Page 137 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Deal!”

Izzie was the one to seal the deal with that final exclamation. Rick grinned at his daughter then put his hand out to shake Gracie’s. He watched her eyes as she hesitantly thrust her hand forward, gripped and shook his hand very quickly, then dropped her arm to her side.

Her hesitance bothered him a bit. Unsure as to whether she was still reluctant to rent to him, or whether something else concerned her, he wasn’t sure. But there was something there, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Her hand was warm, soft, and much smaller than his. Her fingers were long and graceful, just like the rest of her, and for the brief second they had touched, wrapped around his hand in one fluid movement. He almost did not want to let her go. In fact, he wouldn’t have minded had she let her hand linger longer so he could lightly caress her softness.

But she let go much too quickly and he dismissed the direction of his thoughts.

“Mr. Price, it looks as though you’ve got yourself a cafe.”

Stunned at the sound of that, Rick’s thoughts immediately shot back to his purpose for renting the shop and apartment in the first place. The sudden insight that his goal was about to become reality was almost startling.

“Well, yes, I suppose I do,”

he said sheepishly, then glanced to Izzie.

“That’s right, hey Munchkin?”

He winked, hoping she would take the hint and not spill the beans.

Izzie winked back. Rick sighed.

“So, tell me, Mr. Price,”

Gracie continued.

“will this be a soup and sandwich kind of place, or more than that?”

This Mr. Price stuff was getting to him.

“Let’s do this. Call me Richard, okay? I’m leaving Mr. Price back in Asheville,”

he told her.

“If you don’t mind.”

Gracie dipped her head in a slow nod, her gaze playing over his face.

“Oh. Well, of course. If that is what you prefer… Richard.”

“Yes.”

And good. One-step closer to softening her up a bit.

She bit her lip and glanced off, thinking about that, it appeared. Then she said.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Richard, may I inquire as to what is the ‘Mr. Price’ profession you are leaving back in Asheville?”

“Attorney,”

he answered quickly. Then he decided to go on with his usual disclaimer.

“I’m tired of the rat race, the long days, and the hours spent away from Izzie. It’s time for a life change. This appears to be it.”

“And the cafe?”

she queried again.

“Yes, the cafe.”

“More than soup and sandwich?”

she asked again.

“Um, sure. More than a soup and sandwich place,”

he told her.

“Dinner?”

He nodded.

“Oh, yes. There will be dinner food, too.”

“How lovely! We need a nice dinner spot around here. Having a dinner restaurant will be quite nice. In fact—”

He interrupted.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say restaurant…”

Rick watched her gaze drift off to the side. He could literally see the wheels inside that pretty head of hers turning. Damn.

“Oh well, whatever,”

she said.

“You know, I might even consider staying open late an evening or two, in case some of your dinner customers would wander by.”

Hell. He felt like a heel and he didn’t want to talk about his “cafe”

plans any longer, should he let something slip. Or heaven forbid, Izzie let something slip. He shouldn’t have clued her in yet about the bar. What six-year-old kid needs to know about a bar? But she’d been asking about the space and he’d told her, sort of, about the pool table and Karaoke night. He never mentioned alcohol or drinking but she did ask if it was for grownups, so he figured she was getting some sort of clue. Thing was, he had thought it such a neat idea—a adult place to hang out and play with beer attached—he hadn’t really considered that his conversation was with a kid.

Yet, Izzie always seemed so grownup, anyway.

So, he’d lied to Grace. Sort of.

But he supposed bar food could constitute dinner. And he supposed video computer games and a big screen TV for sporting events could count as more than a soup and sandwich place. So maybe he wasn’t lying. Was he?

He didn’t want to stick around any longer than necessary to contemplate that thought. It was time to give Gracie the check for the deposit, let her bank it, and get this show on the road. He would feel a whole lot better about the situation when that was done, and a few days had past.

He reached into his back pocket for his checkbook. She glanced his way.

“Well, I’ll have to think about that,”

she said.

“Staying open late, you know.”

“What? Oh yes. That’s right.”

She was talking about her late hours.

“Yes, you do that.”

God, he hated deceiving her, if one could call this deceit. Really though, his crime was nothing more than letting her assume. He had never really indicated otherwise.

“Please let me know your plans about moving and such,”

she said, bringing him back to the moment at hand.

“and I’ll make sure the apartment is cleaned.”

“Oh, but we’ll do that. You don’t have to.”

She shook her head.

“No, I insist. It will be easier to clean now that after you have moved things in. I’ll have a service come in tomorrow morning if you like.”

He nodded.

“Well, all right. I was thinking of taking next week off to do whatever is necessary about getting the place livable. You know, get the utilities turned back on, paint Izzie’s room...”

“The utilities are already turned on,”

she told him.

“All you have to do is have the accounts transferred into your name.”

Rick liked the sound of that.

“So, we could actually move in tonight?”

He was already thinking sleeping bags and camping out in the living room floor. His brain was reeling. He could get Izzie registered in school and get started on their new life.

“I suppose, but…

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Glancing at his watch, he mentally calculated how the time left in the day to get to Asheville, gather what they would need for a day or two, and get back here tonight. No time like the present to get started on his new life. He was deep in thought when he realized Gracie was talking to him again.

“...but I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing that you were moving in with the place still dirty. And where would Izzie sleep? Of course, I suppose she could stay in my spare room if you wanted, and you—”

Her eyes grew wide and she snapped her mouth shut.

“We have sleeping bags,”

he told her.

“Oh.”

She paused.

“But I’m not sure how comfortable those hard-wood floors…”

“We’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure you want to move tonight? I mean…”

Rick held up a hand. “Wait.”

Flipping open his checkbook, he took a minute to write out a check, carefully tore it from the book, and handed it to her.

“Here is the deposit and the first month’s rent. Now the place is officially mine, right? I’m moving in later tonight. If you want the cleaning service to come first thing in the morning, that will be fine. Until then, Izzie and I can fend for ourselves.”

He glanced to the child.

“Actually, we’re used to a little dust, aren’t we Iz?”

Izzie nodded furiously.

“Actually, we’re used to a lot of dust.”

“Enough, Iz.”

Richard chucked.

“Ms. Hart might kick us out on our ears if she thinks we’re not good tenants.”

Izzie clamped her mouth shut and made a funny face. Rick had to laugh aloud. Looking to Gracie, he also noticed she was smiling, intent on Izzie’s antics. He took in that smile for a moment and let himself wonder just a little bit more about Gracie Hart. What was her story? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Finger. Hm. Why didn’t she have a ring on the third finger of her left hand? He couldn’t imagine a woman like her not being attached to someone… Was she fair game? Then he mentally chastised himself for noticing and thinking about that.

“Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret, Izzie,”

Grace said as she leaned a little closer to the girl, interrupting his thoughts.

“Sometimes I have a little too much dust in my house, too.”

Izzie giggled, her big eyes animated.

“Betcha don’t have as much as us! One time, me and Dad wrote our entire whole names in the dust on the bookshelves and it stayed that way for weeks!”

“Izzie!”

“Well, it did!”

“Did not.”

“Did so!”

Rick shrugged and sheepishly glanced at Gracie, then back to Izzie.

“Well, okay. You could be right. But you know you’re not supposed to tell those things!”

Gracie laughed again and for the second time that afternoon, Rick found himself mesmerized by her smile, captivated by the sound of her laugh, and so very curious as to what made Gracie Hart tick.

****

“Okay, Gracie, spill it about the new guy next door.”

Amie, always on the lookout for a potential new boyfriend, chewed a bite of blueberry bagel and stared across the table at Gracie.

“You’ve been holding out on me. I hear he’s a doll.”

Gracie snorted and took another sip of hot lemon tea.

“A doll? Hardly.”

If it were up to her to find words to describe Richard Price, doll would not be on the list. Hunk? Stud-puppy? Those two descriptive terms came to mind quite quickly, and if pressed, Gracie was sure she could drum up a few more. Yes, he was a very attractive man. Of course, she wasn’t the least bit interested in drumming up descriptive terms for the likes of Richard Price, or any man, for that matter.

She was only interested in him for his rent check, although it seemed her friends had other thoughts on the subject.

Nice looking eligible bachelor were the words Constance had thrown up to her the day before. Gracie had shushed her off with a wave of her hand. Gracie Hart wasn’t on the lookout for nice looking eligible bachelors, she’d told Constance.

The older woman had made some comment, but Gracie pretended not to hear. Something about specific parts of her anatomy shriveling up from lack of use....

“You know he’s the talk of the town.”

Amie interrupted her thoughts.

“I mean, all the women have been sneaking by to peek in the window at him. I haven’t had the chance. So, spill.”

Fiddling with her teacup, Gracie stared off into Amie’s coffee shop, trying not to think about atrophying body parts. It was early Friday morning, two hours before her shop and most of the others on Main Street opened for the day. The coffee shop was on the same side of the street as Romantically Yours, but on the other side of the traffic light. She was North Main, Amie was South Main. About a dozen people were occupying space with them, drinking tea or coffee and eating bagels and pastries.

Amie’s Place, which also served a light lunch, closed at two in the afternoon. That’s the way Amie liked it. She had the remainder of the day to play.

Gracie already knew Richard was the talk of the town. Her own business had boosted the past few days since he had moved in and started some minor renovations. The talk from the women was non-stop. Gracie would smile and nod and try extremely hard not to get drawn into the middle of those oh-God-he’s-so-gorgeous conversations.

She had talked to him only once, and briefly at that, during the week. Seems his plans were to open his cafe at the end of the month, barely three weeks away. Izzie, she’d learned, was staying in Asheville for the next two weeks with her babysitter until school was out for the summer. Then she would be joining her father. For some reason Gracie had felt a sense of urgency from Richard that he get the cafe up and running as soon as possible. She had sensed that urgency in him before and wondered what that was all about.

She supposed he was just ready to get on with his new life. Of all people, she could understand that. Once upon a time, she had done the same thing.

But she tried not to think about that much anymore. Ten years was a long time, but she was extremely proud of the way she had recovered.

“Of course, you wouldn’t sneak a peek, would you, Gracie?”

Had Amie said something? Her thoughts were temporarily back in New York. Gracie looked at her and said.

“I’m sorry. You were saying?”

Amie huffed.

“I said you wouldn’t sneak a peek, would you?”

“Moi? Of course not.”

New York was all but forgotten.

“Yeah, right.”

“Well, I, for one,”

Gracie returned.

“have more things to do with my time than ogle my next door neighbor while he hammers two-by-fours and moves equipment about, wearing nothing more than a pair of tight jeans and work boots, perspiration glistening off his back like some model in a diet soft drink commercial.”

“So, you’ve never even peeked, huh?”

Gracie shook her head.

“Nope, not once.”

Amie snorted and then cackled out in laughter. Six customers turned to look at her.

“Like I said, yeah, right.”

Gracie stuck out her tongue and picked up her cinnamon bagel.

“You’re impossible.”

“And you’re lying. I know you Gracie Hart. There is something up with this man.”

“You’re wrong.”

Grace bit off a bite of bagel and looked Amie square in the eye.

“There is...nothing up...with that man,”

she returned between chews.

Sitting back in her seat and pushing her coffee cup away at the same time, Amie crossed her arms over her chest. Gracie didn’t like the way she was studying her.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. I will reserve comment on that subject until a later date. Until I have some time to see you around this man. I mean, Constance told me the other day that—”

“Constance?”

Gracie sat up a little straighter.

“What does Constance have to do with this conversation?”

Knowing that Constance and Amie had been talking made Gracie a teensy-bit uncomfortable. Even though the two women were her best friends, and had good intentions, she didn’t want them joining forces again to instigate something into an area of her life where Gracie had no intention of going.

Will those two never stop trying to hook her up with a man?

“Oh nothing,”

Amie replied, popping the last bite of bagel into her mouth.

“You know, Gracie, I am a bit miffed at you, however.”

Puzzled, Gracie stared at her friend.

“Whatever for?”

“Allowing him to come into town and open up another cafe. I mean, when the soup and sandwich place closed down the street, I had a monopoly on the lunch crowd.”

“My goodness, you have the monopoly on the breakfast crowd! The closest competition is Sugar High Bakery and you know that Sydney only does pastries. Where else in Harbor Falls can you come to get a good scrambled egg breakfast with grits and biscuits and gravy? Nowhere.”

Amie huffed out a breath.

“I know that about Sydney’s place. I’m fortunate to be the only full-service breakfast place in town. But when Sydney and Suzie get together, they are a force to be reckoned with cooking-wise and they make me nervous. Now that this new diner is going to be in town. Well, I just…”

Ah. Gracie saw where Amie was going with this. Her sister, Sydney, the baker, and her cousin, Suzie Hart, the local B&B owner and chef, were the dynamic duo of food in Harbor Falls. They catered to events all over the area.

“I see why you are nervous, Amie. But I really don’t think Sydney and Suzie are your competition.”

Amie sat back.

“I don’t know.”

Gracie reached over and patted her hand.

“Look. Focus on what you do well. Big ol’ country breakfasts—the thing people come to the mountains for. They want comfort food. Sydney is into scones and croissants and other fancy stuff. Suzie only wants to do her gig at the Inn and write cookbooks. They know their niche. You need to conquer yours!”

After a moment, Amie exhaled.

“You’re right.”

Gracie nodded.

“I am. And lately you’ve had more customers than you can handle at lunch, right? So, no worries.”

Then Gracie added.

“Weren’t you just complaining last week that you weren’t prepared for the onslaught and that people could barely get in the door during their lunch hour?”

“Complaining? No. Drooling at the thought of the increase in lunch sales? Yes.”

“So, neither Sydney, nor Suzie, or the new cafe down the street is not going to be an issue for you.”

“I suppose not.”

Gracie wasn’t sure Amie was convinced.

Leaning forward, she said.

“Look, Amie. Richard Price putting in another cafe down the street is not going to ruin your business. If lunch customers can’t get in your door because it’s too crowded and the service is slow, do you think they are going to come back? No. Besides, Richard’s place is going to be different from yours, not just a soup and sandwich place, he said. In fact, he’s even going to be open for dinner.”

Amie thought about that.

“Not just a soup and sandwich place, huh? Wonder what he meant by that?”

Gracie shrugged.

“Not sure. I just think he must be designing something fairly upscale since he’s planning to be open for dinner, too.”

Her thoughts drifted for a moment, and then she looked at Amie.

“I wonder... Wouldn’t it be great if he was putting in some sort of tea room? I mean, that would be so cool right next door. We could possibly double up on advertising and marketing and bring in customers for each other....”

Thoughts were swimming in her head. This could be perfect. This could be just the thing she needed. Her accountant would be pleased. She couldn’t wait until the next meeting of the Chamber.

“I dunno,”

her friend said.

“Richard Price doesn’t look much like the tea room type to me.”

But Gracie wasn’t listening. Visions of increased business and new customers danced in her head.

Amie touched her arm.

“What?”

“I said why don’t you ask him now?”

Gracie shook her head.

“Excuse me?”

Pointing with her thumb over her shoulder, Amie directed Gracie’s attention to the front of the shop.

“That’s him, right? Why don’t you go discuss business with him now? See if you two could drum up some business together.”

Gracie sucked in a deep breath. Amie’s innuendo stood for more than business, she knew. Turning, she looked in the direction her friend pointed. There he stood at the front counter, wearing tight jeans, work boots, and a black t-shirt that fit like a second skin—ordering breakfast to go.

“Doesn’t look like any lawyer I ever met,”

Gracie muttered.

“What?”

She sat up straighter and looked at Amie.

“Wait a minute. You said you’d never seen him. How did you know that was Richard Price up there?”

Amie tossed her an evil little grin and tilted her chin a bit.

“Oh, all right. So, I lied. I peeked. And, oh yeah, he comes in here every morning for breakfast. Just in case you’d like to know.”

Amie grinned wide and giggled and Gracie could all but strangle her. She was up to something. So was Constance. And that didn’t bode well for her, she knew.

****

“Just a large coffee, black, and two of those honeybuns. To go.”

Rick eyed the young girl across the counter as she turned and headed for the coffeemaker. She couldn’t be more than seventeen. Yet, she was giving him the once-over and smiling like he was prime rib or something.

Another teenager sidled up next to the girl pretending to get coffee as well. She glanced back at him and both girls snickered. He thought he heard one of them say something abou.

“his honeybuns”

and he tried like hell to ignore that statement. They were kids!

Briefly, he closed his eyes and shook his head. It had been like this all week. If it wasn’t the two teenagers behind the counter who served him breakfast every morning, it was the same group of women who sauntered by his place every afternoon as if they were window shopping. Sighing, he glanced around the shop. His gaze immediately latched on a tall woman in the back of the room.

Gracie?

“Honeybuns… And coffee. There you go. Sir.”

He turned back to the girl. She sat his coffee and bag of pastries on the counter with a sassy seventeen-year-old smile and stared while he produced a few bills and the change he owed her.

What was it with this town? Ever since Tuesday women had been staring like they’d never seen a man before.

New man in town. Single. Eligible bachelor.

Oh, hell. Fresh meat.

The concept hit him square in the face. He didn’t like it. Old and unpleasant memories festered up quickly and he shook himself, trying to tamp them down.

Living in Asheville for the past fifteen years, he had forgotten about small town antics. He should have known. He’d grown up in a little village in Ohio just east of Cincinnati where everyone knew everyone else and no one thought twice about getting involved in their neighbor’s business. That was one of the reasons he had preferred the city. One could get lost in the shuffle, do their own thing, and not worry about what their neighbor thought or did. It just had never occurred to him that he would have to revert to dealing with small town antics here in Harbor Falls.

It was the one thing he had forgotten.

He just hoped... Oh, hell, he hoped he could at least avoid the gossips, busybodies, and matchmakers. He’d had enough of that growing up. If there was anything he disliked more, he didn’t know what it would be.

“Get anything else for you?”

The teenager batted her eyes and he felt a little queasy.

“No. No thank you,”

he told her.

He risked a quick glance back to Gracie again. Just as quickly, she averted her gaze.

For some reason that bothered him.

Gathering up his breakfast, he headed for the door, wondering why she’d kept to herself all week. Then again, he had not ventured far from his little corner of the world, either, had he? At the very least, he thought she might be curious about the renovations. Obviously, she wasn’t, which was all the better for him.

“Oh, Mr. Price?”

Gracie?

No. It wasn’t her voice. For some reason he wanted it to be Gracie’s voice. Stopping, he turned to look behind him.

The woman who owned the coffee shop stood about three feet away. He’d not yet met her, but he knew who she was. It was obvious she was the one in charge. She was there early every morning and he had assumed she was the official Amie of Amie’s Place. She commanded the most authority and was the boss. He’d also seen her visit Gracie’s once or twice and assumed they were friends.

She stepped closer.

“If you’re not in too much of a hurry, why don’t you join us for breakfast?”

She glanced back to Gracie. Rick followed her gaze and Gracie finally gave him a feeble smile and a little finger wave. She almost looked like she was embarrassed.

It was a small smile. An almost insecure little half-grin. And it intrigued the hell out of him.

Turning back to Amie he said.

“I should really get down the street and to work.”

But Amie was not about to take no for an answer. In one motion, she slipped her arm through his and led him toward the back of the coffee shop.

“Oh c’mon, just for a few minutes,”

she told him.

“Have a seat and savor that honeybun and coffee. Besides, I can’t give you free refills down the street and if you stay, you can take one to go when you leave.”

Well, there was that. Before he knew it, he was sitting between Gracie and Amie.

A few awkward seconds between sips of coffee and tea hung between them before Gracie finally spoke.

“So, Richard, how are things coming along next door?”

“Rick.”

Grace tipped her head.

“Excuse me?”

Rick took another sip of coffee and finished chewing a bit of pastry.

“Look, we’re neighbors. You’re my landlord. I hope we can be friends. Call me Rick. I’m leaving Richard along with Mr. Price behind in Ashville. I prefer Rick, if you don’t mind.”

Amie beamed, sat up straighter, and slapped a hand down on the table.

“Then Rick it is! Sounds fair to me.”

Gracie rolled her eyes.

He prompted.

“Okay Gracie?”

She exhaled and nodded.

“Okay. Rick.”

He felt his heart warm a little.

“Good. Richard is way too stuffy and I’m trying to rid myself of that image.”

She nodded.

“Whatever you say.”

Whatever you say? Well, he couldn’t be picky. Maybe he was making a little headway here.

“So, Rick,”

Gracie started again.

“How are things going next door?”

Good. Conversation.

“Just fine. Right on schedule.”

He nodded in acknowledgement of his own words and finished chewing at the same time.

“That’s great,”

she added.

He dropped his head in another nod.

“Actually, we’re a little ahead of schedule. Besides the plumbing, there wasn’t that much which required a lot of time. Unless we run into some unforeseen difficulties, I believe we’ll definitely open before the end of the month.”

Gracie nodded.

“So, Richard. Um, Rick. Can you tell us exactly what your little cafe is going to be like? I mean, you’ve not really mentioned what your plans are.”

For the first time that morning, Rick’s gaze lingered over Gracie’s face. She appeared tense and nervous, almost like she didn’t want to be there. Or that she didn’t want him to be there. Her gaze kept skittering away from his whenever he tried to make eye contact, while her fingers fiddled with the handle of her teacup.

Did he make her nervous?

Turning to his right, he took in the opposite expression on Amie’s face. Her eyes appeared to twinkle, like she was holding in a deep belly laugh and the tickle of it was about to make her explode.

Amie leaned forward.

“We’d love to hear what you have in mind for the most recent addition to Main Street Harbor Falls, Rick.”

Oh hell, this one is going to call for fast thinking on your feet, old boy. Reverting to tactics he often used in the courtroom, he turned toward Gracie. He felt certain he could dupe her easily than he could dupe Amie. That one was a mite too precocious for her own good. Not that Gracie wasn’t an intelligent woman, he was sure she was. Something told him that Amie might be on to him.

“I have a plan in mind,”

he started.

“but it’s evolving as I go along. Things come to me as I work and quite honestly, I think I’d like to keep most of them under my hat until the grand opening.”

“Oh, a man who likes a mystery,”

Amie chided.

“He’s going to keep us in suspense, Gracie.”

Gracie studied him for a moment with a look he was quite certain he had never seen on her face before. Suddenly, he wasn’t sure if Amie was the one he needed to be concerned about.

“I’m sure Rick will let us in on his little secret in due time,”

she said, a matter-of-fact tone in her voice.

Then Amie spoke, glancing back and forth from Gracie to him, smiling all the while.

“You know, there is a Chamber of Commerce luncheon next week, right Gracie? Perhaps Rick should come and introduce himself to the other business persons in the community and give us some small dribble of news about his new business venture. Would that be possible by then, Mr. Mystery Man?”

Rick stared. Just what was Amie getting at? She did know something, didn’t she? No, impossible. He was just being paranoid. The only person who knew about his real plans for the cafe were Izzie and his brother. Her suggestion wasn’t a bad idea, though. Besides being a breeding ground for gossips and busybodies, small towns were generally political towns, and networking with local business and professional organizations was exactly what he needed to do right now. He needed as many people on his side as he could get, especially when Gracie found out that he had misled her. Somewhat.

A small dribbling of information about his new business venture might be a good thing.

Funny, each time he thought about that, the guilt ate at him a little more.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,”

he replied. Then he turned to Gracie and looked her square in the eyes.

“What do you think?”

She swallowed and stared back at him with wide eyes.

“I... Well, of course I think it’s great idea. As president of the Chamber, I think all businesses should belong. Amie and I are both active members.”

Her were words much too stiff, forced and contrived for his liking. Why couldn’t he figure this woman out?

She motioned across the table.

“You do know Amie, don’t you? She owns the coffee shop. Amie Clarke, Rick Price.”

Rick reached to his right and took Amie’s hand.

“Seems we are making this official. Of course, I have seen you here every morning this week.”

Amie gave him a firm handshake and a broad smile.

“Yes, I’ve seen you, too. Nice to meet you, officially. Welcome to Harbor Falls, home of nosey neighbors, troublesome busybodies, and an amateur matchmaker or two. Make yourself at home.”

It was all Rick could do not to spit his last sip of coffee straight across the table.