Treacherous Secrets novel Chapter 6

"What did I tell you about the key?" Emily said.

"I've been beating on the door for fifteen minutes, and I rang the door bell six times. I was afraid you'd drowned or something." Carol said, swinging her purse into an empty chair and plopping down in another.

Sonja raised an eyebrow. "I'll get Fernando to look at the doorbell. We didn't hear anything out here." She got up to leave but Carol reached out and touched her arm. "Bring out another pitcher for the three of us, okay?"

Sonja nodded, stunned at Carol's demeanor. She put the last of the margarita in Emily's glass, and then went into the house to make another pitcher.

"What's wrong?" Emily turned her gaze to Carol.

"What do you mean?" Carol said, looking away.

"You have never been nice to Sonja, what's wrong?"

Carol sighed, "It's been a really bad week. Damon left the morning after the party. I insisted we have sex, well, I said I wanted to make love but having my skirt thrown up and being plowed was not what I had in mind."

Emily made a face, "EWWW! I really did not need to hear that."

"He hasn't been home since. He won't take my calls and barely responds to my text. He says he's too busy to talk to me."

"Where is he now?"

"I'm assuming in Knoxville."Sonja came back with the picture of margaritas, a glass for Carol, and chips and salsa. She set them on the table and started to leave but Carol reached out and touched her arm."Sit. I need all the women's support I can get right now."

Sonja gave a questioning look to Emily, who nodded toward Sonja's chair. She filled everyone's glasses as Carol went on. "I was just telling Emily about Damon sexually abusing me."

"Oh my," Sonja said. She got up and went back into the house.

"Too much information?" Carol asked, looking at Emily.

"Maybe," Emily said.

Sonja returned a few minutes later with the bottle of tequila and shot glasses. "I think you need something stronger than just a margarita," she said and poured the shots. She lifted her glass and said, "To no more women being abused by men."

"That would be an excellent idea. What if we put the cilantro next to the Beefsteak tomatoes and basil next to the romas?"

"Okay," he said, smiling at Emily, "I better get back to it and let you ladies get back to your margaritas." He turned with a wave and headed toward the back yard where Fernando was working on the rototiller.

"Is he having trouble finding a job?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Sonja said after taking a drink of her margarita. "It's quite sad. He has a Bachelor's Degree in horticulture and field experience from when he was in Mexico, but most of the jobs he's applied to want to pay minimum wage."

"Well," Emily said looking out toward the back of the yard where Mario was using the rototiller to make a new plot for her tomatoes. "I don't know if he would be interested, but Fernando and I could use help reworking the gardens this summer. I have been planning a major overhaul, and I was going to have Fernando find some people to help him. But if Mario really knows what he's doing, I'll let him help Fernando and me with the designs for the garden. If we need to, I can hire some high school kids that live around here to do some of the grunt work. I can't pay him as much as he might make as a supervisor for a landscaping company, but I can pay him more than minimum wage. Plus, if he really does a good job, I have a lot of connections around town, as does Kenton. We might be able to hook him up with a good job with one of the bigger landscaping companies. You know, a lot of getting a good job around here has to do with who you know."

"That is very true," Carol agreed. "And I want to do some work with my yard as well. Between the two of us we could keep him pretty busy this summer."

Carol winked at Emily and Emily knew she really wanted to hire Mario so she could have the handsome young man working in her yard, preferably in just shorts with no shirt. Emily had to admit that she wouldn't mind seeing Mario in a pair of cut offs herself.

"That would be fantastic," Sonja said."Okay then," Emily said.Carol's phone went off with a loud country song blaring. "Sorry," Carol said with a laugh. "That's my new ringtone for Barbara." She answered the phone. "Hey, girl! What'ya up too?" She waited for a moment and then looked at Emily, "You don't care if Barbara joins us?"