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K ate took a step back, suddenly wary. She recognized the scowling, clearly unhappy man in his black business suit as someone she had seen around town a few times.

His dark piercing eyes, imposing height, and aggressive manner left her with a sudden inclination to flee and enter through the back of her inn.

But that was ridiculous. This was her inn.

Her little litany I am the innkeeper rang out in her mind, just before his angry expression smoothed into cordiality.

“Derrick Cross.” He thrust out a hand. “We haven’t formally met. I sent you a letter with an offer.” His smile, while outwardly affable, had a slick, oily undercurrent.

Kate blinked. Her mind ran through the day’s most recent offers for services from landscapers to painters.

Everyone in Hazard knew she was remodeling the inn.

Everyone with any kind of business whose services might interest her had inched flyers into the crease of her door, but they didn’t usually show up at random, pounding her brass bumble bee and dressed in Tom Ford.

Kate shook her head at him and took a step closer, unwilling to be intimidated. She thought to step around him, but he blocked her path. She hesitated. Kate met his eyes straight on and kept her voice steady. “I’m not interested.”

“Did you read my letter? I’m offering you more than you paid.”

Kate stilled. This was him . The man who offered her financial solvency if she was willing to part with her inn.

The financial salvation that only required a piece of her heart.

She’d saved his letter because it represented a kind of insurance, despite her recent furniture acquisition and single half-price paying guest. But it baffled her that it hadn’t come through a Realtor like a legitimate offer.

Something he said made her pause. He’d said still like to purchase it.

“Wait, you’re the other contender. The other person who made an offer on the inn.”

He nodded, seeming relieved she understood. His smile transformed from oily to charming. It was so sudden, Kate could’ve almost believed she’d been mistaken about his earlier demeanor, but she had encountered his type before, too, working for her father.

“Yes, I would have countered but wasn’t given a chance. All that is to your advantage. I’ll pay you what I would have paid the previous owners.”

He turned and looked back at the inn for a long moment.

Kate read tension and angst in his body language.

She could tell by the set of his shoulders that he wasn’t pleased.

That he was taking a moment to decide on his strategy.

Knowing his type, Kate really just wanted him gone.

She had work to do and a lot on her mind that did not include the man who had lost out in purchasing her inn, but she couldn’t afford to be rude—if she didn’t find a way to solve her financial situation, she might need to accept his offer.

Still facing away from her, he said, “The costs to remodel must be excessive. Surely, you’re having second thoughts.”

Those thoughts were none of his business, nor was the stack of bills on her kitchen counter.

Certainly, her budget was tight. She had hired Jaxon, as the local architect, to design bathrooms into all the guest rooms. He was the best in town, and it hadn’t come cheap.

Her contractor, Dartagnan, had cost a small fortune just on his own.

On top of that, her last installment to the plumbers had nearly made her cry.

But she had come this far and wasn’t willing to give up.

Not yet. Besides, she had furniture. It felt as if Fate was rooting for her success.

“I’m sorry. I’ve sunk a lot into the remodel. It’s ongoing.”

“How much?”

The man acted like he would whip out a checkbook to buy the inn on the spur of the moment.

Like something out of an old black-and-white movie.

And, worse, in that instant Kate imagined all her financial difficulties swept away in a windfall.

That was where types like him succeeded.

They swept in with sudden solutions. Overwhelmed by their sheer overbearing presence, people sold out and gave up on their dreams.

Kate shook her head. She hated people like this, who felt entitled to whatever they thought up. She had worked for too many clients who acted the same way. She wasn’t ready to quit. She swallowed and couldn’t help but ask. “What would you do with the property?”

His smile grew larger. “Offices, of course.”

Offices! No way. Kate would see her project through. If at the end she was financially strapped, she could make a profit perhaps by selling to someone who also wanted to be an innkeeper. This guy was starting to seriously tick her off. “Not interested,” she stated firmly.

He’d been reaching out as if to shake her hand on a deal. How presumptuous! Scowling, he dropped his arm to his side.

Immediately, Kate’s manners and training sought to alleviate the awkwardness. “Listen. I’m enjoying the process of the remodel. I have plans for the inn. I’m not interested in your offer. I prefer to finish what I start.”

He stood straighter, as if getting ready for the next volley in his attempt to acquire her inn. Clearly he wasn’t used to being told no, but bullies were like that.

Kate, however, refused to be bowled over by a tyrant.

She had faced many and vanquished them. Usually with money, which was how it worked when she was employed by her father, smoothing paths for his rich clients.

This man’s techniques were familiar. She had used them herself, minus the aggression.

But for her, money was in short supply. And he knew it, which is why he thought he could buy her out.

In that moment, she missed the power her father’s company funds had given her.

Any problem could be solved with money. Well, most, anyway.

This man understood that. He wielded his wealth like a weapon, like a chisel he could use to wear down a stone-faced opponent.

Not her, though, not today.

When he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off. “No.”

The ingratiating smile reappeared. “You don’t know what I was about to say.”

Kate shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Still no.”

Derrick Cross glowered and moved to the side. Kate brushed past him to enter her inn. She’d just unlocked her door when he said, “Your thirty days are running out. After that, I’ll move on to a different piece of property.”

Kate pivoted to watch as he spun on his heel in the direction of the For-A-Song Realty offices.

Kate really hoped Sally would send him on his way.

He did seem determined to buy property in Hazard.

Odd, really. I mean, she loved the charm of the community, but he didn’t seem the type to settle here.

This property was ideal for an inn. It would be a crime to turn it into offices.

Hazard needed this inn. It made Kate proud to know she would meet a need in the community she’d chosen to make her home.

*

Rory answered a call from his band’s lead singer, Kyler. “Hey, how’d the podcast go?”

“You didn’t listen?”

“Not yet.”

“I’m so insulted.”

“You should be. No doubt you were awful. It’s me the fans want.”

“Nah, I was amazing. And Marco wasn’t all stoic either.

You’da been proud. He actually spoke up and joined in, but it was me who had them lapping up every hint about the new great songs being recorded.

” Kyler paused, and his voice took on a warning note.

“You are writing us some new songs, right? The fans want new stuff. I lied and told them we’re already recording them. ”

Rory hated to admit he hadn’t even started on a new song.

Usually, he couldn’t wait to get to it, but something held him back.

He hadn’t gotten to the place where he felt creative.

The summer months had been a drain, what with his stalker-fan problem.

He needed time to recharge. Hazard might not be the best place for it, though.

And being dumped at the inn, well, that brought back lousy memories of abandonment, the angst of being trapped, and just plain weirdness with the past foisting itself into his mind.

“Great. It’s going great,” he lied.

“It’d better be. We got some sucky press for a while there with your obsessed stalker.”

Rory rolled his shoulders to cut back on the tension creeping in. “That barely made the news.” Rory had made sure of it. He hadn’t told Nolan, but he’d spent his own funds, hired a reputation management company. Because one obsessive fan might give other obsessive fans ideas.

“You dodged your stalker, right? She didn’t trail you to Hazmat, or wherever you are.”

“That’s right, Hazmat, Rhode Island. Everybody here wears bunny suits. You’d love it.”

“Bunny suits? Like playgirl swimsuits. I thought it was up north.”

“It’s not even a dot on the map. No one, but no one, comes here. Not if they can help it. This place is on no one’s radar, believe me. Stalker bunny couldn’t find me if she tried. I’m invisible. No one here recognizes me.”

It wasn’t quite true. Ivy had recognized him right off and Whitney, soon to be mayor, had recognized him after about a minute and a half.

“I’m growing a beard to be incognito.” Rory rubbed a hand over the new growth on his chin.

Hopefully, some facial hair would be enough to make him unrecognizable.

He didn’t need the Hazard Gazette picking up on his return visit.

“You all holed up at your granddad’s?”

Rory started to speak and stopped. Kyler must have heard his hesitation.

“You are staying with your grandfather, right, not living it up and giving the gossip rags more fodder?”

“I’m…staying at a Bed & Breakfast in town.” Before he could ask, Rory answered. “The family home is being remodeled, sort of. The historical society is getting it ready for tours.”

“Wait, what? Tours? The historical society?”