I put my hands on my hips, fighting tears. “I can’t believe you brought him up.”

Her face softened and she spanned the space between us, grabbing my arm. “I wouldn’t ask you, but we’re desperate, Rose. We’re in worse shape than I thought. I haven’t been totally honest with you. It’s not just our salaries and the trees on the line…” She took a deep breath, guilt twisting her mouth. “This whole Holiday Open House has gotten out of hand.”

I wasn’t surprised. When Violet first mentioned the idea of having the open house, I gave her my full support. But when we got the several hundred thousand dollars in grant money, Violet’s plans had grown proportionately. Too bad she hadn’t read the fine print: the grant money was strictly allocated for the expansion of our store, and we would be in deep doodoo if we used it for anything else. She’d bought artificial trees of every variety and thousands of dollars in decorations. But by the time she realized the limitations of the loan, her plans for the open house scheduled for Black Friday were already well on their way, and the Christmas trees had been ordered. We were good and stuck.

In spite of the mess, I firmly believed the open house was still a good idea. She planned on having holiday refreshments and a violinist was coming to play Christmas music. Prizes would be awarded to random customers throughout the day, and I knew the Henryetta Garden Club had planned their November meeting around the event. The women in Henryetta loved Violet—which was one of the reasons she was in charge of the store while I handled the landscaping side of the business—and the event had even been written up in Banner News, the newspaper of neighboring Magnolia County. It was going to be the business holiday event of southern Arkansas, and I felt confident that it would firmly establish us as the nursery of Fenton and Lafayette counties—quite an accomplishment since we were only a few months old. But only if we could afford to pay for everything.

“We’ll figure something out,” I finally said. “Besides, the bank should eventually reimburse us.”

Violet worried her lip between her teeth. “But you didn’t make the deposit, right?”

“Well, no… But Mason thinks they will.”

“I’m gonna call our insurance company to see what they say.”

“Okay. I’d better get to the job site. Bruce Wayne probably thinks I’ve wandered off into the hills again.” In all the excitement, I’d almost forgotten all about it, but we needed the money and I couldn’t exactly afford to slack off.

Her head jerked up. “Don’t even joke about that. You scared me half to death when I found out that you and Mason had been traipsing in the woods with a maniac after you.”

“Well, we don’t have to worry about that maniac anymore.” Not after I’d shot and killed him in self-defense.

“Not that particular maniac, but there seem to be plenty more waiting to come after you.”

I took a step toward the door. “And on that cheery note, I’m out of here.”

“Rose. Wait.”

I turned back to face her.

“I have a huge favor to ask you.”

Violet had asked all kinds of favors from me lately. This had to be a doozy if she was calling it huge. “What is it?”

“I’ve been driving myself crazy with the preparations for this event and throw in the fact that I’ve moved back into Momma’s tiny house with the kids…well, I was wondering if you’d consider hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Oh.”

“You’re living in Dora’s big farmhouse now, which means you have plenty of room. Even more room than I had in my house with Mike. And I can bring things too.” She tilted her head to the side and gave me a pleading smile. “Please?”

Violet had hosted Thanksgiving for seven years, ever since she and Mike had gotten married. But they were separated now, and she’d had to give up the house she loved to move into Momma’s house after I moved out of it. There was no reason to expect her to take the responsibility of hosting every year. It was long past time for me to step up. “Sure. Of course. I’d love to do it.”

“Thank you.” Her eyes turned glassy. “And I’m sorry about earlier. You know I love you, right?”

I gave her a sad smile. “Yeah, I know.” Only it wasn’t enough to make up for all the ugliness she’d shown me over the last few months. Still, she was my sister, and nothing could stand in the way of that. At least nothing that had happened yet. “I love you too.”

After I’d climbed into my truck and pulled out of the parking lot, I called Mason. “Do I have to come in right away? I really need to go check on Bruce Wayne. We have a big job today, ripping out a bunch of bushes and a few small trees. I was planning to join him after depositing the money at the bank this morning, so I’m really late.”

“I was about to call you. My boss can’t be bothered to sit in on a deposition that he himself set up, so I have to go.” His frustration was unmistakable. Mason was the assistant district attorney in title, but he did far more work than the actual DA, which was part of the reason he worked so many late nights. “Would you be able to meet me for a late lunch?”

“In your office again?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Mason, it’s your job. I would never begrudge you that.”