The Family Plan. Cathy McDavid

if I put a lock on the door?”

      “Don’t bother me none as long as you give me a spare key.”

      “And I want a separate phone line.”

      “You pay for it, you got it.” Mrs. Cutter leaned a shoulder on the doorjamb. Rail thin, scratchy as sandpaper, and with only a sprinkling of gray in her hair, she didn’t look her age—which Jolyn guessed to be sixty-five, if not older.

      “Then I suppose you have yourself a new renter.”

      She couldn’t suppress the happiness bubbling up inside her. Sutherland Construction Company would have an honest to goodness office. When she was through fixing the place up, she’d frame her license and hang it right there next to the door where everyone could see it when they walked in.

      “Do you have a lease agreement for me to sign?” she asked.

      “Lease agreement?” Mrs. Cutter laughed sharply. “Good Lord, child. I’ve known you your whole life. Your parents for over thirty years. We only need a lease if you’re thinking of breaking it.”

      “I’m not.” Jolyn laughed along with Mrs. Cutter and extended her hand. “Can we at least shake on it?”

      They no sooner clasped hands when they were joined by Jolyn’s mother.

      “Am I interrupting anything?” Dottie Sutherland peeked through the open door.

      She was, Jolyn knew, on her way to the community center across the street where her dance class would be giving a recital that afternoon.

      “Come on in,” Mrs. Cutter said. “I was just leaving. Got a couple of deliveries scheduled for later today, and there ain’t a lick of extra space in the back for the boxes.”

      “I’ll be a while yet if you don’t mind.” Jolyn followed her new landlord outside. “I’d like to take some measurements and draw a few sketches.”

      “No hurry. The place is yours now.” Mrs. Cutter disappeared around the corner of the building.

      “Well, what do you think?” Jolyn asked her mother when she returned. Still feeling elated, she twirled in a half circle, imagining the room transformed into a functional and attractive office.

      “I think you’re crazy.” Her mother’s look of alarm said it all. “This place is a disaster area.”

      “The repairs are mostly cosmetic. You’d be amazed at what decent flooring and a fresh coat of paint can do.”

      “I don’t know why you feel you need an office. What’s wrong with working out of the house? You’ve been doing it all week.”

      Jolyn refused to let her mother’s lack of enthusiasm ruin her mood. “I’m in the way at home. Every time you start cooking, I have to roll up my plans and clear off the kitchen table.” She wanted her own desk and a visitor chair and a shelf for her reference books. “If I hope to build my business, I have to project a professional image.”

      “A room behind Cutter’s Market isn’t exactly professional.”

      “It’s a start. And when people see my work, which they will when they come into the store, I’ll draw new customers.”

      Maybe, she mused, she should print up some flyers and display them by the cash register. Thus far, the only two jobs she’d landed were enlarging a walk-in closet and building a new outdoor air-conditioning stand.

      There was still Chase’s clinic. She had the bid typed and in a folder on the front seat of her truck. He was taking a rare afternoon off work to watch Mandy perform. They’d scheduled their meeting for immediately following the recital.

      Jolyn felt good about the bid, having gone over it and over it several times. She had cut corners where she could, without cutting quality. Called every supplier in the state for the best prices. She was also planning on hiring local labor whenever possible, reducing her costs—and price—further.

      If she got the job, that was.

      “You’ve only just come home,” her mother said with a catch in her voice, “and you’re leaving again.”

      “Is that what’s bothering you?”

      Jolyn had to agree with her father. Her normally bubbly mother was more emotional of late. Small things, like sentimental commercials on TV and sad songs on the radio, brought tears to her eyes. And she wasn’t sleeping well. Not a night passed Jolyn didn’t wake to hear her mother prowling the house. She’d broached the subject twice, but as her father predicted, she’d had no luck learning what lay at the root of her mother’s odd behavior.

      “I’m not moving out of the house.” Jolyn squeezed her mother’s shoulders. “Not for a while anyway.”

      In truth, she couldn’t afford her own place. All her money went into Sutherland Construction Company except for the modest room and board she paid her parents.

      “Good,” Dottie said. “Because I love having you around again.”

      “And I love being around.” Jolyn was surprised how easily she’d slipped back into small-town life and her corner bedroom on the second floor. After touring for so many years with the show, she wondered if the urge to wander would strike her again. With a business to consider, leaving wouldn’t be easy.

      Unless Sutherland Construction failed.

      “I suppose with some hard work, this room could make a nice office.” Dottie walked to the window, her feet crunching on the debris-covered floor. “You could put your desk here where the light is good.”

      “Yeah.” Jolyn pointed to the opposite wall. “And another desk by the door.”

      “Two desks?”

      “If all goes well, I’ll need some office help.” She studied the ceiling and the many brown spots that indicated roof leaks. The repairs to Cutter’s Market might be more extensive than she’d originally anticipated. “Part-time, anyway,” she said distractedly.

      “I’ll do it.”

      “What?” Jolyn lowered her gaze to meet her mother’s earnest one.

      “I’ll work for you part-time. You don’t even have to pay me.”

      “Ah…Mom…”

      “I’m good on the computer, you know that.” She ticked off items on her fingers. “I’ve taken care of the dance school books for over twenty-five years, was treasurer of the PTA until you finished elementary school. I’m organized. People like me. And—”

      “Okay.” Jolyn held up a hand. “You don’t have to sell yourself to me.”

      “I’m sorry.” Her mother took a breath and smiled weakly. “I really would like to be a part of your business. If you want me.”

      Jolyn knew she should think carefully before answering. Her mother could, and possibly did, have an ulterior motive, especially if Jolyn won the bid for Chase’s clinic. She’d avoided the subject of Mandy’s parentage since her father broke the news to her, but it was still there, an elephant in the room they couldn’t ignore forever.

      Or, she mused, perhaps her mother’s motive was no more devious than wanting to be a part of her much-absent daughter’s life. Jolyn could only hope.

      “I suppose we could see how it goes,” she acknowledged without actually committing.

      “I happen to know there’s a file cabinet for sale in the thrift store. And Office Central in Pineville is having a big sale this weekend. You could pick up a desk for half price.”

      “Really? I’ll have to check it out when I run up there for supplies.”

      Dottie glanced at her watch. “I’d better head on over to the community center. Some of the mothers are meeting me there early to help with costumes.”