Page 24 of Between the Shady Groves
Lauren wasn’t quite sure whether she agreed with that or not, but she said thank you, and then to her surprise, Skyler came to the break in the counter and started to walk through. She met her, and Skyler gave her a hug.
“I’ll be praying for you and your husband. I… I really would like to see your marriage restored and flourishing.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
She supposed that that was what she should have done to begin with, prayed for her marriage and tried to figure out what she could do to make it better rather than just leaving. Although, leaving had seemed like her only choice at the time. How interesting how other people could open her eyes to possibilities that she didn’t even know could be there.
She went to the door and unlocked it for Skyler to leave, and watched as she walked away. She really wanted her husband to change. She didn’t want to be the one that had to. But she could see, if she were being honest, places where she could change and be better. And that everything might not be all his fault. It wasn’t really fair of her to try to blame him for everything.
It was good that Skyler had opened her eyes today. Now, she just wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it.
Thirteen
Cannon stayed in the healing garden until the sun started to go down.
He hadn’t eaten anything since the bread his wife had offered him earlier, but he honestly wasn’t that hungry.
He supposed it was time for him to get up and find a place to stay for the night. Probably his truck. He could drive to a hotel somewhere, although he’d have to look on his phone to figure out where the closest one was. And he really didn’t want to leave his wife. It made him uncomfortable that she was there with no security protection. She had said she wasn’t even sure she’d locked the door. That bothered him.
Thinking of that, he pulled up his foreman’s contact on his phone and gave him a call. There had been several messages from him, which Cannon had answered as succinctly as possible. Otherwise, he hadn’t had any updates on his business for two days.
“George speaking,” George answered.
“Hey there. Everything going okay?”
“Yeah. We had a few hiccups, but everything is going fine.”
“Good,” he said. Normally he would panic over the idea that there had been hiccups and want to know all about them, including what they were and how George had handled them, but right now, that wasnot at the top of his list of worries. “I need to order a security system, and…” He went on to talk about the kind he wanted and the other specs. He hadn’t scoped out the entire house, and he couldn’t secure it quite the way he wanted to, but he could do something at least to make sure that if someone came in the windows or doors downstairs, his wife would be woken up and the police called immediately. He had no idea how long it would take the police to come to this godforsaken place, but he was guessing it would probably be a while.
“All right. I can probably have that here in a week.”
“No. I need it in Raspberry Ridge, tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” George said, obviously shocked that he would make such a demand.
“Yes. I need it tomorrow.” He knew it could be done. It just would cost. Which was pretty much the way anything was. He could make it happen, but he would have to pay for it. And it would just depend on how much he wanted to pay.
“Boss. That’s going to be pricey.”
“I know. I want it here tomorrow. Get it ordered, and get it overnighted. If you can’t get it overnighted, I want you to personally deliver it.”
“All right, boss. If I do this, it means the Crutchfield job is going to be going over budget and time.”
“If that has to go over budget and time, that’s fine. I want that security system here tomorrow.”
“All right, boss. If you say so.”
George still wasn’t really on board with it and didn’t understand why a small system, relative to what they usually put in, would take such precedence, especially over a job like Crutchfield, which was a six-figure job.
“I do. Thanks, George.”
He hung up, feeling a little bit better. He wished he would have ordered it earlier that day. He might have been able to get George to bring it out and have it here this evening yet. That way, his wife would be safe tonight, and he would sleep a lot better. Maybe even go to a hotel. But for today, tonight, he was going to be sleeping in front of his wife’s store. And he’d be sleeping with one eye open.
He opened the gate and walked out of the healing garden.
He had been so far in his head that he hadn’t realized there was someone walking up from what appeared to be the path that went down to the beach, although he wasn’t sure. He seemed to vaguely remember Lauren saying something about it when they had visited before, but they’d never been on it themselves.
It was her neighbor, the man that she’d been laughing with when Cannon had walked in the store earlier today.
