Page 12 of Beneath the Indigo Sky

He jerks up quickly, twisting his head briefly and dragging his eyes along his sleeve. They’re red again, and I find myself hoping that one day, I get the chance to see them clear and bright.

“Something you need?”

I gesture to the other chair with the folder I hold in one hand. “May I?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

The chair’s metal legs squeak deafeningly across the tiled floor as I pull it out and settle into the small space with him. I take a moment to breathe, hoping that my pause doesn’t worry him. He’s in nearly as bad a shape as he was the day we first met, and even though I’ve been here for a couple of hours, being this close to him still leaves me needing a moment to focus in order to prevent his emotions from affecting mine.

He sighs deeply. “Should I be nervous?”

I can’t help but chuckle. “You don’t do much with the accounting, do you?”

His shoulders slump further. “No. That was all Jordyn.”

“Well, you might be in for a bit of a surprise then.”

He straightens in his chair and raises an eyebrow. “A bad one?”

“No.” I laugh again kindly.

“It looks like you each took a yearly salary of forty thousand. Does that sound right?”

“Yeah. I mean, my house is old and small, and Jordyn lived in a condo, but you’ve been grocery shopping here; it’s expensive.”

Clearly, he thinks I’m going to tell him he’s spending too much money.

“Well, Jordyn’s records are immaculate.”

He physically slumps back over, hunching his shoulders as relief floods through the small room and fills his soul. It’s a welcome momentary change.

“From what I can see, the shop’s accounts are in amazing shape. You do have one double booking next week, and you haven’t paid March or April’s bills yet, but other than that, you have a great business here. It looks like Jordyn kept a ten-thousand-dollar cushion in the checking account in case any emergent issues came up.”

He cuts me off and sighs again as he sinks back into his chair. “Oh, thank God.”

Considering what I found while going through his books, I can’t stop the grin from spreading across my face at the fact that he thinks ten thousand dollars is a lot.

“You’ve been in business for what…seven years now?”

“Eight.”

“Eight. Well. You’ve done well.”

I open the folder and slide it across the table.

“There is a savings account as well.”

He raises an eyebrow and shifts forward to examine the papers I’ve printed out.

“Every month, Jordyn would transfer anything that remained after your operating costs, salaries, and whatever it took to keep the cushion in the checking account. There is nearly a quarter of a million dollars there.”

A strangled choking noise escapes his throat as his eyes dart back and forth from me to the folder on the table.

“That…that can’t be right.”

I flip over a couple of pages to the highlighted account balance section. “It is. Your brother was good with money, and you’ve built a strong business. You have the money to do whatever you want for a while…if you need some time or something…”

His eyes shine as he tries to blink back tears.

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