Penance (Oak Grove Suspense Book 2) Read online

  Dad pretends to think about it. “I’m not sure, but I’ll check into that.” He ruffles Jayden’s hair. My son accepts his grandfather’s word on the matter and moves on to the next cool thing he sees.

  “How’s the business?” Dad asks as we watch Jayden tinker with the tools.

  I lean against the counter. “It’s okay. Grant has been slacking more than normal. I left him with some end of the week reports and the bonus checks. I just hope he actually follows through.”

  Dad shakes his head. “That boy needs to grow up already. Settling down with a good woman would do him good.”

  I snort. “I don’t think that’ll happen. He likes to date, just not the same woman more than a few times.”

  “His parents should have raised him better.”

  That is a typical dad answer. No matter what a person does wrong, their parents are to blame. Except for me, of course. When I do wrong, it’s all on me.

  “They can’t all be perfect like you and mom.”

  He looks at me with a big grin and slaps my shoulder. “You remember that.”

  We hang out in the garage for a few hours before my mom calls us to dinner, which is a feast. After dinner, we all sit in the living room and watch the kids play while the adults talk. It’s been great to sit and visit. I can’t believe we haven’t done this in so long. By ten, everyone in is bed, eager for the next day to begin.

  Chapter Two

  Judson

  On our way to the cabin the next morning, we stop for supplies and any other last minute things we might need for the weekend. I can see the kids practically bouncing in their seats as we follow the road through the woods. When we finally stop, they both immediately jump out of the car and run towards the cabin.

  “Are you sure it’s safe?” Shannon asks.

  “Yeah, the structure is good. It just needs electrical work, kitchen and bathroom upgrades, and whatever else we decide to change. It’s a good house.” I pull her close and give her a soft kiss. “It’ll be great.”

  “I hope so. I can see potential. I think some work outside will make it really cute.”

  “There you go. Get into the spirit.” I grab her hand and lead her into the cabin.

  “Daddy! This place is so awesome!” Josie squeals as she runs after her brother from room to room, like two blonde blurs. I grab her and Shannon grabs Jayden.

  “I know this place is pretty great, but it needs a lot of work and you need to be careful. We’re going to get it cleaned up so we’ll have a nice place to camp out,” I explain to them.

  “I’ll help clean. Can I help clean, Mommy?” Josie asks excitedly.

  “Of course you can. Do you want to help me get our supplies from the car?”

  “Yay!” Both kids scream as they run out to the car.

  I can’t help but chuckle. “I wish I was that excited about cleaning up this dirty old place.”

  “Seriously, I think I’m getting asthma just being in all this dust.”

  Shannon coughs for effect and I roll my eyes. She’s so dramatic, but I know she is really excited about being here. She’s talked nonstop about the things she’d love here, but until today, she’s only seen pictures.

  “I’ll open all the windows and uncover the furniture. You guys work on getting the cleaning stuff inside.” I give her a peck on the lips and we part ways.

  It doesn’t take me long to clear the furniture. There’s not a ton here. The house itself is about fifteen hundred square feet with two bedrooms and one bathroom, but the loft space is plenty big enough to create a master bedroom with an additional bathroom and a small entertainment area. The floor plan is pretty open, but it’s still too small for our growing family. My grandparents lived here the last twenty years of their lives. Before that, it was used as a hunting cabin, so it’s pretty basic. I regret that I never brought Shannon or the kids up here to visit when they were alive, but everyone always met up at my mom and dad’s since it was bigger and more centrally located.

  “Jud, do you know if the water is on?” Shannon yells up the steps.

  I jog down. “Yeah, but the valve is shut off. I’ll get it. We need to let everything run for a little while. The pipes need to clear.”

  “Okay. How long do you think?”

  I shrug. “Just until the water runs clear.”

  It takes us about two hours to get everything opened up and the dust cleared out, but when we’re finished, we can tell the place will be worth fixing up. The house is honestly in great shape and probably wouldn’t need a whole lot of anything. However, I know Shannon and I know she’ll want things a certain way. Not that it’s a bad thing.

  “This place is so awesome!” Jayden says as he plops down on the sofa.

  I sit beside him. “Yeah, you think so? What makes it so awesome?”

  He seems to think about it for a moment before saying, “Well, it’s old. I like that. There’s a hole in my bedroom wall. I can see outside! I bet I could bring Xander up here and we’d be able to play war all day!”

  I laugh. I absolutely adore my kids and their imaginations. “I bet you could, but this is just a family cabin. We’ll come here to just be us and spend quality time together. But you can play with Xander at home any time you want. Okay?”

  He nods. “Yeah, okay. This is just our place.”

  “Right.” I lean back on the sofa with my hands behind my head and he copies me.

  “Look at my two men. You guys look right at home, but why don’t we see if we can get the grill fired up and have some hotdogs for dinner?”

  Jayden shoots up. “Can I help, Dad?”

  Smiling, I ruffle his hair. “Sure. Why don’t you get the hotdogs while I get the grill out of the truck?” He runs off. “Never a dull moment with him.”

  Shannon giggles. “Never. He never stops moving for long.”

  “Yuck, Dad. Stop kissing mom! We have hotdogs to grill!”

  I pull away from my wife and laugh. “I’ve been summoned. They’ll be in bed before you know it.” I wink at my beautiful wife.

  Jayden and I cook up the hotdogs while the girls handle the sides. We eat less than fifteen minutes later. It’s a fun and boisterous affair, but I couldn’t be happier than I am at this moment with my family. After we finish eating, I start up a small fire for some s’mores, one of our favorite family treats. After eating, singing silly songs, and just having some together time, the kids are lying against us completely wiped out.

  “I’ll carry her if you get him,” Shannon says, lifting our daughter into her arms. I nod, lifting my sleeping son and carrying him to the room we’d readied earlier in the day for the kids.

  After laying both of them in bed, I wrap my arm around my wife. “We did good. They are perfect.” I kiss her head.

  She smiles as she hugs my waist. “Yeah, they are perfect. This place will be great once you have it fixed up. Will you use the company?”

  We continue talking as we walk into the living room. “Nah, I think I want to do this one on my own. Maybe have Grant up for a weekend.”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. “That makes no sense. You’d be up here every weekend for months trying to get done what your men could have done in three weeks.”

  I don’t really expect her to understand. “I know, but my granddad built this place. I’d like to fix it up myself, in honor of him.” She nods, but by the look on her face, I can tell she’s disappointed. I decide not to worry about it now. Hopefully one day she’ll understand why I want to work on this myself. “Are you tired?”

  “No.”

  “Good, let’s go over the plans. Tell me what you’d like to have and I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

  We talk until well after midnight, putting together a plan for the house. Shannon has a lot of ideas and, surprisingly, most of them are doable. I did have to draw the line on adding on a third bedroom, it would be nice, but it’s not in the budget right now.

  The next morning, we explore the woods around the house. M
y grandpa had made several trails for us grandkids to explore when we visited him and my grandma. It wouldn’t take me long to get them back into shape and start to explore deeper into the woods with the kids.

  “Whoa! This is so cool!” Jayden and Josie exclaim as they run towards the pond.

  “Did you know this was here?” Shannon asks.

  “Of course. My cousins and I used to come up here every time we came to visit my grandparents. That’s why Pops made the trails. Actually, if I can get them all cleared correctly, they will form a maze of sorts.”

  “That’s neat. I think the kids would like that.”

  I wrap my arm around my wife as we sit on a rock and watch our kids running around playing. We let them play for about two hours before we go back to the house to pack up and head over to my parents for a cookout with the rest of the family. The kids act as if they didn’t just see my parents a day ago. It sends a pang of guilt through me again. I should get them over here more often. It’s not like we live that far away.

  “Baby brother!” I turn to see my sister, Lyla, walking towards me. She’s eleven years older than me, but we’ve always been closer than me and my other sister.

  “Hey, sissy.” She grabs me and squeezes me as tight as she can. I chuckle. “Still can’t pick me up. You better stop trying. You’re getting really close to forty-five.”

  She smacks me. “Shut up, brat.” I just smile at her. I adore both of my sisters, but there’s something about Lyla that has always just clicked with me.

  “Shannon,” Lyla says, her tone changing, still polite, but more reserved. They’ve never seen eye to eye on anything, especially where I’m concerned.

  “Lyla, nice to see you.” Shannon is just as short as Lyla. I know nothing I do will change how they treat each other, but it does strain my relationship with my sister. I always feel that I have to choose between the two.

  “Hey, Aunt Ly, you wanna see the transformer Pops is building?” Lyla raises her eyebrow at me; I just smile and shrug as Jayden pulls her towards the garage.

  I turn to Shannon. “Do you think you can be nice?”

  She rolls her eyes. “If she can.”

  “Whatever.” I don’t bother getting into it with her, there’s never a solution. Neither of them will change. I walk over to the patio, where my mom and my other sister, Emily, are sitting. “Hey, Em.” I bend and give her a hug and kiss.

  “Hey, baby brother. Hey, Shannon. Love that outfit. Where did you get it?”

  I look over to Shannon. She looks awkwardly down and blushes, that’s odd. She shakes her head, then says, “Oh, I can’t remember, probably a mall department store.” She looks highly uncomfortable, and with Emily, that’s not something that happens. They have always gotten along.

  “If you remember, let me know. It looks really high-end.” I have no idea what Emily is talking about, but I will admit I’ve never seen the outfit and it does look new and nicer than most of her clothes.

  “Sure. How are the girls?” Shannon easily changes the subject and the three women talk for several minutes about Emily’s teenage twin daughters. Thirteen is apparently a very tough year.

  “Earth to Judson,” Emily says, shoving me.

  I shake my head and turn towards her. “What?”

  “I asked how the cabin was.”

  “Oh, sorry. It’s good. I think we can fix it up with no problems. Are you sure you’re okay with me getting it?”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. A look I’m used to getting from her. “Shut up. No one cares that they left it to you.”

  “I know, but I feel a little selfish taking it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m not …”

  “If you say adopted. I’ll throat punch you.”

  I can’t help it. I start laughing. “Well, it’s true. I heard Aunt Rose saying something about Grandpa giving it to me because I’m blood.”

  “Sweetheart, you know that’s not true. No matter what that old bat has to say. My parents loved you and your sisters the same,” Mom tells me.

  “Yeah, bubbie. We don’t even remember being adopted. I was barely one and Lyla was four. I don’t feel like they gave it to you because of blood. I think it’s because you’re the only grandson. I mean, he had five granddaughters, splitting it between us would have been impossible. Besides that, it’s not like you wouldn’t let us use it, if we wanted.”

  “Of course. You guys can use it anytime, Mom and Dad too.”

  “See, nothing to worry about. I’m going to go check on my kids. They’ve been sneaking their phones out of my purse all day. Boys are already on their minds.” Emily ruffles my hair as she passes me.

  I have to admit, my fear has been that I got the house because I’m a blood relative since I learned it was left to me, but Mom and Em are right. My grandparents never treated them less than me. We were all just the grandkids, no separate distinction was ever made.

  Dinner with my family is great despite the slight negativity between Shannon and Lyla. Shannon isn’t acting like herself tonight either. She’s been on her phone texting someone and has avoided some of the nosy questioning coming from Emily. I’m not sure what’s going on, but by the time we get home she seems perfectly fine, so I don’t mention anything. She sometimes just gets into these moods and it’s better for me to leave her be until she’s over whatever she has on her mind.

  The rest of the week passes way too quickly and before I know it, I’m headed back to my office and the daily grind. It’s the Monday after our trip and I’ve been here all of five minutes. I can tell that my week long vacation was a mistake.

  “Grant!” I yell from my office.

  “What’s up?” He pokes his head into my office doorway.

  I’m so frustrated with him. I got into this business with him as my partner so he could help with this stuff, but he always makes a mess of the paperwork.

  “What is this?” I ask, gesturing at the pile of scattered papers on my desk.

  “What do you mean?” He wanders in and over to me. He picks up a few sheets then puts them back down. “I paid the guys like you asked and wrote up the bonus checks.”

  “There was more in the account for bonuses, they should have had at least two-hundred each. Did you seriously write out twenty dollar checks for each of them?”

  “Uh, yeah. That’s what it averaged out to for each. There wasn’t as much in that account as you thought, I guess.”

  “You’re supposed to be the one with the accounting degree, yet I always do all the work. I don’t understand why you can’t do this job.”

  “I can do the job. If you get off your high horse you’ll see that there was only twenty dollars to give each guy. The account only had three hundred bucks. Spread that out between fifteen guys it’s twenty each.”

  I shake my head. “That’s not right. There was three thousand in the bonus account. I double-checked before I left. I never give out bonuses less than two-hundred dollars.”

  Grant grabs my computer keyboard and pulls up our accounting software and sure enough it shows only three hundred was in the account. That makes no sense. I scroll through all the entries and find nothing that says otherwise. Even the last deposit made is different. This isn’t the actual bank account. It’s just an account on our software that isn’t linked to our bank. I use it to budget out and divide up our monies. So, the only way I’ll be able to tell if anything was changed or if there is an amount missing is to have an expert examine the program. I know I’ll have to investigate further, but for now, I’ll leave it be.

  “Sorry. I guess I read it wrong. I’ll let the guys know a real bonus will come soon.”

  “Hey, man. Don’t worry about it. Things like this happen. So how was the trip?”

  Even though I don’t really want to be talking about this right now and I’m still steaming over the books, I concede. It really looks like, other than leaving a huge mess on my desk, Grant actually did what I asked him to do. I can’t fault him
if it was in fact my oversight.

  “Good. I want to draw up the plans this week and get started on it in a month or so. I figure it will take me about six months to complete it on my own.”

  “Why not use the guys? We are light on projects the next few months.”

  “I don’t have money to pay them. I’m doing this out of pocket. It’s not a company expense.”

  “You could make it a company expense. I’m sure we can find a work around.”

  I blow out a frustrated breath and pinch my nose. This is the crux in our relationship. I want to do everything by the book and legal. He doesn’t mind skirting the rules or completely breaking them.

  “Grant, this is my livelihood. I have a family. I can’t take chances like that. I can’t wind up in jail for embezzling or fraud. I don’t want a go around. I want to fix my cabin with my own two hands. I got into this business because I love construction. I like making nothing into something. I don’t understand why you’re always looking for the ‘easy’ way to do everything.”

  Grant snorts. “What good is it to own your own business and do well, but still struggle financially?

  “I’m not struggling financially. I just don’t have extra money to pay for everything Shan wants done to the cabin and pay guys to do it. Besides, like I said, I want to do this on my own.”

  “You’re so stubborn.”

  Okay, so that pisses me off. I’m not stubborn. I’m a reasonable man. I’m also a law abiding citizen.

  “You know what? Maybe we should just part ways. I mean, we can’t agree on how to run this business, so why keep putting ourselves through this? It’s clearly not working.”

  I stand. He stands.

  “Jud, that’s not what I want.”

  “Well, I don’t want to do this with someone cutting corners. I know I had three thousand in that account when I left. So where is it now?”

  “Are you accusing me of something?”

  “Maybe.” I put my hands on my hips and stare at him. He hates when I glower.

  “Jud, man, come on. We’ve been in this business for a long time. I’d never do something against you.”