them. “Feel free to help yourselves. Sounds like you’ve got some tiring work on your plates today.”
The younger handyman perked up immediately. “Pastries?” he said. “Like doughnuts?”
Michelle grinned, pleased she’d been able to get past his indifferent exterior. “Absolutely. Cream-filled, chocolate-filled, lemon-filled, and crullers. Made by Townsend’s.”
“Oh man.” The younger handyman gave Frank a high five. “Thank you, Michelle.”
She laughed. “For sure. Well, let me know if you need anything. I’m just a holler away.”
“Sounds good.” Frank smiled at her. “I don’t anticipate us running into any trouble, though.
It’s a good thing this was caught when it was, and it’s even better that you didn’t waste any time in getting it repaired.
This leak could have done a lot of damage if it had been left alone.
It would have leaked through the floor and damaged the ceiling on the floor below us. ”
Michelle shuddered. “I’m glad that didn’t happen.
This has already felt like plenty of trouble—even though you guys have been doing a great job.
I’m really glad Evan knew to call you. We have him to thank for that.
We definitely would have wasted more time trying to figure out who to hire. He just knew right away.”
“Perks of small-town living,” Frank said cheerfully. “And perks of being a mayor—he knows just about all the local businesses inside and out. We’ve been able to prove how good our work is on several occasions, and Evan remembered. He’s a good guy like that.”
“He is a good guy.” Michelle nodded, thinking fondly of Evan, who felt more and more like a member of their family with each passing day.
Even though it had been sad and troubling that Audrey hadn’t shared the dinner with Evan, Elaine, and Michelle the night before, Michelle had noticed how comfortable the three of them were together.
They hadn’t felt the need to bother with small talk or force a conversation that none of them really wanted to have. She liked that.
Evan really is a good guy, she thought. He’s genuine and thoughtful, and he really cares about Mom. She’s blossomed so much since meeting him. I’m really glad that Mom is in an enriching relationship now—her marriage with Dad definitely wasn’t that.
Michelle was just about to excuse herself and go back downstairs when she heard footsteps in the doorway. She turned and saw Audrey standing there, looking unwell. Her face was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. More concerning than that, her eyes were red as though she’d been crying.
“Hey.” Michelle hurried over to her mother, her brow furrowing in concern. “How are you feeling?”
Audrey shook her head. “I’m hanging in there.”
“We were worried about you,” Michelle said, touching Audrey’s arm. “We still are. You made that beautiful dinner and then insisted on spending the rest of the evening in your room. That’s not like you—and Evan came over and everything.”
Audrey pressed her lips together but didn’t say anything, and Michelle’s concern intensified.
“Is your headache going?” Michelle asked gently.
Audrey shook her head again.
“Oh no! Maybe you should go see a doctor, Mom. That’s a long time to have—”
“I never had a headache,” Audrey admitted. “Something—something happened yesterday and it shook me up badly. I just needed some time to deal with my emotions on my own. It wasn’t something that you or even Evan could help me with.”
Michelle glanced behind her at the handymen.
They seemed totally absorbed in their work and were talking to each other in normal tones as if they had no idea an emotionally vulnerable conversation was happening a stone’s throw away from them.
Even so, she wanted to take her mother somewhere a little more private.
“Let’s step out into the hallway for a second,” Michelle said, taking Audrey’s arm and walking with her into the hallway. Sunlight from a nearby window flickered across the wooden floorboards, and they stood close together next to a bookshelf filled with antique books.
Audrey looked as though she was in danger of starting to cry, and Michelle put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“Mom, what happened?” she prompted gently.
Audrey inhaled. “Yesterday, when I was in the front hallway, the door opened and—and your father came into the hotel.”
Michelle’s jaw dropped. “What?”
Audrey nodded. “He just showed up totally out of the blue—I guess with Molly in the car—and he demanded that I give him the grandfather clock.”
Michelle shook her head, feeling a combination of disbelief and rage.
“Who does he think he is?” she spluttered.
“After everything he did to you, the very least he can do is leave you alone. I can’t believe he would show up and demand something—and something that absolutely doesn’t belong to him at that!
That clock belongs to you. It was Great-Grandma’s.
Dad is acting like a totally self-absorbed, unfeeling jerk, which I guess is on brand, but I want to—”
“Hey.” Audrey placed a gentle hand on Michelle’s arm, a ghost of a smile playing across her lips. “Thanks for wanting to swoop in to my rescue, but don’t get carried away, okay?”
“Okay.” Michelle took a deep breath. “But what are we going to do? We’re not going to let him take the clock, that’s for dang sure.”
Audrey sighed. “I don’t know what we’re going to do. I thought about it a lot last night.”
Michelle could see how exhausted her mother was, and she had a feeling that Audrey hadn’t gotten much sleep. “Why don’t you take it easy today, Mom? Just curl up on the couch today and read a good book. Or take a bubble bath. Do something that will feel relaxing. You deserve a break.”
“Thanks, Michelle, but… well, I’d rather keep busy. I’ll talk to you later.” Audrey gave her daughter a quick hug and went on her way.
Michelle stood silently in the hallway for a few moments, her brow furrowed as she stared into space.
She wished she’d been there when Clark had first arrived at the mansion.
She would have kicked him out so fast it would have made his head spin—and any conversations he’d felt he needed to have with Audrey would have had to go through her first.
She swallowed, feeling determined to guard her mother like a bulldog during whatever more of the ordeal was coming.
“Oh, shoot!”
The exclamation had come from Frank, loud and full of concern. Worried, Michelle popped back inside the tiger lily room.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
Frank shook his head. “It’ll be okay, but there’s lead in this old paint in the closet.
That means we’ll have to be extremely careful when we’re sanding it down.
Lots of specialized cleanup—and you’ll want to make a note of that for any other renovations you ever want to do in the house.
It’s an old building, so there’s probably lead paint in a lot of places.
Not that big a deal, but it’ll make things a little more complicated. ”
Michelle nodded, feeling generally unconcerned. “Thanks, Frank. Let us know if you need anything from us, otherwise I trust you to take care of that.”
Frank assured her he would, and Michelle stepped back out into the hallway.
A little lead paint is nothing compared to the predicament that I’ve just been apprised of, she thought, crossing her arms as she walked down the hallway. Lead paint has an answer—a way to be resolved. What on earth are we going to do about this situation with Dad?