Chapter 27
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
Joey had not called Adam last night after her shift at the catering company, and he’d called her instead.
She’d said she was going over her finances one more time, and then she was going to talk to Grams about perhaps asking the family if they could help her furnish an apartment with a simple couch and a folding table.
Maybe, she’d said. I don’t know.
Adam knew that wasn’t what she wanted at all, but he’d listened to her, everything he wanted to say getting stuffed way down deep in his throat.
“You’re going to have to come clean,” he told himself as he walked down the icy sidewalk toward her grandparents’ condo. The scent of apples and cinnamon met his nose a good ten feet away, and he didn’t bother knocking and then waiting.
Instead, he knocked and opened the door at the same time, calling, “It’s just me,” as he hurried in, out of the wind, and shut it out behind him.
“Oh, hello, Adam,” Cecily said. She wore an apron with elves all over it as she stirred something in a bowl. “Joey just went to help Jerry for a moment.”
“Okay,” Adam said. He’d come to sit with her grandfather while Joey and Cecily baked, and he wondered how he could get Joey away from them to tell her what he’d done. Maybe you should tell her in front of them, he thought. Maybe then she won’t break up with you.
Adam swallowed and glanced toward the mouth of the hall as Jerry and Joey came shuffling down it.
“Oh, you’re here,” Joey said. “Can you help Gramps back to his recliner? I’m pretty sure the pie crust needs to come out.”
“Does it?” Grams asked, turning toward her granddaughter. “I didn’t hear a timer.”
“It’s on my phone,” Joey said, and Adam hurried to her side to relieve her of helping Jerry, whose hips and back ached in bad weather. Adam helped him over to his recliner, where he sat down with a sigh. The scent of browned pie crust filled the condo, and Adam turned back to the kitchen.
“It looks good,” he said.
“It’s too dark,” Joey complained, and she seemed irritated and rushed already. He wished he would have left earlier, but they’d requested soups and salads from a diner that didn’t open until eleven, and then they’d been extremely busy. “I brought lunch,” he said. “Whenever you guys are ready.”
“Oh, thank you,” Cecily said, though Joey had just thrown him a dirty look.
“I didn’t say you had to eat it right now,” he said. “I literally said whenever you’re ready.”
She nodded and turned back to the stove. “I just feel off-kilter today,” she said.
“Already?” He moved into the small kitchen, knowing he’d get shooed out soon enough.
“Oh, she burned a few cakes at work,” Cecily said, smiling at him.
“Not a few.” Joey threw her a look. “I burned one batch of cupcakes, which I guess is a few cakes. It just…sort of set me off kilter.”
“I’m sorry, baby doll,” he said, running his hand along her waist. “What can I do to help?” He took in the disaster of flour and butter, spices, sliced apples, and chopped chocolate, and knew he should not stay anywhere near that kitchen.
Joey turned toward him and planted her hands on her hips. “I do not need any help from you, mister,” she said, and at least she smiled.
“Well, that’s rude,” he said, with a grin. “I seem to remember me totally killing those Oreo chocolate crusts.”
“Those are already done,” Joey said, and she moved into him.
He received her into his arms and leaned down to kiss her. “You seem stressed already, baby doll,” he said. “Seriously, what can I do?”
She kissed him, and that was plenty to calm Adam down. Then she sighed and said, “Nothing. Just help Gramps today, okay? That will help a lot.”
“All right,” Adam said. “I mean, I can be a taste tester too.”
Joey laughed and gave him a little shove away. He moved into the living room and sat down on the couch, her giggles making everything in his life better. Jerry had picked up a book and he didn’t even look over to Adam, which was about how Jerry was.
Adam looked at his phone and found several more texts from the members of Country Quad. He automatically turned it more into himself, as if Joey would come look over his shoulder and see it.
She’s going to find out, he told himself, and he decided he definitely better tell her in mixed company if he wanted to keep his life.
“Hey, so what happened with that apartment?” he asked over his shoulder.
She sighed at the same time that Jerry growled, “Don’t ask,” under his breath.
“Don’t ask?” Adam asked, and he twisted to look at Joey in the small condo kitchen. “Did something happen?”
“They rented it to someone else,” she said. “I knew it would go fast. It’s really nice and it’s not very expensive.”
His heart twisted strangely in his chest. “Oh, I thought they were going to wait for you.”
“I guess they’ve had a lot of interest in it,” Joey said, almost matter-of-factly. “It would have been a really nice place.”
“She’s quite upset about it,” Grams said, though Adam didn’t think she was acting that way.
He glanced over to Jerry, who mimed crying. Alarmed, Adam turned back to Joey. He had not detected any trace of tears, but he didn’t spend twenty-four hours a day with her, either. He got to his feet, suddenly unable to keep sitting.
“So funny thing,” he said, his pulse booming against the back of his tongue as he paced toward the end of the couch and looked into the kitchen. Joey had her back to him as she stirred something on the stove.
“I texted your uncles,” he said. “And your daddy—just the guys in Country Quad. And I asked them if there was any way that they could put together a move-in…furniture…kit for you.”
By the time he finished speaking, he wasn’t even sure if he’d gotten the words in the right order.
Joey turned from where she worked at the stove, her face a mixture of surprise and horror. “You did what?”
“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Grams said, and she looked at Joey meaningfully. “I told Joey we should ask on the family text if anybody had extra furniture they weren’t using. Among all of us, surely there’s a couch or a table not being used.”
“Surely,” Adam said.
“Surely?” Joey demanded, “What have you done?”
Adam swallowed and looked to Jerry for help. The older man glared back at him, and Adam didn’t think he’d be getting any assistance there.
“They didn’t rent that apartment to someone else,” he said. “They’re holding it for you.”
“What?” Joey’s confusion really was cute, what with that little frown between her eyes.
“I told them it was a surprise,” Adam said. “Until I could talk to you, and well, now is the first time I found to be able to talk to you about this.”
“And you think now’s a good time?” She indicated the unfilled pie crusts and the pounds of butter waiting on the counter. Then she faced him again and folded her arms. “I’m in the middle of baking my weekly orders on my only day off.”
“I know,” he said, swallowing. “Maybe it’s not the best time, but it’s the only time we’ve got.”
“Just listen to him, dear,” Grams said.
Joey looked at the stove, and then her grandmother. “Adam and I are going to go for a walk,” she said. “I’m going to give him exactly ten minutes to tell me exactly what’s going on. By that time, these pie crusts will come out, and I’ll be back to finish this pumpkin custard.”
“Sounds great,” Grams chirped as if nothing was happening out of the ordinary.
“Good luck,” Gramps muttered, and Joey picked up her coat and put it on right over her apron. “You’re coming with me,” she said, and Adam wasn’t sure if he was scared or excited.
He quickly put his jacket back on and stepped with her outside.
“You better start talking,” she said. “And don’t stop until you get all the way to the end.”
“All right.” He drew a deep breath. “After I heard you on the phone call yesterday and how excited you were about that apartment—”
“I wasn’t excited,” she said. “I was upset I didn’t have enough money for it.”
“Yeah, and that indicated your excitement,” he said, sending her a glare of his own. “I called and asked them to please hold it through tomorrow morning.”
“Did you have to pay them?” she asked.
“You told me to go all the way to the end.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “Go all the way to the end.”
“I told them I would give them a couple hundred extra dollars if they would please just hold it for me for one day, so that I could see if we could make it a reality for you. And then I texted Country Quad. Your daddy and uncles have been talking with everyone privately about any furniture they might have that they’d be willing to donate—or sell for very little. ”
Adam tapped on his phone and moved to the list that Tex had sent less than an hour ago.
“This is what they came up with. Sterling has a couch in her massage studio that she doesn’t want anymore. It’s full-size, for three people.” He glanced over to her, but Joey walked along like an animated statue.
“I guess Cheryl and Wade have a dining room table that they’ve outgrown. Cheryl wants a new one, but the one she has is her mother’s, and she wasn’t sure how to get rid of it. This way, she can give it to you and feel good about it.”
Joey said nothing. She hugged herself tightly, her arms folded across her chest in a definitely-angry way.
“Mav and Dani have several queen-size beds in their basement that no one is using. They’re sending one to Jackson Hole with Boston and—”
“Wait.” Joey reached over and grabbed his arm. “Boston’s moving to Jackson Hole?”
Adam glanced over to her and found alarm running across her face. “I guess he got a job at the Elk River Lodge there,” he said. “He’s going to be moving in with Cash, but Cash doesn’t have a bed for him, and Beth’s going to Maryland, whether she gets into school or not.”
The Youngs definitely overshared, but in this case, Adam hadn’t minded. “So Mav and Dani have some extra beds, and they’re happy to just give one to you.”
Joey’s jaw hardened, and he thought the best thing to do was to go back to his list. Get it all out. Go all the way to the end.