Brie's Business Plan

By DM Wiseman

The second novel in the Pretty Marsh Trilogy - finds Brie, who has a plan for her life - financial stability by owning a business she can be proud of. But, it does NOT include a man. Starting a baby food company out of her kitchen, having employees, and even a marketing strategy, she did not figure on falling in love with a cop! This wasn't on the prospectus and not what she imagined, but sometimes having a cop in the house, can really be 'handy'!
Brie is a friend of Bryn and Wolfe, from the first story based in Pretty Marsh Maine, a sleepy little village where everyone knows everyone, and you get family whether you want them or not.
A bit of adventure, inter-twined relationships and a lot of baby food making, along with a bit of love, makes this second novel want the third to be out soon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DM Wiseman
• Release date: Jan 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458155412

DM Wiseman

I am a retired Nurse - in my everyday life, but I am a self diagnosed 'reader-aholic' - I read all types of fiction and have been writing stories for a long time, and finally have decided to publish my novels using the Smashwords.com site. I am married, have two sons, with families (3 grandkids!!) as well as a spoiled rotten Old English Bull Dog We recently moved from rural Michigan, to Florida and enjoy spending time at our home on Lake Mariam. The first book I published on Smashwords is not the first book that I wrote, but the first I actually published. I wrote this novel during the NaNoWriMo.com November 2010 which I wrote in under the 30 day deadline. I feel that I have more stories to write, and will be publishing additional novels as fast as my fingers can type...

Book preview

Chapter One

Mom, it’s the ugliest wallpaper in the entire world, of course I am going to rip it down and re-wallpaper with something from this century! Why won’t I? Besides the fact it is dead ugly, it is a million years old! Brie said into the phone to her mother, who was still trying to run Brie’s life – from hundreds of miles away. This time Kimberlee (never with a ‘y’ always with the double ‘ee’s’) was in Arizona checking out winter condos to buy with her third husband’s settlement money – Kimberlee had heard that it was a huge retirement area, and many men were widows there – just ripe for the picking. She was in the mood for another husband which for Kimberlee was called ‘single’.

Really, Brie – you cannot just rip that wallpaper down - your grandmother put that up when she bought the house, some 50 some years ago. This is like ripping her heart out! Kimberlee added a bit of drama, as she did with everything she did. She will roll over in her grave!

Mom, I am ripping it down first thing tomorrow, and putting up something very soft, very much understated, that will not overshadow the cupboards, the new granite counters, and will not nauseate me when I eat breakfast! Brie continued to look at wallpaper swatches on the internet from a discount dealer, one that delivers immediately and shipping is free. She may be planning to re-do the entire house, while making the barn into her work space and ware house for her soon to be thriving organic baby food business, but she was not made of money.

Brenda Lee - you are not going to pull down that wallpaper, and that is my final word on this matter. Kimberlee Mathews Jones Brown Tilton said with all the sternness that she could muster over the phone. Having kept all her married names, to make herself sound very LA, she used Brie’s birth name, one that Brie HATED, and if there was a harsher word, she would use it. Brie had her named changed as soon as she turned 18 – literally THE day she turned 18. Who wouldn’t? She sounded like a southern runner up in the Pecan Pageant! Actually, it was the name of the winner of some beauty pageant that Kimberlee was watching as she was in labor with Brie. It could be worse, her older sister was name Bobbie Jo – yep, Kimberlee was watching re-runs of Petticoat Junction during the great push out. So, it could always be worse. Brie felt lucky in that respect.

Taking a deep breath, Brie just decided to do what she always did when her mother is being obnoxious and being – just Kimberlee. Brie would do the adult thing whenever her mother was being the ‘Drama Queen’ and ‘Princess of Must Be the Center of Attention’ at all time – to lose cell service, and just hang up.

Turning her attention back to the internet, she nearly yelled her excitement out loud. She had found the wallpaper – the most perfect wallpaper. It had a white background, with white stripes, and a small little rose with a tiny stem, one leaf on each flower every six or so inches apart, and not in every stripe. It pulled the deep cherry color of the cabinets together with the new granite counters and made the whole look of the kitchen. It was perfect, and she needed this wall paper to make the kitchen perfect.

Brie couldn’t be happier with any other the choice, even at the price, until she saw the fact it was on sale! Could it get any better? Putting in the dimensions of the room (kitchen and attached dining area) into the machine that automatically calculates how many double rolls of paper she would need, her mouth dropped. There had to be a mistake, there was no way she needed that many rolls! But, recalculating the numbers, she realized because of the striping, she would need 32 rolls of the double rolls! The dollar amount that the calculation machine added up to be - put another frown to her face.

It was the perfect paper for her kitchen. How could Brie NOT get this paper? How could she afford the paper, and still finish the rest of the renovations? She had a budget, had a strict budget, and this would put it off the chart. Sighing, she sat back and began to calculate in her head, how to afford the paper, what could she cut out, what to wait on, versus not have at all?

Nothing came to her mind, just yet – she smiled to herself. But, she would figure it out, she always did. Clicking the submit button, she ordered the paper, and was happy with the shipping date of three days from now. Brie figured it would take her that long to pull all this horrid paper down, put a good coat of ‘Kilz’ up – the stuff that you put on the walls after the horrid paper comes down, and before you paint or re-paper. It smelled wretched, but worked to ready the walls for the new paper. Or so the books on decorating said.

Brie read and researched everything well before she did anything. She was very much NOT her mother’s daughter – she would never just jump into anything, she would always make careful decisions, after weighing the pros and cons, making sure the decision was a sound investment, then she would make the decision – the right decision. Like moving here, to her grandmother’s house – after careful deliberations, she found that she could use the barn as her workshop, storage, and live in the house – thus saving money on rent as well as the fact that the whole property was paid for. No mortgage! Just yearly taxes, monthly electric, gas, and in the middle of nowhere Maine, taxes were not very much. The decision was an easy one. So, four months ago, she had moved here without one look backwards.

Brie was not a novice when it came to re-decorating. She bought houses, apartments, condos, whatever, then fix them up, re-decorated to a person’s needs, wants, or wishes (even if that went against Brie’s tastes and stomach!) and sold the property with a hefty profit. That was her claim to fame – and her substantial portfolio. She had enough savings for retirement at age forty – her plan. But, she wasn’t happy doing the ‘flipping’ thing forever. She wanted more. Being twenty five, having a sound portfolio, enough in the bank as well as in the market, that she really didn’t NEED to work - that was a feat for any one, but seeing her mother go through men, as well as their money and her settlements, like water – Brie knew that she had to have more of her own money for retirement. She could not rely on a man to ‘keep’ her, as her mother was inclined to believe. Not Brie. She was going to be independent, and happy being so. That was the plan.

So, looking around the kitchen, she smiled. She would figure out how to pay for the paper without using her savings, and in the mean time, pull this horrid ugly paper down. Pulling the step stool out of the pantry, getting a bucket, old wash cloths as well as a scraper, and this wall paper remover in a spray bottle – she decided it was only six o’clock at night, not too late to start on this project. It was going to take all of the next few days to get this paper down.

Standing up to her full height of five foot even, she stretched and readied herself for the task at hand. Tying her long blond hair back in a scrunchie thing, she rolled up her shirts sleeves, and went to the corner of the kitchen by the table. Pushing it away from the wall, she began in this corner, in case she didn’t do it correctly, but she started anyway. First, the task of squirting the paper, letting it soak in, then, if it won’t peel off easily, then she would use the scraper. She pulled at the first strip and it pulled off so easily, Brie smiled again. A piece of cake!

Then, she stared at the wall at what she saw. She was looking at a twenty dollar bill stuck to the wall. Pulling it down, she got off the step stool and went to the sink. She washed her hands off, and looked at the bill again. What was money doing stuck to the wall behind the ugly wall paper? Seriously, there was money – behind the wall paper.

Looking back over at the strip she had just torn down, she saw more green behind the paper. There even were bills stuck to the strip hanging down from the wall. Brie counted eight twenty dollar bills in this small area, and the panel was not fully pulled down as of yet. Was there more money behind the rest of the paper? And why did her grandmother put money under the paper – why hide money in this fashion, and not put the money in the bank?

Brie tried to remember as much as she could about her grandmother, her mother’s mother – the woman that Brie barely knew, but left her the farm – a very large, and cool house, a perfect barn for her new business, and over twenty acres of farmland. She remembered Grams as an eccentric woman, widowed early with only one daughter – Kimberlee. She had never remarried, and as far as Brie knew, she had never so much as dated after Timothy – her sainted husband had died when Kimberlee was still in grade school.

Brie could not remember how Grams made her living, how she paid the bills, and Kimberlee never said. Frowning, Brie wondered if there was a mystery here, or did she really want to know what Grams did. She had money hidden on the walls, literally - and no one knew? She had left the property, house and out buildings in great condition (except the ugly paper!) and there was no mortgage, having paid that off long ago. Brie had just had to pay taxes and the inheritance taxes when she took over the farm – not a lot in the scheme of things, and had begun renovation plans nearly immediately – to transform the barn into her work space and ware house for the organic baby food that she had begun out of her house, and was now selling at exclusive baby stores. She was doing pretty good, and intended to expand her business, now that she had more room.

Brie had high hopes for growing her business, and was using the pregnancies of her three friends to extend her ‘word of mouth’ constantly growing business: Pretty Babies Organic Foods was baby food that had no preservatives, no sugars, and no additives, and was made the old fashion way. Brie made it out of her house, for friends, and used the age old way to preserve food, by canning it. She used the old type jars and some of the same recipes that came up from the ages – just make the food from fresh grown vegetables and fruits, use natural ingredients and NOTHING else. Simple, the babies ate it, and her friends started her on selling it to their friends, and now she had an exclusive clientele that was growing too fast for the house based business. Moving to the farmhouse, she could and would, expand the business. Make it into her retirement cushion. Quit her regular job.

Brie was making more money on the baby food business, then at her part time job at the antique store. She decided to take the leap – when her grandmother finally gave up the farm, and moved on to better and brighter things – she died at the ripe old age of sixty – diving in Barbados. She was an eccentric lady, and died doing what she loved best – being eccentric. And Brie along with her sister Betty Jo, were not allowed to say she died, or mourn her – Kimberlee felt that Deidre (Grams) would not have liked them wearing black – it didn’t look good on them – meaning on Kimberlee did not look good in black.

Brie moved to pull the entire strip off the wall, and found fourteen more twenty dollar bills. Continuing to peel the ugly wall paper off the walls, she began to pile them on the counter by the sink. They looked real. They had the same green as the real money. They felt like real money. Then, deciding that she needed to see if they were really real – an odd thought, she went to her purse. Pulling out her wallet – she got a twenty out for comparison and she couldn’t seem to see any difference or feel any difference. These twenty’s were real!

Brie around looked at the kitchen and mentally counted the strips of wall paper. If there were twenty’s hidden everywhere, if there was money all over the house, then Brie could be looking at a lot of money. She could redecorate the whole house, not just the kitchen, and still be flush – not have to take out that second loan or use her savings. The baby food company was already a hit, and if it just kept on like this, kept growing by word of mouth, and then by her web site, then she’d be happy – she didn’t really need the money, but it wouldn’t be hard to take. But, this ‘wall money’ would really help. Any amount of money would help.

Chapter Two

Brie worked until almost two o’clock in the morning, pulling the paper off in the entire kitchen strip by strip. She put the twenty dollar bills on the counters, then on the table, since the counter by the sink was already covered. Still, she kept finding money. She didn’t want to jinx herself by counting the money, or even trying to add it up mentally, she just kept collecting the bills and putting them into piles – smiling all the way.

She was almost done with the kitchen, all the horrid ugly wall paper – now seemingly not so bad to Brie, after finding all this money, but still ugly – was pulled down, and in three black plastic garbage bags. Brie was keeping the ugly wall paper, just in case of – in case of something, but just in case. She wasn’t sure why she was saving it, but it seemed special, and something she should do. Just in case.

In all her twenty five years, her three years in college (she got her Bachelor’s Degree in three years, because there was not exactly a home to go to during the summer time off from regular classes, so she stayed on, finishing school that much earlier) to get a Business Degree, her last two years running an antique store, or even during all the odd jobs she had held while paying her way through college – she had never heard of anyone that had wall papered money onto their kitchen walls. Brie was at a loss on what to do, what was the protocol, who to call, how to declare the money, how to spend the money…if she should declare the money at all.

Brie’s mind began to wander. She wasn’t really sure what she should do. Is there a rule or law, one that said she had to declare the money to the IRS? Did she really have to declare it at all? She wasn’t even sure who to ask about this. She was certainly not going to tell Kimberlee anything about this money. No way she was going to let her even know about it, even if she didn’t end up keeping the money. But, she was going to keep the money. She was already mentally spending it – God help her, she really wanted the money.

Her baby food company would do fine, but she could ‘personally’ use the money. All the money she made with Pretty Babies, went right back into the company, so she wasn’t taking a salary, not yet. She had been living the last few months off her last house that she had ‘flipped’ - sold. She was getting down to maybe a month to go, before she had to hit the old savings account. So this money would be perfect and let her do what she needed to make the house livable, and the barn work for the business.

Cleaning up the scraper, the spray bottle, tossing out the wash cloth she used to wipe the wall down, and putting the garbage bags into the mud room, she washed her hands. Brie was wasting time, and she knew it. She was dying to count the money, dying to know how much money she had just peeled away from the ugly paper, the trees that had all kinds of animals under them. And she suddenly began to laugh.

Her grandmother, Grams had always said, whenever she talked to her on the phone, and that money grew on trees, she would send her some for her birthday. Brie always got a twenty dollar bill, even as a kid, so had Betty Jo, come to think of it. Money grew on trees! Well, behind the trees, at least. She was so right. The money was calling her, and finally, Brie began to count the bills.

On the counter by the sink, Brie made piles of five twenty’s - $100 in each pile. Then, she went to the counter on the other side of the stove, and did the same. By the time she got to the table, she had made eighty piles. Then, she put all the piles on the table, and recounted the bills, making the piles into larger piles. Finally, she counted all the money on the table. That made Brie smile. $8,000 was hidden behind the wall paper in the kitchen. It was very odd to find money hidden behind the ugly wall paper and even odder, leaving Brie with the million dollar question – why?

At this point, Brie didn’t care. She was happy to find the money and was going to be even happier to spend it. She could pay cash for her new drapes for the living room, the couch that she had seen in Neiman’s that she absolutely needed to make the look perfect in that room! It was just perfect with the tables that she already purchased and were already in the second bedroom until she was done getting the horrible paper in THAT room was down as well.

Brie froze, and looked at the living room. The wall paper in that room was butt ugly, too. Could there be money behind that as well? She was too tired to look tonight. But, first chance she got, she was checking. As for now, she needed to put this money in the safe that her Grams had in the floor of the master bedroom. Brie knew the combo and was going to change it NOW. The thought that Grams could have put the money in the SAFE like normal people, not behind ugly wall paper, went fleetingly through her mind. Why didn’t she put the money in the safe, or even the bank? How did she get all this money in the first place? No, Brie was not going to think about it, not just yet.

Putting the twenty’s all in eight zip lock baggies, equal monitorial amounts, she put them in the safe, changed the combo and got ready for bed. She had squash to put up tomorrow, or she would not be able to meet her orders for the baby food on time. Yawning, Brie smiled and climbed into the big Paul Bunyan Bed that her Grams had slept in (Brie had a new mattress, new sheets and a new comforter, but the bed was the same one as Grams slept in) and shut her deep blue eyes. She had found $8000 dollars – and she fell asleep dreaming of a money tree.

Chapter Three

Brie woke with a smile on her face. She stretched and then nearly jumped – realizing that the clock on the old fashioned bedside table showed nearly eight o’clock. She wanted to get up at 7 am, get a shower, and start the squash cooking, in order to get everything done today – she had an agenda that she set, and hated to deviate from. She made plans, in order to make the most of each day’s work, and wasn’t usually the one that screwed up the plan – especially not before the day even started.

Deciding on what she used to call her FACT’s way of getting ready – in college she didn’t always get enough sleep, so she invented the FACT – Face, armpits, crotch and breasts (but the T worked better and was a perfectly understood slain for breast) bath. Wash what you have to and pull your hair up into a messy pony tail and