Undone (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard

her voice. “You can set up your office anyway you want. I put some office supplies in that box,” she said, pointing to one that was stacked on the desk. “If there’s something you need that isn’t in there, the closet is down the hall. Unfortunately it’s right next to Verna’s office, so if you need to go in there, prepare to be ambushed.”
    “Thank you,” Paige repeated. “I really am grateful.”
    “If you need anything I’ll be downstairs,” Tara said, leaving Paige to her own devices.
    Paige walked to the desks and ran her hand over the smooth brown wood. They were antiques, carved and stained to emphasize the natural rings and spots. They were beautiful.
    She grabbed the big leather chair and rolled it behind the desk. She sat down and slowly spun around to get a full view of her new office, taking an inventory of everything. Her eye caught on the corner of the room where the carpet met the floorboards. She got down on her hands and knees and pulled the corner of the carpet back. Underneath were hardwood floors. She stood up and took another long look around the room.
    “Ms. Morrison,” a booming voice said from behind her. “How is everything?”
    Paige turned to see Mr. Adams taking up the entire width of the doorway.
    “Mr. Adams, please call me Paige,” she said, smoothing out her dress.
    “All right, how is everything going, Paige?” he said, still saying Pie-ge instead of Paige .
    “Very good. Tara showed me around.”
    “Good, good. Well, you make yourself comfortable here.”
    “Thank you.”
    He nodded and began to turn away.
    “Mr. Adams?” she called after him.
    “Yes?”
    “How attached are you to this carpet?”
    *  *  *
    Brendan stared down into the engine of Paige’s Jeep. He’d just finished installing the new radiator and was checking to make sure that everything else was in working order. He pulled the support bar out from under the hood and let it slam shut. He got in behind the driver’s seat and started the engine, which purred to life.
    The inside of Paige’s Jeep was just as loud as the outside. She had a big sunflower wrapped around the bar that attached her visor to the roof. Both visors had CD holders on them. He pulled out a couple of disks to see whom she listened to but he hadn’t heard of most of the artists. There was a pink-and-orange glass heart hanging from her rearview mirror and a blue-and-black robot bobblehead attached to her dashboard. Multiple hair ties were stacked on her gearshift and a zebra-print cover was around her steering wheel.
    Brendan turned the car off and checked his watch. It was three thirty. He’d come into work early and was free to go by four since Wallace was closing. He made his way into the office and sat down behind the computer. He pulled up Paige’s customer information and looked for her phone number.
    “Hello?”
    “Mr. Morrison? This is Brendan King.”
    “Oh. Hey, Brendan. What’s going on?”
    “Paige’s Jeep is ready.”
    “Well, she started her new job today. I’m going to have to go pick her up at five. Can we swing by afterward?”
    “I can pick her up,” Brendan said before he even realized what he was saying.
    “Really?”
    “Yeah. She’s just up the road from here. That way you don’t have to drive all the way down here.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yeah,” Brendan repeated. “It’s no trouble at all. You said she’d be done at five?” he asked, looking at his watch.
    It made sense for Brendan to go pick Paige up. She was just up the road, whereas if her father picked her up, he would have to drive all the way into town. Which would take him at least twenty minutes. It made more sense this way. He just wasn’t going to get off at four now, and he really didn’t mind at all.
    *  *  *
    Paige had been going nonstop since she’d started that morning. She’d pulled Tara away from her desk and down the scary, dead-body hallway to help her find tools in the storage room. Even though