Chapter Four #2
“She’s everybody’s grandma,” I said with a chuckle.
“But she’s also AJ’s aunt. AJ’s father, who passed when she was a baby, was Audrey’s nephew.
Truthfully, this town would be lost without Audrey.
She organizes the Thanksgiving and Christmas community dinners, the coat drive, and many other events throughout the year. ”
“She’s one of the angels on earth that people talk about, right?” I asked, wiping my hands now that my plate was clean.
“Like you don’t know,” she agreed as she pointed at my plate. “If you’re still hungry, I have some blackberry pie left.”
“Oh, that’s hard to turn down,” I said, eyeing the pie case. “I’ll have a piece if you will.”
She scooted out of the booth and picked up my plate. “These hips don’t need another piece of blackberry pie. As Shakira would say, my hips don’t lie.”
“Your hips are perfect just the way they are,” I said without thinking. When I glanced up, I couldn’t miss the giant grin she wore. After running what I said back through my head, my instinct was to jump in and correct myself, but I didn’t.
“I’m glad someone thinks so.”
“I said what I said. It’s important to appreciate what our body does for us rather than criticize it, and I can offer that advice based on my own knowledge and experience. So, I’ll have whipped cream on mine if you’re having some too.”
“I’ll have a piece,” she said as she walked toward the case. “But we don’t put whipped cream on blackberry pie here.”
“What do you put on it?”
“Raspberry jam.” Ready to react, she held up her hand. “Before you turn up your nose, try it. Trust me. It’ll change your life.”
It took everything I had in me not to say, You’ve already changed my life, but I bit it back, not wanting to come off as smarmy or as though I was angling for her to go home with me.
Worse yet, insincere when just the opposite was true.
Not to mention, with my lack of cooking skills, I’d be spending plenty of time at the diner.
Making things awkward, while my specialty, was not something high on my list to do this early in my career in Bells Pass.
Besides, I was not the kind of guy a woman like Jaelyn Riba would be interested in.
My life was filled with ghosts of the past, leaving very little room for the present or the future.
When I pulled into the diner’s parking lot, it was empty, which meant my plan was going accordingly.
I needed to speak with Ivy without too many distractions since I knew firsthand how hard it was to track her down and keep her in one place once the day started.
I inhaled deeply and held it for the count of three before letting it back out again.
“You can do this. You’re not asking for anything unreasonable,” I chanted as I climbed from the car and walked to the door. I could see Ivy behind the cash register, preparing for the day, so I knocked and waited for her to open it.
“Jaelyn,” she said in surprise. “You’re off today.”
“I know, but I’m not here to work,” I explained, sliding my butt over one of the stools at the counter.
“Okay, well, Mason isn’t here yet, but if you’re hungry, I have cinnamon rolls fresh from the bakery.”
“That’s not why I’m here either. I need to talk to you.”
“Sure, is something wrong?”
“No, not really wrong as much as inconvenient,” I answered, hedging a bit. “I was hoping you could switch some of my shifts for the rest of this schedule period and then stop scheduling me for the early mornings from here out?”
“You’re my best opener. Is there a problem?” she asked, focusing solely on me.
I shrugged and considered backing out of the discussion until I remembered there was little choice but to be honest with her. If I didn’t tell her the truth, she’d find out eventually anyway, and then she’d be hurt and upset that I hadn’t been honest with her when I had the chance.
“I’m closing on Yaya’s house today, so I don’t have anywhere to stay until something opens at New Beginnings.
Hazel said it could be January before that happens, so I had to devise a new plan.
I’ve decided to rent a room in Saginaw at the extended stay hotel, which is a fine solution, but driving here for the early shift will be more challenging.
Even if you could schedule me for half an hour later, that would buy me time.
Especially in the winter, once the snow hits. ”
She tipped her head to the side for several beats before she spoke. “You’re going to stay in Saginaw but work here?”
When I nodded, she started to shake her head, which made me extremely nervous, so I jumped up and held my hands out to calm her. “You know what, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out.”
Try as I might, I couldn’t keep the tremble from the words.
I didn’t know how to figure any of this out, but I was out of time.
However, I couldn’t lose my job either. I cursed myself for burying my head in the sand for so long.
I knew this was coming for two years, but the longer it took to clear her estate and find a buyer, the more comfortable I became about staying there.
Unfortunately, it had been a rock and a hard place kind of situation.
Even if I’d rented something earlier this summer, I would have had to continue paying the house's utilities and taxes. That would mean more money out of my already empty pocket. I wanted to rent the house and use my rent to pay off the creditors, but the lawyer said that wasn’t allowed.
My naivety had convinced me that New Beginnings would have something open when I needed it, which was delulu at best and, as I was learning, destructive at worst.
Ivy motioned at the stool with her finger until I sat, and then she grabbed a plate and a cinnamon roll from the case.
She slid it in front of me and poured me a cup of coffee before she walked around and sat beside me.
One of those tears I’d been holding back fell the moment she put her arm around my shoulders.
Only one, so I had that going for me at least.
“Everyone always said that the housing in this town was nonexistent, but I didn’t believe it was that hard to come by,” I whispered. “Once New Beginnings opened, I got too comfortable thinking I’d be able to find a rental when I was ready, but now I’m stuck.”
“It didn’t help that your grandmother’s estate dragged on for as long as it did,” she added, to which I nodded. “That’s not your fault. You did what you had to do regarding that, and now they’re punishing you for it.”
“I had to sell it eventually,” I said, wiping the tear with the napkin after I pulled the silverware from it. “If there weren’t so many creditors, there would be money left for a small down payment, but she had too many outstanding debts. The sale didn’t even cover them all.”
“Oh no, Jaelyn. I didn’t realize that.”
“Yaya was sick for many years. Between the second mortgage she took out to make the home accessible and the equipment and care she needed at the end, it’s just not there.”
“Will you have to pay those bills?”
“Seems like it,” I said with a frown. “I was hoping to work with the creditors to pay less than what’s owed, but that requires a lawyer, and I don’t have the money to pay for that either.”
“Okay, one thing at a time,” she said. “We can figure this out without you driving back and forth to Saginaw.”
“Do you have a magical apartment to rent somewhere?” I asked, giving her a lip tilt as I poked at the cinnamon roll.
“Maybe not, but I have a town full of friends, and we all have houses. There’s always room for one more.”
“Ivy, no,” I said, turning to her. “I don’t want to put anyone out. Besides, it could be months. There’s no way I would ask anyone to do that for me.”
“Why?” she asked, her head tipped in question again.
“Well, I’m not their responsibility. I could always move to a different city and find work as a server. That said, I want to keep working here, so it's my responsibility to figure out a way.”
“That’s fair, but as your employer, I also don’t want to lose you, and I know that driving back and forth to Saginaw will be trying and dangerous.
Do me a favor?” she asked, and I nodded.
“Let me do some legwork on this today while you’re closing on the house.
You’re stressed, sad, and scared, which is understandable, but I don’t want you to be.
We got you here and won’t leave you out on the streets. What have I told everyone for years?”
“If we’re ever in trouble or need a place to land, we should come to you. That’s the reason I’m here this morning. I couldn’t hide that I didn’t have a place to go, but I also didn’t want you to think I wasn’t trying to find a solution.”
“It would never cross my mind that you weren’t,” she said, rubbing my back. “You’ve done nothing but try for years, so take a deep breath, have breakfast, and know we’ve got your back.”
With a nod, I leaned my head against her for a moment. “Thanks, Ives. You are the best nightingale Bells Pass has ever had. Today will be hard, and I didn’t want this discussion hanging over my head while signing away my past.”
“Your grandmother was everything to you, and while you’ve grieved her loss, this is still so hard. Would you please allow someone to go with you? There’s no reason to face it alone. We all need a little support sometimes.”
“While that’s true, it will take less than ten minutes to sign the paperwork and be done, so I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I wouldn’t turn down a friend who could help me move the rest of my things to storage beforehand. My appointment with the lawyer is at ten in Saginaw.”
“Absolutely,” she assured me, pulling out her phone. “You eat. I’ll text.”
“Ivy, it’s five a.m. Who are you going to text this early?”
Her fingers were already flying across the keyboard when she answered. “Well, the girl gang, of course.” Then she blew me a kiss, which relieved all my anxiety about the day.