Not a Chance(68)

"Yeah?" she said, frustrated that she kept getting interrupted from this task.

"Hey, Arden," said Shannon. "Could you come over in a few minutes?"

"Sure. What's going on?"

"Nothing. Vince wants to talk to you. I don't know why. But he didn't want to call you himself because he hates talking on the phone."

Arden smiled. That sounded like Vince. But she couldn't figure out what he wanted from her. They weren't exactly close friends. "Okay," Arden said. "I'll be there in a little while."

She hung up. Okay, she thought. Amended plan. Talk to Vince, then break up with Nick.

Arden drove to the café where Shannon greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "Vince isn't here yet. Can I get you anything?"

"Coffee. Please."

Shannon hustled off to the kitchen. Arden took a table in the corner. Vince showed up and sat across from her.

"Thanks for coming," he said, in that low, booming voice of his.

"No problem. Did you want to talk about Alice? Because as her friend, everything she says to me is confidential."

Vince's face remained stony. "I can talk to Alice myself. She's my wife. She'll always be my wife. I came to talk about my next door neighbor, Clint Holbrook."

Arden was taken aback. She didn't have any connection to Clint.

"I'm buying his farm," Vince said.

"Congratulations," Arden replied, not sure why she should care.

"Shut up and listen."

Arden's jaw dropped, but Vince didn't let her object.

"He's going bankrupt. Can't hold onto his farm. I offered to help him out, but he decided he just wanted to move on. So I'm buying it off him. I asked him how come he was having money problems. He said he took out all his savings and gave it to Nick to invest. That's how come I wanted to talk to you. I wanted you to know."

Arden's brows drew together. "I don't understand."

"I assume it's the same investment opportunity that Nick came to me with. Some sort of corn hybrid for biofuel or something. Nick said he was investing and the return was huge and about as sure a thing as you can get."

"Did you invest, too?"

"No. I keep my money tucked under my mattress. But Clint did. And the Raymers. And Lloyd Redding. Probably a bunch more folks, but those three were convinced enough to put all their eggs in Nick's basket. I guess some FDA or EPA or some government agency put a halt to the project with a bunch of investigations and regulations and so no one saw their money again. Nick just told them that was the risk they took. Which I guess is right. But these people weren't rich, city speculators...they were friends and neighbors...working folks.

Arden felt all emotion drain from her. She sat back and stared in front of her.

"You don't seem surprised," Vince said.

"I'm not."

"Well, I wasn't going to bother you with it," he said. "But Travis thinks you're the best thing since camouflaged duct tape, so I figure maybe you're a nice person and might want to know this about the man you're fixing to hitch yourself to."

"Thank you," Arden said. She felt terrible. She knew Vince was telling the truth. Nick wouldn't have troubled himself worrying about the consequences of financial loss to the people in this town. He'd always had money. It would be nothing to him. But when she recalled the image of June and Rory lying together frozen in the attic, she realized she should never have been with Nick.

Vince pushed his chair back, about to stand up.

"How are you?" Arden asked, thinking about Alice.

"I'm fine."

"You and Alice are doing alright?"

Vince clenched his jaw tight and Arden saw tears spring to his eyes. "We're fine," he said.

"She'll come around, Vince," Arden said softly. She hated to see him in pain. It reminded her of how Travis looked every time she rejected him.

"She hates me. I don't think there's any coming back from that," Vince said.

"She doesn't hate you."

"She used to chase me around. You probably don't remember. She was just a little girl. She called me Mr. Evans. I'd be at church with my first wife and Alice would come running up to me. 'Mr. Evans, Mr. Evans!' And then she'd ask me to marry her. Once she put a ribbon in my hand, all solemn like, and told me ladies always gave a ribbon to their chosen knight. After Kate left, I never wanted to fall in love again. But Alice swore to me on her life that she would never break my heart. Wish I'd known then that she was a liar."

"Why did you marry her? As careful as you were with your heart after Kate left...you went and gave it to the most volatile, unpredictable woman on the face of the planet. We used to think she'd never get married."