Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer

Kym’s distinctive curlicue writing was on my desk. I pulled it open and swore. She’d had the last word after all. In the bag was a copy of every receipt from today’s business at the booth, along with the cash, checks, and credit card receipts. From the size of the pile, they’d been very busy all day. That was great news for Quilter Paradiso, but rotten news for me. Under the old system, I had to enter all these transactions in the ledger by hand before I could balance the money and get the bank deposit ready.
    Worse yet, I’d have to sort out which sales went through the computer and which had not. I’d have to match every check and each credit card transaction with its receipt. A tedious, time-consuming, mind-numbing chore. Brought to me by Kym.
    I was not going home anytime soon. Laughter again erupted from the front of the store. I felt very sorry for myself as I closed the door and returned to my desk.
    I was deep in the process when the phone rang.
    “Dewey,” my brother said, recriminations already evident in his voice. His timing was impeccable. “Kym’s a mess.”
    The top of my desk was a sea of receipts. “Kevin, don’t start with me. Your wife …”
    “She’s really upset about the computer, sis.”
    I put him on speaker phone and lit into him. “She’s upset? I’m furious. She refused to learn the program, she pulled the plug on the laptop and left me with a huge mess to clean up. She’s doing everything she can to make me look bad.”
    “Come on, Dewey. Cut her some slack. You knew she wasn’t happy about the store going online.”
    I sighed and rubbed my fingers against my temples. Kevin owed his loyalty to his wife, but I wasn’t used to this alliance. As kids, it had always been me and Kevin against our two older brothers. His relationship with Kym had snuck up on me. Busy with the pressures of working at a startup, I didn’t know how hard he was falling for her until it was too late and they were engaged.
    When I didn’t answer, Kevin changed to a more sensitive subject. “I just spoke to Dad. He’s stuck at Donner Pass. He won’t be home until Sunday.”
    “That figures.” I couldn’t hide my disappointment. My father was unable to deal with the first Quilt Extravaganza since his wife’s death. His job had always been to help my mother with setup and teardown. This year, he’d had a sudden urge to go fishing. Late spring snows in the Sierras were conspiring to keep him away. I needed him here.
    Kevin sighed. “He’s avoiding me because I’m trying to get a line of credit at the bank. I can’t take these big jobs without one, but he refuses to listen.”
    Kevin and Dad were always at odds over money. Dad thought Kevin took too much liberty with his credit cards, and Kevin thought Dad’s stand on remaining debt-free was ludicrous. It was an old argument, one that would probably never be resolved until Dad retired and Kevin took over Pellicano Construction completely. I made a neutral noise, unwilling to get bogged down in his fights.
    Kevin realized he’d hit a conversational dead end. “Kym told me about Claire Armstrong. Weird, huh?” Kevin said.
    “You have no idea,” I said, suddenly feeling exhausted. I wanted to tell him about finding Claire. I wondered if he knew about Mom selling the store to her. I couldn’t believe that if Kevin or Dad had known, they wouldn’t have told me.
    “I’ve got to go,” he said suddenly. “Kym wants me to watch Survivor with her.”
    I wanted to keep him talking to me. “Kevin, you know QP hasn’t been doing very well, don’t you?”
    “The valley’s economy is not that great. Things’ll turn around.”
    “I don’t think it will.” I took a deep breath. “Kevin, Mom —”
    “Dewey, not now. Kym’s waiting for me.”
    Not now. It had been like this ever since Mom died. No one in my family would talk about her. Mentioning her favorite dish at a family dinner put everyone off their feed. If I started an anecdote