Read A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) for Free Online Page B

quitting. Instead, it appeared that he’d
mostly left our business because he’d had to get away from the
memories it held for him.
    “ We’re both the present,
Grandpa,” I said. I almost always called him Paulus, and the use of
that honorific got his attention. He stared down into his coffee
for a few seconds, then said, “Maybe I was a little hasty then, but
you’re doing a fine job now.”
    I hadn’t come looking for praise, no matter
how welcome it was. “So what are you doing on Sunbeam Lane? Is that
your new girlfriend?”
    I wasn’t sure what reaction I’d been
expecting, but I certainly hadn’t thought what I said was all that
amusing. After he managed to get his breath back from laughing so
hard, he said, “Boy, you know me better than that. Lois and I have
been friends for donkey years, but I wouldn’t date her if she was a
piece of carbon.”
    That still didn’t answer my question. “So why
did you leave the Beverly Inn three days ago and move in with
her?”
    His voice rose. “Blast it all, I’m not
cohabitating with that woman, I just dropped in to say hello. I’m
staying out at the Moonbeam Motel on the highway. It’s fifty bucks
a night, but I don’t have to eat there, so that’s a bonus.”
    I shook my head in amazement. “I can’t
believe you’ve been paying for two rooms and just using one.”
    He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
    “ You forgot to check out of
the Beverly. I put your bill on the company credit card, but Mom
says you have to pay it back. It was close to a thousand
dollars.”
    That time he did jump out of his seat. As he
stood over me, he said, “Why did you pay him? I told that scoundrel
I was leaving after the second night, but he claimed I’d made the
reservation for six days, and then said I had to pay for every bit
of it. Now we’ll never get our money back.”
    “ It’s not our money, it’s
yours,” I corrected him, knowing that Mom’s fiscal policy was in
concrete. “So why did you check in there in the first
place?”
    He looked sheepish as he admitted, “I
misunderstood the price. It turned out forty-five dollars was for
lunch, not the whole room. I found out on the third morning of my
stay, packed my bags and left. The wife seemed nice enough, but
that man’s a menace.”
    “ And he claimed you made a
reservation for six nights,” I said.
    “ You saw the place didn’t
you? I couldn’t pass up that kind of deal, so I booked it for six
days the second I saw that room.”
    I shrugged. “So dispute the bill. I put it on
a credit card. I wouldn’t advise going back there without an armed
guard. When I left, he was coming out on the porch with a baseball
bat. Now will you stop blustering and sit down? I still don’t know
what you’re doing in Sassafras Ridge.”
    Paulus looked around us, saw that no one was
listening, then said, “There’s a business opportunity I’m looking
into, but if it’s just the same to you, I won’t say anything else
about it just yet.”
    “ You’ve already got a job,”
I reminded him.
    “ Maybe I’m in the market for
something different,” he said. “No offense, but lately that family
of yours has been a little oppressive.”
    It was my turn to laugh. “Just a little
oppressive? You’re kidding, right? Besides, they’re your family,
too.”
    “ You know what I mean.
Sometimes I just have to get away, and I thought something else
here might hold my interest.”
    At least I finally knew what he’d been up to,
though I’d noted how careful he’d been to skirt the real issue of
what he was doing in town.
    “ I’ve got something for you,
if you’re bored,” I said. “Earnest Joy put a fence up last night
across our back parking lot. When I asked him about it, he told me
to talk to you.”
    Paulus wasn’t the least bit surprised by my
news, something that deeply disturbed me. Instead of the rant I’d
expected, he said softly, “So it’s come to that, has it?”
    “ You mean that land