Seasons of Love (4 page)

Grandpa winked at her. “He’s a bright boy. And I knew you were the one. You always loved the farm so much.” He stood and reached for Chad. “I’d better get this little guy out of your hair while you take a look at all the paperwork. I’ve got chores to do, and he can go with me.”

“Thanks. I won’t be long. Just want to get organized.”

Chad screamed in Grandpa’s arms and reached with all his strength back toward Riley. “Oh, all right, you.” She took Chad back into her arms and shrugged at her grandfather. “It’s no problem. That’s why I brought his toys.”

Riley didn’t want to put Chad into day care. He’d lost his parents, and she wanted him to spend as much time as possible at the farm and with her and Grandpa.

Her grandfather left the office, and Riley put Chad on his quilt to play with his brightly colored toys. She moved behind the desk and surveyed the mess. By the look of things, her grandfather wasn’t big on paperwork, but that was no surprise. He’d always loved the outdoors.

The first thing on her agenda was to contact the dozer salesman about his faulty equipment. She shuffled papers and came across the late payment notice, among many others, and finally discovered the seller’s name. It took only ten minutes on the phone with the new-and-used dozer dealer, Chuck Sorenson, to learn that he would not change his as-is warranty policy. Still, she could detect no intent in the man to sell broken tractors. It was simply the way of things. He’d given her the phone number of a mechanic.

Chad wandered over as she picked up the phone to dial the mechanic. She offered the boy a piece of chocolate, hoping to distract him, but he wanted both the chocolate and for her to pick him up. She obliged, holding him in her right arm and the phone to her ear in the left. The first opportunity she had to go to town, she would have to purchase a cordless phone. It was impossible to get things done while attached to the desk.

A gravelly voice answered. She pictured the man on the other end covered in grease.

“Yes, I need a mechanic for a 1982 dozer.” As Riley waited for the mechanic’s reply, she noticed Chad’s mouth encircled in brown. She couldn’t see his fingers as they gripped her shoulders out of her line of sight, but she imagined them to be chocolate dipped.

“Give me your information. I’ve got five ahead of you,” the mechanic said.

Chad began to whine. Riley shushed him and kissed him on the forehead.

She gave her name and told the man the equipment was at Sanderford Farms on Cranberry Highway. He told her he’d already looked at that dozer and that Robert Sanderford had not been able to pay. Riley’s pulse pounded in her ears, along with Chad’s whining. Why hadn’t Grandpa told her?

She would do her best to negotiate. A knock drew her attention. A businessman appeared in the window of the door.

Riley panicked. What else had Grandpa left out? Was the man a banker or with the IRS? As he reached for the knob, Riley turned her back to him, wrapping the cord around her and Chad. The boy protested. Dread swelled in her chest, and her palms grew sweaty. She shuffled Chad in her arm.

“Listen, Mr.—” The door slammed behind Riley. When the mechanic did not offer his name, she continued. “Mister, I’m desperate here. What if I agree to pay after this year’s harvest?”

“Ma’am, I need to be paid for the work. I don’t operate like you cranberry farmers. I can’t wait until after the harvest when you get paid. I’ve got a family to feed.”

Riley huffed, her mind scrambling for a solution. She whirled around to face the desk again and, too late, remembered she’d turned her back to her untimely visitor.

Oh. Great. Zane Baldwyn
. She smiled and motioned for him to take a seat. “I understand. I’ll come up with something. You said you’d looked at it already, though. Can you give me your estimate?”

“Give me a minute. I’ve gotta find it.” The sound of a diesel engine revved through the receiver.

Riley acknowledged Zane with a nod. Rather than sitting, he chose to roam around the office, moving and touching things. She stiffened at his boldness and wished the man didn’t remind her so much of Eric. He had always been so overbearing, controlling. He had to have his way. Hadn’t she told Zane that she wouldn’t have time for him today? Yet there he stood, forcing her to see him. She’d come three thousand miles to get away from her ex-boyfriend. But it seemed that he was in the room with her.

Zane turned to look at her as if he knew she’d been staring. She tried to avert her gaze, but his cobalt eyes wouldn’t let her. He gave her a genuine smile, though she had the feeling that sorrow over the recent death of her brother dampened it. His clenched jaw relaxed as he looked at her then at Chad. He removed his suit coat and slowly approached as he reached out his hands to the candy-coated boy.

Riley widened her eyes in surprise. She was even more astonished when Chad relinquished his hold on her and scrambled into Zane’s arms. He strolled around the office, uncaring that Chad was a detriment to his starched white shirt. Amazing. He cooed and soothed the child. Riley wanted to slap her forehead. Of course Chad would know Zane.

The mechanic returned to the phone and told her his price. She gasped and said thank you then hung up the phone. When she returned her attention to Zane, Chad was asleep in his arms.

Unexpectedly, warmth flooded her heart.

With Chad nestled in his arms, Zane watched Riley. Her face had been pale as she hung up the phone but had transformed into an expression Zane couldn’t read as she glanced at Chad. Had he offended her by taking the boy? She opened her mouth to say something but hesitated, shuffling papers on the desk instead.

“Mr. Baldwyn. What a surprise.” She finished repositioning various-shaped white and yellow papers, then stacked them in a neat pile.

“I see that I’ve interrupted something important. My apologies.” He motioned toward the quilt on the floor to indicate his desire to lay Chad on it. “May I?”

His question seemed to jolt Riley from her somber mood, and she skirted the desk. “Yes, of course. Here, let me take him.” Her hands touched Zane’s chest as she attempted to wrestle the boy from him. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to put him down myself.”

Zane edged away from her. “No, I’ve got him. I can do this.”

Riley placed her hands on her hips, appearing a little incensed. But then she relaxed and gave Zane a lopsided grin. “Thank you.” She looked at the floor as if the words were difficult to say. “I appreciate you watching him like that.”

“Not a problem.” Zane bent down with Chad and gently placed him on the quilt. Once certain that Chad would remain asleep, he stood and faced Riley again.

He’d been angry and frustrated when he realized the computer hardware—all of John’s work and the future of Cyphorensic Technologies—had been stolen. He rushed out of his office to get here without finding an excuse to talk to her. As she looked at him, he realized he didn’t have a clue how to broach the subject.

Of course he didn’t need an excuse. He could simply come out and tell her he’d overheard John’s message. Confront her. But she might not be willing to confide in him, a complete stranger to her. For all he knew, she could be part of the problem. He scratched his head and avoided her gaze while he considered what to say.

A picture rested on top of a box, and he picked it up, examining it while he gathered his wits. It read Seek the Lord While He May Be Found. The notion unsettled him. Zane put the picture back in its place. He should have calmed down before coming here. He must find out what Riley knew, if anything, and if she’d found the item—a password, a program or file, or what, he didn’t know—that John had sent to her.

As he opened his mouth to voice his question, he noticed something about Riley that had escaped his attention before. He couldn’t be sure, but the Riley in front of him was somehow different than the Riley in the picture in John’s office. Interesting.

Strawberry blond hair struggled to escape her apparent attempt to pin it away from her face. The Riley in John’s office had straight blond hair. He didn’t believe it was a simple matter of hair coloring; even the face was slightly different. He would have to examine the photo to be certain.

“Um, the reason I stopped by is… Let me start over.”
Man, you’re bungling this.
He was an executive, an entrepreneur. Why was he stumbling over his words?

“Yes? I’m waiting. I’ve got a lot to do….” Moisture appeared in her eyes. Her day didn’t appear to be going too well. She turned away from him to squeeze between boxes and filing cabinets in order to get behind the old-fashioned desk, though not the sort of antique that would be worth anything.

It was then he noticed the chocolate smeared over the shoulders of her white T-shirt. He grabbed a tissue out of the box on her desk and handed it to her. Too late, he realized his blunder. He hadn’t meant to embarrass her.

“Thank you.” She took the tissue from him and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s been a hard day. I didn’t realize it was so obvious.”

Zane knew his sudden appearance in her office didn’t help matters. He probably only reminded her of John. He took another tissue from the box and moved around the desk, wanting to laugh at the horrified expression on her face. “Turn around.”

“What—what are you doing?” Her jade eyes peered up at him. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought he saw fear and anger raging behind them.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I simply want to wipe the chocolate off your shirt. It’s a really nasty habit, you know.”

Realization dawned on her face, and she laughed and showed him her back.

“Chocolate, that is. I take it you’re an addict, have a problem.” He wiped at the brown splotches then decided the tissue wasn’t the answer. “Have you got any water?”

She turned back to face him. “Really, this isn’t necessary. I’ll have to spray it with stain remover. You talk like you know about chocolate; don’t you know it stains?”

“I do; that’s why it’s imperative that we remove it immediately.” Zane spotted the wipes on top of the filing cabinet and pointed. “Those—they’ll do.” Before he could move, Riley dashed around the desk as if uncomfortable in close proximity to him. Her presence had an odd effect on him. She had single-handedly subdued his anger.

Riley lifted the container. “Empty. But I’ve got diaper wipes. They’ll work.”

While she rummaged through the diaper bag, he allowed his gaze to roam over various statements and late notices. It wasn’t enough that her brother had died. She also had to deal with this mess.

Riley yanked a wipe out of the box and held it up, her eyes full of mischief. “If I were you, I would worry about the chocolate on my own shirt.”

A smile erupted on his face, and he felt it all the way into his heart—a surprising but pleasant sensation. “This old thing? I’ll just toss it.”

Laughter gushed from her, the sound a symphony to his ears. The telephone rang, discharging the magic of the moment. Zane put his hand on the handset, considering answering it.

“No. I’ll get it.” Riley furrowed her brows, a warning in her eyes as she rushed to the desk. She stuffed the wipe into his hand before she yanked the annoying device to her ear. “Sanderford Farms.”

Reprimanded, he made his way to the chair on the other side of the desk, feeling like a nuisance while he listened to her conversation. He could tell his presence made her uncomfortable.

Cranberry farming.
An idea began to formulate in Zane’s mind. He closed his eyes and smiled, tuning out Riley’s phone conversation. He enjoyed it when things seemed to fall into place like so many carefully placed dominoes. And things were falling into place.

Sitting in the Sanderford Cranberry Farms office relaxed him. He’d overreacted. He decided that he would inform the police of the hardware theft, after all. His strong suspicion that John’s death was more than a coincidence was just that—a strong suspicion—probably not enough to convince the police of foul play. He doubted the police’s search for missing hardware would materialize into a cyber scandal.

Zane stepped outside to make the call to the police. If there was a connection between the computer theft and John’s death, Zane needed to find out on his own. He could do that and still protect his unsullied start-up. He returned to the office to find that Riley remained glued to the phone.

Zane didn’t feel comfortable with Cyphorensic Technologies going forward until he discovered what had happened to his friend and his wife, and to the software. In the meantime, he needed information that Riley might have. She appeared to be consumed with making a failing business work and did not act at all like someone who held a big secret in the palm of her hand.

Zane was an entrepreneur. He couldn’t help but be interested in all the possibilities that could come out of cranberry farming, including a new challenge.

Riley hung up the phone, slamming it a bit harder than necessary. She rubbed her temples.

Zane’s chest swelled with admiration for the strong young woman. Add “new mom” to her task list. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake in offering his help, but somehow her vulnerability had penetrated his better judgment. That much he recognized.

She was John’s sister. Chad, John’s son. Zane owed it to his friend and partner to help his sister make this work. If he discovered what he needed to know in the process, so much the better. He noticed her staring at him and became aware he’d been caught up in his thoughts. He stood.

She folded her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows. “You know, you never did tell me why you dropped by. I know it wasn’t for pleasantries, since you’ve already stated at the funeral and on the phone that you needed to speak to me. It was important. Remember?”

“I have a proposition for you.” John heard Chad begin to squirm on his quilt. He’d have to do quick work, convince her to agree before she had time to reconsider.

Her incredulous expression urged him on. “John talked a lot about the cranberry farm—intrigued me. I’m an entrepreneur; I’d love to help in any way that I can.” He stuck his hands in his pockets to hide the fact that he was nervous, an altogether new emotion for him.