43- Feel proud of your feelings

Hazel could have suffered from terminal embarrassment for throwing herself
atMr. Lee, but he refused to allow it. By the time they’d shared their picnic, he
hadher laughing unselfconsciously again. Because of that, her feelings—and her
respect—for him deepened a little more. So did the attraction, even though she
couldn’t seem to shut out the fact that their relationship had begun with his
insulting belief that she could be a thief.
But as the days wore on with no more calls from Bobby and little for her to
do in Winding River, Hazel began to feel more restlessthan ever. She couldn’t
goon this way, not with Mr. Lee looking over her shoulder—albeit with less
suspicion.Cooking dinner for her parents and baking for her friends wasn’t
nearly enough to satisfy her urge to be back in the kitchen cooking for a whole
restaurant filled with satisfied customers.
After her outburst in his kitchen, accusing both Tony and Mr. Lee of
conspiring,Tony forgave her and let her fill in from time to time, but it wasn’t
nearly enough. She was drifting and she didn’t like it. She had to do something to
shakethings up, something to get her life back on track.
Maybe it wastime to get some sound legal advice. No, she corrected, the
truth was, it was way past time. She’d been putting it off, pretending to herself
that Bobby would show up and prove that it was all some terrible
misunderstanding, a mistake that could be easily rectified. She had been
deluding herself that he would straighten everything out so that she wouldn’t
have to make any of the tough choices. Despite everything, despite all the
evidence to the contrary, she hadn’t wanted to believe that a man she’d
considered a friend, as well as a business partner, had betrayed her.
Clearly, she admitted with a sigh, she had been wrong. Bobby’s intentions
weren’t honorable. And Deidre’s juggling act with the creditors couldn’t go on
indefinitely. Hazel couldn’t ask her to stand in the line of fire forever. This wasn’t
Deidre’s problem to solve. It was hers.
She needed to make a decision, then get back to New York to handle the
fallout herself, whether she chose to stay open and fight, as Tony and Mr. Lee
expected her to do, or to disappoint them both, sell or close the restaurant and pay off everyone she could.
Even though she hated involving her friends in what was happening, she
knew that there wasn’t a better lawyer—a better advocate—around than Emma.
Fortunately, Emma wasscheduled to drive up from Denver on Friday morning.
Hazel resolved to be waiting for her.
She knocked on the front door at the ranch at ten, knowing that Emma would
have gotten an early start. Mrs. Clayton greeted her with a smile and a glass of
lemonade, just as she had countless times when she and Emma had been
teenagers. There was something comforting about it. In many ways so little had
changed in the past ten years. The bonds she had formed back then were still
strong.
“Emma should be here soon. Are you sure you don’t want to wait inside?”
she asked when Hazel moved to sit in one of the rockers. “It’s a scorcher out there
today.”
“Thanks. I’ll be fine on the porch, if you don’t mind. I need to have a few
words in private with Emma.”
“Then I’ll get Caitlyn out of your hair as soon as they get here,” Mrs.
Clayton promised, wiping her hands on her apron and taking a seat beside Hazel.
“Caitlyn’s going to want to get out to the barn to see her pony, anyway.”
Hazel grinned. “I don’t suppose that pony is a bribe from her grandfather to
keep her coming up here.”
“Of course it is,” Mrs. Clayton said unrepentantly. “Now that Emma’s
divorced, her father and I would give anything to have the two of them here all
the time. I know Emma is very successful in Denver, but she hasn’t been truly
happy there for a long time. She just refuses to admit it. And Caitlyn loves it
here.”
“No doubt about that,” Hazel agreed. “And I think a certain newspaper editor
might be pleased to have them nearby, too.”
The suggestion brought a wistful expression to Mrs. Clayton’sface. “Ford
seems to be a fine young man. Emma could do worse. Of course, every time
they’re together for five minutes, they seem to end up in an argument.”
“I’ve noticed,” Hazel said with amusement. “Don’t you think all of that
explosive chemistry is a good thing?”
“I don’t know,” Mrs. Clayton said skeptically. “I haven’t seen any evidence
that they have a meeting of the minds about anything at all. If Ford said the grass
was green, I think Emma would contradict him and point out every single brown
patch in the lawn. I listen to the two of them and shake my head. Whatever
happened to that agreeable girl we raised?”
Arguing is second nature to her. If she’d been on the
debate team in high school, they would have been national champions, but back
then she hated confrontation.”
“Well, that’s certainly changed, hasn’t it?” Mrs. Clayton said. “And I’m
proud of all she’s accomplished, I really am. I just wish she’d give poor Ford a
break every once in a while.”
Hazel patted Mrs. Clayton’s hand. “She will. I predict that watching them
willgive Winding River more entertainment than any other courtship to come
along in years.”
“I don’t know about that,” Emma’s mother said, grinning at her. “They’ll
have to work for that honor. I’ve heard some absolutely fascinating things about
you and that young man who followed you here from back East.”
Hazel blushed, even as she insisted that she and Mr. Lee were just friends.
“Maybe so, but if Emma and Ford were half as friendly, I’d be a happy
woman,” Mrs. Clayton said, then glanced at the driveway. “There’s my wayward
daughter now.”
Practically before Emma pulled to a stop in front of the house, Caitlyn
tumbled out of the car. “Grandma, Grandma, how’s my pony? I gotta see him
right now. I missed him soooo much. Do you think he missed me?”
Mrs. Clayton winked at Hazel, then reached for Caitlyn’s hand. “Of course I
do. Let’s go to the barn. I think your grandpa’s down there with him right now.
He probably already has the saddle on, so you can go for a ride.”
Caitlyn’s smile spread. “Really? Hurry, Grandma.”
Emma emerged from the car, shaking her head asthe two of them went off
toward the barn. “I swear that pony is all Caitlyn talked about all week. Now
she’s begging me to let her stay here when I go back to Denver.”
“Why don’t you?” Hazel asked. “In fact, why don’t you just pack up and
move here?”
Emma’s gaze narrowed. “Okay, what has Mom been telling you? Did she put
you up to this?”
“No. Thisis my own idea, I swear it,” Hazel insisted.
“Yeah, right.” Emma sat in the rocker next to Hazel’s and sighed.
“That breeze feels good.” She gazed enviously at the glass of lemonade
Hazel washolding. “And that looks wonderful.”
Hazel grinned. “If I hand it over, will you give me some free legal
advice?”“Absolutely,” Emma said, reaching eagerly for the glass. “Talk
to me.
What’s going on?”
“Thisis confidential, right?”
“You’re asking as a client, then, not as a friend?”
Hazel nodded.
“I don’t think a glass of lemonade would qualify as a retainer. Give me a
buck. That’ll make it nice and legal.”
Hazel pulled the dollar out of her pocket and gave it to her friend. Emma
tucked it in her purse and grabbed a legal pad from her briefcase. “Tell me,” she
said when she was ready.
“I’m in trouble,” Hazel told Emma then. “I just don’t know for sure how
much.”
“Start at the beginning and let’ssee if we can’t get you out of trouble, then,”
Emma said briskly.
As Emma took copious notes, Hazel outlined the mess Bobby had created, the
financial disaster he’d left behind. “Right now my manager isjuggling creditors,
but some of them are bound to start getting impatient. Should I sell out and pay
them what I can? Declare bankruptcy?” She regarded Emma despondently. “I
hate this. I just hate it. If it were my mess, I’d take responsibility for it, but it’s
not. I’m so furious with Bobby, I’d like to see him strung up by his toenails and
left to die.”
“An interesting form of justice,” Emma said, clearly amused. “I don’t think
the legal system has a provision for it, though.”
“Too bad.”
“Okay, here are the optionsI do see,” Emma said. “Depending on your
partnership arrangement with Bobby, you might be able to distance yourself
from the problem, but that could take some very tricky and time-consuming
legal maneuvering.”
Hazel shook her head. “As much as I would like to and even if it were
perfectly legal, I can’t duck out on my responsibility to make thingsright if I
can. A lot of our vendors are small businesses. I can’t just abandon them. And
our investors gave us their money in good faith. I thought Bobby was paying
them back with interest, but apparently they haven’t seen a dime.”
“It’s probably not as simple as filing for bankruptcy. Not with Bobby
missing, but you could start the proceedings. It would buy some time to
reorganize the business. Your investors and creditors would get their money on a
timetable established by the court. It’s complicated, but I think at the same time
you could sue Bobby for restitution of everything he stole.” Emma regarded her
intently. “What are the odds he still has the money?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know if he stole it so he could go off to live on some
Caribbean island or if he took it to pay gambling debts or if he ran off with it just
for kicks.”