Page 79 of Just For Her

Heaven give me strength.Kayla didn’t have the energy to deal with this cad. She barely had the wherewithal to turn away in disgust.

She was prepared for that to not be enough for Oskar, who acted like a man used to getting his way. Sure enough, his grip was on her arm, and his lips were shockingly near hers.

Kayla’s hand cracked across his face. As he backed up against his Lexus, Kayla hustled down the sidewalk, bag flapping against her shoulder. “Hey!” Oskar called. “What was that for!”

Kayla didn’t stop until she was back in her car, which she unlocked with her head on a swivel. She didn’t waste time putting on her seatbelt when she started the ignition and pulled out of her spot. She forgot to put it on at all until she was at a stoplight and saw a member of Bend’s finest coming up the other way. Her adrenaline was high enough for her to consider flagging down the cop and reporting an assault from one Oskar Fredriksson…

Except she had a feeling there was no point in that. The Fredrikssons were a powerful family, and God only knew whose shoulders they clutched around Bend.

I’ve got to get out of this town.Kayla held back her tears of frustration until she was back at Chrissy and Huey’s, their comforting shadows moving behind the living room curtains.

Chrissy agreed to go with her friend to the impressive log house high up on a hill near Mount Bachelor. Whoever ran Kiersten Fredriksson’s security knew she was coming, but Chrissy’s car still idled for five minutes before the giant iron gates emblazoned with the initials KF.

“She sure thinks she’s important, doesn’t she,” Chrissy muttered, one hand on the wheel and the other on her head.

“She is important,” Kayla said. “That’s the problem.”

When they were finally admitted, it was to the impressive sight of Kiersten – dressed in a fine white linen pantsuit – sitting on a balcony overlooking her front yard and the mountain beyond. “My housekeeper will show you up,” she called down to Kayla, who agreed to go in by herself while Chrissy stayed in the car. “Forgive me, but I have to get the summer sun while I can!”

Kayla steeled herself for the most obnoxious conversation of her year. In six months, she had gone from the inconsequential new girl in town to the kind of woman who was immediately admitted into Kiersten Fredriksson’s country estate.

And Kayla had to act like it if she were to still get a piece of that $100,000.

Chapter 23

Tovefinallyemergedfromher house three weeks after the most soul-crushing moment of the past twenty years. Phone calls had gone unreturned, and work emails consisted of short, snippy messages about tax payment installment agreements. The only proof of life her family had were the unprompted visits from Thomas, who agreed not to tell anyone about the breakup. Although, as he warned his cousin,“Our family is perceptive. They probably already have a good idea.”

It was when Aunt Kiersten reached out, expressing her half-hearted condolences, that Tove decided to get back to living her life. She didn’t have enough time left on that earth to grieve the backstabbing ways of a woman she foolishly thought loved her. Tove had purged Kayla’s presence from the house. The cats had already forgotten her. The sun continued to shine through the summer, and Tove could only go on so many hikes before her knees gave out in protest.

But hiking felt good. So did hugging her cats when she was left to her thoughts shortly before midnight when the TV was off and the clock ticked on the wall.Tick. Tick. Tick.Every snippet of sound seemed to exist solely for boring a hole in Tove’s skull.

When she returned to her office downtown, it was like nothing had changed at all. Tourists and locals flooded the sidewalks. There was nowhere to park. The only person to peek her head out and ask what had happened was Trudy, who ignored a small family of customers as soon as she saw Tove passing by on the street.

“Oh, hon, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Trudy offered a light hug to the woman who didn’t want to talk about it. “You never know people’s intentions these days. She seemed so nice.”

“Whatever her intentions, that’s not what I need in my life. I want to get back to it, that’s all.” Tove glanced at a new sign in the window. “What’s that about?”

Trudy followed Tove’s gaze to theBUSINESS FOR SALE – INQUIRE WITHINsign in the front window, hanging right beside the Open / Closed sign with shop hours printed in red. “It’s time, hon. I’m in no rush to sell, but if someone offers for the right price, I won’t turn them down. Why?” She adopted a cheesy smile. “Are you interested?”

Tove didn’t know if she was blushing. When the summer was that warm, it was often hard to tell, and she was the one occupying her body. “No. I’m just in no position to make that kind of switch. Maybe one day.”

“That’s what we all say. Then you wake up at sixty-five and wonder where all the time went. I don’t have a lot of regrets, but I do wish I had done some things sooner. You can’t get caught up in what you ‘should’ do or feel, you know? Yet we always do. Trudy waved her hand before her face. “Sorry, hon. Bit of a heavy topic for eleven in the morning. You take care.”

Trudy returned to the family in her shop. Tove lingered in front of the main display, recognizing one of June’s embroidery projects turned Etsy design.Even if I took over a place like this, I’d still be stuck around my family.For Heaven’s sake, the shop was in the middle of Bend. It sold items made by the Fredrikssons. How would Tove truly be on her own in retail if she was still beholden to the family in her life?

Better to save up and create her own place, if she ever did. At least it was a dream.Not that my dreams have helped me much.Here she was, single again and going back to her office to read emails and add up numbers on a large calculator.

Feeling sorry for herself came later. Now was the time to get distracted by productivity.

One of her first appointments that day was with Oskar, who had finally tracked down Tove with one of his questions. He arrived ten minutes late and didn’t bother brushing the dust off his feet when he stepped inside his cousin’s office and slumped in one of the seats.

“You look like hell,” he said.

Tove grunted. “So do you, but what else is new?”

“Hey, now. I’m a paying customer at Tove Fredriksson, Certified Personal Accountant. You better be nice to me, or I might take my business elsewhere.”

“Who would deal with the hot mess that is your taxes? Certainly not any of my colleagues around here. They’re usually complaining about all of the shortcuts anyone with the last name Fredriksson tries to take.”

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