Was Jeff flirting with her? Alicia brushed off his “amazing” compliment. She wasn’t fishing for compliments anyway. When he’d messaged her his number on Facebook, she didn’t know why she decided to call him. It just seemed so juvenile to trade messages when they could talk on the phone. Now that they were talking, Alicia had curled beneath the pile of blankets on her bed—there were never any shortages of blankets in her house, thanks to her mom.
Whether or not Jeff was flirting, or just being nice, she loved listening to the low tones of his voice coming through the phone. His adult voice was familiar, yet different too—deeper, richer, masculine.
“You’ve always been generous with the compliments,” Alicia told him, trying to deflect the uncomfortableness that grew inside when people complimented her.
“Telling you that you’re amazing isn’t a compliment,” he said. “It’s the plain truth. Don’t tell me you still can’t take a compliment after all these years?”
“Well, I don’t have a problem with compliments in general, especially when they’re earned.”
“Look,” Jeff said. “Not that I want to argue with you, but you just left your entire life behind to come home and take care of your mom. If that’s not amazing, then I don’t know what is.”
His tone was teasing, but Alicia didn’t want to be complimented on this part of her life. She should have probably let it drop, told him thank you, and asked him about his work or something. Instead she said, “It’s not amazing when I’m probably making it worse. Yeah, I’m keeping her out of jail—at least, I think I am—it’s not like I’m here twenty-four-seven. But I’ve caused her plenty of grief and interfered with her routine. Just because I’m here doesn’t mean I’m the most loving and compassionate daughter. I know it causes her even more anxiety to have someone in the house, touching her stuff, moving things around, and she’s always paranoid I’m going to throw something away . . . which I’ve done plenty of times, although I’m pretty good at hiding it.”
But Jeff wasn’t buying it. “Of course it’s hard, and of course you have some resentment. The amazing part I’m talking about is that you are there, you are trying, and you haven’t given up.”
“Yet.” Alicia didn’t know why she was being so negative, but something about Jeff made her feel safe to be vulnerable—at least about this.
He gave a half-laugh. “Yet? Even if you left tomorrow, you’ve been helping her for months. That’s pretty incredible in my book, sweetheart.”
She knew he wasn’t calling her sweetheart in any romantic way, but the endearment filled her with warmth. She thought about what she’d done for her mother over the past few months. It hadn’t been perfect, but Alicia had been there. “Thank you, Jeff,” she finally said. It felt good to have someone acknowledge her sacrifice and her love for her mom. Jeff’s words had made her feel stronger and like she wasn’t so alone in all of this.
“So, how are you doing?” she asked, pulling a pillow against her chest. “I mean, you just broke up with your girlfriend, and here I am, unloading my problems onto you.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “It’s just been a crazy week, and the thing with Paige is just another situation to add to the mess.”
“The mess?” Alicia asked. Was she a part of that mess?
“I’ve got court in a few hours where a judge will determine whether or not my former business partner has to pay back the $400,000 he embezzled from our company, or if it’s money that was owed to him.” Jeff exhaled. “Long story, but I’m hoping that after court I can finally get back to normal.”
“Wow,” she said. “I’m really sorry. Was your partner doing real estate with you?”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “Remember my cousin Kyle?”
She had a vague recollection of a blond kid who used to stare at her a lot when he came to visit the Finch family. “I do.”
“He was my partner,” he said, some bitterness in his voice. “Didn’t think I could go wrong with family. We both put in some of our own money to start up our own real estate company a few years ago when Pine Valley was starting to explode. I also got a business loan under my name so we could cover office rent and other business expenses while waiting for commissions to come in. Kyle had the degree in business finance, so he was co-owner and CFO. I’m the people person, so I worked with most of the clients. Kyle was on vacation with his wife when I met a new client for lunch. I used the business credit card, and when it was declined, I didn’t think much of it. Later I texted Kyle to tell him that the balance must be low since the card was declined. I asked him to transfer some money from our business loan into the business checking account if needed. We had a couple of big commissions coming in, but they hadn’t funded yet.”
“And that’s when you found out?” Alicia said.
“That was just the beginning,” Jeff said. “Without Kyle around to get the mail, I received a bunch of junk mail from business loan sharks. I knew enough that those types of letters don’t come unless your accounts are maxed out. Banks say they don’t share financial information, but it’s shared nonetheless. When Kyle came back, I demanded to see the accounting. He’d pulled out two more loans under my name and credit. We were $300,000 in debt, and none of that money had gone to our business expenses. Those had been well covered by commissions. We got into a pretty heated argument, and I told him we needed to hire an outside company to handle all the accounting. Kyle agreed, or I thought he had. A week later, he moved his family out of Pine Valley, and the two commissions that came in had been withdrawn. Nearly $100,000 gone like that.”
“Wow, I can’t even imagine,” Alicia said. “First, it’s your cousin, second, it’s a ton of money. How long ago was it?”
“It’s been dragging on for a year,” Jeff said. “Thankfully, my lawyer had been able to stop all the creditors from destroying my finances. They are on hold until the case is settled. I’m making decent money on my own, and all the clientele I built up early on has been paying off very well the last two years. But $400,000 is still a huge chunk to be responsible for.”
Alicia nodded, even though Jeff couldn’t see her. “The judge won’t try to make you pay for it, will he?”
“My lawyer is pretty confident we’ll win, and I’ll be absolved of all debt and responsibility,” he said. “But until I hear the verdict for myself, I can’t help having my doubts.”
“I don’t blame you,” Alicia said. “I can’t imagine a judge not ruling in your favor. No wonder you can’t sleep.”
They were both silent. “I feel bad for Kyle’s wife,” she said after a moment.
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “She actually divorced him. It’s probably finalized by now. I say good riddance.”
“I guess no one’s life is what we think it is,” Alicia said. “Looking at your social media, one would think you have it made.”
“You’ve been looking at my social media?”
Alicia’s face heated. “I mean . . . I’m assuming your social media shows the good life. Everyone can see that you have nice cars, and you’re a good-looking, successful man.” Okay, she needed to stop talking.
“Hmm, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard so many compliments from you in one sentence,” Jeff teased.
She groaned. “Don’t let it go to your huge head.” She was really glad he couldn’t see her blushing.
“My huge, good-looking head?” he said.
“Ha. Ha.” She shifted her position in bed. “I think you’d better sleep before you have to go to court.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said in a quieter, more sober tone. “Thanks for calling. It was great to vent, and to laugh. I needed that.”
“Me too,” Alicia said. She was reluctant to hang up, but it was nearly 3:00 in the morning. Her mom was always more agitated in the mornings, so Alicia didn’t want to be dead tired. She decided to skip the 4:30 garbage run. “Good luck at court.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll need it.”
Alicia hesitated, then said, “Let me know how it goes.”
He seemed to hesitate too. “I will.”
When they hung up, Alicia stared at her phone for a moment. It had been a bold move calling him in the middle of the night. But Jeff was right; it had been really nice to vent and laugh. She couldn’t imagine facing a court appearance and having to rely on a judge to determine her future. She hadn’t asked him what time he was going to court. So she wouldn’t know whether or not he was late in calling her. Not that he owed her anything.
Alicia plugged in her phone and burrowed under her covers. She hoped Jeff would get some real sleep. He deserved it.