Forgotten First Kiss

Chapter 9

By the next morning, I could hobble around just fine. My bike was out of order, possibly beyond repair—at least by me—but with enough Tylenol, I managed the three-mile walk to the gymnastics shop. Tennille and Liam met me there, accompanied by a man in a rumpled three-piece suit who now sported a beard and therefore didn’t look as much like Liam as did his biography picture online. However, the resemblance was still obvious.

“Ivan Rutledge.” He stuck out his hand, but I didn’t take it. This was not a friendly meeting. “You’re the famous Danica Denton.”

“Usually she’s really nice.” Tennille winced, cowering behind Liam. “Let’s just get started.”

Instead of looking at the contract themselves, they handed it straight to Ivan. Then, Tennille shifted her weight back and forth for the duration of Ivan’s perusal, while Liam scrolled his phone. It was so Liam of him.

“This contract has no teeth.” Ivan looked up. Then he bumped his shoulder against Liam’s causing him to drop his phone.

The screen cracked in a spider web pattern. Liam cursed. “Ivan, you son of a gun.”

Ivan snatched the phone from Liam’s grip and shoved it in his own pocket. “Why’d you make me drive all the way down here at this inhuman hour of the morning when all this contract does is negate the earlier one?” Ivan’s teeth were clenched. “I’m charging you double my hourly rate.”

“We’re family! Doesn’t that mean anything to you? We could have been facing criminal charges, thanks to you. You’re the one who said to sign her name, since she was so out of it.”

So that was it. I exhaled. Tennille hadn’t been the mastermind behind defrauding me, this crooked lawyer had.

“You’re the one who wanted his money back and told me to do whatever it took.”

Liam muttered some choice phrases.

I had no patience for this crooked lawyer. “Tell them to sign it immediately.” I planted my fists on my hips. “And if I hear that you sent them a bill for your so-called services, I’ll report you to the state bar.”

“You have no evidence,” Ivan challenged, but he handed Liam and Tennille each a pen, and then stepped aside so they could place the new contract on the countertop and sign it. “And how could you afford the help of Landmark Legal? Mark charges exorbitant prices.” He turned to Liam. “I told you she was embezzling from the business and you could have gotten your investment back much swifter. You’re getting duped, cousin. Take her to court. I’ll be glad to represent you.”

Tennille wound up and punched Ivan in the jaw. He reeled backward and fell on his tailbone on the polished concrete floor. “Stay away from my husband.” She crouched into fighting stance.

Wow. Apparently, all those hours training in jiu-jitsu really paid off when it mattered.

“I’ll sue you for assault.” He rubbed his chin, his face bright red.

“Go ahead and try.” Liam grabbed him by the collar and jerked him to his feet. “Say one more thing to my wife—ever—and I’ll call Grandma.”

For the first time, true fear entered Ivan’s face.

I had no idea who Liam and Ivan’s grandma was, but Ivan backed up, his palms forward in surrender. “Fine. Just forget it.” Ivan left, trailing a cloud of filth, kind of like that comic book character kid who never bathed.

Tennille threw her arms around me and fell on my neck, weeping. “Danica.” Several sobs. “I couldn’t sleep all night. I never meant for any of this to happen.” More crying. “I was so worried about you, but Liam was upset, and then we saw Ivan at the family Labor Day picnic, and Liam and he shared a few too many drinks, and a couple of days later, they were shoving paperwork at me, saying, ‘This is the only way to get our investment back, since it seems like Danica is never going to be herself again.’ I was scared. About everything.”

“Fear makes us do the wrong thing a lot of the time.” At last, I returned her hug. “It’s all over now.”

“You’re not going to call the cops on us?”

No, but I also didn’t really trust her again yet. “I’ll pay you back the remainder of your investment.”

“You don’t have it. It’s almost ten thousand dollars.”

“I’ll get it.” I’d take out an equity loan on the building. It’d increased in value a lot over the past few years. “I’ll return the money with interest.”

For the first time, Liam looked up. “No, you won’t.” He shoved his broken phone in his pocket. He must have gotten it back from Ivan before Ivan took off. “Look, we owe you more than an apology. I was a knucklehead. Being around Ivan makes me more of one. Drinking makes it worse.” He shook his head. “We’ll forfeit the remainder of the investment. It’s the least we can do for all you’ve forgiven us.”

That wasn’t right, either. Eventually I’d work out something that was fair to both of us that I felt good about. For now, we agreed to dissolve our business partnership.

Liam went out to their car, and Tennille lingered.

“When we were packing up to leave, Liam said it might be good for us to get out of Wilder River. We’ve never really lived anywhere else. Sometimes staying in a place too long makes it so we don’t really grow. The disaster we caused you might be just the open door we need to make some changes.”