Chapter Twenty-One

I would have thought talking to Shelby was the most interesting conversation I was going to have all week, but I was wrong. Again.

My phone rang the next day while I was in my dingy office working on some analytical data. I was surprised to see Macey’s name on the screen. I ignored it at first, thinking she must have butt dialed me with that bony thing she passed off as a rear end. Besides, I had nothing to say to her. She called me three more times. It finally annoyed me enough that I answered.

“Why are you calling me?”

Sniffles filled my ear. “Emma,” Macey’s pathetic voice squeaked.

Someone died. I knew it. Why else would she call? Was it awful that I had a list of who I was hoping it would be? Then panic set in. Please don’t let it be Marlowe or Dad. Sure, I didn’t like them right now, but I loved them even if they didn’t love me.

“What’s wrong, Macey?”

“We need your help.”

“We?”

“Marlowe and me.”

“Why are you calling me for help? Why don’t you ask Josephine or Ashton?”

Macey’s sniffling increased. “They can’t help us.”

“Why?”

“Because no one knows where Ashton is, and Josephine and Dad aren’t speaking to each other.”

Oh, really? Huh. “I still don’t understand why you are calling me. Didn’t you tell me to mind my own business?”

“I didn’t say that. Marlowe did.”

“What did I say?” Marlowe yelled in the background.

“You told Emma to mind her own business.”

“I told you she wouldn’t help us,” Marlowe responded.

“Please, Emma. We need you.”

“You both have a lot of nerve asking me for help right now. What is it you need help with anyway?” I thought I should ask before I outright told them no.

“I know we haven’t been very nice to you. I’m sorry.”

“Because you want my help?”

“No, Emma, everything is a mess right now. Almost all the wranglers have quit, and Dad can’t find anyone to replace Frankie. No one in town wants to work at the Ranch. Several guests have left.”

I wasn’t surprised, but it broke my heart. “What can I do about that?”

“That’s not what we need help with. We’ve made a big mistake at the store.”

“What kind of a mistake?”

“The thousands of dollars kind.”

“What did you do?”

“We don’t know,” she cried. “We were balancing the cash drawer and reconciling the receipts and we are off by over $6,000.”

Holy crap. I didn’t know they made that kind of money. “How much do you make in a day?”

“Normally around $2500 in the summer.”

“Then how can you be off by that much?”

She paused. And paused some more.

“Macey?”

“We haven’t balanced the drawer in a while or—”

“How long is a while?”

“Like, two months.”

This was why when Mom was alive, she wouldn’t let Dad give them the money to open their own store. “Macey, you can’t run a business like that.”

“We thought our point of sale software would keep track of everything, so it didn’t matter.”

I wanted to bang my head against the desk.

“You’re smart. You know how to do all this stuff. Will you please help us? If Dad finds out right now, he’ll probably make us close the store.”

“It sounds like you would deserve it.”

“I know,” she sniffled.

Marlowe got on the phone. “Emma,” she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “we know we’ve been brats to you. If you don’t help us, we’ll understand.”

I’d never heard Marlowe grovel before. She wasn’t all that good at it, to be honest, but for her I guess it was something. I debated on whether I should help the brats or not. I wanted to tell them no, but then I heard Mom’s voice in my head saying, “Sometimes you have to be the one to start mending the fence even if you didn’t break it. Never be afraid of being the bigger person.” Mom’s final assault on me was to remind me what was written on her headstone, Where there is great love there are miracles.

“Fine,” I breathed out. “I can be there in about an hour.” I wasn’t expecting any miracles, but I knew Mom was. She always did.

“You’re the best,” Macey shouted.

“Thank you,” Marlowe whispered.

On the drive to Carrington Cove, all I could think about was what the girls had said about the Ranch. What had happened to Dad? How could he let Mom’s dream die such a cruel death? What kind of spell had Josephine cast on him? It had to be in the bedroom, and that thought grossed me out. Scrubbing that from my memory and moving on. Where had Ashton disappeared to? Was Sawyer seeing all this? Did he really think this was happiness? I would never know. I hadn’t heard from him and I wasn’t planning on it. He hadn’t even picked up his stupid bag on my porch.

Now here I was bailing my sisters out.

I parallel parked in front of M&M on Main. A chalkboard closed sign hung on the door even though it was only four in the afternoon. They must really be in a state to close their store early, especially with so many tourists flocking the streets. I had to admit their storefront was darling with a striped black and white awning and a simple glass and black door with their insignia on it. An array of all white clothes on black mannequins was displayed in the windows in an artsy sort of way. Their storefront was a lot like them. A beautiful exterior, but the substance inside was lacking. I knew Mom worried that Macey and Marlowe let the Carrington name and looks go to their heads. She wanted them to work for this store. Work for something.

I took a deep breath of the mountain air before I knocked on their door.

Macey rushed to open it and pull me in. “Thank you, Emma.” She wrapped her skinny arms around me. She was so much taller than me that my face landed in her boobs.

I tried to lighten the moment. “There’s a lot of padding in your bra.”

She pulled away. “We didn’t luck out and get Mom’s boobs like you did.”

I looked down at my ample, but not too ample girls. Huh. I’d never thought about it. I guess I did have a pretty nice set.

Marlowe came out of the back holding a fistful of receipts. “We’re still off.”

“Let’s see what we can find.”

Both of the girls gave me sheepish grins.

Their back office area was a mess with receipts and cash spread out in piles across both of their desks. I had to roll my eyes.

“Where have you been keeping all this cash? Don’t you make daily bank deposits?”

“We have a safe,” Macey offered.

I rubbed my head. This was going to be a long night.

As I started sorting through their mess, I found one of their biggest problems was they were each taking cash for personal use and leaving notes saying how much they took. I warned them to stop doing that. They were begging to be audited by the IRS. They had no idea what that meant.

I was there so long we ordered Chinese food. While I ate and scoured through each and every receipt and report from the last two months trying to find the difference, I decided I might as well be bold and try and get some answers about what was going on at home. They did live at the Ranch, after all, and had a front row seat to what was going on.

“Why is everyone quitting?”

A look of guilt passed between my sisters. At first they shrugged. I gave them a pointed look. “Come on.”

Macey dropped her chopsticks. “No one likes Josephine. And Ashton . . .”

Marlowe nudged her and shook her head.

“Ashton what?”

Marlowe curled her lips. “It’s just stupid rumors. Ashton’s a good guy.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes,” Marlowe was quick to answer.

“Then where is he?”

“Well, you would want to leave too if people were saying . . . well, saying the stuff you accused him of.”

I set my food to the side and picked up a balance statement sheet. “Yeah, well, I know what it’s like to want to leave home and not come back.”

It was silent for several minutes. I didn’t bother to even look at my sisters. I was here to help them sort their mess out and then I was out of there.

Macey finally broke the silence. “Do you really think Ashton robbed that couple and . . . you know?”

“It’s called sex,” Marlowe said bluntly.

I looked up from the report, still unable to find their discrepancy. “I do.”

“You have no proof,” Marlowe challenged me.

I decided to focus on Macey. “Why are you asking?”

Her face burned red and she started to shake. “It’s just . . . it’s just . . . we met here a few times.” And before I knew it, she ran toward me and curled up on my lap like a child and started bawling.

I wrapped my arms around her. “Macey, what happened?”

Marlowe was now shaking too, but in a furious sort of manner. “What were you two doing here?”

“Stuff,” Macey eked against my chest.

My stomach churned. “Macey, please tell me you weren’t.”

“He said he loved me,” she wailed.

Marlowe jumped up. “That lying, cheating . . .” She grabbed her phone.

“Marlowe, put your phone down,” I demanded. “Were you seeing him too?”

“What?” Macey sat up and rubbed her eyes.

Marlowe lowered her phone, but she wouldn’t answer.

“Marlowe, were you seeing him, and did you bring him here too?”

She threw her phone on the desk. “We met all over.”

That made Macey curl right back up into me and lose it.

“You didn’t answer the question,” I had to yell over Macey’s wailing.

“Yes!” she barked.

“Did he know about the kind of cash you kept here?”

“Maybe.” Macey snuggled more into my chest.

I had a feeling as to why they were off by so much. “We are going to go through every receipt and report and then you are going to call the police and then Dad.”

“The police?” Macey cried.

“If my suspicions are right, you’ve been robbed.” And of more than just money. This entire situation made me feel dirty and like I needed a shower.

“Emma, I’m so sorry,” Macey cried. “I thought he loved me. He was my first. He told me I was special and that’s why I couldn’t tell anyone.”

Let that be a lesson. If a man is keeping you secret, you aren’t his only one.

I wanted to kill him.

Marlowe wasn’t devastated like Macey; she was enraged. She started listing out loud how she was going to make him pay. She started by pulling out their security camera tapes. At least they were smart enough to have those.

While Marlowe searched those for evidence, I went through their paper trail. To my dismay, they both started comparing notes about their rendezvous with Ashton. Marlowe confessed that the weekend she disappeared she had met the sleazeball in Aspen. It was the same weekend of our camping trip. That pig was sneaking off, not for a job interview, but to hook up with my sister. The thought made my skin crawl.

By the time I left that night, we couldn’t account for $4,500. I found the other $1,500 and change in the form of credit card transactions that they hadn’t accounted for. I made them write out a deposit slip for cash they hadn’t deposited and promise me that they would take it to the bank’s night depository.

Marlowe was still searching their tapes for evidence. Apparently, there were plenty of instances where they had both brought him here after closing, so there was a lot to look through. I left them to it. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to watch the conniving man take advantage of my sisters.

Before I left, Marlowe took a break and put her arms around me. She hadn’t done that in forever. “I miss Mom,” her voice cracked.

I did too. Now more than ever.