The call disconnected.
“I’m dead,” Bonnie said, throwing her hands in the air. “I thought it was bad when I couldn’t buy milk. I’ll probably get stoned in the middle of the street now.”
“She’s not going to have you killed. Come on. She only knows I’m working with your dad. Not you.”
Bonnie walked away, just like everyone in Aaron’s life seemed to do when they disagreed with him. “I was trying to prove that I’m not afraid of Lauren and that she shouldn’t be, either,” he tried to explain to David.
“You’re not afraid because you and your sister have an equal share of influence in this town. Bonnie, on the other hand, feels like she has none.”
“Well, if Lauren tells everyone in this town to shun Bonnie and I ask everyone to be nice to her, maybe she’ll have at least half the town on her side.”
“Heck, why do you think I agreed to work with you in the first place, boy? I’m banking on the fact that you’ll change a bunch of minds and my daughter can keep doing what she’s doing in the town she loves.” David took his pencil from behind his ear and flipped open his notebook. “I’m going to go check the fuse box. See what kind of electrical mess we might be dealing with before we go.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t honest about why I came to you for help.”
David seemed unfazed. “I figured that had something to do with it. Your father wants you by his side. He doesn’t give up what’s his real easily.”
Aaron heard newspaper crinkle behind him and spun around, looking for a mouse. He didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there, lurking, waiting for him to turn his back so it could attack. Aaron raced for the front door. After he talked to Bonnie, he was going to call someone to get rid of all the mice in this house.
Bonnie was leaning against his car, her phone in her hand. Everything he had done so far made her feel worse. That was not his intention. It was time to find out what she thought was the best plan of action.
“I give up,” he said. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
“I don’t need you to do anything.”
“Wrong. You need someone to hire you to help them buy a house or to sell their house. Your dad needs a job. You need these things, and I can give them to you. I want to give them to you, because I think it’s terrible that my family had everything to do with why you need them.”
Bonnie looked up from her phone. “Lie. You need us as much as we need you, apparently.”
“You have a right to be mad about that. I should have been honest with you.”
“It’s also not your responsibility to make up for their wrongdoing. Like my dad said in there, this isn’t your fault. You aren’t to blame. Why should you have to make things better?”
“I don’t have to. I want to. And some of that...correction, most of that is me being selfish.” He came up beside her and leaned against the car like her. “I need help, as you can see, and your dad is the best. Ten years ago, when I worked on Cole Industries’ construction sites in the summer, I learned your dad is amazing at what he does. He knows better than anyone how to manage a project. He also isn’t afraid to do the work. Even when he was the boss, he would be in there, working side by side with whoever needed help at the moment. If my dad is dumb enough to let someone like your dad go, I am going to be smart enough to snap him up.”
“So you aren’t really doing this to make amends to me, you’re doing this because you have a man crush on my dad?”
Aaron laughed. She was funny on top of everything else. David wasn’t the only Windsor Aaron could quite possibly have a crush on. “I guess you could say that. I’m also trying to put my fancy business school knowledge to good use. That’s why I hired you.”
“Your fancy business school taught you it made good business sense to hire the town pariah?”
“It makes sense to hire someone who can give you their full, undivided attention. It also makes sense to hire someone who is personally invested in your business’s success.”
Bonnie’s head tipped back and her lips parted slightly as she realized what he was saying. “And because my dad’s livelihood is dependent on your success, I am motivated to do my best for you as well.”
“Exactly. I want to help you because, in the end, it helps me. I need you to let me help you. Tell me what I can do to put you more at ease, because I need you to do your best work and I don’t think you can do that when you feel like your head is constantly on the chopping block.”
Bonnie kicked a rock off the driveway. It skittered to a stop in the overgrown grass. “I think when it comes to Lauren, I need you to stop defending me. The more you try to convince her that I’m not to blame, the more she’s going to blame me. It would be better for me if you never mention my name to her again.”
If anyone knew Lauren better than he did, it was Bonnie. If she thought less was more, she was probably right. “I can do that.”
“I’m sorry that your dad tried to blacklist you, too. I know that has to hurt.”
Before he could share with her just how much, David came running out of the house with his arms flailing.
“Wasps!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
BONNIE WOULD BE sure to note that Blue Springs Hospital was thankfully only five miles away from the house on Greenbriar if she listed it for Aaron after the renovation. It also only
