“Help you how?” he asked.

  “Do you think I’m not aware that my business cards for my cakes are in Duke’s and now at your cousins’ hotels? Places where weddings are held? I know The Retreat takes care of the cakes themselves, but Atlantic Rise and the Casino don’t necessarily do that.”

  He shrugged. He figured she’d put that together. More so when she got a call last week about someone eloping at the Casino and wanting to know if they could get a cake that day.

  Hadley hadn’t wanted to turn them down and he’d been with her when she’d gotten the call and he’d told her to do it. She could be a little late at Southside. Someone would cover the hostess counter.

  “It’s good for you for business,” he said. “I don’t see a problem with helping my girlfriend’s business out.”

  “I know,” she said. “But maybe I want to make it on my own too.”

  “You are,” he said. “I’m not making the cakes. You are. Bella could barely stop at two pieces of the cake at the cookout two weeks ago. I heard her asking you about your business and for some cards.”

  He knew Hadley had been a little intimidated by it and maybe he was wrong to take some of her cards from Southside each week and pass them around, but he wanted her to keep growing. To build her confidence.

  “She was. But how do you think that makes me feel? Maybe they only did it as a favor to you. I won’t know that now.”

  “Come on,” he said. “My family is good that way, but they’d never do it if your product wasn’t good enough. And it’s not like you asked. Bella asked you. You didn’t give the cards. The next time I talked to Eli about something, Bella was in his office and she asked me. I swear to you, she did.”

  “I guess that makes me feel better,” she said.

  “You are doing this all on your own,” he said. “You really are.”

  He wanted to move closer to her for a hug but wasn’t sure he should tempt it. “I’m trying. It’s hard to stop all the doubt. And then when things like getting that call last week for the wedding at the casino, the doubts are there. There was no other way for them to get my number or card if it wasn’t from you.”

  “And I told you how it happened. Why didn’t you ask me then?” he asked. “Why let it fester?”

  It just made him feel more like crap. Should he have told her he’d done it? Maybe, but he didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “This goes back to me not always being able to speak up.”

  “You’re doing a great job of it now,” he said dryly.

  “Good. And I’m going to continue. No more, Duke.”

  “I’m sorry, Hadley. I love you and I’m going to do what I can and help those I love. That doesn’t mean it’s out of pity. I think that is part of your problem. You can’t differentiate the two, and until you can, nothing ever changes.”

  36

  Rise To The Top

  Hadley didn’t like having the mirror shoved in her face that roughly, but what Duke said was absolutely the truth.

  “I feel like I’ve been pitied my whole life. Starting with my parents.”

  “You’re wrong,” he said. “I’m not going to profess to know your parents as well as you, but what I do know of them is that they are caring people. They spent their entire lives in the educational field helping others. You can’t tell me every child they helped or touched was out of pity. That’s a lot of pity in the world if you ask me.”

  She frowned. Guess she never thought of it that way. “I wasn’t as confident as them,” she said.

  “So? Not everyone is. Not everyone is born with it either,” he said.

  “Like you,” she said.

  “If what you’re saying is what you believe, then I do things to make myself feel better,” he said back.

  She probably shouldn’t have said what she had, but it slipped out. Funny how he didn’t argue it though.

  “I didn’t mean to insult you that way. I suppose when I think about it, people do things for others for a number of reasons. None of them are bad. Some are to make the person they are helping feel better, some is to make the person doing it feel better.”

  “That’s right. But if everyone is winning, where is that an issue?”

  “It isn’t one,” she said.

  “And it’s not pity either. Regardless of what you think. I bet your parents would be upset if they thought you believed everything they did for you or wanted to do for you was out of pity and not out of love and caring. It was out of helping you be the best person you could be.”

  Everything he was saying was the truth. Her parents would be upset over it. She knew that.

  “You’re right.”

  “Why haven’t you talked to them about it?” he asked. “Tell them how you feel?”

  “Because when I try they cut me off. They never let me have my say. It’s as if they don’t want to upset me.”

  “I have seen them do that to you. You don’t let me do it though,” he said. “You’d think you’d be stronger with your parents because they will always be there. Friends and boyfriends don’t have to stick around for it.”

  She felt her face pale. “Are you going to leave me because of this?”

  “God, Hadley. No! We are talking. I’m telling you that you should be sticking up for yourself with everyone. I don’t think you’ve got a mean bone in your body. And if someone walks because of it, then they don’t deserve your love. I’m trying to find a way to get you to see that without you thinking I’m pitying you too.”

  “I’m sorry I’m putting us in this position to doubt things now,” she said. Her eyes were filling with tears.

  “Don’t apologize. Couples fight and have to figure things out. You can’t be sorry for saying what you feel.”

  “I know. I guess that has been my problem for years. I never said what I wanted to say to people. You’re the first man in my life that gives me a chance to say what I want and feel. You give me that chance before you change the topic.”

  “You need to tell your parents to stop. And when they do it, you need to make sure they give you your turn. I’m sure they do it to help you. Or spare you from being upset.”

  “That is it,” she said. “I know it is. I got my feelings hurt easily as a child. If I didn’t fit in I never tried. I just moved on to a group where I might fit in better.”

  “That is a smart move. What most people do. Not wrong,” he said.

  “That is how I felt, but then there were times I just was taken advantage of.”

  “Like Eddie?” he asked. “Tell me what this phone call was about just now.”

  She waited a second. “I will. But I want to make sure we are fine.”

  He pulled her close to him, held her tight and then rubbed his hand on her back. She needed this right now. Not out of pity but out of support. Love. Caring.

  “We are fine. And I’m glad you just said that. I’m not trying to change the topic on you either. You say what you need to. I’m done talking on my end, but you need to be done on your end and when you are, we’ll move on.”

  “Thank you again for that. I think I am done. If I’m not, can I bring it back up?”

  “Of course you can,” he said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Don’t ever feel as if you can’t talk to me about things.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I love that you want to help me. And push me. I’ve got to get it in my head that it’s not pity. I love what I’m doing career wise now. I think it might have been my calling to mix my schooling with a passion. I don’t know if I could do my baking full time, but I feel as if I’ve found the best of both worlds. I couldn’t have done that without you.”

  “You could have,” he said. “If you really wanted to and the opportunity came up. I think the truth is, the opportunity didn’t come up until you moved here.”

  “Sometimes you need to hit the bottom in order to rise back to the top.”

  “If this was your bottom, then be grateful,” he said. “There are people who have it much harder. I know that. I’ll always have the safety net of my family and friends around me. You’ve got that too. That isn’t you taking advantage of them either. I hope you don’t think that.”

  “It’s funny you say that. There is always a part of me that worried someone would feel that way.”

  “Don’t worry about other people. You know the real reasons for things and that is all that should matter.”

  She nodded her head and moved out of his arms. “I do. And I think I feel better that we’ve talked now. I’m ready to tell you about the call.”

  “Can’t wait to hear this. And sorry I tried to take the phone from you. No one should have to deal with that.”

  “I wanted to hear what she had to say. I think I told you Cheryl has a couple of kids from different men, right?”

  “Briefly,” he said. “That Eddie’s parents were always helping her and not him. That is why you gave him so much money. And you never said it was that much.”

  “Because I felt like a fool. He all but drained my savings and then loaded up my credit card debt on top of it. It was about nineteen thousand dollars total. It’s not like I thought he’d give it all back to me. But I needed help with the credit cards more than the savings.”

  It was about seven from her savings, twelve from her credit cards. Then the interest on it and it felt like it wasn’t getting knocked down fast enough.

  “What was it that Cheryl was saying?” he asked. “Or screaming at you about?”

  “She said that she was going through Eddie’s things and found a bank statement. It’d been forwarded to his parents’ house and she was living there now. She opened it.”

  “That’s low,” he said.

  “Nothing surprises me with her. She said there was a little over twelve thousand dollars in it. She went to get the money and the bank told her no. She’d shown his death certificate, but they’d said there was another name on the account. It’s mine.”

  “Did you know that?” he asked.

  “I forgot. Or I didn’t realize it completely. When this was all happening, I just wanted to pay Eddie’s bills for him. He said he wanted the money and he’d figure out what to pay. He was trying to balance his bills and medical costs too. I just thought maybe he didn’t want me to see the debt he had. I told you he liked to party and have fun when we were dating. He’d never been great with money and I knew that.”

  “Sounds to me he just wanted the cash.”

  “I didn’t think that. I wasn’t going to question him. I had no reason to. It’s not like we talked finances much. I had seen his medical bills, I knew he wasn’t working. He was out of sick time.”

  She was probably naive but didn’t want to rock the boat with him either. He was going through so much and she was trying to be helpful more than anything.

  “How did your name get on this account? Did you open it up together?”

  “He opened it and I gave him my information. I thought it was so that the bank could know where the money was coming from that I was wiring. I signed something, but I didn’t look at it completely. That makes me sound stupid.”

  Now she felt more like a fool that he had all this information from her. “You can’t change what happened. You know that now. Do you know the bank it’s at?”

  “Yes. I do. I’ve got the account information somewhere because I was wiring him money. I was using my credit cards to pay my bills and that is part of the reason Eddie said that he wasn’t going to help. It was my problem and my expenses on those cards.”

  “Asshole,” he said.

  “There wasn’t much I could do. We had no written contract or anything. Why would I consider doing that? I was giving him money to help. We were in a relationship and I thought we loved each other. I never expected anything to turn out the way it did.”

  “You could have gotten a lawyer,” he said.

  She snorted. “With what money? I think he knew that. And before you say my parents would have helped, I know they would have, but I got myself into that mess and I needed to get myself out of it.”

  Not that she did that good of a job with it though.

  “So now what?”

  “Tomorrow I’m going to call the bank and find out what is going on. I’ll have to close the account.”

  “You’re keeping that money, right? It’s yours. You put it there, didn’t you?”

  “The right thing to do is to look at the transactions, don’t you think? And make sure it’s from me and not someone else?”

  “Hadley. He owes you that money regardless. It doesn’t sound like it came from his parents.”

  “If it did they probably got his life insurance policy. But you’re right. If it did, then they’d know about the account. My guess is Cheryl is trying to get it herself without even talking to them.”

  “Sounds like a messed up family.”

  “In more ways than one,” she said.

  “It’s your money regardless. Get your life back on track and put all this behind you. It’s not all that he owes you, but it’s better than nothing,” he said.

  “It would actually clear up my credit card debt,” she said. “I won’t have that looming over me.”

  “Then find out what you need to do and get it done. Move on,” he said. “You deserve it.”

  “I do,” she said.

  37

  Expected No Less

  A few days later, Duke and she were driving back to Portland, Maine, and the bank where her money was sitting.

  She’d made some calls and found what she needed to do to close the account and going in person could get it done faster.

  Boston to Portland was less than two hours, but then waiting and getting on the ferry just added to their day.

  She wanted to be annoyed that Duke arranged for them to fly over in Egan’s chopper bright and early, then he grabbed one of his parents’ cars that was left at the docks, but she told herself not to.

  This wasn’t pity. It was love. It was support.

  And it was being there for her.

  They arrived at the bank at ten. They’d take care of what had to be done and then would get some lunch and go back home.

  “This isn’t exactly what I thought would be a good day off together,” she said, grinning. “But I appreciate the company to get it done.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “I wouldn’t have you come alone anyway. But it’s our day together and if it’s in the car, who cares?”

  “That’s right,” she said. “Who cares? And once I get the account closed and the certified check, I can pay off my debt and it’s a load right off my back. I can’t wait. I mean I’ve always had some kind of debt but nothing like this. What a scary feeling it is to have.”

  She figured the average person had some credit card debt, a little bit of savings and relied on their paychecks to get by each month.

  She never felt like she lived beyond her means, but life was expensive.

  She saw how fast it could turn when something happened. Like getting sick or having an accident.

  She couldn’t say that to Duke though. He’d never have the worry she had. He’d never be concerned about how he’d pay another bill.

  Aside from the wealth his parents had and the businesses he’d inherit, he had a trust fund. He’d said as much.

  Trust funds were just things not in her world.

  She walked into the bank and asked to speak with Mandy Fry. They’d had the appointment to get this done.

  “Hi,” she said. “I’m Hadley Breaton. We talked on Monday about my account with my ex.”

  “Yes,” Mandy said. “Please come over here to my desk.”

  They moved to an enclosed cubicle, not really a private office, and the makeshift walls were glass.

  “I brought everything you said you needed,” she said.

  Her driver’s license, social security card and one more form of ID. They’d said they’d already gotten the death certificate from Cheryl and had copied everything thinking they could give the money to her before they realized there was another name on the account.

  Mandy took her cards. “I’m going to scan this in so we’ve got it on record. I’m sorry that you had to come all this way.”

  “It was only a few hours,” she said. “It’s fine.”

  They’d told her she could have a lawyer take care of it for her, but there was a cost and time factor with that. It was worth the drive for her to be done with it.

  Mandy turned one of her screens around and started to type. “You’re going to see some information come up and then sign on the pad in front of you. This is just you stating you are Hadley Marie Breaton.”

  “Cute middle name,” Duke said to her.

  “What’s yours?” she asked.

  “Kyle.”

  “After your father,” she said. “That’s nice. My mother’s middle name is Marie. Guess I got it that way too.”

  Mandy was going through the process when they heard a shriek and some yelling. She turned to see Cheryl standing there with Eddie’s mother.

  “What are you doing here?” Cheryl asked. “You’ve got no right to that money. My mother has all the documentation to prove she is the beneficiary of Eddie’s estate and that means at least half this account.”

  “That’s right,” Eddie’s mother said.

  It just seemed like rotten luck that Cheryl and Connie would show up when she was here, but she caught the look that Connie had with another employee and realized that maybe they’d been called and told she was coming.

  “I’m sorry,” Mandy said. “But this was explained to you. The money first goes to the other holder of the account. That is Ms. Breaton.”

  “It’s not hers,” Connie shrieked. “We gave Eddie that money to help with his bills while he was sick. She’s just trying to steal from him like she’d done before. Eddie told us all about it.”

  This was news to her, but she shouldn’t be surprised that it was one more insult Eddie had said about her to people.