Page 97 of Whirlwind

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37

Violet

“What do I tell Dad?That I’m going on a vacation?” I set down the tray filled with teacups and ginger cookies on my dresser.

“That works. He doesn’t need details.” Mom took my tunic top from the closet and folded it. She handed it to Gigi, who smoothed it down in my suitcase.

I was leaving tomorrow, and they were packing for me. They were that excited, and so was I. And I’d gotten the STD test done, and it had come back clear.Woot.

“There’s just one thing—” I put my makeup brushes in their holder. “I sunk most of my cash recently into buying my car and my new camera. Beck is taking care of the plane tickets, and the hotel is a freebie, but if you could lend me some cash for pocket money?”

Gigi’s eyes flashed. “I’m giving you the money.”

“Great, I’ll pay you back.”

“Nope, my gift to you.” She shared a look with Mom.

“I can’t take your—”

“Hang on, Violet. Let your grandmother tell you a story.” Mom brought her tea cup to her lips.

Gigi sat down on the bed. “After my cousin Isi and her brother, Leo, got killed, her boyfriend the biker, Wreck from the One-Eyed Jacks, found money that Leo had stashed at the old go-kart factory which had been Dillon property before we’d sold it to the motorcycle club.”

“Drug dealing, pot farming, meth-making Leo?”

“The one and only,” Mom said.

“Wreck came to me and gave me the money he found, which was incredibly kind and thoughtful of him. The MC could’ve kept it for themselves and I would have been none the wiser, but that’s the kind of man he was.” She stirred sugar in her tea.

“I was at the store that day,” murmured Mom. “And I heard his loud growling bike come up at the back door. There he was, larger than life. With that sadness in his eyes that never went away.”

Gigi blew at the surface of her steamy tea. “After I paid off whatever debts the store had left behind, I only used the money for special things over the years like donating to the fundraisers and charities the One-Eyed Jacks would sponsor, and those family vacations to Oregon.”

Mom smiled. “Those were the best, Mom. We made good memories.”

“We certainly did. That money was also how I held onto the store building in town all these years. After I closed the five and dime because it didn’t make sense anymore, I was able to clean out the space, divide it, and rent it out to new businesses, like Tania’s antique store, and Alicia and Ronny’s tattoo shop. It was either save the General Store building or save Whisperwind with Leo’s money, but I couldn’t do both. I chose the one that made the most practical sense in the long term. I had to make the best business decision.”

Gigi had transformed the demise of Dillon’s General Store into a triumph. It had taken years to accomplish, but she’d seen it through.

“You made the right decision, Gigi,” I said.

“That money helped me renovate Drake’s and turn it into the Meager Grand,” said Mom. “I didn’t need a bank loan.”

“I wanted the Grand to come from your mother,” said Gigi. “Not from Hildebrand & Hildebrand like Marshall wanted.”

“Geez, I remember all those arguments.” I sank onto the edge of my bed.

My mother put my cropped jeans in my suitcase. “Those were doozies.”

Mom had decided to open her gourmet coffee shop when the little luncheonettes were dying in Meager and all the small towns in the area. Even her father had tried to talk her out of it, and so had my dad before he tried to take over the project himself. But Mom had insisted and prevailed. And she was a success.

An independent success thanks to Leo and Wreck and Gigi.

“Violet, I want you to claim this moment for yourself”—Gigi’s tone was serious—“so I’m giving you the money. I’d already decided at Lenore’s party. She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a bank receipt. “And I already made the deposit to your account”

I stared at the slip of paper. “That’s a lot of money, Gigi.”

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