Defy the World Tomatoes Read Online Free PDF Page A

in my request for the Zen garden. Go ahead and deposit my payment.”
    “I already have,” Darcy assured him.
    “Good. It’s important to keep a close eye on finances.” Griffin called over to his attorney. “Jess, why don’t you explain my plans? It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Jennings. Good day, ladies.”
    Darcy stared after him as he walked out with the same self-assured grace that marked all his actions. She’d considered him distant, but that morning he’d been positively glacial. He was certainly a master of the abrupt departure, but she felt unsettled, as though nothing positive had been accomplished by their brief meeting.
    She walked back to the counter where Jess Stevens was wiping crumbs from his mouth on a floral napkin. “What plans?” she prompted. “After all, we have a year’s lease, and he can’t raise our rent.”
    “No, of course not,” Stevens assured them. “That was delicious, Mrs. Jennings. I’m surprised you haven’t included a bakery here.”
    “Thank you, but I’m as anxious as Darcy to hear Mr. Moore’s plans.”
    Stevens fortified himself with another gulp of coffee. “Yes, let me get to that. Now, as obviously you were unaware, Ms. MacLeod, Mr. Moore is a well-respected concert pianist. He began winning prestigious competitions in his teens and has been touring many years. He owns property in several cities, but he’s especially fond of Monarch Bay. Now that he’s made his home here, his plans are to turn this facility into a private recording studio.”
    Darcy and Christy Joy shrieked in unison, “What?”
    “Please, there’s no need to become alarmed. Your lease doesn’t expire until the end of September, so you’ll have plenty of time to relocate.”
    Christy Joy’s eyes filled with tears. “Where does he expect us to go?”
    “That’s really not his concern, Mrs. Jennings.”
    Darcy couldn’t help but take this disaster personally. “Is he pissed that I failed to recognize his name?”
    “I doubt Mr. Moore ever becomes pissed, Ms. MacLeod, but he’s not a vindictive man, I assure you.”
    Darcy just shook her head. “Son-of-a-bitch. Why doesn’t he build a recording studio in that mausoleum he calls home? Why does it have to be here?”
    Jess Stevens straightened. He wore a navy blue suit and brushed a crumb he’d missed from his lapel. “That’s his privilege, Ms. MacLeod. Now, I suggest that you and Mrs. Jennings begin making plans to relocate.”
    “This isn’t a shoe store where we can load up the boxes and cart them down the street,” Darcy shot right back at him. “We’ve created a whole world here.”
    “It’s a beautiful world at that,” Stevens added. “My wife loves to shop here.”
    “Well, that’s a comfort,” Christy Joy sobbed. “What are we going to do, Darcy?”
    “First, we’re going to tell Mr. Stevens good-bye. Why don’t you take a couple of rolls home for your wife? Christy, will you wrap them up, please?”
    “Why, thank you.” Stevens shifted his weight from foot to foot while he waited, then took the green bag and, with an apologetic smile, hurried away.
    Darcy sank onto the floor. “Maybe we ought to hire our own attorney.”
    Christy Joy wiped her eyes on the lace hanky she kept in her pinafore pocket. “I was married to J. Lyle long enough to know there would be no point in that. If only we’d been able to buy the property last fall before Mr. Moore decided to move here. He might have sold it to us.”
    “He doesn’t strike me as the reasonable sort,” Darcy fumed. “You sew. Can you make a voodoo doll? We could stick pins in its hands and ruin his career.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense, Darcy. Then he’d stay here in Monarch Bay rather than tour, and I want him out of town permanently.”
    Darcy propped her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands. “We’re doing better every month, but there’s no way we can save enough to lease another building, completely redecorate and move.