Read Where Azaleas Bloom for Free Online Page A

he’s supposed to be covering—the mortgage payment,
the utilities?”
    Lynn drew in a deep breath, then told her, “I just got a notice
from the bank. They haven’t received the last two house payments. They’re
threatening to foreclose. The electric company has given me two weeks to pay or
they’ll disconnect service.”
    “That scum!” Helen said fiercely. “Does he really want to take
the roof from over your heads?”
    “I don’t think he cares about anything but himself these days,”
Lynn said. “I’ve managed to find a part-time job at Raylene’s shop, but in this
economy the pay’s terrible. And today, Mitch Franklin hired me part-time to
handle his billing and payroll, but even with both jobs, there’s no way I can
keep up. And the kids need clothes and supplies for school. I can’t bear the
looks in their eyes when I tell them there’s no money for something they need,
never mind for a few extras like seeing a movie with their friends. Forget
putting gas in the car. Until today when I went looking for a second job, I
hadn’t driven anywhere in weeks.”
    Once she’d started, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from
pouring out all the frustrations and fears she’d kept bottled up. Helen listened
without comment, then said with quiet reassurance, “We’re going to fix this,
Lynn. I promise you that.”
    “Before I’m homeless?” Lynn asked wryly.
    “Absolutely,” Helen said. “I’ll speak to the bank. If need be,
I’ll get the court to intervene while we straighten this out.”
    Lynn breathed a sigh of relief. She could bear just about
anything, she thought, except the thought of being on the streets with no place
to go. Her parents had died several years ago. Her sisters lived in other
states. If they knew how bad things were, they’d try to help, but she simply
couldn’t bring herself to endure the humiliation of asking them. She’d been
saving that for a truly desperate last resort.
    “I’ll be by in an hour or two with that check,” Helen promised
her. “You’ll still have time to get to the bank to cash it. In the meantime,
I’ll call Jimmy Bob West and put the fear of God into him about his client’s
behavior. Once I get to your place, we’ll take a look at those bills and see
what we can work out, okay?”
    “Thank you, Helen. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without
you in my corner. If it were just me, I could walk away. Start over, even from
the very bottom. But I owe the kids better than that.”
    “You’re a strong woman, Lynn. Try to remember that. You’ll do
whatever it takes to keep your family healthy and safe. I just wish you’d told
me about this sooner. Maybe I could have done something before things
deteriorated so badly.”
    “I was taught that asking for help was a sign of weakness,”
Lynn said. “I kept thinking I could figure things out or that Ed would shape
up.”
    “Turning to friends, and especially to your attorney, is not a
weakness,” Helen replied emphatically. “Remember that. I’ll see you soon.”
    “Thanks,” Lynn said, her spirits marginally improved.
    But then, as if to mock her, when she went to wash her hands in
the downstairs bathroom, the cold-water knob came off in her hand.
    “This is just the bloody last straw,” she muttered, sitting
down on the toilet and letting the tears come. She wasn’t sure which was flowing
harder, her tears or the water leaking in the sink.
    “This is not solving anything,” she muttered, making an attempt
to find the shut-off valve, only to discover it was stuck. She thought of Mitch.
She doubted he’d had any idea what he was letting himself in for by offering to
help her out. These days it seemed the disasters in her life were way too
plentiful. Still, he had offered and he was right
next door.
    She splashed water on her swollen eyes, ran a brush through her
hair, then hurried to Raylene’s. At her knock, Raylene opened the door at once.
She frowned when she saw Lynn.
    “Are