Jorja & Malcolm (Toffee Kisses Book 1) Read online

  Jorja picked up her Sharpie, and started drawing intricate doodles on top of her painting.

  “Well, I come from a long line of nicknamers. Every day Mom and Dad seem to call each other by cute or even odd names like “my little mugwump” or, because my Dad likes to wear his pajamas after supper, Mom calls him “Mr. Fancy-pants. Sometimes he stays in his pajamas all day, but back to my dilemma. I think of you as my sweetheart, but I’d like to have a pet name for you.”

  Malcolm cleared his throat. “I think sweetheart is a perfectly lovely name!”

  “Ooooh! Sweetheart,” said Jorja slowly. “Okay, let me try it out in a sentence.” Jorja attempted an English accent, “My sweetheart is now growing his hair!”

  Malcolm matched her accent, “and planning the poshest of poshest first dates!”

  Jorja laughed! “You sound like Babs, from Chicken Run!”

  “I’d rather be Babs, than a pie. I don’t want to be a pie…I don’t like gravy!”

  “Pie?” Jorja said, “It occurs to me I haven’t eaten supper. I think pie would make a most excellent repast!”

  “Wait Jorja…your middle name is?”

  “I have two, Mae and Louise. Jorja Mae Louise Clark. Yes, my Mother loved reading “Little Women” by Louisa Mae Alcott when I was born and I am, in fact, a little woman.”

  “So you’re saying there’s causality between book titles and the growth pattern of children? Good thing your Mother never read Moby Dick!”

  “Goof.”

  Malcolm laughed. “Good night Jorja Mae.”

  “Good night sweetheart.” Jorja ended the call and looked at her doodles. “It’s a good start, but I need pie!”

  She opened her fridge and looked at the fruit and vegetable laden shelves. She then looked in the mirror by the door.

  “Remind me to buy pie,” she said.

  Surinder stretched and looked around the room. At the end of the bed was a bookcase from floor to ceiling full of wool arranged in blocks of colours.

  “That’s so Gucci,” she thought. To her right, flowered curtains hung on either side of the large windows. “Why does Cydney have the blinds down?” she wondered. She looked again. Those weren’t blinds; it was dark outside!

  “Good evening, Sunshine!” Parmella said as her little Sister walked into the kitchen.

  Cydney smiled at Surinder. “Don’t you look beautiful!” she said to the expectant teenager.

  Surinder’s cool façade was shattered and she threw her arms around Cydney and gave her a big hug.

  “Thank you so much,” she sobbed.

  Cydney hugged her tight and patted her back. “Rules of the house,” she said, “A good rest, a compliment and now you eat! We had Portobello mushrooms in a barbeque style sauce and a red quinoa pilaf. They’re in the fridge; help yourself!”

  Parmella added “Be sure to clean up after yourself. Cydney and I are in a serious game of dominoes and cannot be interrupted!” She placed a double tile on a public road on the table. “Blockage!” she yelled.

  Malcolm and Darla Carrington were sitting at his dining room table with a folder of papers opened before them.

  “I can’t believe how fast this is all happening!” Darla exclaimed.

  “I can’t believe that you came over tonight! You didn’t have to go out of your way like that; we could have met tomorrow at the lawyer’s office.” Malcolm retrieved the teapot from the counter. “More tea?” he asked.

  “When my brothers heard we had a potential sale, they said ‘go for it’. I don’t want them to change their mind,” Darla said as she held out her cup. “I’m so anxious to start a new phase in my life!”

  “Which is?”

  “I’m going to the Mainland!” Darla said happily. “I still want to be involved in the flower business; I’ve known Merry my entire life and went to work for her right out of school, but I’m going to start my own delivery service!”

  “So you’ll get, what, a cube van?” Malcolm asked, as he looked over the property disclosure statement.

  “Not sure,” said Darla, “My goal is to transport more than flowers. Right now there are the bigger courier services, but I want to be an island hopper as well in order to serve the tinier communities.”

  “There, I think that’s the last of the purchase agreement forms.” Malcolm picked up two envelopes from beside him. “Here’s a cheque for the initial down payment, and this one is for rent for the remainder of August and for September,” he said.

  Darla sighed. “Sorry my brothers were such sticklers for rent until the closing date. With all the extras you did for us, you think they’d let you move in early!”

  Malcolm said, “It’s fine, Darla.”

  “At least they gave me financial Power of Attorney so we could expedite things. Medical Power of Attorney for my Dad, well, that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.”

  She shook her head sadly but then brightened suddenly and smiled at Malcolm. “So, you’re starting a new phase in your life too! That was some kiss I interrupted the other day!”

  Malcolm blushed and said, “It certainly was!”

  “Not that it’s any of my business,” Darla began, “But I’m assuming you’ve got some long term goals in mind with our little artist?”

  “I certainly do,” Malcolm said. He chuckled and leaned on his elbows. “Now that I’m in the process of buying my first home, I just realized something remarkable. When I’m with Jorja, I’m already home.”

  He sipped his tea and added, “She’s wonderful. And creative and generous and beautiful and…”

  “Unpredictable?” Darla asked.

  Malcolm laughed and nodded, “So unpredictable! But I’m hoping to surprise her Wednesday. I’m planning our official first date as a couple and I want it to be not just romantic, but adventurous! You know Jorja, she’s always intrigued by some new idea or some new thing she’s read about!”

  “I know!” said Darla. “When she was little, she would be over at Mom and Dad’s a lot; so fascinated when Dad played the fiddle or Mom played the piano! She’d sit and just watch their fingers with awe!”

  Malcolm had a similar expression of awe on his face. “That is spectacular!” he said happily. “We are going for a sunrise kayaking paddle around Kinnis beach, and probably a swim; Jorja loves swimming and then back here for a surprise piano lesson! She’s said several times she wants to learn how to play a piano and one of my neighbors teaches. Then we are going to go to the Wasabiya Sushi Café for Sushi! Jorja just absolutely loves sushi! Then a dance lesson, then pick up a picnic basket and back to the old town site for ‘Movie under the Stars’.”

  “And she is going to do all this sopping wet?” Darla asked with a bemused grin on her face.

  Malcolm frowned.

  “A girl has to change clothes after kayaking and probably a swim!” Darla said with a grin.

  Malcolm slapped his forehead. “Of course! I’ll build in some time for changes of clothing,” he said, “because she probably won’t want to go dancing in her bathing suit!”

  Darla laughed. “Although I’m sure you would think that she’d look perfectly lovely!” she said.

  “Perfectly,” Malcolm added.

  Things were not perfect at Betty Boothe’s apartment. She was foaming at the mouth mad. Napoleon danced around barking as Betty went through her nephew’s room at blinding speed. The police had emailed photos that had originally come from Jesse’s phone, so when she found the artwork and jewelry, she was not surprised.

  Betty was incensed though when she found her swan brooch in a pile of loose change on his desk. It looked like it had just been dumped there as worthless…just dropped on the desk! But the brooch had huge sentimental value to her! It had been a gift from her Dad to her Mother and then inherited by Betty. The swan glided on five little gemstones that represented Betty and her four siblings.

  “Wait!” Betty suddenly exclaimed, causing Napoleon to jump. She always had the brooch clipped to her winter jacket. That me
ant her rat nephew had gone through her closets! What else had he taken from her?

  “Napoleon!” Betty shouted. “We’re calling Aunty Norma!”

  The little dog started wagging his fluffy tail immediately. Aunty Norma was the best! And she always had biscuits.

  Norma stopped pressing her uniform and reached into her bra for her phone.

  “Yes Betty?” she asked cautiously. She knew it was her older Sister as she had set a very specific ring tone for Betty’s number.

  “You have to come over here right now!” Betty demanded. “Marion’s Son, you won’t believe what he’s done! After I took him in!” she wailed.

  Norma pushed her wiry hair out of her eyes. “I warned you, Bets, he’s just a user. He even tried to couch surf with me and I told him, forget it! I have a room in my employer’s apartment; there’s no way the Bassett’s would allow a freeloader in their home. Even if I had my own home, I wouldn’t trust his smarmy self.”

  She crunched her hair again. I really should go to a hairdresser and get something done with this mess, she thought. Norma turned off the iron and sat down on the edge of her bed. “What’s he done now?” she asked her sister.

  “He stole from me!” Betty shouted. “And, from other people too. The police arrested him this morning after some undercover sting operation at the flower shop in the old town site.”

  “Wow,” Norma said, “He’s really upped his game. Years ago, I told Marion he was stealing from her and even got copies of her cancelled cheques. But she just put it down to ‘youthful indiscretions’.”

  “Did you tell me this? I don’t remember this story!” Betty said indignantly.

  Norma sighed. “Yes, I told you at the time. And I told you again when Marion went into the home when her MS flared up. Don’t you remember? I said, ‘he’ll probably just take her bank card and use the tap feature to buy whatever he wants’.”

  “You did not tell me this!”

  “I did too. Anyhow, what do you want from me?”

  Betty ordered, “I need you to come over right now and search my place from top to bottom! I need to know what else he’s taken of mine! He even found my stash of cash!”

  “You mean those hundreds you keep in a makeup case under your bed in the box spring?” Norma said wearily.

  “How do you know that? I didn’t tell you!”

  “Yes you did. Look Betty, it’s late, I have to be up early tomorrow…” Norma began.

  “You do not. It’s Tuesday, your day off. Now, get over here and help me!”

  Something finally clicked in Norma’s brain. She stood up and reached in her closet for a pretty flowered dress. “Nope” she said to her older sister. “I’ve just made other plans. First, I’m going to sleep in. Then I’m going to go get my hair done and a manicure. Once I’m all dolled up, I’m going to visit Marion in the Nursing home, and then go out for dinner.”

  “What?” spluttered Betty.

  ***

  “I’m pretty much fired anyways,” said Amanda.

  “How can that be?” Dustin asked, “You’ve only missed one day of work!”

  They were sitting in his apartment at the kitchen table with the laptop in front of them. The twins were watching the TV in the living room.

  Amanda held out her bandaged hand. “This is how,” she said. “The pain is much more than I bargained for; plus I have to go to the hand specialist tomorrow and the Doctor said there will be weeks of rehabilitation and even at that, there may be a surgery in my future. I’m sorry, Dustin, but I really blew it when I took that sleeping pill from my secretary!”

  Dustin gave his wife a hug. “Mandy, let’s just carry on with our impossibility meeting. It seems impossible to be able to buy the flower shop. Now what stands in the way? You no longer have your job. Or your car.”

  Amanda shrugged her shoulders. “Well, at least until it gets fixed, then our insurance premiums will go up.”

  “So we’ll delete your income from this column.” He tapped keys on the computer and made the adjustments to the Budget calculations on the screen. “But fortunately, we would need a Manager for the shop, so will just hire Amanda Sinclair. We’ll need a delivery person; so we’ll hire Dustin Sinclair.”

  “And me!” shouted Maisy from in front of the television.

  “Me too!” shouted Sasha.

  Dustin smiled and continued, “Now, we can then delete our double rent payments because we’ll be living upstairs.” He smiled wider. “As a family…as a growing family or so I’ve heard.”

  Amanda opened her eyes wide. “You caught that?”

  Dustin leaned in and whispered, “I’m so excited I’m going to burst, but...” he nodded towards the twins, “are we talking about this yet?”

  Amanda shook her head and whispered, “I haven’t even begun to process…so let’s stick to the finances for now.” She spoke louder, “And we can delete your income, as you’ll be our delivery person. I don’t think you can detail cars and deliver flowers at the same time!” Amanda reasoned.

  “Right,” Dustin said, “so all we need to do is learn how to run a flower shop! Merry did say that she could show us the ropes for a couple of months.”

  “And what will we live on, in the mean time?” Amanda asked, “We’ll be new employees and probably pretty slow ones at that. Do you think she is going to train us and pay us? Plus we’d have to hire at least one designer and our income would be roughly ten percent of sales.” Amanda shook her head. “I don’t know if we could support ourselves.”

  “This is an impossibility meeting after all,” Dustin said and then added, “What if we were to add another product line? It’s a big shop.”

  “We could sell soap,” Maisy said.

  Both parents looked over at her.

  “Hand crafted soap…” Amanda said, “I’ve always wanted to try making it. It’s a possibility.”

  Sasha ran to the bathroom and came out with a bar of soap. “We could press pretty flowers into the soap and it would be beautiful!”

  “Which brings us to the crux of our decision; do we want to buy a house or buy a business?” Dustin asked, “We do have a down payment saved up.”

  “Let’s talk to Merry tomorrow and then we can crunch some numbers!”

  Sasha stopped flying her bar of soap through the air like a plane. “It’s not going to hurt them is it?” she asked.

  Amanda turned to Dustin and mouthed, “What?”

  “No Sasha,” Dustin said, “It’s not going to hurt the numbers if we crunch them.”

  “I’ll just take the whole pie, thanks,” Jorja said to the waiter at Gregorio’s. “Do I still get to take a piece of fudge, even though, technically I haven’t eaten here tonight?” she asked.

  The waiter boxed up her lemon meringue pie and gave her two generous pieces of maple fudge. “Just in case you want some dessert after, erm, your dinner,” he said handing her the box.

  “Good point!” she said.

  As Jorja walked home, she had a startling thought. What if she and Malcolm had a bunch of kids? She would probably have to feed them proper meals.

  “Although personally,” she said aloud, “Pie is a superior meal any day, all day long.”

  A couple strolling along nodded their agreement and Jorja smiled, but went on thinking over the cooking situation. Malcolm knows how to cook, doesn’t he, she wondered. She titled her head. We could live on pie…pie and love! As she climbed the stairs to her home, she started naming their future children after her favorite pies. Let’s see now, she thought, little Lemon would be in kindergarten when the twins, Blueberry and Apple are born. And of course, our boy, Mud, would still be a toddler.

  She giggled as she waved her foot in front of the frog.

  “Are we going to eat right here at the door?” Jorja asked, as her Dad opened the door with a fork in his hand.

  Her Mom was on the couch holding a couple of forks.

  “Motherhood has made Miss Stein intensely curious about cutlery,” Jenn
y advised, “As such, we are taking necessary precautions.”

  “Yes,” added Crawford, “Miss Stein is also increasing critical of my napkin placement.”

  He pointed to the cat lying on the porch, chewing on a napkin. Suddenly, Miss Stein began pedalling against the napkin with her back legs. She began growling.

  “Alright, alright,” Crawford said to the cat, “I was wrong. I should have gone with the yellow napkins for the lemon meringue pie, but I’m sorry, I thought it would clash!”

  ***

  Jesse clashed immediately with his new ‘roommate’.

  “I hate that name!” Jesse said after his fellow inmate introduced himself as Malcolm. “I also hate the top bunk,” he said glaring down at the other man.

  “Okay, my real name is Steve, but I was using the name Malcolm for a while.”

  Jesse sat down heavily on the bottom bunk. It had been a long day.

  “I also hate my Aunt Betty who suddenly refused to post bail for me. Quite frankly, I hate everybody who lives on that stupid island and in particular, anybody who lives in Connelly!”

  “Wait,” Steve said slowly, “You know a Malcolm who lives in Connelly on Waskasoo Island?”

  Chapter Twelve:

  Or a late night phone call; early morning whiskey and a final curtain call?

  She couldn’t sleep. “What is it with me and two in the morning?” she thought as she scrolled through her list of contacts and hit the call icon.

  A woman answered with a cautious, “Hello? Everything okay?”

  “I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for giving me to the most perfect parents in the world.”

  “Oh Jorja, you know.”

  “Remember when I was eight, Aunty Cydney, and you stayed with us for a couple of weeks and we made up a song group called ‘The Clashing Crooners’? I remember thinking; I wish Aunty Cydney was my Mom. And,” Jorja said simply, “You are.”

  Cydney chuckled. “You thought I would be the better parent because I pretended to let you drive my VW bug.”

  “It was yellow and it had flower decals stuck on it! Of course I wanted to go home with you!” Jorja said.