“The best part of the week was when one of my loyal customers offered to represent me pro bono on the incomplete contract my friend Sam left behind.”
I had to mentally scream at myself to not stomp on the brake. Pro bono? She’d conned one of her customers enough to represent her for free?
What had she done for him to manage that?
I almost snarled.
“Sam, are you sure you’re okay?”
I forced a smile. “Sorry, my attitude’s stuck at work, but not my attention. Keep going.”
The little crinkle in her forehead was too cute for words. I redoubled my efforts to remain emotionally distant. She’d bamboozled my dad and her customers, and I hadn’t figured out what she wanted out of him.
“I had to put up a notice that my store’s closing in five weeks, barely over a month. They were upset, understandably so. I mean, we’re like a small family. Chris offered to contact an old friend on the city commission.”
A proprietary swell rose. “Who’s Chris?”
“My full-time employee. My only employee, really. He left his career for something more mellow. Best thing that ever happened to my store. Anyway, Ephraim overheard—he’s a customer—and they started talking. I turned him down at first. I don’t think there’s a chance, but…” She shrugged and flashed me a mischievous smile. “There’s nothing wrong with being a pain in Wesley Robson’s ass.”
I ground my molars together. PITA, all right. My lawyers would fall over laughing at the thought of pro bono work.
“That’s a stroke of luck,” I said instead.
Her smile faded. “I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by decent people these last few years.”
And before that? She could be attempting to tug at my heartstrings, to build my curiosity in her. Working on the fragile-woman-needing-protection angle.
To be honest, I had a hard time seeing a fragile woman who needed to be cared for. Mara was ambitious and independent.
She didn’t elaborate on her past. This would’ve been the perfect time to dive into a sob story, but she remained mum.
I could still get my own information out of her. “What’s their plan?”
She waved her hand. “I don’t know all the legal wording. Mostly Sam’s intention to sell the place to me was a transaction involving Robson Industries. It wasn’t finalized, but there may be some loopholes because it was the company or at least a way to delay the stupidity. I don’t know. I keep thinking I could talk some sense into Sam’s son and this might give me time, or bring him out of the mysterious meetings he’s always in when I call.”
That it might do. “A dollar. How do the other tenants in the mall feel?”
The movie theater was a block away and I was finally getting some answers.
“I don’t know that they’d care as long as it was run the same. I wasn’t planning on kicking them out so I could sell it. I just wanted to keep Arcadia open.”
I parked but made no move to get out. “An old man sells a young woman prime realty for a dollar and you don’t think they’d mind?”
It’d taken a lot of effort to keep the scorn out of my voice.
She frowned at me. “It’s not like Sam and I were anything more than friends, so I don’t really care what they’d think.”
Nothing more than friends. A helluva favor my dad had been doing a friend.
A delicate eyebrow cocked. “Are we going inside?”
I softened my features, but they didn’t match my roiling emotions. “It’s a Marvel movie. Are you really in a rush?”
Her laughter delighted me when I should be seething. “Trust me. Any loyalties are suspended when it comes to blockbuster movies.”
I walked with her into the theater. Flashes of my childhood bombarded my mind as soon as the popcorn aroma swamped me. Every weekend, Sam would take me to the movies, and not just to escape my mother. It was our bonding time. Legit time together and an activity we both loved. If there wasn’t a new movie out, we went to an old one. Sam had even looked into purchasing a theater or even building a new one.
Then my mom had struck. Whether it was jealousy or pure manipulation, she’d made sure to be caught en flagrante with Sam’s realtor. As a kid, I had blamed the other man for the marriage’s demise, but as an adult, I recognized my mother’s machinations. No man was stupid enough to drop trou and get head in his most lucrative client’s office.
As I sat for the movie, I asked the question that’d plagued me for over a decade. My mom. The realtor. Mara. Had Sam been gullible his whole life? The only person in Sam’s life not out to use him had been me and he’d dumped me a hot second after the divorce.
Chapter 9
Wes
I stared dubiously at the clothes Helen had picked up at my request. Bless the lady, she hadn’t batted an eye.
It’d been a good idea at the time.
I have plans to take Mom to the TC Comic-Con this Saturday. Want to go? You get a discounted entrance if you dress up. Mom always goes as Leia from Star Wars. I’m going to dig out an old Batgirl costume. Wanna come?
The red jacket with black shoulders and black slacks didn’t taunt me so much as the Star Trek com badge.
I’d been out of my damn mind when I’d agreed. Dress up?
The line of thought I’d run away with was that I could dress like Wesley Crusher and get a little satisfaction from being Wesley when accompanying her as Sam.
Walking around in a costume didn’t drum up anxiety like meeting her mother, however. Not just meeting her, but busting her out of the home and carting her all over town. Give her sick mother an afternoon to remember before bringing her back… No pressure.
I jumped into the shower only because I needed wet hair to slick over like I remembered on the character from the show, but it’d been many, many
