Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (2 page)

Thank God.
She’d purged herself of one womanizer. To fall for Eli again would be stupid in the extreme.

The next morning, armed with a caddy full of cleaning supplies and a slightly better outlook on life, Maddie made her way up the front walk to Aunt Millie’s Antiques.

Her keys slipped unnoticed from her fingers to hit the oak planks of the porch as she noticed the sign on the front of the store. How she had missed it, she didn’t know. The sign was roughly the size of a billboard and bright red. It read “CONDEMNED” in four-inch high letters.

She tried to remember her view of the store front the previous evening as she’d driven past. This sign definitely hadn’t been there. Glancing down at the ground, she noticed fresh wood shavings. Undoubtedly from the installation of the padlock. A groan of frustration left her throat as she set her cleaning supplies on the porch and backed away from the building far enough that she could take a full inventory.

The store appeared to be in good order. A fresh coat of pale peach paint made the clapboard gleam in the weak winter sun. The Victorian’s gingerbread trim, shaded in a deeper melon and a bright teal-blue had never failed to lift her spirits—at least until now. The windows could use a good scrubbing, but they were intact. The porch had sturdy rails and stairs and the planks of the porch floor felt solid under her feet. The roof had been replaced about a year before Aunt Millie passed away and there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with it. Why would someone condemn the building?

And
who
would do it?

She ran through a list of people she could call to ask about her options. Unfortunately, she’d only come home for brief-but-stilted holidays with her family since high school and hadn’t kept in touch with anyone but Eli.

Could anyone blame her?

She thought about calling Eli, but rejected that idea immediately. First, re-opening the store was about standing on her own two feet for once in her life. Second, she didn’t want to bother him at work. Besides, all the city business happened at the courthouse, so she didn’t have far to go to fix the situation and she certainly didn’t need him for that.

Sitting down on the top step, Maddie dropped her head into her hands. She was pretty sure she wasn’t ready to face the town on her second day back. But it didn’t look like she had a choice.

She prayed for courage. Maybe this town had forgiven her—or at least forgotten its vendetta against her.

And maybe pink monkeys would fly out of her butt before she got there.

She sighed and picked up her keys and cleaning supplies so she could head home to change.

Thirty minutes later she’d armored herself in a long navy skirt, a white blouse and sensible pumps. It was an outfit she’d worn maybe three times, all to business functions of her husband’s. Make that
ex
-husband’s.

It was the only such outfit she’d kept, figuring it would work for church—assuming lightning didn’t strike if she entered the hallowed halls of the First Lutheran Church of Sudden Falls—or occasions when she needed to go to the bank or, in this case, the courthouse.

She sat down in her father’s old office. She had to believe that the store’s maintenance records—if they existed outside of the store’s office—would be in the filing cabinet. If she had
any
idea where the key to the filing cabinet was, she’d be home free. Unfortunately, cursory searches of the drawers in the desk hadn’t yielded the key. She felt her spine collapse as she stared at the phone like it might reach out and bite her. This was going to take a call to her mother.

Picking up the handset, Maddie dialed. She got to the sixth digit before slamming it down again. Her mother wasn’t the most… supportive person on the planet.

On the other hand, it was hard to excel when those who were supposed to be there for you kept expecting you to fail.

She took a deep breath, picked up the phone and dialed again, this time, steeling herself not to hang up.

“O’Callaghan residence.” Her mother’s voice was brisk and business-like.

“Hi, Mom. It’s me.”

“Maddie. It’s nice to hear from you. Shouldn’t you be at the store?”

Maddie resisted the urge to growl. She closed her eyes and tried to go to her happy place. Unfortunately, the train to Happyville wasn’t running today. “That’s what I’m calling about, actually. The store’s been condemned.”

“What? You’ve been in town less than two days. How’s that possible?”

The implication that it was somehow Maddie’s fault was as clear as it was typical.

The bite of tears stung her eyes. In some alternate universe, she had a father who was still himself and a mother who didn’t immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion. “I don’t know. I went over this morning to start cleaning and there was a padlock on the door. Do you know where I can find the maintenance records for the store?”

“I brought all of Millie’s records home and put them in a filing cabinet in your father’s office. Millie wasn’t much of a record keeper, but I seem to recall that she kept records of the remodeling for tax purposes.”

“I was hoping that was the case. Do you know where the key to the cabinet is?”

Mom mumbled to herself as she tried to remember which drawer the keys located in. “The third drawer down? No. I think the fourth.”

Maddie leaned over and rifled through the drawers. “Thanks. I found them.”

“You need to get that condemnation order lifted, Maddie.” Her mom’s tone was completely appropriate for talking to a child that wasn’t very bright. “You’ll need every day of the next six months to make that store profitable. Heaven knows, Millie was barely able to do so.”

Maddie bit her tongue to avoid commenting. Anything she might say at that point wouldn’t be productive. “I know. Thanks for the help.”

She got off the phone as quickly as she could and went back to perusing the cabinet.

Her mother had filled the bottom drawer with everything Maddie could possibly need. Millie’s entire building had been overhauled less than a year before her death. It didn’t take long to gather up the well-marked folders and head for the town square. The building had been updated down to the wiring and plumbing, which begged the question, why the condemnation order?

The courthouse felt haunted by ghosts of high school past. Most of them, it seemed, weren’t happy to hear that she’d landed back on their doorsteps, if the whispers were any indication. Straightening her spine, she located the receptionist, a woman in her early sixties who, from her narrowed eyes and disapproving glance, was clearly
not
part of the Sudden Falls welcoming committee. She did, however, ostensibly point Maddie toward the office where one could appeal a condemnation order.

Skeptically, she headed for the County Recorder’s office. Maddie was able to get through the first two sentences of her explanation before she was directed to the Department of Housing, who forwarded her on to Building Regulations. For a town with less than fifteen thousand people, it was amazing how many different departments dealing with housing, buildings and development there were.

She also suspected she was getting the runaround on purpose. Maddie began to doubt her decision to come back to town.

The clerk of Building Regulations sat on a stool behind the counter, perusing a magazine. It took a full fifteen seconds for Maddie to recognize her and she nearly turned and left.

Lisbet Roarke had been two parts best friend—outside of Eli, at any rate—and one part arch-nemesis from elementary school until their senior year of high school. That’s when Lisbet pursued Eli, even though she knew how Maddie felt about him, and Maddie took her revenge too far. She felt completely sick about it even now.

Maddie schooled herself to remember that in this small town, a little smile would go a long way. And maybe Lisbet had forgiven her.

She took one look at Lisbet’s face and knew that was too much to hope for. Maddie took a deep breath to find her friendliness which had pretty much dried up after her encounter with the clerk in the Department of Housing. “Hi, Lisbet.” Even now, Maddie wished she could time travel back to the summer after her senior year and save seventeen-year-old Lisbet from seventeen-year-old Maddie’s poor judgement.

“Maddie.” The word came from between tightly gritted teeth. It was all Maddie could do not to wince. “What are you doing in town?”

“Is this the department where I appeal a building condemnation order?” She decided to keep it business-like and not acknowledge their prior friendship or its spectacular end.

Lisbet’s eyes narrowed on Maddie. She paused for an interminably long moment before finally answering. “Yes.” The s at the end of the word was a hiss of anger as she pulled a sheaf of forms out of a drawer.

“I think there’s been a mistake. The store needs nothing more than a bit of cleaning and dusting inside. I have the records of everything that was done to the store during a remodel a couple of years ago.” Maddie noted that her words sped up and her tone began to sound more frantic as she went on, but there was nothing to do about it, so she continued. “There was a complete overhaul. New plumbing. New wiring. New roof. New furnace—”

“Was there an inspection?” Lisbet managed to appear superior, pissed off and bored at the same time.

Maddie tried to remember if she’d seen any inspection paperwork. “I would assume so.” She dug through the old briefcase of her dad’s that she’d thrown the folders in, but found nothing that looked like an official inspection.

“I don’t have a record of it. Can I schedule an inspection? I’d planned to open the store next week.”

“You have to take that up with the town council. You can’t schedule an inspection once a condemnation order goes up.”

Maddie barely avoided gritting her teeth. “And how do I do that?”

“The council meets the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.”

“Do I need to do something to get on the schedule?” Maddie asked, not exactly overwhelmed with Lisbet’s helpfulness.

“I think the next meeting is already booked.”

Maddie felt her cool slipping. That would throw her scheduled opening off by more than two weeks.

Lisbet plunked down about four trees worth of paperwork with a scowl on her face. “Fill these out. You’ll need to take them down to the mayor’s office to get on the council’s agenda.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” It seemed almost friendly and Maddie’s eyes lifted to Lisbet’s with a flicker of hope. The hatred she saw boiling there doused that flicker without so much as a puff of smoke. “Seriously. Don’t mention it. Don’t come back. Don’t speak to me. Get the hell out of town.”

Maddie gasped at Lisbet’s vitriol. She knew there was nothing she could do or say to atone for the treacherous things her high school self had done—which didn’t stop her from wishing there could be.

Chapter Two

Feeling a bit like a peeping Tom, Eli peered out his kitchen window and watched Maddie walk a bag of trash to the pile accumulating at the curb.

When she’d pulled up yesterday, it seemed like the answer to a question he hadn’t realized he’d been asking. For months now, everything had seemed so… pointless, but he couldn’t figure out why. For a guy who lived exactly like he wanted to, mid-life ennui seemed a little lame.

Secure Solutions, Inc., his network security company was doing extremely well, he had plenty of close friends, he got along well with his family and his personal life was whatever he wanted it to be.

In direct contrast, Maddie’s mother was toxic, her brother was dead, her father might as well be, her ex-husband was a scumbag, and the town still hated her for an admittedly crummy prank which she’d committed half a lifetime ago. And while what she’d done to Lisbet Roarke had been horrible, she’d paid for it. Again and again.

As Maddie tossed the garbage bag from her hand into the bin, Eli gave her the kind of once over he hadn’t bestowed on anyone in months.

Maddie was a
Woman
with a capital “W”. Sure, she would need to lose twenty pounds if she ever wanted to look like Hollywood’s ideal, but since Eli had always preferred his women
not
to look like twelve-year-old boys, he hoped she never considered it. Not that it was likely that Maddie ever would be
his
woman. But it didn’t stop the fact that he liked hips and breasts and softness and Maddie had that in spades.

Today, she wore her dark curly hair pulled back in a ponytail but a couple of curls had escaped the confines of the band at the base of her neck and were springing near the side of her face. Blue jeans snuggled her full hips and a gray sweatshirt with the crewneck edging ripped away played peek-a-boo with her collarbones.

She turned around and caught him staring.
Great. Very suave, Redmond.
He waggled his fingers at her through the window before crossing the kitchen to open the side door.

“Hello, Gorgeous.”

She rolled her eyes, but he was gratified to see the corner of her mouth turn up. “Barbra Streisand
. Funny Girl.
”

He had seen her once in the past three years when her aunt passed away and her father had his stroke. He’d seen the tension between her and her husband. But of course, she’d refused talk to him about it. After
The Incident
, she didn’t talk to him about much of anything. It made him almost wish he hadn’t had a singular moment of gentlemanliness three years ago and turned down her pass. A moment for which he still alternately congratulated himself and wanted to kick his own ass.