Unraveled Read Free Page B

after him. Man, it was brutal.” Greg gave a pretend shudder.
    Kelly did her best to conceal her emotions. Despite herself, she couldn’t keep from smiling inside when she heard that. But instead of answering “Serves him right,” Kelly calmly asked, “How’d he take it?”
    “Like a man,” Marty said. “Kept his mouth shut and let them beat him up.”
    Greg glanced at Kelly. “Steve knows he screwed up bad.”
    Kelly could feel all her friends staring at her and couldn’t resist a tart response. She also spotted Jayleen approach so she knew she wouldn’t be pressured. “Good,” was all she replied.
    “Greg and Marty, you’d better go have thirds on that cake and save the rest of us from ourselves,” Jayleen said as she approached Kelly and friends. “That was scrumptious, Megan. That’s so good you should have it for your wedding.”
    Glad for the reprieve from further comments, Kelly quickly followed up. “Yeah, Megan. Save a bill from the bakery and have this as your wedding cake.”
    Megan looked appalled. “Do you really think I’m about to bake cakes right before the wedding? You’re crazy!”
    “Thanks to Jayleen and Curt, we can afford to pay caterers,” Marty said, his infectious grin returning. “Of course, Uncle Curt’s steaks will take a big chunk out of that bill, too.”
    “You know, you’ll have to hire someone to handle the grill as well as someone to tend bar,” Pete reminded them. “I have names of people I’ve used you can trust to do a good job.”
    “I’ll volunteer,” Greg held up his hand.
    Jayleen hooted. “I thought you were a vegetarian, Greg. I’ve noticed you falling off the wagon this last year.”
    “Blame it on Curt and his steaks.” Greg shrugged.
    “He’s a weekday vegetarian. He can do it on weekends too unless we’re going to Curt’s or Jayleen’s,” Lisa said.
    “Well, in that case, I wouldn’t trust Greg around those steaks any more than I’d trust Kelly’s dog Carl,” Jayleen warned.
    “Hey, maybe we could bring Carl to the reception so he could guard the grill and keep an eye on Greg,” Pete joked.
    At that, Kelly and all her friends joined Jayleen in laughter, picturing Kelly’s Rottweiler chasing Greg away from the grill.

Two

    Kelly looked across the mahogany library table at her client Arthur Housemann. Sunlight from the nearby window glinted off his silver-laced hair as he bent over the March expense estimates she’d prepared. “The business is doing well, Arthur. The vacancy rate for your rental properties is the lowest northern Colorado has seen in years. You’re weathering this recession in fine shape.” She took a deep drink from one of the Housemann company ceramic coffee mugs.
    Housemann looked up from the documents spread out on the table. “So far, so good, Kelly. Cutting back on some of my expenses and putting off a couple of purchases helped, too.” He peered over the top of his reading glasses. “When times get tough, you’ve gotta get tough, too. Only the strong survive these downturns.”
    Housemann returned his attention to the expense reports. He reminded Kelly of her late father in some ways. He was sixty-four, the same age her father would be had he lived. Housemann also had the same quiet, studious manner that her dad had. He spoke when he had something to say, and it usually counted for something.
    That’s why Housemann’s comment caught her attention. Tough, good businessmen got swept away in this recession, too. So being tough and smart wasn’t the whole story.
    She felt compelled to add, “Well, a lot of smart, tough builders and developers went belly-up last year, too. So, I think there’s more to it than toughness. Not having enough cash in the bank seems to me to be the deciding factor.” She pointed to a column in another financial report that lay open on the table. “Now, you’ve been careful to keep a good cash position, Arthur. That’s been the key difference.”
    Housemann started to