The cold in her stomach crawled up her spine. It sounded to her like Anna was trying to convince herself. Did she think Chase could attack someone with a piece of heavy marble?
“You know what’s crazy?” said Anna. “I can’t even find my green marble rolling pin. Someone is stealing rolling pins.”
Loud voices sounded from the front. Laci and Vi again.
Feeling so weary she could barely walk, Chase made her way to the front to referee.
“You’re doing this on purpose to make me lose my temper!” Vi shouted at the cringing Laci.
Both of them were behind the counter. There were a half-dozen customers in the shop, all standing motionless, watching the scene.
Vi grabbed Laci’s hair. “The twenties go on top of the checks!” She tugged and Laci’s intricate updo came unraveled, shedding bobby pins. “You’re a complete idiot!” She shook Laci’s head, still holding on to her hair.
Laci flushed crimson and grabbed the front of Vi’s pastel blue satin blouse. “I am not an idiot!” Laci shouted and ripped Vi’s blouse open. Buttons flew to the floor.
“Quit that!” Chase roused herself and jumped between them, too late. The customers had all fled. Chase grabbed Vi and pried her fingers out of Laci’s hair. By then Anna had arrived and pinned Laci’s arms to her sides. Laci struggled against Anna, her face growing redder and redder. Vi panted from exertion.
“That’s enough.” Chase kept her grip tight as Vi tried to shake herself loose. “You’re both fired.”
Vi and Laci both grew still.
Vi recovered first. “Fired? How can you fire me?”
“Easy,” said Chase. “I can’t take this anymore. You’ve driven all the customers away. We can’t afford that.”
“I’m your best salesperson. You can’t run this place without me.” Vi held her blouse together and pouted.
“Watch me,” said Chase. “Get your purse and go. Now.”
Anna was trying to catch her eye, but Chase angled her sightline away to avoid looking at her.
“Laci, you, too,” Chase said.
Vi snatched her purse from under the counter and stalked out, holding her head high in defiance. She looked regal, even with a ripped blouse, leaving in disgrace.
Laci, however, began to tremble. Tears coursed down her cheeks from her huge sky-blue eyes.
“Oh, sweetie,” Anna said and folded the girl in her arms. Laci stood and sobbed for a good three minutes while Chase watched helplessly. Anna was falling for Laci’s drama and undermining Chase, darn her, when Anna had wanted to get rid of Laci all along.
They had always worked as a team. They needed to work that way. If they were going to pull against each other, fight each other, the partnership just wouldn’t work.
Chase threw up her hands and stalked to the kitchen, leaving Anna consoling Laci. Chase poured herself the last cup from the coffeemaker and sat on a stool. It wasn’t noon yet and she had almost single-handedly consumed an entire pot of coffee. No wonder her hand shook when she lifted the cup.
No, it wasn’t all caffeine. Part of her shakiness was anger and adrenaline. She could count on one hand the physical confrontations she’d been involved with over the course of her thirty-two years. It would be fine with her if she went another thirty-two years without another one. Or more.
Her mind strayed to her poor pet. She knelt on the floor and stroked him gently, avoiding the leg with the IV. He was dopey, but he lifted his elegant head and gave her a hoarse purr. She hoped he knew she was doing all this for his benefit. Would a cat know that, though? Was anyone harboring good feelings toward her at the moment?
A tear strayed down her cheek. She was taking care of Quincy. Anna was taking care of Laci. But who was taking care of Chase Oliver?
THIRTY-SEVEN
Anna stole up behind Chase so quietly, she didn’t hear a thing.
“I sent Laci home,” Anna said.
“Well, that’s good, since I just fired her.”
“Charity, darling, we have to talk about these things before you go off on a cockamamie spree.”
“Me? I was cockamamie? Did you see what they were doing? They were attacking each other. All the customers left. This is no way to run a business.”
Anna stuck two cups of water into the microwave to make tea for them. “You’re right. We need to hire someone else, or two someones. I’ll put ads in the paper and online as soon as I finish this.” The timer dinged and she dunked bags of Earl Grey into the hot water. She sat beside Chase for moment, sipping, then sprang up. “No, I’ll do it now.”
She disappeared into the office to use the company computer. Chase swiped at the lone tear on her face, grateful that no more were following it. She hated people who wallowed in self-pity. This wasn’t like her, and she was determined not to give in to her incipient feelings of depression.
Ticking off the points on her fingers, she counted her blessings. She’d read once that it was an antidote to depression.
One: Quincy was home and would recover.
Two: Anna and Julie were her good friends, her beloved family, and they were loyal and true. Almost all the time.
Three: A handsome man had taken her out to dinner. (At this point, Detective Niles Olson’s deep blue eyes intruded, but she shut them out.)
Four: Four? She pondered. She was healthy and half owned a business that was doing nicely.
Five: Surely she could think of one more.
“There, that’s done.” Anna bustled into the kitchen. “Now I have to finish the batch I was baking.” She picked up the icing tube and squeezed vanilla drizzle on the latest batch.
Chase felt the stabbing pain in her back, a dull pounding in her head, and another ache deep inside. She must have winced because Anna noticed.
“You don’t look well, dear.” Anna switched off the mixer and started the oven preheating. “Would you like to go upstairs and have a nap?”
“How can I? Someone needs to be out front.”
“Why don’t we close for the rest of the day? You’ve had too much piled onto your thin shoulders. We own the place, right? We can close up if we want to.” She squeezed Chase’s hand. “There should be some advantage to owning your own business.”
“Oh, Anna!” Chase wailed. She buried her face in Anna’s aproned chest and sobbed.
Chase lifted her head when she heard the back doorbell. Anna went to let in Mike Ramos.
“Hi,” he boomed, full of joviality. “I’ve come to see my favorite . . .” His face grew solemn when he saw Chase. “Is this not a good time?”
“No, it’s a good time.” Chase sniffed.
Anna handed her a tissue.
“I must look awful,” Chase said.
“Well, you look . . .”
“We’re having a bad day,” Anna said. “We just had to fire both of our employees.”
Chase was glad Anna said “we” fired them. It made her feel more like a teammate.
Anna went into the office and left Chase to tell Mike about the fight between Vi and Laci.
“I don’t see that you had a choice,” he said after she’d related the details of the incident. “But I’m sorry you’re going through that.”
If she hadn’t just cried herself out on Anna’s bosom, she might have considered doing it on Mike’s broad chest. But she found herself regaining her composure. “I guess you should look at Quincy.”
Mike gave Quincy a going-over and pronounced him on the mend.
“I’ve taken out the IV, and the anesthetic should begin to wear off soon.”
As he left, he promised to call her the next day and arrange a date.
He actually used the word date, Chase noted. So, they were dating. That was official. She called to Anna that she was going upstairs now for a lie-down.
An hour later, Chase came downstairs, feeling more refreshed than she would have anticipated. Anna had flipped the sign on the door to “Closed” and was still baking. She gestured to a small heap on the counter. “I picked those things up, from the floor and the top of the display case.”