"I"m a veterinarian."
"Oh. I"d heard someone reopened the animal hospital." She held out her hand. "I"m Tia."
"Liz." After a brief, strong squeeze, she took the bag of melts from the shelf. "I"ll get these. We have a simmer pot."
Tia wrapped the package and tied it with pellucid lavender ribbon, then affixed the shop sticker that bore a half-moon-shaped honeycomb with herbs and berries. She had designed it herself. Customers frequently told her the wrapping was so pretty they didn"t want to open it. Her mother would think it a frivolous expense, but Reba would have liked it.
Tia handed the package over with a brittle smile. "I hope your sister feels better."
Liz Rainer"s smile had a brittleness of its own. "Thanks."
Liz left the shop and strolled past several others. Lucy would be happy with the gift, especially how Tia had wrapped it. That was a nice touch. She liked her, though ordinarily she was wary of exotic-looking women.
The almost black eyes and dark brows were an unusual match for mahogany hair, but she could tell the color wasn"t from a bottle. Mediterranean features and olive skin enhanced the effect. Liz tucked her purse strap higher onto her shoulder, imagining a friendship with Tia the candle maker.
It felt good to meet someone and draw her own conclusions. Heady not to have Lucy"s opinions in her ear. What would it be like to make a friend her sister knew nothing about? A business woman with shared concerns. She had intended to tell Lucy who had made the candle melts and wrapped them so nicely. But now- The chief drove past and raised a hand in greeting. She waved back, wishing she hadn"t told Lucy she could meet him. A pang of guilt tightened her stomach. What were these thoughts? She didn"t keep things from her sister.
Back at the clinic, she pa.s.sed through the exam rooms to the kennels. "Lucy?"
Her sister loved to soothe the frightened, ailing pets, but they only had one right now, and Lucy wasn"t there. She went through the door to the small house. "Luce?"
The bedroom was dim, the curtains drawn. Lucy lay still, breathing weakly. How could she have thought of denying her anything? Liz dropped to her side. "Lucy, wake up. See what I"ve brought you?" She laid the package on the bed. "Open your eyes, and I"ll tell you about the woman who made these."
Lucy"s eyelids flickered and parted.
"Her name is Tia. She has riotous mahogany hair; dark, soulful eyes; and strong, elegant hands." Lucy loved details. "She"s an artist." She lifted the package. "See how she wrapped this for you?"
Lucy looked at the package. "Is she your friend?"
"I just met her, silly."
"But she could be."
Liz looked down. "Why would I need a friend when I have you?"
"Do you have me?"
She stiffened. "Why do you say that? I will always have you. You"re the only constant in my life."
Her sister"s eyes brimmed with tears, and Liz gripped her hand. "Nothing will separate us but death. When you die, I die."
"It might not be that way."
"It is that way." She tore the wrapping off the melts, untied the gossamer bag, and the wax wafers tumbled out. She held one close to Lucy"s face. "Smell that. It"s called Hope."
"Whose birthday is it?" Piper plunked herself down at the kitchen table and looked at the various tins and plastic-wrapped parcels arrayed there. Birthdays had been a big deal in her house, lots of presents and cake and candles. An extravaganza of ent.i.tlement.
Tia pulled a wide covered basket down from the top of the refrigerator. "Those are care packages for Sarge. From the ladies at church."
From what she"d gleaned, Tia"s church was all about doing stuff. Outreach, Tia called it. But this time, it was going to be wasted. "I"m not sure Sarge-"
"He might curse them for caring, but that doesn"t mean they don"t." She set the basket down. "They"re very good women, and besides, he wasn"t always awful."
"Really?"
Tia rolled her lower lip in. "His wife and teenage son were killed on the highway."
"How sad."
"He lost perspective and alienated people. His daughters moved away."
Piper picked up a package of snickerdoodles. She hadn"t imagined Sarge with a tragic story. "You"re delivering the package?"
"I thought you might like to come along, tell him how the bakery"s doing."
"He"ll be mad about the specials."
"Tell him people like them."
"That"ll make him madder." Piper stuffed the cookies into the basket. "He"s been selling currant scones, raisin rolls, and almond bear claws longer than I"ve been alive."
"People know what to expect from Sarge." Tia hoisted the basket. "Ready?"
"Well." She"d been waiting for a chance to plead her case. Now seemed as good a time as any. "Okay."
The hospital was quiet as they followed the directions to the surgical wing. Even Sarge"s room was quiet, because his eyes were closed and his mouth hung slack.
"He"s asleep," Tia whispered. "We"ll just slip it in there to surprise him."
But as they eased the door open, Jonah Westfall looked up from the bench seat by the window. Piper brightened. This might turn out okay. She followed a reluctant Tia in, and Sarge opened his eyes. Just the sight of her seemed to rev him up. "Hi, Sarge. Feeling better?"
"I am not."
"You look better. And you got your voice back."
"Yeah. And guess what? You"re fired."
Her mouth opened. "Then who"s going to bake?"
"I"ll shut it down."
"You can"t do that. People are counting on you."
He pushed up in the bed. "Don"t tell me what I can"t do. It"s your fault I"m here."
"Sarge," Jonah murmured.
"If you"d have minded your business, I"d be minding mine." His monitors started beeping.
"Well, Sarge, you weren"t minding yours all that well."
Jonah and Tia startled. Sarge"s face turned purple. He jabbed a finger at her. "You"re fired, you hear?"
Oh, she heard. She squeezed her hands shut. "There"s an oven full of money, but it"s not enough to pay your medical bills. You need me."
Sarge looked ready to burst an artery. "Need? You?"
She didn"t want to lose the job, to lose the room at Tia"s. She didn"t want to prove her family right that only fools worked for a living. "We need each other." She raised her eyes hopefully, but Sarge erupted.
Jonah caught him by the chest. "Calm down, Sarge."
Not the reaction she"d hoped for, even if she had sort of expected it. "I better go." Tears washed her eyes as she slipped out into the hall.
Tia glowered at Sarge, collapsed against Jonah"s chest. How could such a weak old man be so brutal? "She"s only trying to help."
"I won"t have some kid relieving me of my command," Sarge snarled, the corners of his mouth white with foam.
"She"s keeping you in business."
"What do you know?" He glared. "She costs me more than she"s worth."
"You pay her hardly anything."
"I trained her from scratch. She didn"t know a spoon from a shovel."
"Well, she does now. She has quite a gift for-"
"Strange concoctions. Goat Goat cheese and cheese and pine pine nuts," he spit the words like bullets. nuts," he spit the words like bullets.
Tia shot a glance at Jonah. Had he blabbed the details? "What matters is that she has opened the door every day and served your customers so that you still have a shop to come back to." Was he senile not to realize that?
"I"d be opening it myself if she hadn"t put me here."
"Your condition put you here. You"re not taking care of yourself."
Sarge chewed his lips, muttering, then thrust a finger at her. "What"s that?"
Tia looked down at the basket. "Something to cheer you up."
"Stuff that girl made?"
"That girl is Piper. She"s worked for you five weeks now. You should know her name." is Piper. She"s worked for you five weeks now. You should know her name."
Sarge reddened like a fireplug.
Jonah shifted. "She has a point, Sarge."
She didn"t need Jonah"s help. She set the basket on the foot of the bed. "Anyway, they"re not from Piper. They"re care packages from the church ladies." She had told them it was a useless gesture, but, longing to bring him into the fold, if only for his own peace, they"d insisted she play amba.s.sador.
"Old crows waiting for me to drop dead."
She pictured each of them, baking a favorite recipe, something to cheer and hearten him.
"No one wants you dead, Sarge." Jonah frowned. "It wouldn"t hurt to show a little grat.i.tude."
"It"s themselves they"re cheering up, the cackling do-gooders. Fat biddies putting out for some heavenly reward."
Tia"s jaw slackened. He made it sound prurient.
"The joke"s on them, you hear? The worms will eat them in the grave, same as me. They"ll just be sweeter for all those good deeds."
With a jerk, she upended the basket, dumping the parcels onto the sheet. A few slipped to the floor. "If you don"t want these, give them to the nurses. G.o.d knows they deserve it." She headed for the door.
"Tia." Jonah came out behind her as she searched for Piper. "Wait."
"For what?"
"Let me explain."
She turned on him. "Explain what?"
"They told him today the compression in his spine is inoperable. They also said they"ll only release him to the VA hospital or a family member. He can"t live alone."
"That doesn"t excuse him taking it out on Piper and the others, though I"m not surprised you don"t see it that way."
"I"ve been on the phone with his daughters, and neither is in a position or willing to take him."
"I can"t imagine why."
"But you might have an inkling how it feels."
She stiffened. "What do you mean?"
"I don"t have to explain."
She jabbed a finger to his chest. "You have no clue how I feel."
"Yeah. You don"t know anything about rejection, do you?"
That was like a knife to the heart. "You intolerable jerk."
"Bitterness has driven Sarge hard. You might take a lesson from that."
Her cheeks heated, fury curling in her stomach like a snake. "You"re calling me me bitter?" bitter?"
"I"m saying look in the mirror before you judge Sarge."
Her breath made a low growl, the animal urge to rake him with her nails a terrifying sensation.