“Do you think that’s why he wants to help me out?”
“Possibly, honey.” Then Tanya grinned. “But more likely because you’re such a sweet child.”
Crystal screwed up her face into a pout. “I’m not a child anymore, Mom, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Her daughter’s fervent words wiped the smile from Tanya’s face. “Oh, ba—Crystal, I’ve noticed what a beautiful young lady you’re growing up to be.”
“Then you’re the only one,” Crystal mumbled and wheeled herself into the house.
Stunned at the despondency in her daughter’s voice, Tanya quickly followed Crystal inside only to find the door to her room closed with her Do Not Disturb sign hanging from the knob. She knocked.
“Go away.”
“Crystal, we need to talk.”
“I don’t have anything else to say,” her daughter said right before the sound of loud music blasted through the air.
Tanya stared at the door, trying to decide whether to ignore her child’s request or wait for another time when she would be more willing to talk. Lord, help me here. What do I do?
The music grew even louder, silently giving Tanya her answer. Nothing would be accomplished this evening finding out what was at the root of her daughter’s unhappiness.
“I noticed you’ve owned this house for ten years. Why don’t you take out a second mortgage on it?” Chance asked Tanya later that evening.
“Well…” She didn’t have an answer for him. Sitting at her kitchen table with all her finances spread out before her, she stared at the total figure of her debt, in large black numbers on the paper before her. “I didn’t want another bill to pay.”
“You could use it to pay off some of these bills and consolidate them into one payment. That’ll be easier for you to keep track of rather than these seven different places.” He waved his hand over the pile.
“That might work.”
Chance wrote down some numbers. “I think you could comfortably handle this much a month in a payment.”
“Only as long as I have a tenant for the apartment.”
He looked up from the paper he was figuring on. “Since I’ve taken a job with Blackburn Industries, I’ll be here for a while.”
Why had that simple declaration sent her heart racing as though she had just finished running alongside him earlier this afternoon? “It’s gonna be more than a while until I can pay this off.”
“You can always declare bankruptcy.”
“No! Never! I’ll pay my debts even if it takes me years.” The memory of her father skipping out on her mother and her when she was a little girl materialized in her mind. The gambling debts he’d left behind had been overwhelming until her mother had nearly collapsed under their weight. But it had been a matter of pride to her mother that she didn’t declare bankruptcy, sometimes the only thing that had kept her going.
“Then a second mortgage is the best way to go. I’ve written down a budget that should help you stay on track.” He slid the paper across the table to her.
She picked it up and studied it. One large, long-term debt versus many smaller ones. She liked the idea. “I can check into it at the bank on Monday. This way I can finish paying the law—” She pressed her lips shut, wanting to snatch her last sentence back. She slanted a look at Chance to see his reaction.
He calmly stacked the sheets into a nice pile as though she hadn’t spoken. “Legal fees can be staggering.”
When she didn’t get the question about what kind of legal fees, she relaxed back in the chair, inhaling several, calming breaths. “I can also pay a lot of the hospital bill, too. Of course, it’ll depend on how much I can get as a second mortgage. I wish I was better with money.” She leaned toward him and got a whiff of the soap he must have used when taking a shower. She thought of a green hillside in the spring and for a second forgot what she was going to say.
His gaze connected with hers. The beating of her heart echoed in her ears as she became lost in the sky blue of his eyes.
One corner of his mouth quirked up. “How long have you been a teller?”
“Almost two years. Don’t tell the bank manager what I said about handling money. It can be our little secret.”
“My lips are sealed.”
A twinkle danced in his eyes, and she lowered her regard to those lips he mentioned. All she could focus on was the way they curved slightly at the end in that smile she had decided was lethal.
She slid her gaze away and took the stack of papers, then stuffed them into the manila envelopes she kept them in. Her hands shook, and she nearly dropped all of them. She scooted her chair back. The scraping sound across the tile echoed through the kitchen. After she rose, she walked to the desk by the phone and crammed them in the top drawer.
“There. Out of sight, out of mind, at least for the rest of the evening.”
“Money worries can be very hard on a person.”
“You speak as though you’ve had firsthand knowledge.” She lounged back on the desk with her hands digging into the wooden edge and braced herself for him to either ignore her or shut the topic down.
He stared out the window that afforded him a view of Crystal on the deck with her service dog. “I’ve helped many clients in the past come up with a plan to get out of debt. Some make it. Others don’t.”
There was more to it than that, but his evasive look alerted her to the fact she wouldn’t get an answer from him until he was ready. Had he been like one of those clients, in debt, struggling to make ends meet? For some reason she didn’t think that was it, even though he had few possessions that she knew of and he had arrived in town on a bus.
Tanya pushed herself away from the desk. “I intend to be one of your success stories.”
“Good.” He stood. “I’d better go. It’s getting late.” His glance strayed again to the window that overlooked the deck. “Is something wrong with Crystal? She hardly said two words tonight.”
“You know how moody teenage girls can be. She’s upset with me and even ate her dinner in her room before going outside on the deck.”
“Yes, I know what…” His voice trailed off into the silence.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Crystal told me you had a daughter who died.”
He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then when he opened them again, there was a raw look in their blue depths that turned them the color of the lake right before a storm. “I lost both my wife and daughter a few years back.”
“I’m so sorry. My husband died last spring, so I understand what you must have gone through.”
An expression full of doubt flickered across his face for a few seconds before he managed to mask it. He walked to the back door and thrust it open, then disappeared quickly. Tanya heard him say something to her daughter. She observed the exchange, saw Crystal’s features coming alive while she spoke to Chance. She even laughed, which thrilled Tanya. Her daughter hadn’t laughed much lately—ever since the start of high school six weeks before.
Chance sensed Tanya’s gaze on him and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. In prison he’d gotten used to being watched all the time, but