Chapter 7 Getting Immersed
GETTING IMMERSED
She’d come a long way from the twelve-year-old having a family dinner with Ford’s family.
It’d only been a handful of times. Mostly when she was here with him, it was lunch on the weekends in this kitchen that had changed little other than some paint and new appliances.
The butcher block counters were the same, only years more of usage added to them.
The scent of cooked meat filled her nostrils when she came in the back door and looked around.
Clay, Callum and Gale were sitting at the table at the other end of the kitchen. Brooke mashing potatoes by hand in a pot on the stove.
“Hi, Reenie,” Gale said, standing and walking toward her. “I doubt you remember me. I was eight when you used to come around.”
“I remember,” she said. The dirty blonde hair on Gale Ridgeway had more highlights in it now. From chemicals and not the sun.
Ford’s sister was in black pants, printed black and white pumps on her feet, with a peach and white sweater.
She looked every bit the attorney she was. Her hair sleek and perfectly styled, her French-manicured nails polished to professional precision, and her makeup understated yet flawlessly applied.
Gale was the type of woman who wanted to make an impression in a laid back way.
“Good,” Gale said. “After dinner you and I can talk and we’ll get as much as we can in order and get you protected from anything that might fall your way.”
“Protected from what?” Brooke asked.
“Mom. Some things will remain between us. Just Reenie and I. You have my word on that, Reenie.”
“I have to pay you to get attorney-client privileges. I want you to bill me.”
Ford pulled cash out of his pocket and handed it to Gale. “Here, now she’s your client.”
Reenie slapped Ford’s hand away before Gale could take the money. There was laughter to that, but her face flushed over the move. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you.”
“It’s fine,” he said.
She was afraid she would vomit after that move. “I meant to brush your hand away. I’m really sorry. I don’t lay my hands on people.” She was looking around the room. “Please, forgive me.”
All eyes were on her now. The smiles and laughter had died down. Clay was staring the hardest. Not in anger, but in sympathy.
That was probably the worst.
“Hey,” Ford said. “Come here.”
He ushered her into the family room away from everyone. “I’m sorry. This is a mistake. I need to leave.”
“No,” he said. “You don’t.” His voice was calm.
Soothing. His hand on her arm rubbing it was more so.
“Take a deep breath. What you did to me was nothing more than a playful, spontaneous act and that is all my family saw. There is a lot going on in your life and in your mind. No one is going to hold anything against you.”
She nodded. “Thank you. I’ll tell them that.”
“Dinner is ready,” his mother said, leaning her head in. “Come get it before Clay eats your share.”
“There is no need to explain,” he said. “They know. I mean it. Let it go. Ready to go back in?”
“Yes. I’ve got money and can pay for Gale. I mean it. I’m not looking for handouts.”
“It will be one of those things we’ll discuss later,” he said.
Her lips pressed into a thin line, her nose wrinkling in silent protest. He had the last word, but she wasn’t about to rock the boat. Not when her life was in his hands and she was fresh out of life vests.
“Reenie,” Brooke said when they returned to the kitchen. “You look as if you’re biting a hole in your tongue to keep from giving my son a verbal thrashing.”
She forced her jaw to relax.
“Which son?” Gale asked. “Any time spent with Clay will bring that out of someone too.”
“Brat,” Clay said, picking up the platter of sliced roast beef and dropping several on his plate, then passing it around.
“Clay is more bark than bite,” Callum said.
Her eyes lifted to Clay after he snorted, but he was plopping mashed potatoes onto his plate next and handing it to Gale.
Ford gave her the beef and she added a slice to her plate.
Soon everyone was eating. The silence felt tense in a kitchen that was always so noisy.
She hated she caused it and reached into her pocket and pulled out a twenty. “Gale. This is to start. To make it legally binding or whatever words you need.”
She reached her hand forward to hand it to Gale. Before Ford could pull it out of her hand, Clay snatched it and shot his brother a smirk, then gave it to their sister.
“We’ll talk after dinner,” Gale said. “I have orders to not say anything just yet.”
Ford had told her they wouldn’t discuss it and she’d honor that.
“You seemed comfortable in the bakery,” Brooke said. “Would you like to work in there with me? I could always use a hand baking and filling orders. I’m getting orders from businesses now and delivery might be a nice option if I could spare someone.”
“I’d love to,” she said. “But anywhere you want me to work, you just tell me.”
“First off,” Ford said. “Where is your car? I didn’t see it when I pulled in.”
“Is that why you were pounding on the door so hard? I thought you were going to break it down when you yelled my name.”
All eyes shifted to Ford again, but she’d pretend she didn’t notice it.
“I told her to park behind the house,” Clay said. “Under the patio for now. She can come in the back door from there and stay out of the rain if she’s got anything. It keeps her car hidden too.”
“I didn’t think of that,” he said.
“Because you haven’t stayed there in a long time,” Clay said. “Nor do you think like me.”
Brooke cleared her throat. “Back to the bakery. I start work at four in the morning. The bakery opens at seven, but we don’t get a lot of traffic.
Just some people who might order the night before and pick up before work or stopping on their way to work.
Not like those that are sitting inside for coffee and waiting to be served. ”
“I can do that,” Reenie said. “I like to cook and bake and am willing to learn. Or wait on people or deliver. Take orders. You tell me and I’ll do it.”
She’d learned to cook and bake years ago when she was on her own. Not just to save money but because of this woman in front of her.
As a child she didn’t know what love languages were. Would have laughed if anyone even brought it up to her.
But slowly she realized that acts of service were what Brooke did without even thinking. Ford’s mother cared for those she loved. She provided for them and was appreciated and loved in return.
In her heart, Reenie thought if she could learn to do those things, maybe a man would love her back.
She came to enjoy the cooking and baking, but had never found someone who treated her the way Brooke did.
She’d never told a soul, but during that wonderful year she’d spent here in her youth, Brooke had inspired her more than anyone.
It seemed fitting to her to be learning more from this woman now.
“We are only open until three,” Brooke said. “A breakfast and lunch crowd. And this time of year, lunch is served Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. I’ve got someone who works the tables for that. Once Memorial Day hits, we’ll be serving lunch seven days a week.”
“Do you get a day off?” she asked.
This time Callum snorted. “Nope. She doesn’t. Maybe now she can.”
“Yeah, Mom,” Gale said. “Teach Reenie to bake too.”
“We’ll see,” Brooke said. “I’ve got help. I have another baker who comes in a few days a week when we are busier or fills in for me when I need some time off. There is no reason for you to work seven days a week.”
“I can,” she said. “I want to. I’m not doing anything else.”
“You two can work that out,” Callum said. “I understand it’s hard to sit around waiting for things to happen that might not for some time. Idle hands can lead to idle minds.”
Reenie nodded and continued to eat.
She needed to stay busy.
“You will not work over forty hours a week,” Brooke said.
“Ford said we can’t pay you on the books right now and I’m not taking advantage of things.
I’ll pay you the same hourly rate as I do my other staff and we’ll come up with a fair amount for rent and that is what you’ll work off.
The tips are yours and not added to anything else.
Anyone that gives it in the form of a credit card, I’ll cash it out for you. ”
“Thank you,” she said, looking around the table. “Thank you all.”
Her eyes were itching, her throat closing around the support she was getting from people who were ultimately strangers to her.
Coworkers she’d known for months or years couldn’t get involved in her life. But the Ridgeways weren’t just getting involved, they were getting immersed.
Thirty minutes later, she was helping Brooke clean up dinner. The rest of the family conversation centered on business and talks with Clay and his parents.
She listened and took mental notes but nothing else.
There were talks about the old barn holding events and fliers to be created. She could help there too, but she’d keep quiet on that for now. It sounded as if they had it all covered.
“Why don’t you and Gale go to Callum’s office to talk,” Brooke said. “Ford, you can stay in here and talk to Clay about his security system.”
“Come on,” Gale said. “I won’t bite.”
Ford’s sister grabbed her laptop off the counter and Reenie followed Gale down the hall and into an office covered with brown paneling.
The house was charming, rustic, and homey at the same time.
“Where do you want me to start? I don’t know how much you know about what is going on.”
“I want you to tell me everything. I’m sure we are going to have to meet more than once, but tell me what happened the night you left. I’m going to be recording this.”
“Is that safe?” she asked.
Gale reached her hand over and laid it on top of hers. “It is. I’ll transcribe it after. For now, I want in your words what happened that night. Everything you remember.”
“I told Ford, but if I think of something else, he might think I didn’t give him everything.”
“Don’t worry about that. If you want him to hear this, you can allow it. I’ll start another recording for other facts that can stay between us.”
There were things she didn’t feel comfortable talking to Ford about.
“I came home from work,” she said. “It was April first, after five thirty by then. Oliver was home with his cousin Randy.”
“What are their last names?” Gale asked. Reenie hesitated. “You need to give them. Ford won’t do anything with them. He’ll protect you.”
“Oliver and Randy Frontage. They are first cousins. The kitchen was a mess. It always is when I come home and nothing stood out there more than Oliver might have been hungry and slamming around looking for something. I realized afterward that whoever had broken into the house was looking in the kitchen as well.”
She told the story to Gale the same as she had Ford as if she was walking through it in a slow motion memory.
From slipping the sleeping pills into his dinner to breaking her plate on the kitchen floor.
The cuts on her arms and the blood on the floor and walls that she’d cleaned up. Leaving her bloody clothes in the closet.
“Were you trying to frame him for a murder?” Gale asked.
“No. I wasn’t. I’m alive. Not dead. People knew and talked around the area.
They knew he abused me. He’d think I ran away and he would come find me.
He wouldn’t report me missing because of the break-in.
I don’t know what he was hiding or why he wasn’t telling the police, but he’d need time to clean up.
If he hadn’t reported me by now, my helpers would make an anonymous call reporting my absence. ”
“You said he knows some law enforcement?”
“He’s got friends on the force, but something like this couldn’t be overlooked,” she said. “This was just to buy time. Nothing more. I swear.”
“I believe you. You didn’t intend to kill Oliver Frontage when you gave him the sleeping pills mixed with the alcohol he’d drunk?”
Her dinner was going to spew everywhere. She was positive all the color drained from her face. She dropped her head to her knees and took several deep breaths.
Gale came over to rub her back, but didn’t say a word.
She finally lifted her head. “No. I wasn’t thinking of that until after he ate it.
I know he was alive, I checked. It was my breaking point.
I just knew he was going to beat me again that night when I saw the house like that and with Randy there riling him up.
I told myself it was this or more pain. He didn’t die, did he? I’ve been trying to monitor things.”
“Ford can look into it, but I’m sure he’s fine. If he’s not, we’ll have to deal with that.”
“He was alive last I checked yesterday. I mean I’d hear something if he wasn’t, right?”
“I don’t know,” Gale said. “Continue on at your pace. There is no judgment here. I’m only trying to help. We all are. Remember that. You’re safe.”
Safe. Not a word she’d thought of much in her life.
Nothing she ever felt either.
As terrified as she was, she was still hopeful.