Undone (A Country Roads Novel) (7 page)

“Only harlots wear red shoes,” Verna said, pointing to Paige’s feet before she walked out of the kitchen.

Paige wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream. And who said “harlot” anymore?

“Verna Wisenbacker is a real joy to work with,” Tara said. “She’s terrible to everyone except Missy.”

“Who’s Missy?” Paige asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

“The assistant funeral director.”

“And what does Verna do?”

“She’s in charge of the finances. If you ever need a new stapler, be prepared for a five-week waiting period, because she’ll make you fill out enough paperwork to keep you busy for that long. And I’m just giving you fair warning,” she said, pointing to the fridge. “Never, and I mean never, touch anything in there that’s Verna’s.”

“Noted.”

“Now onto happier things. These are from Café Lula,” she said, opening a box on the counter. “These are orange and these are strawberry,” she said, pointing to the different scones. “Both will be heaven in your mouth.”

Yeah, Paige and Tara were going to be friends. Not only did Tara have a bit of a smart mouth, but she’d also provided Paige with caffeine and showed her where the sweets were.

“Oh my gosh,” Paige moaned as she took a bite of the orange scone. “This is incredible.”

“Just wait until you try their rhubarb and strawberry cobbler with fresh ice cream,” Tara said as she bit into her own scone, an extreme look of pleasure on her face.

After finishing their treats, Paige followed Tara around the first floor, all the while clutching her cup of coffee. The viewing parlor was a large room directly to the left of the front door. About fifteen pews on either side of the aisle ran up to the front of the room. Each pew was covered in one long crimson seat cushion, flattened from decades of use. Heavy gold curtains hung from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The more Paige saw of the funeral home, the more she knew just how outdated it was. It could really be a beautiful building if they did a couple of things, like tear down that retched green-and-gold wallpaper, which had also made an appearance in the viewing room.

“Down there is another hallway,” Tara said, pointing to a closed door. “There’s a room where the bodies are stored and then a cremation and embalming room where Juris works. The storage closets are down there too.”

Embalming. Gross, gross, gross.

“Juris?” Paige asked.

“Juris is my husband,” Tara said, her face lighting up. “He does the embalming but he’s also a taxidermist. If you see a stuffed animal anywhere in this county, my Juris did that,” she said proudly.

Paige’s mind immediately traveled back to the scary turkey at Skeeter’s Bait, Tackle, Guns, and Gas.

“Wow,” Paige said, trying her hardest to sound enthusiastic, but it was difficult because for some reason she was imagining a corpse with its arms lovingly wrapped around a dead stuffed cat.

“We met online,” Tara said, lowering her voice. “I’m from South Carolina originally, but I moved down here to be with Juris. I just knew that he was the one. You know, my soul mate,” she said with that same overjoyed expression.

Paige had never had that look on her face when she’d been talking about Dylan. She’d never gotten that giddy little catch in her throat either. He’d never made her weak in the knees or made speaking difficult. And then suddenly Paige’s brain flashed to Brendan, who
had
done those things. He’d almost kissed her yesterday; she’d wanted him to kiss her. She couldn’t get it out of her mind. His fingers curling around hers, the spicy scent of his skin as he’d stepped in close to her, the way he looked at her with his bright blue eyes.

What was wrong with her? She didn’t know anything about the man. She didn’t need to be thinking about him, and yet…she was.

“That’s wonderful,” Paige said, pushing Brendan to the back of her mind and refocusing on Tara.

“It is,” Tara said. “There’s another smaller parlor in the back of the building,” she said, switching back to tour guide, “but we don’t really use that one very much. If we have multiple funerals we might, but for the most part we use the main one. You can grab your purse,” Tara said as they walked back to the front of the funeral home. “From here it’s onward and upward.”

Paige followed Tara up the staircase to a long landing with doors scattered along both sides. Light streamed into the hallway from the opened doors and floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Verna and Missy’s offices are down there,” Tara said, pointing to the left. “Missy is at a conference, but she’ll be back next week,” she told Paige as they walked into the room next to the stairwell. “This is the showroom for the coffins,” she said, gesturing to over a dozen different coffins varying in color and size that were displayed on stands.

“This used to be two rooms way back when, but they tore the wall down to make it bigger.” They walked through the room and back into the hallway through another door in the room. “This room has all of the urns for when a person is cremated,” Tara said, leading Paige into the next room. “We also display the jewelry in here.”

“Jewelry?” Paige asked, following her in.

“Yeah, some people like to carry a piece of their loved ones with them.”

A piece? What did she mean by a piece?

“I’m sorry?” Paige asked, walking over to a display of necklaces.

“You see,” Tara said, opening the clasp on a pendant covered in amethyst. “You can put your loved one’s ashes in here,” she said, indicating a part inside the necklace.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Paige said, feeling queasy.

“Oh, I wish I was,” Tara said, closing the necklace. “Other options are getting a thumbprint and wearing that.”

“I’m sorry, but this is bizarre.”

“Oh, believe you me, sweetie, I completely agree.”

Paige turned from the morbid, and more than a little disgusting, jewelry to a display of about thirty urns lined up on three tables. After a quick scan they left that room and continued the tour. Paige’s suspicions were confirmed as they walked down the hallway. Besides the kitchen and bathrooms, every inch of the building was covered in the horrendous crimson carpet.

“Those rooms are empty,” Tara said, indicating the very last two rooms down the hall. “But you’ll be in here,” she said, pushing a door open.

There were five big boxes stacked on the two desks that were in the middle of the room and an empty bookshelf in the corner. An old leather office chair and two wooden armchairs were pushed against one wall. The seats of the armchairs were covered in puce velvet. The walls were painted a seafoam green that wasn’t bad at all, but up against that obnoxious carpet it really had no hope.

“The offices on this side of the building have access to the second-floor balcony,” Tara said, pointing to the French doors in the corner that opened up onto the landing outside. “They also have a better view of the trees.”

“Thank you,” Paige said, giving Tara a genuine smile. She’d obviously tried to give Paige what she thought was the best office available.

“It’s no problem,” Tara said, waving away Paige’s thanks with her hand. “The computer is all yours. Mr. Adams got the best one for the new program that he wants you to start using. Verna had a fit when she ordered it last week,” she added, lowering her voice. “You can set up your office anyway you want. I put some office supplies in that box,” she said, pointing to one that was stacked on the desk. “If there’s something you need that isn’t in there, the closet is down the hall. Unfortunately it’s right next to Verna’s office, so if you need to go in there, prepare to be ambushed.”

“Thank you,” Paige repeated. “I really am grateful.”

“If you need anything I’ll be downstairs,” Tara said, leaving Paige to her own devices.

Paige walked to the desks and ran her hand over the smooth brown wood. They were antiques, carved and stained to emphasize the natural rings and spots. They were beautiful.

She grabbed the big leather chair and rolled it behind the desk. She sat down and slowly spun around to get a full view of her new office, taking an inventory of everything. Her eye caught on the corner of the room where the carpet met the floorboards. She got down on her hands and knees and pulled the corner of the carpet back. Underneath were hardwood floors. She stood up and took another long look around the room.

“Ms. Morrison,” a booming voice said from behind her. “How is everything?”

Paige turned to see Mr. Adams taking up the entire width of the doorway.

“Mr. Adams, please call me Paige,” she said, smoothing out her dress.

“All right, how is everything going, Paige?” he said, still saying
Pie-ge
instead of
Paige
.

“Very good. Tara showed me around.”

“Good, good. Well, you make yourself comfortable here.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded and began to turn away.

“Mr. Adams?” she called after him.

“Yes?”

“How attached are you to this carpet?”

*  *  *

Brendan stared down into the engine of Paige’s Jeep. He’d just finished installing the new radiator and was checking to make sure that everything else was in working order. He pulled the support bar out from under the hood and let it slam shut. He got in behind the driver’s seat and started the engine, which purred to life.

The inside of Paige’s Jeep was just as loud as the outside. She had a big sunflower wrapped around the bar that attached her visor to the roof. Both visors had CD holders on them. He pulled out a couple of disks to see whom she listened to but he hadn’t heard of most of the artists. There was a pink-and-orange glass heart hanging from her rearview mirror and a blue-and-black robot bobblehead attached to her dashboard. Multiple hair ties were stacked on her gearshift and a zebra-print cover was around her steering wheel.

Brendan turned the car off and checked his watch. It was three thirty. He’d come into work early and was free to go by four since Wallace was closing. He made his way into the office and sat down behind the computer. He pulled up Paige’s customer information and looked for her phone number.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Morrison? This is Brendan King.”

“Oh. Hey, Brendan. What’s going on?”

“Paige’s Jeep is ready.”

“Well, she started her new job today. I’m going to have to go pick her up at five. Can we swing by afterward?”

“I can pick her up,” Brendan said before he even realized what he was saying.

“Really?”

“Yeah. She’s just up the road from here. That way you don’t have to drive all the way down here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Brendan repeated. “It’s no trouble at all. You said she’d be done at five?” he asked, looking at his watch.

It made sense for Brendan to go pick Paige up. She was just up the road, whereas if her father picked her up, he would have to drive all the way into town. Which would take him at least twenty minutes. It made more sense this way. He just wasn’t going to get off at four now, and he really didn’t mind at all.

*  *  *

Paige had been going nonstop since she’d started that morning. She’d pulled Tara away from her desk and down the scary, dead-body hallway to help her find tools in the storage room. Even though there weren’t any dead bodies in there at the moment, Paige was still completely creeped out going in there.

With her newly pilfered tools, Paige pulled up the carpet on one side of the room, rolling it as she went. When she’d reached the furniture, she’d dragged Tara upstairs to help her move the heavy desks to the other side of the room, sans carpet.

“These floors are beautiful,” Tara said, sitting down in Paige’s chair. “We should rip out all of the carpet.”

After the carpet was rolled up and dragged into the hallway, Paige went around the room and pried out the tiny nails around the edge. It was at this point that Verna stuck her head into the room.

“What in God’s name are you doing?” she screamed, outraged. “Mr. Adams is not going to approve of this.”

“He already said it was fine,” Paige said, giving her a sweet smile.

“Nothing is good enough for you, is it? You just have to come in here and wreak havoc,” she said as she stormed out of the office.

Yeah, Paige and Verna were going to get along real well.

By four o’clock she’d set up her desk and computer. She decided to start reading through the instructions on the program she was supposed to use. About an hour later, there was a knock on the door and Paige looked up to see Brendan leaning against the doorjamb. He was wearing his navy blue pants and shirt and his five o’clock shadow.

Dear God he doesn’t play fair.

“You’ve been busy,” he said, looking around. “I ran into Mrs. Wisenbacker downstairs, who yelled at me for helping the havoc-inducing harlot get a job. I see you’re making friends.”

“She didn’t like my shoes,” Paige said.

“What?”

“My shoes,” Paige said, turning in her chair so she could show Brendan her feet. “Apparently only harlots wear red shoes.”