CHAPTER 17

Adelia was proud of herself for sticking to the routine of workouts at the spa several days a week. She only worked with the trainer one of those days, but Jeff kept a close eye on her when she was there for her additional sessions and always managed a minute or two to encourage her.

She’d lost ten pounds now and was almost ready for a smaller size in clothes, but she decided to wait a little longer before going on the shopping spree she felt she’d soon deserve.

“You look good,” Elliott noted, stopping her on her way out one morning. He grinned. “So, are you addicted yet?”

“I have to admit I like the way I feel after an hour of exercise,” Adelia conceded. “But I will never enjoy the workout itself.”

“You wouldn’t admit it to me if you did,” he teased.

She laughed. “Probably not. How are you? It’s only another week before your fancy new gym will open. Are you excited?”

“You have no idea. Do you have time to take a quick walk over there? I’ll show you around.”

She could see the excitement in his eyes. “Of course I’ll come.”

The exterior of Fit for Anything was not dissimilar to that of The Corner Spa, a Victorian house that had been renovated and put to a new use. Inside, there were certain similarities, as well. The equipment was the same high quality, but the walls were a soothing shade of green, rather than the sunshiny yellow at the spa. It was clean and ever-so-slightly more masculine. New floor-to-ceiling windows let in lots of sunlight and a similar view of the woods and ravine out back. In place of the brick patio, there was a wooden deck with tables and chairs that were less fussy than the wrought iron at the spa. A café menu posted hearty soups and healthy sandwich wraps, rather than salads and smoothies.

“Elliott, it’s incredible,” she said. “How are the memberships going?”

“Maddie says we’re already ahead of projections, and that’s even before we have the open house this weekend. And I have a nice, solid client list here, in addition to the women I’ll continue training over at the spa. Dexter’s actually been sending people to me. It’s very gracious of him, all things considered.”

She beamed at him, happy to see him so enthused about his career. For too long he’d been a little defensive about his chosen field, probably due to entirely too much family torment.

“I am so proud of you.”

He shrugged modestly. “It wasn’t even my idea. Some of the Sweet Magnolia husbands came up with it.”

“But they’ve made you a partner, and they’re trusting you to make it a success,” she said. “Congratulations! I know we all gave you a lot of grief when you said you wanted to be a fitness instructor and personal trainer, especially in a town the size of Serenity, but you’ve made it work.”

“I’ve also taken on a lot of debt,” he admitted. “It makes me nervous. We were all brought up to pay as we go. And it terrifies Karen. What if I wind up letting her down?”

“Doubts are understandable, especially before you get going, but from everything you just told me, all the signs are pointing to a huge success. Stay focused on that.”

“I know once the cash actually starts coming in, I’ll feel a lot better.” He glanced at her. “Thanks for letting me admit how I’m feeling. I can’t say a word about any doubts to Karen. She’s scared to death as it is. I invested just about every dime we’d been saving for a baby.”

Adelia couldn’t keep herself from wincing at that. “No wonder she’s terrified.” She studied him. “And that’s why you keep putting Mama and me off about when you two will have a child of your own.”

He nodded. “That’s one reason.”

She frowned at his bleak tone. “And another reason?”

“I want to adopt Daisy and Mack officially before we have our own baby. I don’t want them ever to feel they’re not as important to me as a new child that Karen and I have together. There are other reasons, too, but I think they deserve that stability.”

Adelia nodded. “Which is exactly why you’re such an amazing stepdad. You put them first. Is Karen balking?”

“Yes, and I wish I knew exactly why. It’s not about Ray being their biological dad. He’s long since out of the picture. She’s hesitant for some reason, and she won’t get into it with me.”

Adelia considered offering to talk to Karen, but once again felt it would be unwise given their shaky history. “You’ll work it out,” she said instead. “She knows how much you love Daisy and Mack and how much they love you.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said. He seemed to visibly shake off his dark mood and gave her a look of brotherly concern, one she knew was likely to precede a cross-examination about her life.

“Now, I’d better run,” she said hurriedly. “I have an appointment.”

Elliott regarded her skeptically. “Do you really? Or are you just trying to avoid my questions?”

She grinned at him. “Does it really matter? Either way, I’m out of here.” She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” he called after her as she all but sprinted toward the front door.

Once she reached her car, though, she sat back with a sigh. There wasn’t anyplace at all she needed to be, and it was hours before the kids would be home from school. Once the prospect of uninterrupted hours on her own would have stretched out like an unexpected vacation. Now it meant she’d have too much time to think about the sorry state of her marriage and how much more humiliation she intended to take.

She drove to Wharton’s, picked up the local weekly from the newsstand and settled in a booth with a tall glass of sweet tea. Reading the paper took far too little of her spare time. She found herself glancing at the local classified ads. When she saw that Raylene Rollins was advertising for a clerk at her new boutique on Main Street, she glanced out the window and across the square.

It was right there, straight across the green. Was that some sort of a sign?

Before she could talk herself out of it or convince herself that she should at least go home and put on more presentable attire before going to a job interview, she took the shortcut across the grass and walked inside.

Raylene was handling a sale at the register, while several other customers browsed. Adelia recognized one of the women from a PTA committee at school.

“That red would look amazing with your coloring,” she told Lydia Green. “Not everyone can wear a color that bold.”

Lydia grinned at her. “I fell in love with it the minute I saw it, but I wasn’t sure.” She held it up in front of her. “You really think so?”

“I know so,” Adelia said confidently. “Try it on and see for yourself. And I just saw the perfect scarf to accessorize it. I’ll grab it and bring it to the dressing room.”

Lydia gave her an odd look. “Do you even work here?”

Adelia leaned close. “No, but I’m hoping to. I’m giving it a test run with you. Maybe it will impress Raylene more than the lack of experience on my résumé.”

Lydia laughed. “A very bold move.”

Adelia brought her the scarf, but by then Lydia was already sold on the dress. She added the scarf and a bracelet that Adelia had also spotted.

When she reached the counter, Lydia told Raylene. “She’s a very good salesperson. You need to hire her.”

Raylene gave Adelia a startled look. “Are you applying?”

Adelia took a deep breath and nodded. “When you have the time, maybe we can talk about it. I’ll just keep pitching in till you’re free.”

An hour and several sales later, Raylene led the way into her tiny office in the back.

“You’re good,” she complimented Adelia. “You have a real eye for what works and doesn’t work with a woman’s shape and coloring. Those women left here very happy. I know clothes and style, but matching them with the right people can be infinitely trickier. You steer them in the right direction without offending them.”

Adelia basked in the praise. “It was fun.” She glanced down at her own attire. “Obviously my own sense of style could use a little attention. I was working out at The Corner Spa, stopped at Wharton’s and saw your ad. I came over on impulse.”

“It was a good impulse,” Raylene said. “Are you seriously interested in the job? I know you’re on lots of committees in town. Do you have the time?”

Adelia hesitated. “I need to work…” she admitted eventually.

Raylene looked puzzled. “I thought—”

“That my husband was a hotshot developer?” Adelia supplied. “He is.”

“Then why do you need to work? You didn’t say you wanted to. You said you needed to.”

“My kids are in school. My days are increasingly empty. And I want something of my own. I’m trying to work on my self-respect.”

Raylene nodded. “Those are all things I can understand.” She hesitated, then smiled. “The job’s yours if you want it.” She mentioned the salary. “We can work the hours around your schedule and mine. Will that work for you?”

Adelia nodded eagerly. “I’ll make it work.”

“Want to start tomorrow? Say, when we open at ten? I’ll have you here when I’m here initially till you’re trained on the register and know the stock system. After that we’ll divvy up the early and late shifts and Saturdays. I have a part-timer who fills in, as well.”

“Thank you,” Raylene said, trying to contain her exuberance. “Thank you so much.”

“Hey, if you keep selling the way you were today before I even hired you, you’re going to be a great addition.”

“I’ll do my best,” Adelia promised.

When she left, it was all she could do to keep from skipping down the block. She’d gotten herself a job! It might not be a calling or a career, but it was one more step in the right direction. Pretty soon she was going to be able to look in the mirror and genuinely like the woman she’d become.

* * *

Karen was stirring the batter for an apple cake, one of the few desserts Erik would allow her to attempt, while Raylene sipped her morning coffee.

“I hired Elliott’s sister Adelia yesterday,” Raylene said, almost causing Karen to drop the bowl of batter.

“Adelia’s going to work for you?” Karen repeated, just to make sure she’d heard correctly.

“She starts this morning, in fact,” Raylene confirmed. “She walked in the door out of the blue yesterday and managed to sell two outrageously expensive dresses, a suit and some accessories while I was busy working the register. You should have seen her. She has an amazing instinct for what clothes make a woman look her best.”

“Adelia?” Karen repeated skeptically. Not that her sister-in-law couldn’t look stylish when she tried. She just didn’t try very often.

“It was impressive, I’ll tell you that,” Raylene said. “If she keeps it up, my bottom line is going to be very, very good.”

She studied Karen, then frowned. “Why do you sound so shocked?”

“Because the Cruz women—or Hernandez in Adelia’s case—don’t work. They stay home and care for their children. When Elliott and I were first together, believe me, that’s all I heard. I was accused of neglecting my children by working to support them. Elliott’s mother and Adelia were the most vocal.”

“That’s a pretty old-fashioned view,” Raylene said.

Karen shrugged. “It works for a lot of mothers and, if it does, more power to them. I couldn’t afford to stay at home. Somebody had to pay the bills.”

“Why do you suppose Adelia had such a sudden change of heart?” Raylene asked, her expression thoughtful. “She mentioned something about wanting a job for her own self-respect. Any idea what she meant by that?”

Unfortunately, Karen had a pretty good idea of exactly what Adelia had meant. She was at least emotionally breaking free of Ernesto, or at least that would be Karen’s guess. She wasn’t about to share such personal information with Raylene, though.

Instead, she shrugged. “I’ll bet a lot of women hit a point when they want their own identity aside from being a wife and mother.”

Raylene nodded. “You’re probably right. Bottom line, I am really glad she wandered in yesterday. I might finally be able to get a little more time to enjoy my own family life one of these days. Owning a business is a lot more demanding than I’d realized when I opened the boutique. At the time I was just so grateful to be able to leave the house and do something, I didn’t give a thought to all the hours involved. Now I want at least a tiny bit of my freedom back.”

“Adelia’s smart. She actually has a degree in business. I think she’ll be able to help you with a lot more than sales, if that’s what you want,” Karen said.

Raylene’s eyes lit up at that news. “Lucky me!”

Actually, Karen thought, Adelia was the lucky one. Though she wouldn’t have thought of her sister-in-law being anything other than a stay-at-home mom, she could see how this could be the perfect niche for her. And Raylene, who’d been through her own share of personal crises, would be the perfect support system for someone in Adelia’s situation.

* * *

Ever since he and Karen had argued over his role in making decisions for Daisy and Mack and her refusal to make a commitment to allowing an adoption, Elliott’s frustration with the situation had grown. Just yesterday Daisy had defied him over doing her homework, shouting that he wasn’t the boss of her. Though he was sure other children uttered the same words, to him they carried an entirely different meaning. Later she’d apologized, but the remark had stung.

With an hour break in his schedule, he made a quick call to Helen’s office.

“Is she free, by any chance?” he asked Barb, Helen’s long-time secretary.

“For another twenty minutes, she is. How fast can you get over here?”

“Two minutes,” Elliott promised. “I’m already on my way.”

He jogged around the corner and down the block, then up the front steps of the house Helen had recently bought and renovated into her new office. According to all reports, she’d been saying for months that she needed the extra space because she intended to bring in another legal partner. Given her determination to control every aspect of her life, no one, Elliott included, believed she’d relinquish a single client, even to some handpicked partner.

Helen was standing in the reception area when he arrived. “Is this about the partnership papers for the gym?” she asked. “They’re all signed, sealed and delivered. Everything’s nice and legal. And the loan agreement you had me draw up with the other partners is finished, as well. Everyone’s signed off on that. You should have your copy in today’s mail.”

Elliott shook his head. “That’s all great, but I’m here about something else.”

Alarm immediately registered on her face. “Come on in,” she said, gesturing for him to go into her office, then closing the door behind them. “Please tell me you and Karen aren’t thinking about getting a divorce, because I can tell you now, I couldn’t represent you. She and I have a history. I’d feel obligated to represent her.”

He smiled at her fierce sense of loyalty. “And that would terrify me, if it were why I’m here,” he said frankly. “Actually, I’m wondering about what I’d need to do to legally adopt Daisy and Mack.”

Her eyes lit up. “I’ve been wondering why you hadn’t already done that. Anticipating this, I cleared the way when we got Ray to give up his parental rights in the divorce. Sadly, it wasn’t much of a fight. He’d already moved on to a new life someplace in Nevada. I think he was busy conning some other poor woman. One of these days I’d like to file suit and go after him for all the back child support he owes Karen, but she wants to put all of it behind her. I don’t think she has the stomach for another fight with him. I honestly can’t say I blame her, but that money rightfully belongs to Daisy and Mack. It would make a tidy nest egg for their college fund.”

“The man was a sleaze, no question about it,” Elliott said. “Karen’s lucky to be rid of him.”

“And even luckier to have found you,” Helen said.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I do have a question, though. Why are you here, rather than Karen, or at least with Karen?”

He winced at the all-too-relevant question. “I was hoping you wouldn’t see anything odd about that,” he admitted.

Helen frowned. “Is she opposed to the adoption for some reason?”

He thought about the question. “Not opposed, exactly. She just seems hesitant about moving forward. She won’t say why, but lately I’ve gotten the feeling that she still doesn’t entirely trust our marriage to last. I suspect she thinks that my adopting Daisy and Mack would muddy the waters if we divorced.”

“Has she said as much?”

He shook his head. “She won’t say anything,” he said, not even trying to hide his frustration. “She just pushes off the discussion to another time. I thought maybe if I talked to you, made sure there were no legal hurdles, I could convince her that it’s time to move forward on this. Daisy, Mack and I are all a little bit in limbo about my real role in their lives.”

Helen nodded. “I can see how that could get complicated. Kids need to understand who the authority figures are in their lives. I saw it with Maddie and Cal, when they got together. Though Cal didn’t adopt Katie, Kyle and Ty, he already had a role of respect in the family as Ty’s baseball coach. Plus he’s used to working with kids, and he had Maddie’s unconditional support to interact with them as a disciplinarian. Even her ex didn’t pull some kind of stunt and try to undercut him.”

Elliott nodded. “I’d be happy to settle for being a stepfather, if Ray were in the picture, but he’s not. I think the kids need to know they can count on me, that I’m in their lives forever. I think that’s going to be even more critical if Karen and I have a child of our own. I’d never want Daisy or Mack to feel as if they’re second-best in my affections.”

“And you’re willing to make that commitment? Even if something were to happen, if you and Karen were to split down the road, you’d expect to be a father to Daisy and Mack? You’d obligate yourself for child support, all of it?”

“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation. “A split’s not an option, but even hypothetically, yes, I’d want to remain in their lives as their father and support them. They were still very young when Karen and I began seeing each other. I feel as if I’ve raised them almost from birth, as it is.”

“Then I’d say the only hurdle you face is getting Karen to agree. I think the legalities would go fairly smoothly. Get her on board, and we’ll talk again,” she said, standing up and coming around her desk. She gave him a kiss on his cheek. “You’re a good guy, Elliott Cruz, but then, the smart women in this town have always known that.”

Elliott couldn’t help wondering if Karen would agree, especially when she found out he’d just gone behind her back. Again.

* * *

Karen picked the kids up from her mother-in-law’s house, managing to avoid any sort of interrogation while she was at it. She arrived home feeling triumphant. She still had an hour to get dinner on the table before Elliott was likely to get home. Now that the renovations had been completed, they had a few free evenings before the gym’s open house over the weekend and then the official launch next week, when his schedule likely would go crazy.

She managed to convince Daisy to go to her room to do her homework, but Mack trailed after her into the kitchen.

“When’s Daddy coming home?” he asked, stunning her.

“You know your father doesn’t live in Serenity anymore,” she said carefully. It was the first time Mack had even mentioned Ray in a very long time.

“Not him,” Mack said impatiently. “Elliott. I want him to be my dad. I want to call him Daddy.” He gave her a plaintive look. “Please. I hardly even remember my real dad.”

Karen drew in a deep breath. She knew Elliott would never manipulate her by planting such an idea in Mack’s head, so her son had to have come up with this on his own. It was proof enough that Elliott had been right about how desperately her kids needed some clarity.

“You want Elliott to be your dad?” she asked.

He nodded enthusiastically. “Daisy does, too.”

“You’re sure? She hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

“She doesn’t want you to be sad,” he said.

Karen held back a sigh at how her indecision had apparently been affecting Daisy and Mack. “Elliott and I will talk about it,” she promised.

“Tonight?” Mack pleaded, his face lighting up.

“Tonight,” she confirmed. “Now, take a juice box and go do your homework. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

It seemed that the decision about adoption was mostly out of her hands. How could she possibly deny her children and her husband something they all wanted? She’d never known her own father, so being without a male role model had just seemed the norm to her. With Elliott in the picture, her children understood what having a great dad could be like, yet she’d held the fulfillment of that dream tantalizingly out of reach with her doubts.

“No more,” she murmured, resolving to give them all what they wanted. She’d manage to quiet her fears somehow.

While the water for pasta came to a boil, she glanced through the mail and saw an envelope from Helen. Unable to resist, she opened it and found what appeared to be loan documents associated with the deal Elliott had made with the other partners at the gym.

The documents themselves were no surprise. The amount of money involved, however, staggered her. Maybe twenty thousand dollars seemed like nothing to them, but to her it suggested years of debt. It had taken several years of scrimping and saving just to wipe out the few thousand that Ray had left her obligated to pay off.

She was still staring at the document in shock, when Elliott came in. He glanced at her, but went straight to the stove where the water had apparently boiled down to nothing. He turned off the burner under the scorched pot, then regarded her with concern.

“What’s going on?”

She lifted her gaze and regarded him with a sense of betrayal. “Twenty thousand dollars?” she whispered, barely able to utter the words.

He winced at her tone. “You knew about the loan.”

“But you never said it was for that much.”

“Because I knew you’d freak out,” he admitted. “Exactly like you’re doing now.”

“Elliott, how are we supposed to pay off that kind of money? It will take forever! And what about the baby you claimed was so important? We can’t even think about that if we have this kind of debt hanging over us.”

He sat down, reached for her trembling hands, but she pulled them away.

“You can’t just talk this away,” she said. “It’s too huge.”

“I can show you the numbers. Memberships at the gym are already ahead of projections. I have more private clients than ever before, starting next week. We’ll pay this off in no time. And if we need to stretch it out, the terms are flexible.”

“It’s a twenty-thousand-dollar debt,” she repeated. “Do you realize how long it could take to pay that off, even at a moderately quick clip? And what about interest? My God, Elliott, that alone will eat us alive.”

“Stop it. You’re getting worked up over nothing. There’s minimal interest. And did you not hear what I just said about the memberships and the extra clients? We’ll have at least a few hundred extra every week to pay down the loan.”

She was past listening to reason. The thought that he’d done this, if not behind her back, at least deceptively, made her stomach hurt. She stood up.

“I can’t talk to you right now,” she said. “I need to think. I’m going for a drive.”

He looked as if he might argue, but eventually he gave her a curt nod. “We’ll talk more when you get back.”

“You’ll see that the kids have dinner?”

“Of course.”

She left the house without a jacket. The evening air was brisk, but it felt good. She needed some kind of a shock to her system. Once in the car, though, she had no idea where to go. She couldn’t dump all of this on Frances, not with everything going on in her life. And Raylene might have had a lot of other issues in her life, but she’d never faced financial woes the way Karen had. And she could hardly turn to anyone in the Cruz family. They’d immediately jump to Elliott’s defense.

As she had years ago when she’d been in dire straights, she found herself heading for Helen’s office, praying she’d find her there. When it came to clearheaded, nonjudgmental advice, no one in town was better.