One Less Problem Without You (14 page)

“What about the apartment upstairs?”

“Absolutely tiny. And very apartment-y. You know, kitchenette, full bath, all of it a mess. If I used that space, if would totally feel like I was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.” She paused. That was stupid. “That's the wrong metaphor, but you know what I mean. It would seem very homemade, not professional. I'm already up against it—as you know—so the last thing I need to do is invite criticism for the business.”

He considered this. “You'll have to find out the rent on the space next door.”

“It's half of what I'm paying for the main space now.”

He considered, jotted something down on the pad in front of him, then frowned.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Yes.” Very Captain Von Trapp, that voice. She'd had to admit to herself that she found it sexy. “Seems like a decent idea to me, not that you care what
I
think.” He chuckled.

She forced a smile, hoping he didn't know how feverently she
did
care what he said.

“But I need documentation to present when this inevitably comes under scrutiny,” he went on. “A paper trail so no one can call BS on this.”

Her eyes drifted to his wedding ring.

He is dreading the coming end of his workday. He does not want to go home
.

The unbidden intuition gave her a shameful rush of hope.

“Prinny?”

“I'm sorry, yes, documentation.”

The picture caught her attention again, but when she glanced at it, Alex's wife was in a different position, one arm wrapped around a different man, a blond Bradley Cooper type, her hand on his crotch. Prinny stared for a moment, but there was no mistaking it. The picture had completely changed, like something from
Alice in Wonderland
.

She blinked hard and looked again. The other man was gone, and Alex and his wife were standing just as they always had in the photo, tanned and smiling.

But the word “cheater” was now echoing in her mind.

This was too bizarre.

“So,” she said, putting a hand to her chest, then taking it down just as quickly. “That's it? I just jot some numbers in a proposal? The same old same old?”

“There is never anything
same old
about you.” He actually flushed slightly and looked down for a moment. “Not in this biz, anyway.”

“I know. It's like I'm spoon-feeding Leif hope.”

Alex laughed heartily. “You know he's watching for you to make any misstep so he can take this back to court again.”

“I know.” Brotherly love. What a great thing. “But he can't just arbitrarily get into my books. He has to have a court order for that, doesn't he?”

“Yes, but he's argued over less than this before.”

She looked at the picture. Same as usual. Whatever had happened wasn't happening again. “Okay, granted, he has. To hell with him. So how soon can I get my hands on the money?”

“Inside twenty-four hours.”

“Oh. That's not too bad.”

He looked at her kindly. “It is
your
money, Prinny.”

“Why do I have so much trouble remembering that?” She raised an eyebrow.

He laughed. “It's part of your charm. Now get to work.”

She mock saluted him. “You know me. Always ready to do a thorough proposal for documentation to keep my Scrooge of a brother off my tail.” She shook her head. “I wish he'd just stay out of my life.”

Alex nodded but didn't comment.

He couldn't, of course. He had to remain professional, and Prinny contending that she'd be better off if Leif would disappear wasn't the sort of thing he could endorse.

“Thanks for your time,” she said to him as she gathered her things. “I'll get the paperwork to you in a few hours.”

“I'll look forward to it.” He chuckled and held out his hand.

She took it, embarrassed at the heat she felt rise in her cheeks. She could only hope he didn't notice—but how could he miss it?

Prinny thought of the feeling she'd gotten when he looked at his ring. Why didn't Alex want to go home? Would she find out?

Her hand still felt warm and tingly as she walked out of the building into the evening air. In fact, she could have sworn it was actually
buzzing
until she realized her phone was on vibrate and was in her purse, ringing.

She stopped and took it out.

It was her sister-in-law. That was weird. She
never
heard from Diana. In fact, she rarely ever even
thought
of her unless they ended up at the same event—usually a funeral or something equally gloomy, where Diana was accompanying Leif, and Prinny had to mingle with them.

Prinny answered.

“Prinny, it's Diana.”

The voice barely sounded familiar. Of course, each of them knew who was on the other end of the line in this day and age. If she'd been talking to a friend, or if she hadn't heard the distinct tremor of nerves in her sister-in-law's tone, she might have laughed and pointed that out.

“How are you?” It was all Prinny could think of to say.

“I'm good. I'm all right.”

Prinny nodded, pointlessly since it was a phone call, but what else to say? They didn't have an easy rapport, so Prinny couldn't simply say,
All right, cut the chitchat, what's going on with you?

So instead, she just waited another few seconds to see if Diana would get around to it herself.

“I had to call you because you're the only one who could possibly understand,” Diana said finally.

“Understand what?”

“It's about Leif.”

Prinny froze. “Is he … is he all right?”

Diana's hesitation gave Prinny just long enough to become aware of a surprisingly strong reaction to the possibility of something being wrong with her brother, but not long enough to sort out what that reaction was.

“Yes, I'm sorry, he's fine. Leif is fine.” She let out a swear word under her breath. “I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have called.”

“Diana, what is it?”

“Well, it's just…” Suddenly Diana sounded like a whining teenager, venting about a boy. She seemed to notice this, as her words faded away from her.

Prinny knew her well enough to encourage her not to be too afraid to say whatever was on her mind. To say whatever it was that had made her reach out to a sister-in-law she rarely spoke to.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me. Are
you
okay?”

“Everyone thinks Leif is so great, so charming, so generous, so smart, so
perfect
—”

“Right.” Prinny pushed the phone harder against her ear, as if leaning closer to listen. Was she about to hear that Diana, the Good Wife, had doubts? Doubts that he had surely earned?

“And he's not entirely … I love him, you know I do. I wouldn't have married him.”

Prinny didn't want her to backpedal. Didn't want her to weaken whatever unexpected resolve she had gained.

“I've
never
understood why everyone thinks he's all of those things you listed. The perfection, kindness, et cetera.”

“Because you know he's
not
any of those things.” Diana took an audible deep breath. “You know he's a stingy little man who would do anything to further his own goals.”

Prinny stopped on the sidewalk. Was this
really
Diana? Or was this some sort of setup? Was Leif trying to get Prinny to say something on tape that could somehow incriminate her? Not that agreeing he was a jackass was actionable, but still … this wasn't the meek Diana she remembered.

“Diana, I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Is there something going on?”

“I need to get away from him. I need a safe place to get away from him so he can't find me. I don't mean forever, but just until I can come up with a solid plan. He would never suspect you of helping me, so he wouldn't even look in your direction. Please. I'm desperate.” Her voice broke, and she cried quietly.

“I'm sorry, I don't mean to be dense but—well, look, if you need somewhere to go, that's fine, it's not that. But he didn't … did he
hurt
you? Are you afraid he's going to hurt you?”

“No!” Diana said, then gave a sharp bark of laughter. “Not physically. To the contrary. I'm afraid if I don't get away now, I'm going to kill him.”

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Diana

“So
this
is your shop,” I said to Prinny, marveling at the bursts of color everywhere. Packs of elaborately painted tarot cards, sharply etched runes, books of every size and color, and what seemed like a million gem-colored stones lined the walls, sat on shelves, and glistened in buckets.

“This is it.” Prinny spread her arms, then let them drop to her sides. “Has Leif complained about it a lot?”

“Leif complains about everything a lot,” I answered, knowing she was probably expecting a smile or indication that I was kidding, but I wasn't. Not at all.

“He was a pretty dour teenager, as I recall,” Prinny agreed. “I was terrified of him.”

I looked at her sharply, my body registering alarm at a myriad of things this could potentially mean. “Yeah? Why? Did he hurt you or something?”

She looked surprised. “No! That is…” Her face went soft with thought for a moment. “Not really. No more than anyone else going through sibling rivalry.”

I wanted to say that there shouldn't have been sibling rivalry between two siblings that were ten years apart, particularly not when the older one was a boy. Well, a boy who, in this case—I happened to know—was mean. And vindictive.

Especially when it came to his sister.

But what good would it have been for me to point that out to her? Surely it was nothing she didn't already know and she wanted to be reminded of.

“He and I had some of that, too,” I murmured.

The bell rang over the door, and I hoped Prinny didn't notice me startle at the noise.

I looked, fully expecting it to be Leif, but of course it wasn't. That would have been more surprising than it not being him.

It was, instead, a small woman, wrapped in a shawl that looked too warm for the balmy evening, with a kerchief that covered her head like a babushka.

“Excuse me a moment.” Prinny held up a finger and went to the woman. “Can I help you?”

The woman looked down. “I'm looking for a new tarot deck,” she said in a hushed voice. “It's Tarot in the Shape of a Heart, created by Jami Myles. Do you have it?”

Prinny smiled, and I could swear she was trying not to laugh. “As it happens, we are the only distributor of Jami Myles's products, so you have
definitely
come to the right place!”

“Imagine that.”

“You must be psychic.” Prinny was able to say those words, so often uttered in sarcasm, with an absolutely straight face.

Even more surprising, the woman nodded. “I believe I am, but I could never let on to anyone who knows me.”

“You should come in for a reading, and we can do some psychic testing.”

“Oh, I couldn't do that.” The woman kept her eyes averted. What the heck was her deal? Did she have dangerous laser eyes that she had to prevent from hitting any soft tissue or paper that they might burn? She was acting so strange.

I watched as Prinny led her through the card section, handing her a deck or two before leading her to the books. All the while, she was talking in this soothing voice that even made
me
want to ask her what my future was. Except for the fact that I was terrified to hear an accurate truth, I might have done it.

They went through the store, and the woman collected so many things that Prinny went to get her a basket.

I have to say, everything she got seemed like great fun. Of course, this from the person who had Gipsy Witch Fortune Telling Cards and a Ouija board. To say nothing of the Magic 8 Ball, which I poo-poohed as an absurd gimmick even though I wouldn't have called a boy I had a crush on without consulting that gimmick first.

Prinny completed the sale, all cash like a drug deal, watched the woman leave with a small wave, then looked at me and laughed. “Like we don't know exactly who she is!”

I went blank. “Do we?”

“Don't you?”

“Do you?”

Prinny laughed, a pretty musical laugh. “Does the name Barbara Lingburgh ring a bell?”

I quickly scanned my brain for where I'd heard the name before. “The senator?” I realized at last, though I couldn't tell you what state she was from.

“The very same.”

“
She
comes in here?” I realized how bad that sounded and quickly tried to correct myself. “Not that there's
anything
wrong with coming in here at all—it's just that everyone knows Nancy Reagan was mocked horribly over her astrologers, so it seems pretty chancy coming in here.” I stopped and felt a little breathless, like I'd tried too hard and accomplished too little, but fortunately Prinny didn't seem to register either of those sentiments.

“Right?”
she asked with a smile. “The press would not be kind to her, or to us. On the other hand, as long as they spelled the name right … you know the saying.”

“I do.”

“She's nice, though. I really like her, even though she comes in here like once a month and seems to genuinely think we have no idea.”

“Do you get other customers like that?”

“Oh, yeah.” Prinny gestured toward the chairs in the book area, and I followed her in there and sat with her. “You'd be amazed how many embarrassed people come in here.”

“Embarrassed?”

“Big-time. This is shameful for a lot of people. Religion plays a part for some, but mostly I think people are afraid of being mocked. It's like saying you're married to an alien or something.”