Page 5 of Just For Her

Kayla had tucked the business card in the back of her phone case, which she handed to her friend with another shy smile on her face. “Thomas Fredriksson. Doesn’t thatsoundfancy?”

Chrissy gasped as soon as she saw the name.

“I’m guessing that’s good?” Kayla inched forward on the couch, attempting to gauge her friend’s reaction. “Ring any bells? For better? For worse? Come on, I need to know if I should fake an injury to get closer to him. The man’s going through a divorce. I’m sure he could use some companionship during this trying time!”

When Chrissy lowered the card to the seat cushion between her and Kayla, it was with a skeptical look on her face. “The Fredrikssons. As inFrederik,Oregon.”

“Oh! The town a few miles away? Are they somehow related?”

“Kay, the FredrikssonsfoundedFrederik! Like generations ago! There was that super old sawmill there that made the founder a million dollars. Backthen.Think about how much that bought you in the Oregon trail times.”

“Wow. So, this guy is a descendant of that guy?”

“Probably! Kay, literally everyone who hangs out in Deschutes County long enough knows that this old money family is who really runs things around here. They literallyownFrederik, Oregon. Not even the influx of people moving in here can encroach on their land. Huey decided to move to Bend because of the country club in Frederik. Golfing, rafting, you can even get your pilot’s license out there.”

This tracked with Kayla, who knew that Chrissy’s husband Huey was an avid golfer, white water rafter, and was a “nerd” for hobby planes, although he wasn’t interested in learning to fly. That honor went to one of his friends, who Kayla realized was a fellow Fredriksson.

“So, what you’re saying…” Kayla considered this slew of information for a moment. “Thomas, the guy who nearly mowed me over with his car, is the descendent of this sawmill guy who not only founded his own town where all of this family still live today but has a huge influence over the whole county, including Bend? My God. I’ve got to come up with a way to see him again! He’s going through a divorce, Chris. Have I mentioned that yet?”

“Only a few times.”

While Chrissy looked up Thomas Fredriksson on her phone, Kayla leaned against the back of the couch and sighed, arms wrapped around her sore torso. “Maybe things are finally turning around for me. When I lost that job, I thought that was it – I’m never going to amount to anything, and I’m sure as hell not going to meet anyone who can take care of me. Because what if I…?” She stopped. For once, Kayla would not go down the dark road that had ultimately led her to Bend. “Do you know about Oskar Fredriksson?” she suddenly asked, instead. “He’s a doctor. The one I saw this afternoon. Apparently, he’s a cousin in the family.”

“I’m sure there are dozens of cousins of varying flavors.”

You can tell me. I met at least three today.Thomas, Oskar, and… what was that woman’s name? Torah?No, no. That’s a religious thing.Tove! With two syllables! That was it!

“Found him. Took digging.” Chrissy passed her phone to Kayla. “Good ol’ Thomas Fredriksson is a direct descendent – great-grandson, to be precise – of Hans Fredriksson, the man who started it all. He came from Sweden when he was a kid and eventually founded what’s now the defunct Farewell Bend Sawmill. Oh, Farewell Bend was what this place used to be called when it was first incorporated. Don’t know why they shortened it.”

Kayla was only busy listening. Before her, on a historical page for Deschutes County, was a black and white photo from the ‘30s, depicting the large and proper Fredriksson family as they dedicated the new town sign for Fredrik, Oregon.I recognize it…Although Kayla had not driven by it on her way into Bend the day before, she had seen it on a billboard advertising the Mount Bachelor ski resort nearby.

“You might have hit the jackpot with this guy,” Chrissy said. “NotanyFredriksson, but a direct descendent. I think Thomas’s father might have beenhisfather’s oldest son. Crazy!”

“His cousin did say something about his fuckups, though.”

Chrissy took back her phone. “Oh, I get why I recognized the name Thomas. Yeah, I guess he was that guy who got two DUIs in one year. Rough.”

“Sounds like he’s turned things around. He said something about not having a drink in a long time.”

“That’s good! Now he’s getting divorced? Girl. You’ve gotta be there for him. It’sfatethat he hit you with his car.”

Kayla nodded. “Like one of those crazy romance novels, where the meet-cute is the hero nearly killing the heroine but saving her at the last minute.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Although Chrissy had already lost enthusiasm, Kayla didn’t let it get her down. She had renewed fervor in her soul; a raison d’etre that might change her life. Somewhere in Sherwood, her brother and his wife struggled to make ends meet for themselves and their two children. Here in Bend, where Kayla started all over again at the tender age of thirty-three, she might have a shot at changing not only her own destiny… but her brother’s as well.

“We’ll be fine,”she could hear her older brother saying in the back of her mind.“Do what you gotta do to make money, but we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us.”

Kayla couldn’t help but worry about the only family she had left, though – especially when Grady had taken care of her the best that he could in the wake of their mother’s death fifteen years ago. Their family never had much growing up. A two-bedroom trailer and a mother who worked seven days a week were the reality for Kayla Smith and her older brother Grady. When their mother became too sick to work, though, it had fallen on Grady to drop out of community college and work full-time for a construction company. Then when their mother died, they made do together, Kayla becoming a prominent waitress and bartender-in-training while Grady eventually met and married his wife, another person who stepped up to help Kayla from falling into the pits of despair.

For a while, things were looking up.Then the pandemic happened, and neither Grady nor Kayla had work in their respective industries. They maxed out their credit cards, sold whatever they could spare to lose, and prayed that they would make it. As luck always had it, Grady’s wife became pregnant with their second child the exact moment he went back to work and hurt his back on site.

Recently, the family-owned restaurant that had gainfully employed Kayla for the past two years burnt down. She was back at square one, and something had to change.

For once, I will take care of them.If that meant becoming a gold-digging sugar baby to raise up through the class ranks as quickly as possible, then so be it. Kayla had done worse for money. Right now, all she cared about wassecuring her future.

And her brother’s future. His wife. Their children. Those kids didn’t stand a chance if someone didn’t do something to help them pay for college or to get a leg-up in their future careers. After all, didn’t every generation want the next to fare better? Even a bit? It had been true for Kayla’s mother, at least. She tried. That was what Kayla told herself.

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