Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(58)

Fosse’s was turning out to be an awesomely fun place to work. They were steadily busy during the weekends, and Adrienne liked talking to people as they shopped. Her first few weeks, things were quiet on weekdays, and that got a little boring, but Dora wasn’t averse to running down to the ice cream shop and bringing back sundaes, or across to the café for coffee, and then sitting around and yakking to kill time. So that was fun, too. Now it was summer, and the weekdays were busier, but they still manage some time to chat.

The mayor owned the shop, and he popped in every other day or so, but his daughter, Dora, did the day-to-day running of things. Mayor Fosse was nice, and probably would have been just fine as a boss. But Dora was fantastic, sweet and funny, with a wry sense of humor that would have been biting if it weren’t always delivered with her bright smile and reassuring wink.

She was an artist herself, though she wouldn’t say so. In the back, she refurbished pieces people brought in on consignment or things she’d bought at auctions and estate sales, and she did beautiful work.

Not just basic refinishing, though she did that for people, too. But when she was making something for her stock, she did crackle and decoupage and all kinds of wonderful effects and treatments. She turned people’s broken-down discards into art.

Dora was teaching her the techniques she used. Adrienne thought of it as learning to work in new media. Definitely art. Usable art. She could totally get behind that.

Marcia was a town girl, still in high school, who worked about ten hours a week during the school year.

She was sweet and helpful. Now that school was out of the summer, she was around more, and Dora had decided that, among the three of them, they could manage a whole-shop remerchandising. To the constant soundtrack of Dora’s beloved Dixie Chicks, they’d been rearranging and cleaning and polishing for a couple of weeks. Badger and Show had come in after closing for a few nights—together—and built new shelving for them.

Adrienne was happy. She’d found work she liked. It was humble, but that was part of its appeal. She felt like she was doing a lot of the same things she would have been doing if she’d taken an entry-level job at a SoHo gallery, but this felt more worthwhile. Maybe that was nuts.

It didn’t pay much, but she didn’t need much. And if she could maybe get on full time, it would pay enough so that she could move out of the B&B and still save what was left of her mom’s money for something like a down payment on a house someday.

To see Show and Badger come back together was the icing on her Signal Bend cake. She didn’t know what had happened to make Show willing to forgive Badger and accept him again as a brother. When she’d asked, Badger had only shrugged. When she asked Show, he’d winked and kissed the top of her head. Not exactly answers. So something had happened in the club, and it was none of her business. She was going to have to get used to that.

And she was trying. Sometimes she felt like ‘Adrienne Renard, Girl Detective,’ running around town, questioning the old ladies. But after Badger had told her as much as he’d ever told her about what had happened to them in the fall, and what kind of business the Horde got into, she had to get her head straight.

That night, he’d had nightmares again and had been desperate with her again. She knew she couldn’t leave him. She wouldn’t.

But she had to reconcile the Badger she knew and loved, the family she knew and loved, with the Horde he’d described. And she had to reconcile all that with who she was—or was becoming. All of that had already been in flux, but she didn’t want to lose herself in the undertow.

Then she’d thought about the women of the Horde. Lilli and Shannon, especially. She knew them well —she looked up to them both. She knew Cory and Tasha less well, but they, too, struck her as admirable women. Women with integrity and strength. They were fully committed to their men and to the Horde, and they were strong and good in their own rights. There was obviously a way to accept the life and not be swallowed up in it. So Adrienne asked.

And they’d told her.

They all had different stories, different takes. Shannon, happy at the thought of Badger and Adrienne settling down together, was expansive and encouraging in her answers; Lilli was direct. Cory was sad but honest. Tasha, who’d grown up in the club, was practical. What it all came down to, Adrienne had decided, was trust. These women trusted their men, and they trusted themselves. They trusted each other. They trusted the club itself. Within that trust, they loved unconditionally and took care of their family. The rest?

Just details.

That made sense to Adrienne. It felt like the way family was supposed to be. Unconditional love and support. Sticking together no matter what. The way her own family had once been. Until her father had cast her off for not choosing to live her life in a way of which he approved.

Marcia came back from the workroom. “Dora says she wants one more coat of polyurethane on that chest, but leave a space for it, and she’ll put it up as soon as it’s dry.”

“Okay.” Adrienne turned back to the scene she was setting in the display window. Within a week of working this job, Dora had handed over the styling of the displays to Adrienne. When she’d been wandering around town, before she got this job, she’d liked the messy windows best. Now, though, with this big oriel window as her canvas, she’d changed her mind. She liked having a canvas like this.

It was almost the first official day of summer. To commemorate that, she was doing a sun theme, all gold and white and glittery. The crackle chest, with the sun clock on it, would be the centerpiece, but there was more. Among a host of other gold, yellow, and white pieces, she’d placed a mirrored nightstand in the space, in front of a pretty Andrew Wyeth print in a shimmering gold frame. She’d found a box in the back full of little disco-ball Christmas ornaments, and she’d draped yellow satin in the window and hung the ornaments from the ceiling. The light from the real sun and the reflection from the bright items made Adrienne feel like she was surrounded by warm sunshine.