Chapter Five

“What are you afraid of?” Franklin asked once they walked into his office and closed the door.

The question caught her off guard. Fear had nothing to do with it. “I’m not afraid. Decisions like that should be made by me,” she said before dropping into the chair.

“You hired me to help you as the manager.”

He was right. Kira sighed. She had to trust him. “Okay, we need to make a list of all the rental items. We don’t have enough chairs, tables, etcetera.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve already started it in my head. I’m on it.”

Kira couldn’t hide her smile. They were both on the same page—and it felt good. She would move full steam ahead, and if everything went as planned, the Red Rose Inn could add “banquet facility” to their offerings.

She checked her watch. She had almost forgotten about the meeting with Ben and Gail to get the menu locked down. It was the most important component. Folks hated when the food wasn’t good. But before she took even one step toward the door, her aunt Mary Louise walked into the office. Kira jumped up from the chair.

“Gail told me you were in here,” Mary Louise said, walking farther into the room. Her gaze was glued on Franklin. “I heard you hired a new temporary employee to replace Mrs. Potter, so I wanted to see for myself.”

Gail couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

Franklin stood and looked at Kira. Right. She needed to say something benign before this got ugly.

“Auntie Mary Louise,” she said, “this is our new inn manager—”

“I know who he is. What I want to know is what he’s doing here.”

If she backed down, her aunt might think she couldn’t handle the job.

“Franklin, could you go ahead and call the supplier? Please report back to me what you find out. Then we can get together with the chefs to go over the menu.” Kira pretended that she didn’t see the question in Franklin’s expression or the disappointed look on her aunt’s face. She wanted to act like it was a normal day and she was just having a conversation with the manager. Thankfully, Franklin simply nodded and sat at his desk to work.

“Auntie, let’s go into my office and we can talk about it.”

Mary Louise hesitated, until Kira tried her best to plead with her eyes and raised her hand to her heart. She usually could get Mary Louise to see sense, but she had no idea what Gail had told her. She could paint a picture with a wide brush, and a lot of the time, she’d brush outside the lines.

Waiting for her aunt to leave the room first, Kira mouthed the words “thank you” to Franklin before she slipped out the door.

The moment they entered Kira’s office, her aunt started in on her. “Girl, what were you thinking—”

“Auntie, calm down.”

“Calm down?” She paced the floor in front of the desk. “How am I supposed to calm down?”

“I don’t know what Gail told you, but Franklin is a good guy.”

“Gail didn’t tell me anything.”

“Well, who—” Then Kira remembered the women at lunch who kept staring in their direction.

“Helen Cunningham saw you at Dogs and Suds and she called me,” her aunt confirmed.

Just like Beatrice Murphy, Helen Cunningham ran in that same circle. The problem with Helen was that she thought she ruled everything in Clover. Kira couldn’t allow a gossiper to mess up a decision that she’d made in good faith.

“Helen doesn’t know Franklin.”

Mary Louise stopped right in front of Kira. She was so close that Kira would have stepped back if she wasn’t standing in front of her desk. “And you do?”

She’d always had a good relationship with her aunt. The trust she’d given her meant the world, so she wouldn’t lie. She would plead her case and hope for the best.

“Auntie, neither Franklin nor I believed that the feud was still going on. Auntie Sophia has been gone for decades now.”

Mary Louise nodded. “Yep, that’s right, and everybody with the last name Davis still can’t stand the sight of anyone with the last name Bennett.”

“But wouldn’t that be the whole town?” Kira knew that the Bennett family owned everything from the mortuary to the bank. “I know that I didn’t grow up around here, but they are really influential people.”

“So, what? I’ve known RL, Bettye, and Willie for most of my life.”

“Oh, so it’s just Charlie’s family that you can’t stand?” It didn’t make any sense, and frankly Kira was tired of talking about it.

Mary Louise stared at her with her lips pressed together. Her eyes packed a warning. “Girl, you’d better watch yourself.”

“Auntie, you told me the other night in front of a room filled with people that you trusted me with this place.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Now that I hired Franklin, does that still stand?”

Mary Louise sat down in the comfy chair in what was once her own office. “Kira, between you and Gail, you’re wearing me out. I’m supposed to be retired.”

Kira stooped in front of her aunt, and they stared at each other for several long seconds before her aunt cracked a smile. Kira dragged a chair over in front of her.

“Why did you hire him, baby, knowing all that you do?”

“Honestly, I needed to fill that position fast, and he was my only applicant.”

Mary Louise’s eyes widened. “There you go jumping the gun.”

She ignored the comment. “He’s a military man, which means he’s disciplined. I’m sure he’s meticulous, organized, and has the stick-to-itiveness we need.”

“You mean he’s all the opposites of you.” Mary shook her head. “You are just like your aunt Sophia.”

Kira had heard that before and wished that she knew more about her late aunt. She’d love to get insight on the person her aunt had been, but her family only harped on the fact that Charlie Bennett killed her.

Mary Louise was right about Franklin and Kira being opposites, though. “Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“You know the rest of the family isn’t going to like this one bit.”

“But you could hold them off, you know, explain it to them.”

Mary Louise shifted her posture before looking into Kira’s eyes. “Why should I get put in the hot seat because of your little experiment?”

“It’s not an experiment, Auntie. I need Franklin.”

“Oh?” Mary Louise’s brows lifted. “Need him in what way?”

She refused to answer that question; it sounded like a trap. “Will you at least give me until the Rotary Club Gala, then we can reassess Franklin?”

“The Clover Creek Rotary Club chose the inn to have their Fiftieth Anniversary event? When did that happen? It wasn’t on the books before I left.”

“No, but it is now. Franklin and I can handle it. He suggested we open the partitions and close the dining room. Everyone should fit.”

“Franklin said that, huh?”

Kira nodded. “Yes, he is the manager now. And I think it works. I’m actually excited about this opportunity.”

She waited until her aunt processed the information. Mary Louise stood. “No, I’ll give you two weeks to prove something to me, or he’s out.”

That’s not enough time. The gala is six weeks from now. “Auntie, how can I prove his worth in that short amount of time?” Kira dropped her head in resignation. She didn’t have a fallback plan, so she had to work closely with Franklin to ensure that it would be a gala that Clover Creek would talk about for years.

“I won’t say anything to anyone else,” Mary Louise said, “but that doesn’t mean that Helen and her cronies won’t. Just like they told me, they could tell your father and the others. Once the gossip train gets rolling, it doesn’t make any stops.”

Her aunt completely ignored her statement. Kira bit her bottom lip. She knew how to handle her father, so if he did find out, she’d be able to explain herself. She was a daddy’s girl; her father had always thought she could do no wrong. Now, she just had to hope that applied to working with the son of the man that he believed killed his sister.

…

Kira’s unusual behavior gave Franklin pause as he sat at his desk. Mary Louise’s gaze had been cold and unfeeling, which wasn’t a complete surprise. The older woman’s actions only confirmed that the Davis family was still holding on to their hatred of his father. He’d leave if Kira asked him to, but until then, he would continue his tasks.

He proceeded to make a list of the suppliers he’d need to contact for Hank’s event. Then he called a rental company for the chairs, chair covers, and accessories. They’d given him some general information before pointing him to their website. Scrolling through it gave him an idea that he would share with Kira about the inn’s web presence.

He also grappled with the conversation he’d just witnessed between Kira and her aunt, and it made him even more curious about his father’s relationship with the Davis family.

He picked up the phone and called the alcohol distributor in Nashville to get a price list of the wines and spirits they could serve at the party. By the time he dialed the number, Kira walked in, prompting him to hang up.

“Okay, let’s hear it,” he said.

She dropped down in the chair. “Man, that was a trip.”

“But we knew it would happen. I just hadn’t thought it would be this soon.” He shook his head. “So, your cousin went and told her, huh?”

“Surprisingly enough, Gail wasn’t the one who told her.” She sighed. “That doesn’t matter, anyway. The only thing that matters now is showing them we can run this place together and everything will turn out fine.”

“Okay, so what are we going to do?”

“We’re going to put on the best party Clover has ever seen. That’s what.”

“Did your aunt agree to me staying?”

Kira smiled. “You’re staying. Now let’s get to work.”

He didn’t miss that she hadn’t actually answered his question.

“Cool,” Franklin replied. He gave her the information that he’d gathered, and she looked over his notes. “Do you think Gail will be on board with me working with her?”

“As long as she shines, it will never be a problem,” Kira said, continuing to look at the paper. Then her head popped up and she had a serious look on her face.

“Is something wrong?”

“One more thing.” She lifted her forefinger. “I’m going to need you to keep an eye on Gail and Ben for me because they keep clashing, and I can’t have them fighting. We’ll never get a meal done.”

“We’ll just have to make sure they know this event could open up more like it. What’s good for the inn is good for them, too.”

“Right,” Kira said. “I just wanted you to be aware.”

“I really appreciate that.” He leaned back in his chair. “Have they always had differences of opinion here?”

“Kind of. Gail just started working as the sous chef when I started running the place about two weeks ago.”

“Oh, I see.”

“And…”

Franklin had already figured out what Kira was about to say, but he asked anyway. “And what?”

“They have history.”

“You mean they dated,” he said, and she nodded. “It must have ended badly.”

“Yes, but it was so long ago. They can’t keep on acting this way.”

“Mixing business with pleasure isn’t a wise decision.” Something he needed to remember for himself as well. “But we should give them a chance to sort it out. They’re both grown people, and if your cousin is concerned about the family business, then she’ll learn to deal with Ben for the sake of the inn.”

“You’re right,” Kira said, going back to the notes he’d handed her. “Logically, I know you’re right. It’s just…the rotary club is a big deal.”

He got up from his seat and went around the desk to stand beside her, trying to ignore the magnetic pull between them, the scent of her skin, the warmth of her body only inches from him. “It’s going to be amazing, you’ll see. Everything will work out fine.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s obvious we make a great team.” He bumped her shoulder with his.

She laughed a little and smiled big. “Oh, it’s obvious, huh?”

“Come on.” His steps felt lighter as he walked to the door. “Let’s show all of Clover what good things can happen when a Bennett and a Davis get together.”