Fugitive Filling (7 page)

“That’s not what I’m claiming; it happens to be the truth. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to lock up for the day.”

I glanced at the hours displayed in the front window and saw that she had another ten minutes left on her shift. “Is your boss in back going to get upset if you close up before it’s time? Don’t pretend that you’re here alone. You made it a point earlier to tell us loudly that all of the flowers you have are fresh, though you recommended something that just arrived after that in a softer voice.”

“It’s not my boss; it’s her daughter, and believe me, she’ll jump at the chance to take off early. Do you honestly think she’s going to tell her mother that I let her go before we were scheduled to close for the day? If you do, then you don’t know Cindy at all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to lock up and balance the cash register receipts.”

There was no way I could think of to stall her, so I did the only thing I could think of doing. “Thanks for the flowers,” I said lamely as I grabbed the arrangement, and then Jake and I made our way out the front door.

“Always happy to help,” Becky said, and then the locks clicked into place as she bolted the door behind us.

“Okay, before you say anything, I know I pressed her a little too hard back there. I’m sorry,” Jake said. “You just seemed to be taking forever to get to the point.”

I shoved the flowers into his hands so I could drive. “That’s usually what you have to do to get someone to cooperate with you that doesn’t have to. You have to sneak around from the side instead of hitting them dead on in the face. It takes quite a bit of subtlety, Jake.”

“Hey, I can be subtle if I have to be,” my husband protested.

“Really? During an investigation?”

“I’m not saying that I’ve ever done it; I’m just saying that I could if I had to.”

“Then start practicing, because you’re going to need a whole new set of skills if you’re going to make it on this side of the law.”

“You make us sound like a pair of desperate bandits,” he said with a frown.

“We’re not criminals, but we’re not in law enforcement, either. We’re simply interested law-abiding citizens.”

“Who happen to be nosey and intrusive,” Jake added.

“Now you’ve got it.”

“I really am sorry, Suzanne. I’ll do better from now on.”

“Don’t worry about it. Becky clearly wasn’t in the mood to say anything, anyway. We’ll figure out another angle and work her from that.”

“And in the meantime?” Jake asked me.

I glanced at my watch before I answered. “We’re due at Momma’s pretty soon. Maybe we should leave our investigation until later.”

“That’s fine with me. What do you suppose this is all about?”

“I wish I knew,” I said. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

Momma greeted us alone at the front door of her home. “Flowers! How lovely. Thank you both.” After she hugged us both, she said, “You’re early.”

“What can I say? I couldn’t wait,” I said. I looked around and couldn’t see her husband anywhere. “Where’s Phillip?”

“Unless I miss my guess, he should be arriving at the Outer Banks soon,” my mother said as she glanced at the clock on the wall.

“Did he go without you? What’s going on? Are you two having trouble, Momma?”

“No, we’re perfectly fine,” she said. “The truth of the matter is that I urged him to go. I have some business I need to take care of here in town, and he’s only going to be gone for a few days. After that, I’m joining him.”

“That sounds nice. You work way too hard, so you deserve a vacation,” I told her as Jake and I took off our coats.

“It’s not just a vacation, Suzanne,” Momma said. “Phillip and I are leaving April Springs as soon as we find a place on the coast.”

Chapter 7

“W
hat! What do you mean,
you’re leaving?” My mother had lived in April Springs her entire life, and I couldn’t imagine her being anywhere else. If she and Phillip moved to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, she might as well move all the way across the country. Though the chain of islands was still in the state that we lived in, it was a good eight – to nine-hour drive, and I knew that I’d rarely see her if she made the move.

“Take a breath, child. Your face is turning red,” Momma said.

“We’re both having a little trouble understanding it, I guess. Why the move, Dot?” Jake asked her. His brow was furrowed as well, and I knew that he was extremely sympathetic to my distress. And why shouldn’t he be? He’d have to listen to untold hours of complaining from me if this actually happened.

“It’s simple, really. We need a fresh start,” my mother told him, and then she turned to look at me. I was causing her distress with my reaction, something I hated, but I couldn’t help it. I was in real pain just thinking about it.

“Are you the one who needs to move, or is it your husband?” I asked her point blank.

“We both do,” Momma said firmly. There was a hint of warning in her voice as she said it, and I knew better than to criticize her husband.

“Who brought it up first, though?” I asked, pushing her on it nonetheless. If this was going to happen, I needed to understand why.

Momma sighed deeply before she explained, “Since Phillip retired, he’s been restless. I thought he’d found a suitable hobby digging into the past around here, but it doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. Don’t you worry, Suzanne. This will be good for us.”

“Maybe for the two of you, but I’m telling you right now, if you go through with this, you’re going to make me miserable,” I said sullenly. I knew that I wasn’t handling the news like a mature woman should, but this was my mother. I depended on her presence in my life every day. Thinking of being in April Springs without her was something I couldn’t bear. All along I’d been under the impression that she’d needed to be close to me, but now that I was faced with the prospect of her absence, it seemed that I was the one who wasn’t able to handle it.

“Stop treating this as though it’s one of life’s great tragedies! You can visit us whenever you’d like,” Momma said, doing her best to reassure me.

“Really? Do you honestly believe that? Even if I take off the two days I get every week and come see you, it’s going to seem like two days spent driving in the car. I can just see it now. I spend the first day driving, I get to see you for a few hours, go to sleep, and then drive back here.”

“I’m sorry if it’s going to be inconvenient for you, but it needs to be done,” Momma said. It appeared that she was fighting to keep her own emotions in check. That was more than I was managing.

“Aren’t you even going to miss me?” I asked, the tears coming unbidden.

“Of course I’m going to miss you,” she said, her tears coming as she wrapped her arms around me. I wasn’t sure how Jake was reacting to all of this at the moment, nor did I care. He was giving us space to work this out, which was the smartest thing he could do.

“Then don’t go,” I pled with her. Though my mother was quite a bit shorter than I was, I still felt like a little kid when she had her arms around me.

“We all must do things for our marriage that we might not do otherwise,” Momma said as she started to pull away and dabbed at her tears. “Now, let’s eat. I made us all a lovely pot roast for dinner.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”

“Suzanne, it would be rude to just leave,” Jake said.

“It’s fine. Let her go,” Momma said. Before I could bolt out of there, she took my hands in hers. “Take tonight and sleep on it. We’ll discuss this again tomorrow. You’ll see things differently in the morning, I’m sure of it.”

“I highly doubt it,” I said as I pulled away. I hurried outside, with Jake close on my heels.

“Would you like me to drive us home?” Jake offered.

“I can do it,” I said. I shook my head and resolved to stop crying, at least until we got back to the cottage.

Jake was silent on the short drive home, and it was so quiet in the Jeep that I heard his stomach rumbling. “I didn’t mean to cheat you out of my mother’s pot roast.”

“I’d rather eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with you than dine on the finest meal someplace else alone,” he said.

“I appreciate that, and I promise you, giving up Momma’s pot roast is the biggest sacrifice I’m ever going to ask you to make.”

He was silent for a few more moments before he spoke again. “Suzanne, your mother has to do what’s right for her, no matter how hard it is for us to accept. You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course I know it,” I admitted. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do not having her five minutes away from me.”

“We could always move there, too,” he suggested timidly.

“Jake, I can’t take my donut shop with me,” I said, “and I’m way too young to retire. So are you, for that matter. You’re just on a break, but I know you. You won’t be idle for very long. Besides, our lives together are here. This is where most of our friends live.”

“I know you have deep roots in the community, and it won’t be easy leaving for you, but all I care about is being with you,” he said. “Sell the donut shop to Sharon and Emma. We can start another business at the beach if that’s what it takes. I don’t want to see you miserable, and if you can’t see your life without your mother in it, we need to make a change, too.”

“You’d really do that for me?” I asked him. I realized for the millionth time that I’d won the lottery when it came to husbands. Though my first choice had turned out to be a dud, the second one had exceeded all expectations.

“I’d walk through fire for you,” he said solemnly. “Besides, a move east would get me closer to my sister and her kids in Raleigh. I’d never demand you move for that, but it would be a nice bonus. I’ll stay here, or I’ll move tomorrow. You just need to decide what you want.”

“I don’t know what to do,” I answered. I’d never even considered the possibility that my mother might not be close by for the rest of my life. Losing my father had been painful enough. In a way, this felt as though I was losing my mother as well. I knew that I’d been spoiled having her nearby for my entire life, but that didn’t make me want to be near her any less.

“Why don’t you take your mother’s advice and sleep on it. She might be right; things might look clearer in the morning.”

“I can do that,” I said, “but in the meantime, what are we going to feed you tonight? I can’t stand the thought of going out to eat and being around other people.”

“Why don’t I make us something at home?” he suggested.

My husband’s specialty was chili, something that a great many men made, oddly enough, but I didn’t think my digestive tract could take it tonight. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m happy to make us something. How about eggs?”

“Could you make me a frittata?” he asked me.

“The fancy kind, or something I just throw together at the last second?” I asked him with a grin. I didn’t know how he was doing it, but Jake was getting me outside my own thoughts and the gloom I’d embraced, something I never would have believed possible just a few minutes earlier.

“Your choice. We don’t have to even stop at the store, because I know for a fact that there’s green pepper in the fridge, two or three kinds of cheese, and maybe a little prosciutto left over from my last sandwich.”

“I can make that work,” I said. “Are you sure you don’t mind eating something so simple?”

“It’s not simple to me,” he said with a grin. “Plus, there’s an added bonus. This way, I get you all to myself, so it’s a win-win in my book.”

After we ate a delicious meal, there was enough chill in the air that I suggested Jake make a fire while I did a quick cleanup. By the time I came out of the kitchen, he had a nice blaze going.

As my husband patted the couch seat beside him, he said, “Come join me.”

“I’d love to,” I said.

“We can talk more about it, if you’d like to,” he offered.

“Thanks, but there’s nothing more to say at the moment. I know I’m being a selfish and spoiled brat, and I hate it, but I already miss my mother, and she hasn’t even moved away yet.”

“Maybe nothing will come of it,” Jake suggested.

“You don’t know my mother. Once Momma makes up her mind about something, it’s set in stone.”

“Okay, then we’ll just figure out a way to make the best of it,” Jake answered.

“Even if it’s selling the donut shop, putting our lovely home on the market, and following her?” I asked him.

“All that is comprised of material things, including Donut Hearts,” Jake said. “If I’ve got you with me, we could be stranded on a desert island and I’d be a happy camper.”

“With nothing to eat?” I asked him, forcing a smile.

“Oh, there’s plenty to eat on my pretend island.”

“And hot running water? You know how I love my shower.”

“Of course. We’ll have hot water, and a nice restaurant nearby, too.”

“I thought this was supposed to be a desert island?” I asked him with a grin.

“It is. Things just magically appear when we want them, but we aren’t around other people unless we want to be.”

“This is starting to sound more and more like a magical island,” I said as I nestled my head onto his shoulder.

“That’s exactly what it is. It’s whatever we want it to be,” he said.

We sat in silence for a while, and before I realized what was happening, I somehow fell asleep.

When I woke up nine hours later, I’d been miraculously transported to our bed. Had Jake picked me up and carried me, or had I awoken and walked into our bedroom half asleep? I was about to ask him which had happened when I noticed that he was gone.

“Jake?” I called out, but there was no response.

I got out of bed, still in my T-shirt and jeans, and padded through the place looking for him.

“There you are,” I said when I found him sitting at the kitchen table. He was eating the leftovers from our dinner the night before, and he looked a little guilty as I came in.

“Want some?” Jake asked as he offered the plate to me.

“No, thanks. I’m good,” I said as I grabbed a bowl of cereal and joined him.

“How’d you sleep last night?”

“Evidently deeper than I thought. How did I get to bed? Did you carry me there?”

“Not unless I did it in my sleep,” Jake said with a grin. “I woke up in the middle of the night and you were gone. I kind of panicked until I found you already in bed. You still had your jeans and T-shirt on, but I didn’t want to wake you. After all, you nap in them all of the time, so what could it hurt sleeping in them once?”

“I don’t nap all that much,” I protested, though I knew that he was right.

“Hey, if I worked your hours, a nap every day would be a requirement. You’re off for the next few days, aren’t you?”

“It’s sweet that you remember my schedule,” I said as I took a bite of cereal.

“Are you kidding? I live for your days off. What can I say? I pay attention. That, plus the fact that you write every day off you get in big red letters on our calendar.”

“I’d hate to forget and just show up at work one day unexpected,” I said. “What’s on tap today?”

“I have a few ideas,” Jake said. “First of all, I have a question for you, though.”

I had a feeling where he was going with that, and I wasn’t ready to discuss it. “You can ask me about anything but my mother.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” he said. “My question is, who cleans Teresa’s office? I’m assuming she didn’t do it herself.”

“She has one of my donut customers do it,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m wondering when it was cleaned the last time,” Jake said. “I’d love to know how long that label was on the floor, and the red clay dust we found there, too.”

“I don’t know, but I can call her,” I said as I reached for my phone.

“You actually have a customer’s number stored in your phone’s memory?”

“Every last one of them,” I said as seriously as I could manage, and then I laughed. “I’m just kidding. Miranda’s husband left her for his secretary a few years ago, and she’s got three kids in elementary school. She takes whatever odd jobs she can get around town so she can be there for them when they get out of school. I like to recommend her whenever I can, and when Teresa asked me for some names, I gave her Miranda’s.”