Chapter 4 #2
“Great.” Roni tipped her head to the start of the sculpture. “Any idea what it’ll be when it grows up?”
Nat chuckled. “It will tell me soon.” She was long-over being offended by her practical sister’s curiosity about her typically whimsical artwork. “All I know for sure is it won’t be light or comfortable.”
“Good for you.” Roni frowned at the area. “Want some help cleaning up?”
“No thanks. It won’t take me long.” To reassure her sister, Nat made a show of setting a timer on her phone. Natalie had learned the hard way that her well-meaning sisters rarely understood what was trash and what was inspiration in her workspace.
To be fair, not much in Natalie’s world qualified as a final discard. Not even a sculpture that expressed her current dark and grim emotional state.
As if she didn’t trust Nat to hear the timer, Roni trailed along. At the storeroom, she broke into a fit of giggles. “What’s this going to be?”
Nat smiled. “This was previously at the top of this week’s agenda. I didn’t dare touch it today.” She sighed and shoved at her hair. “Eventually this will honor the mascot for a school I’m speaking at next month.”
Roni tipped her head, assessing. Then she grinned. “Please tell me their mascot is a raccoon.”
Natalie glared. “If you call me a trash panda, I will tackle you.”
They both knew it was a baseless threat.
At least until they got home. The gallery would surely revoke her rent-free workspace perks if she got into a fight with her sister.
Then again, watching Roni’s face, it might be worth it.
“There isn’t a single person on this island who wouldn’t understand or take my side,” she declared.
“Keep dreaming little sister.” Veronica was always poking her, usually from a place of love. Natalie was just too edgy today.
“Whatever.”
“Did you bike over?” Roni was looking around again.
“I did.”
“Great. I’ll wait and bike home with you.”
Natalie studied her sister more closely. “Fine.” Now that she was paying attention, she noticed the tension in Roni’s face. “Tell me how your day went.”
Roni biked to visit her clients as often as possible, whether it was meeting someone for a training session at a gym or a home visit for physical therapy.
The time she spent biking home was her way of clearing her mind of business issues.
Natalie would bet her next commission that something had happened today that the biking commute didn’t erase.
Gathering her supplies, she moved in and out of the storage room while she waited for Veronica to fill her in.
“It was pretty normal,” she began, rolling her shoulders. “My next to last client was a home visit physical therapy.”
“Post-op?” Nat queried when Veronica’s voice faded to silence.
“Yeah.” On a heavy sigh, she tapped her bike helmet against her thigh. “Older man. Recovering from an amputation due to diabetic neuropathy.”
Natalie dumped the stuff in her hands onto the nearest shelf and pulled Roni into a hug. “And it brought up Mom stuff.”
“How did you guess?”
“Because I love you.” Natalie had an easier time with emotions—good and bad. And she’d embraced her role as the emotional Hargrave sister.
Roni chuckled. “You make it so hard to stay annoyed with you.”
“Whoops, my secret is out.” She squeezed Roni’s shoulders. “Keep talking.” When Roni hesitated, she pressed. Just a little. “You’ll feel better and then you can be a better listener to whatever is on Celeste’s mind.”
“Fair point,” Roni conceded. “He was older than Mom. Which made the whole thing harder, I think. And the pain in his face… He’s willing to do the work, but still. He’ll make good progress, but some things can’t be recovered.”
Natalie tucked her dark and gloomy piece into a corner and covered it with a drop cloth. “I’m sorry. That really sucks.”
“It was like she was right there in the room watching me work.” Veronica sniffled and blinked rapidly. “That sounds way more like you than me.”
“You mean way more woo-woo than you.” Natalie embraced it. Emotions were her superpower in her work and her relationships.
“Potato, po-tahhh-to.” Roni shrugged, clearly trying to shift her mood. “It’s all good. My last client was a total finance bro.” She rolled her eyes. “Newly-divorced and determined to get ripped. He might have the genetics for a six-pack. Either way, he’s a short-term client.”
Natalie had a hard time melding intense finance-bro energy with the slower pace of the Lowcountry. Then again, money, industry, and opportunity were everywhere. “Did he hit on you?” Nat asked, gleefully horrified by the prospect.
Roni was beautiful, inside and out, and invariably some of her clients wanted to cross the line into personal territory. Usually, she could dissuade them gently and graciously, but there were a few clients that made for memorable stories.
Veronica laughed. “He’s thinking about it.”
Natalie locked up her storage room. And made Veronica tell her all the silly details as they biked to the house.
She thought Roni had the most fascinating job, helping so many different clients with various physical concerns.
Though she’d never say it, her sister was an artist in her own right, shaping human bodies into better health.
They arrived with just enough time to clean up before they heard Celeste’s car pull into the drive. “Parker’s!” they shouted in unison, dashing out to help her.
With a cool breeze moving through town this evening, Veronica wanted to eat outside but Celeste vetoed the idea. “I’d rather stay inside and keep this as private as possible.”
Natalie swallowed, her stomach twisting. “Oh, no. Who was it on our beach?”
“No, not that,” Celeste added in a hurry. “Completely unrelated. I’m so sorry.” She hugged Natalie. “Are you okay? Finding him must’ve been awful.”
“Zero out of ten,” Nat replied. She exaggerated a shiver.
“Do not recommend.” That earned a small smile from her oldest sister.
“I’m really okay. Just curious about this whole secret meeting.
” The only thing she could think of was that their dad had called.
If he had finally reached out only to tell them he was sick or something equally terrible, Natalie would wring his neck.
None of them needed another medical crisis to manage.
And considering how he’d left everything behind—including his daughters—after the memorial, she wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward her father.
“No one’s sick,” Celeste said, as if she’d read Nat’s mind. “But it is about the Hideaway.”
Natalie’s mind went directly to Trent. “It’s my week. I’m the contact. Trent—I mean Mr. Blakely—hasn’t called. Roni can vouch that I had my phone on.”
“She did,” Roni said, unwrapping the hushpuppies. “Take a breath, Nat.”
She tried. “It’s already been such a long day.” She smoothed a hand over her damp hair, woven into a braid after her shower. “Can you just tell us whatever is going on?” she pleaded.
“Eat a hush puppy first,” Celeste ordered.
Natalie obeyed, as did Veronica. And when they were all seated, Celeste pushed an envelope to the center of the table. “This is the news. It’s an offer for the Hideaway.”
Natalie swore and Veronica choked on her iced tea.
“Is this from Jackson?” Natalie snarled.
“No.” Celeste looked shocked. “Why would you think that? Have you seen him again?”
Nat shook her head. “Not since a few months ago. That was more than enough to keep me on edge.”
“He’s living in your head rent-free?” Roni’s shock was obvious. “Not cool for the queen of all things positive. Didn’t you scrub your aura or something?”
“Stop,” Celeste chided.
“But he’s in her head,” Roni pressed.
“Maybe.” Nat shrugged, restless and edgy. “When he showed up at the Hideaway, he told me he was in real estate now, remember? I wouldn’t put a stunt like this past him.”
Celeste frowned. “This isn’t from your ex-husband. Unless somehow he’s tied to Indigo Reef Capital."
“Why would anyone make an offer on the Hideaway? It’s not for sale,” Veronica pointed out. “Unless you made queries we don’t know about.”
“Not even,” Celeste said. “We’re in this together. Which is why we’re here, with great food, to talk this out in a place where we can argue without fear of becoming gossip fodder.”
“What’s to argue about?” Roni stabbed a grilled shrimp with her fork. “None of us want to sell.”
“You might change your mind when you see the offer,” Celeste murmured. “As far as I can tell, this is random. And common practice. Investors don’t wait for the for sale sign to go up.” Celeste dipped a hushpuppy in Parker’s famous sauce.
“Indigo Reef?” Natalie studied the logo on the envelope. “They’re one of the partners in that mess of condos going up next door?” She didn’t like any of this. Mostly because she got twitchy whenever someone brought up Jackson’s name.
“Yes,” Celeste confirmed. “It seems they are handling most of the labor on site. The foreman was polite enough to give us a heads up about possible noise issues and working hours.”
“According to this, they’re the sole funding for the offer on the Hideaway.” Veronica was scowling at the first page. “No other partners are mentioned.”
Natalie reached for the envelope. The offer had been sent to the post office box they used officially for Hideaway business.
The postmark was from Georgia, dated two days ago.
A chill skated across her shoulders. She had to look into this, and she couldn’t keep it from her sisters.
Better if she called Jess Billings, a friend who worked as the regional coordinator for the elite Guardian Agency.
Jess had resources to track her ex-husband even if he didn’t want to be found.
“Jackson’s last known address is Georgia. It was on his business card.” Roni kicked her under the table. “I’m not afraid.” What a lie. “I’m just not willing to take any chances. We all know he’s a snake and I don’t want him anywhere near us or our business.”