Unspoken Promises first chapter

   My heart plummeted as my boss outlined his plans for the company. Bill had just pulled the rug out from under my feet. My head buzzed making me wonder if I was about to faint. I felt like crying. I didn’t do either, but still . . .

   I loved my job and my place in this little cottage industry company that made beautiful things of wood, from one-of-a-kind pieces of custom furniture to unique swag and promotional items by the hundreds bearing company logos. I’d been with Bill and Sara nearly since the beginning. Havelocks sort of felt like my own company. Of course, it wasn’t and the decision they’d had to make for family reasons was the best for them. But it wasn’t best for me. Not now. Not after the week I’d just barely managed to survive.

   A week in which I’d discovered that having an empty nest was more painful than I’d expected following the whirlwind of packing and preparing to drive my twin sons to New England for their freshman year of college. With Luke happily getting to know his new surroundings at Brown in Rhode Island and Liam thrilled to be studying at Suffolk University in Boston, my home now felt more than just empty. It felt dead and way too quiet. I had comforted myself with the thought that with the boys on their own, Garrett and I could begin planning what to cross off our bucket list first.

   That solace ended two nights ago when Garrett packed his clothes and a few essentials he needed for the next few weeks and left. Without me.

   How had it come to this? No marriage. No boys to busy myself with. And now, no job.

   No job, that is, unless I wanted to move across the country to a city I had never even had a desire to visit.

   “No need to give me an answer right this minute, Kenzie,” Bill said, his voice coming from a long way off. “Think about it. You might want a change considering everything . . .” He trailed off, probably not wanting to contemplate how devastated I might be by Garrett’s defection.

   But what about my boys. Sure, they were in college, but they were still on the east coast. They were all I had left. My heart felt like someone was squeezing it in a vice.

   My one-time mentor, then long-time friend, Maggie Shaw, had been killed in a car crash in August. My next-door neighbor and coffee buddy had just moved to Florida. My very best friend was Garrett’s sister. How a divorce would impact that fun, easy relationship I didn’t want to contemplate.

   Yet another blow the week had delivered was that Garrett’s leaving was only temporary. Our home, the dwelling we’d shared for our entire married life, where our boys had grown up, was Garrett’s. He’d grown up in that house, and though he’d carried me across that threshold after our wedding, we’d never added my name to the deed. I had never imagined any need to go through whatever legal hoops might be required.

   Garrett had been generous by his standards. I had a month to find a new place before he returned, bringing with him the woman he’d been seeing behind my back for more than two years. I had pictured myself dandling grandchildren on my lap in that house. Growing old and maybe even having to install one of those walk-in showers advertised on TV when Garrett and I got too old for a tub.

   “Kenzie?”

   I’d totally zoned out and hadn’t heard Bill’s last comment.

   “Sorry. You were saying?”

   “We’ll be at least three months before we’re up and running again. I’m giving you a nice package. Call it severance if you decide to stay here in Virginia where you . . . have roots. Or call it continued employment if you want to come to Dallas with us. Except you won’t have to do any work for a few months. You could take the time to find an apartment, get moved and settle in.  

   Bill held out an envelope. I took it automatically, numbness settling in. I let my hand drop to my side without even glancing at it. Bill fidgeted with a pen laying across a stack of papers on the crowded space he called his desk, and I suddenly realized he was eager to get back to his current task, whatever that was. Handing me a pink slip surely hadn’t been a highlight of his day either.

   I thanked him. At least I think I thanked him, as I turned to leave. My mind had gone blank. Better mute than tears. That would have been awkward beyond anything.

   Bill’s wife and business partner looked up from a recent project she was packing into boxes and smiled. “I sure hope you decide that Dallas is your next stop. Having you to keep the books straight and inventory in order has been priceless, as the saying goes. You’ll be a hard woman to replace.”

   I shrugged. “I need to think about it. See you tomorrow?”

   The woman shook her head. “Not unless you have stuff still hanging. Doors close today. I’m just getting the last of this stuff ready to ship. I know it’s kind of sudden, but we kept waffling until Bill’s mom had her fall. Tomorrow, we start packing up the shop. I guess Bill explained about his mom and why we decided to move our fun little company to Dallas?”

   I nodded and turned toward my tiny office to start gathering my personal belongings. Bill had explained, and I understood, but I was still in denial. It had been a week of blows I struggled to comprehend. I stared at the family photo proudly displayed on the corner of my desk. A photo taken less than a year ago on our last family trip to Hawaii. The ledgers and catalogs that had been my domain lined neatly along the shelf above the desk. I touched the letters carved into the wooden name plate Bill had made for me, then picked it up.

   Pens protruded from a mug I’d purchased in the bookstore when Liam and I had visited Suffolk while he was scouting colleges. Without caring where any of them ended up, I dumped the pens on the desk and pulled the mug to my chest along with the nameplate. Then, ignoring the photo, I grabbed my purse from the bottom drawer, turned and walked blindly out of the building, barely noticing the lovely aroma of raw wood. Cedar and fir and so many agreeable scents that had filled my workspace for all these years, and part of what had made coming to work a pleasure.

   I was sitting in my car before I remembered the envelope I held, still unopened. I slid my finger under the flap and peeked inside.

   No way!

   Another shock.

   Bill and Sara couldn’t afford this. Surely an extra zero had been added by mistake. I started to open the car door to go back in and talk to Bill but then noticed a small bit of paper still inside the envelope. I pulled it out.

   Written on the back of an old design sketch in Bill’s cramped hand, were just three words.

   YOU DESERVE IT.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

   I drove home on autopilot. Unfortunately, that didn’t include a follow-through to fix myself something to eat, so when someone rapped on the door I was still sitting on the bottom step in my spacious foyer. I tried to ignore the rapping, but when it got more insistent, I finally dragged myself to my feet and answered it.

   “I was about ready to knock the door down, or at least call 911 for a wellness check,” Jaycee Westman announced as she strode into the hall. She stopped short and gazed around. “No lights? Are we still in mourning for my two-timing louse of a brother?” 

   “Mourning my loss of home and employment.”

   “You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding.” Jaycee paced back to square off with me. “Wait. You aren’t kidding, are you? But I don’t get it. Explain.”

   I waved a hand like Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune. “This is Garrett’s house. He asked me to leave by the end of the month.”

   “He can’t do that, can he? I mean, you’ve lived here forever. It’s as much yours as his. You need to get a lawyer.”

   “Doesn’t work that way in Virginia. You guys grew up here, and Garrett inherited it from your grandfather before I even met your brother.”

   “But your name’s on the deed.” Jaycee nodded her head. “Right?”

   I shrugged. “Never thought I needed to. We were just supposed to grow old . . . together.”

   “Well, that sucks. Maybe, we should just kill him off. I bet he hasn’t had time to change his will yet.”

   I gasped. “Jaycee! That’s not even remotely funny.”

   Jaycee’s mouth pressed into a hard line before she sighed and changed the subject. “And what’s this about your job? No way you got fired.”

   “Havelock Memories is moving to Dallas Texas. Lock, stock, and barrel. It closed shop as of . . .” I consulted my watch. “Two hours ago.”

   Jaycee wrapped me in a tight hug, then pushed me away to ask, “Why Dallas?”

   “Bill’s mom can’t live alone anymore, but she’s lived in Dallas her entire life. All her friends are there, and her clubs and her life. With her possible diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, they didn’t want to drag her east and confuse her any more than she already is, so they are moving the company to Dallas.” I fought a wave of vertigo, still trying to take it all in myself, never mind explain it to my sister-in-law. “I’m invited to go with. Or not. My choice.”

   “Are you going to go?” Disbelief now colored Jaycee’s voice as well as my brain.

   I wordlessly handed Jaycee the check.

   She whistled. “Is this a bribe?”

   “Severance, if I don’t go. Salary if I choose to stay on since they think it will take a few months to get the company moved, set up and running again. And I’d have to get moved and settled in, too.”

   “This calls for a drink,” Jaycee announced surging to her feet and dragging me with her. “Grab a coat. It’s getting chilly out.”