Chapter 4 Rose

CHAPTER 4

ROSE

Rose Day had a problem, and he was currently leaning against the counter in her bookstore, working on the New York Times crossword puzzle with, of all things, an ink pen. Show-off.

To be honest, she didn't mind that her grandson Luke was doing the puzzle. It was a slow day, and she often read while sitting right where he was. But unlike her, whenever Luke focused on something, he became completely oblivious to his surroundings, including their one and only customer at that moment—Kat Carter—who'd brought a stack of books to the register and had been trying to get his attention for the last minute and a half.

Standing an imposing six foot two, his dark hair a tangle of black curls and his thickly lashed eyes as blue as the ocean, Luke was once again proving that he was the world's worst counter help. Rose was growing surer by the day that even those people who tried to be bad at customer service couldn't—and wouldn't—find more ways to ignore customers than Luke. In fact, poor Kat had already said hello twice now, and he'd yet to respond.

Disgusted, Rose dropped her pen onto her desk and scowled out of the window of her office. "Sheesh. Pay attention, will you?" It was a pity he was so lost in his puzzle because Kat, besides being a very pretty girl with long dark hair and the type of figure that men back in Rose's day would have called a "classy chassis," was one of the bookshop's best customers.

Just as Rose reached for her cane so she could get up and get Kat checked out, Luke dropped the pen onto his newspaper, lifted his head, and said, "I'm glad you're here." He placed both hands on the counter and leaned forward, his face now even with Kat's.

She turned a bright pink, interest sparkling in her eyes. "Yes?" Her voice was warm and husky.

Luke smiled, a dimple appearing in one cheek.

Rose stifled a groan. Poor Kat. She had no idea how thick and unwilling of a wall she was about to run into. It was ironic God had gifted this man, a complete and utter computer nerd, with such a face and smile. Rose cast a sour glance at the ceiling. You do have a sense of humor, don't you?

Luke pushed his newspaper across the counter. "What's a seven-letter word for ‘compete in a hybrid water sport' that ends in ‘i'?"

Kat's smile froze and then faded. "Oh. I don't know."

"Darn it." He grabbed the newspaper and turned away. He was soon once again lost in his puzzle.

Kat's bewildered gaze moved from him down to her stack of books and then back.

That's it. Rose picked up her cane and got up from her creaky 1920s office chair, a relic from when her grandfather and then her father had worked in this very office. She took a step forward and winced as she put her weight on her left leg. Darn arthritis, darn chilly springs, and darn my grandson for not listening to a darn thing I say.

She made her way out of her office and into the shop, the delightful smell of books welcoming her. "Hello, Kat." Rose went behind the counter and pushed Luke out of the way. "Next time, just whack him on the side of the head with one of your books. That'll get his attention."

Luke blinked. "What? Oh! I was going to ring her up. I was just—" He slapped his hand on the counter. "I know it!"

Rose frowned. "You know what? That you're horrible counter help?"

"It's para-ski." He filled in the word.

"Fool!" Rose took Kat's books, making small talk even as she wondered what she was going to do with this handsome, guileless, rudderless grandson of hers. From the time he'd first charmed the world with his dimples and curls to now, Luke had managed to be the star of his own life, the darling of everyone he met, the apple of his parents' eyes, and the unaware crush of numerous women, all without actually doing anything or—worse yet—accomplishing a thing.

She'd been worried about the kid his whole life. To the average onlooker, it probably seemed as if he'd always had the world at his feet. As a teenager, despite spending thousands of hours playing video games, he'd somehow managed to graduate high school as valedictorian and had gotten a full-ride scholarship to Georgia Tech. Although no one had ever seen him study or even touch a textbook in college, he'd graduated summa cum laude in three and a half years with a degree in computer something-or-another. Life came far too easily to this young man.

It hadn't stopped there, either. For a normal college graduate, a tech degree would have been enough to set their feet on the path to success. But instead of getting a steady job at a well-established company like a smart person would do, Luke had scoffed at what he called "nine-to-five slavery" and had instead decided to do something called "consulting," which—from what Rose could see—meant he flitted between assignments at will; traveled for weeks at a time to uncomfortable places like China and South Korea; and then, when he was home, spent a lot of time fiddling on his laptop. She was certain he was making a mere fraction of what he could have been had he taken a traditional job. It was maddening, seeing so much potential just evaporating away a drop at a time.

Ignoring him now, Rose asked Kat, "How's your mother?"

Kat smiled. "She's doing great. She's in Atlanta this weekend shopping with friends."

"That sounds like fun." The Carter women were known for their frivolous and sensual natures. It was said they lured wealthy men to them like sirens and then trapped them in a matrimonial web. Of course, it was one thing to lure a wealthy man, another to keep him. The Carter women couldn't seem to do that, and they had a long record of divorces. Kat's mother has been married—what is it now? Four times? Or is it five? I can't even remember.

So far Kat had avoided the Carter women's traditionally rocky and always brief marriage trend. She'd had only one serious boyfriend, if one could call him that, as he seemed to drift in and out of her life like a windblown leaf. Rumor had it that, although he'd proposed more than once, Kat had turned him down each and every time.

One might think that meant she was a woman of sense, and yet here she was, looking at Luke as if she were about ten seconds away from hopping across the counter and throwing herself at him. It was a good thing Luke was protected by both his low bank account and his own lack of awareness of the world around him, or he might have unwittingly become a notch on the infamous Carter bedpost.

Rose picked up the scanner and started ringing up Kat's books. "Did you find everything you were looking for?"

"I did. Mom wanted the latest Robyn Carr book, so I got that, and then I bought three others, too." Kat made a face. "I can't come in here for just one book. I always end up getting more."

"That's what we're here for." Rose glanced at the clock over the door and said over her shoulder, "Luke, it's almost three."

"Already?" He dropped his pen onto the folded newspaper. "I'd better go."

Rose reached into her cardigan pocket and pulled out a set of keys. "Check the post office while you're out. I'm expecting a package from my accountant."

"I can't." Luke slanted Rose a slow smile. It was one of his most annoying habits, flashing that "I know you're mad, but it won't last" sort of look used by mischievous and charming men the world over. "Grandma, I have to pick up Lulu in twenty minutes."

"So?"

"So it'll take me at least that long to get into that nightmare of a pickup line, scoop up Lulu, and navigate out of the parking lot, which will be filled with precious little things trying to find their mother's minivans in a sea of other minivans. Then I'll have to drive all the way back to town, and—because of the time—will most likely get stuck behind a school bus, which will stop at every home between here and there. Which means that by the time I get to the post office, it'll be closed."

Damn it. She hated it when he used common sense to argue. She muttered "Ungrateful brat" under her breath and returned the keys to her cardigan pocket.

"I'd better run. Kat, it was nice seeing you." He grabbed his coat from under the counter and put it on as he headed for the door. "Back soon." The soft jangle of the bells above the door announced his departure.

"He's fond of his niece." Kat's eyes were now on the door, her gaze concentrated, as if she were attempting to use brute mental will to force Luke to come back.

"Yup. By the way, the new Carr book is excellent. Read it just last week and loved it." Rose returned the scanner wand to its holder. "Your mom never misses a Carr release. She must be one of her biggest fans."

Kat dragged her gaze from the closed door and smiled at Rose. "You have no idea. Last year, Ms. Carr held a book signing, and Mom and four of her friends drove three hundred and thirty-two miles just to get signed books. They're crazy fans." Kat pulled out her credit card and tapped it on the pad Rose had just pointed to. "I was telling Mom that you've made a lot of improvements here. The scanner is a lot faster, isn't it?"

"Faster isn't always better," Rose said sourly. It was nice having Luke here at the bookstore, as she never had to eat lunch alone anymore, which she appreciated. But his desire to change everything was a bit off-putting. Whenever he wasn't absorbed in a crossword or playing some sort of weird game on his laptop or doing his own "work," he walked around the bookstore, making suggestions she wished he'd keep to himself.

She supposed she was partially at fault. After the family had realized how dire Caitlyn's situation was and that the chances were high of her going to jail for ten years if not more, Rose had invited Luke and Lulu to live with her. Somehow, he'd gotten the mistaken idea that meant he'd also been invited to modernize every aspect of her beloved bookshop.

Rose should have put a stop to that line of thinking then and there, but she'd soon discovered that her seemingly aimless grandson was amazingly persistent once he got an idea in his head. So persistent that he'd eventually worn her down and she'd reluctantly allowed him to implement a few of his less intrusive and more reasonable ideas. Thus, over the past few months, she'd gotten that infernal scanning wand and a newfangled register that at times seemed to have a mind of its own.

But it hadn't stopped there. He'd also reorganized the filing system, which made tracking sales "easier," and had completely changed the website. Now people could order books directly from the store. Every morning, after Luke opened the bookstore and restocked the shelves, he would print up the orders that had come in overnight and get them packaged and ready to ship.

While she found most of his upgrades ridiculous, she had to admit she rather liked the online shopping they now offered. It had given her a nice surprise when she'd looked at their total sales at the end of the month, adding hundreds of dollars of net profits to their bottom line.

Rose slid Kat's books into a bag. "Here you go."

Kat took the bag but stayed at the counter. "I was sad to hear about your granddaughter going to prison. Mom said Caitlyn got involved with the wrong crowd."

Rose had nothing to say about that. Caitlyn was a discontented soul who, when she couldn't find trouble, made it for herself, running full steam into every pitfall available. In middle school, she'd been expelled for fighting; she'd then been expelled from high school after dozens of absences and several brash scenes.

After that, she'd been homeschooled, finally graduating, much to her family's relief. Caitlyn had reluctantly agreed to go to college, only to drop out in her first semester and never return. She'd run even wilder after that, drinking far too much and dating a whole line of horrible men and following them into a ton of new mistakes and reproaches. That was Caitlyn for you. Over the years, she'd caused her family untold agony, which had made her parents idolize Luke even more, despite Rose's warnings.

Rose worried just as much about Luke as she did about Caitlyn. When life came too easily to a person, they never learned how to recover, how to get back on their feet when they were knocked down by fate's cruel hand. Luke didn't yet know how unfair life could be, even to the kind. Just take her beloved bookstore, for example.

She sighed. The past few years had been hard on her business and, even with Luke's improvements, it seemed to be growing weaker by the month. She and the bookshop had endured a lot together: financial crises, Covid, crazy interest rates, supply chain issues, the rising cost of books—the list was endless. The downward slide that had begun years ago had become ingrained in some way, and she couldn't seem to stop it. If things kept going the way they were, she'd have to close the bookshop for good. Her heart ached at the thought.

"Rose?"

She realized Kat was watching her, a worried expression on her face.

Rose forced a smile. "Sorry. I was just thinking about something. I—" The computer beeped and flashed a message. "What's wrong with this thing now? I wasn't even ringing anything up."

"Is it giving you problems?"

"It's always giving me problems. I don't know why I let Luke talk me into getting rid of my old method of sales. Why fix something that isn't broken? The old register worked just fine."

"Maybe he thought it would be easier to track your stock."

"Easier?" Rose scoffed. "Easier for the IRS to audit me, perhaps. And who would want to help them?" As if she cared about them. Let them just try to decipher her spidery handwriting in her huge, blotted ledgers, and let them wade through the wads upon wads of receipts that she kept stuffed in old shoeboxes stacked in the back of her office. Ha! If they come for me, they'll face months if not years of work, and they'll deserve it, too.

Kat watched as Rose punched random buttons until the computer stopped flashing the error message. "How's Lulu doing? Mom and I saw Luke in the park with her last week. They were having such a good time."

"Lulu's doing great." Better, probably, than the rest of them. "It's nice having her and Luke here. We'd originally hoped that my son and his wife—Luke and Caitlyn's parents—would take care of Lulu, but my son has health issues, so Luke stepped in."

"Health issues? I hope he's okay."

"He fell and needs a hip replacement. He'll be fine in a few months, but his wife has back problems, so neither of them are in any shape to chase around a kindergartner. Luke's young, so it's not too much work for him."

"I can tell he's fond of her. Mom said that Luke's a computer genius." Kat waited, an expectant look on her face.

Rose wondered why Kat was asking so many questions. As much as Rose liked the younger woman, Kat was still a Carter and not to be trusted, especially with a guy as softhearted as Luke. I should put an end to this. "It might not be a lot of work for Luke to watch after Lulu now…" Rose paused for effect. "But it will be."

Kat's smiled faltered. "Will be?"

"Lulu's only six right now. Things will change once she's in her preteens, which will be here before you know it. Luke's only got four years or so before the moods, the fights, and the yelling arrive."

"Wow. I didn't think about that. But… won't Lulu be back with her mother by then?"

"Lord, no. Lulu's mom made a long series of reckless decisions, so she'll be in jail for at least ten years."

"Ten years? Goodness. What did she do?"

"Stupid things." Using a falsified résumé written by her then boyfriend, who was a real loser with a criminal history longer than he was tall, Caitlyn had gotten a job working in the accounting office of a used-car lot in Asheville. For almost a year, with her boyfriend's encouragement, she'd filed hundreds of fake invoices that had funneled almost a million dollars into their bank account. Rose was so embarrassed by her granddaughter's inexcusable actions that she refused to talk about it outside of the family. "Luke has made a huge commitment in taking on Lulu and her future bad moods."

"It was nice of him to do it."

"Very. It cost him dearly, too, although he'd never admit that to anyone. He had to quit his job once he got custody of Lulu, as he could no longer travel. From what I can tell, he's just working part-time now. He must be pretty much broke, too." And seemed perfectly okay with that, which annoyed Rose to death. She'd tried to bring up his money situation numerous times now, but Luke just smiled and said he was "fine." Fine, indeed. Fine with being broke. What's wrong with that boy?

Kat eyed Rose uneasily. "Maybe he's doing better than you think. It's a gig economy, so it's possible that—"

"He's as broke as a rotten board. Sold his sports car just a month ago. Some sort of BMW convertible. Gave up his pricey condo in Atlanta, too, after he and Lulu moved in with me. Fortunately, I have plenty of room in that huge old house of mine for the both of them."

She loved her old house, too. Some people looked down on older structures, with their uneven floors and less than perfectly sealed windows. But she knew that old homes were better made than new ones. The wood they used was the lovely, stretchy kind, which bounced as one walked and yet never split or gave way like newer, modern wood. They always go for the cheaper products nowadays. Everything is faster and worse.

She needed to become more like the old wood when it came to her own life and stretch a bit when she dealt with Luke. It would take some work, but she supposed she could manage it over time.

"Poor Luke." Kat slowly backed away from the counter.

Rose hid a smile. "Yeah, he has it rough. I help him when I can, but it's brutal, raising a kid alone. He gets up at six a.m. every morning to get her ready for school. He has to pack up her lunch, get her dressed and fed—which can be a fight—and then he takes her to school. Every afternoon, he either picks her up or waits for her at her bus stop and walks her here, and then there's homework and dinner and a bath. Whew!" Rose grabbed a brochure for Ava's teashop from the pile by the register and fanned herself. "I made myself tired, and I haven't even finished describing a whole day yet."

"Poor guy was really thrown into the deep end, wasn't he?" Kat glanced at her wristwatch. "I should go. I—"

"Honestly, I wish Luke would just find himself a nice woman, settle down, and get married."

Kat blinked. "Married?"

"For Lulu's sake. He needs someone smart and has a good job so it won't matter if he works or not, and— Wait one minute." Rose looked Kat up and down. "Maybe you—"

"Whoops! Look at the time!" Kat was almost at the door. "I'd better get back to work. Tell Luke good luck for me. Bye!" The bell on the door jangled as it closed behind her.

Well. That hadn't taken anywhere near as long as Rose had thought it would. Good. Now that she'd gotten rid of Luke's potential distraction, she'd get out the last carton of books and have them ready for him to shelve when he got back here with Lulu.

Rose checked to make sure the unfinished crossword puzzle was well hidden under a stack of flyers, and then left her cane behind the counter and reached for one of the carts. As she wheeled it down the aisle toward the storage room, a thought struck her.

Maybe what she'd said to Kat hadn't been far off the mark.

Perhaps marriage was the answer to Luke's problems. It would be lovely for both her and Lulu if Luke found a nice girl, someone who would accept his lackluster approach to life.

Not Kat Carter, whose mother had had so many divorces that it almost took two hands to count them out. But someone nice, someone kind, someone from a good family, and someone who loved children, too. And yes, someone with a promising career who could support the whole family.

But who? Rose wasn't sure who in Dove Pond could meet those criteria, but as she started opening cartons in the storage room, she began to make a mental list.

Luke might not be interested in bettering his life, but she was, and she wouldn't stop until she'd done it.