Falling for Grace (9 page)

It was the one thing he’d forgotten.

He just hoped...oh, hell...that 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 you anything else?”
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. Yes, it was her. 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’d not ventured far from his little corner of the world, either,
had he? He’d thought, at the very least, she might be curious as to
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,
though, he sort of 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 met her but he
knew who she was. He’d seen her here every morning and figured she
was the “Amie” of
Amie’s
Place
. She commanded the most authority
and was definitely the one in control. He’d also seen her at
Gracie’s once or twice and assumed they were friends.

She stepped closer. “If you’re not in too
much hurry, why don’t you join us for breakfast?” She glanced back
to Gracie. Carson 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. Almost an 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, it seemed. 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, she was right about that. Before he
knew it, he was sitting between Gracie and Amie.

There were a few awkward seconds between
sips of coffee and tea before Gracie finally spoke.

“
So how are things coming
along next door?”

Carson took another sip of coffee and
finished chewing a bit of pastry. “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 actually wasn’t that much which required a lot of time. We’ll
definitely open before the end of the month.”

Gracie nodded. “So,
Carson. Can you tell us exactly what your little
café
is going to be
like? I mean, you’ve not really mentioned what your plans
are.”

For the first time that morning, Carson
allowed his gaze to linger 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
Franklinville, Carson.”

Oh hell, this one is going to call for fast
thinking on your feet, old boy, Carson told himself. Reverting back
to tactics he often used in the court room, Carson turned to
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. There was
just something that told him that Amie might be on to him more than
Gracie.

“
I have a plan in mind,”
he started, “but it’s sort of evolving as I go along. Things are
coming 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.”

“
Oooohhh, 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’d never seen on her face before. Suddenly,
he wasn’t sure if he Amie was the one he needed to be concerned
about.

“
I’m sure Carson 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
Carson 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?”

Carson stared at her for a
moment. 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
café
were Izzie and his brother. Her suggestion wasn’t
a bad idea, though. Besides being breeding grounds for gossips and
busybodies, small towns were generally political towns, and
networking with local business and professional organizations was
exactly what he needed to be doing right now. He needed as many
people on his side as he could get, especially when Gracie found
out that he had actually duped her.

A small dribbling of information about his
new business venture might actually 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 words much too stiff, forced and
contrived for his liking. Why couldn’t he figure this woman
out?

She motioned across the
table then. “You
do
know Amie, don’t you? She owns the coffee shop. Amie Clarke,
Carson Price.”

Carson reached to his right and took Amie’s
hand. “I don’t think we’ve officially met, but I’ve seen you
here.”

Amie gave him a firm handshake and a broad
smile. “Yes, I’ve seen you, too. Nice to meet you, Carson. And
welcome to Franklinville. I’m sure you’ll like it. We’re small
town, middle America, at it’s best. Home of nosey neighbors,
troublesome busybodies, and matchmakers. Make yourself at
home.”

It was all Carson could do not to spit his
last sip of coffee straight across the table. And it would have
been an understatement to say that he was totally taken off guard
when Gracie, did.

Chapter Six

Izzie arrived with a flourish, a cackle, and
a small, yappy puppy early on a Sunday morning. Or at least, that’s
when she made her presence known. The child could have arrived the
night before for all Gracie knew. Yawning, she pulled the covers
back over her head. This was her morning to sleep in, to unwind, to
read the paper in bed and allow her brain unravel.

Sunday was her day to spoil herself.

Sometimes, she’d light candles and burn
incense and drink a glass of Merlot while she soaked the afternoon
away in her antique clawfoot tub.

Other days, she’d indulge herself in sappy
movies and chocolate ice cream while staying in her jammies all day
long.

Once in a while she’d engross herself in
some long-forgotten artsy-crafty project just to get her mind off
the shop.

Today, she just wanted to sleep in. That was
the only thing on her agenda. Amie had treated her to margaritas
and fajitas at her house the night before and Gracie felt slightly
hung-over this morning. A rare occurrence, but nonetheless, very
real.

This particular Sunday morning, however,
didn’t appear to be one destined for a pampering ritual.

Small, running footsteps, up and down the
back stairs, echoing inside her head with every
thump...thump...thump, came first. Those were followed closely by
shrieks and shouts. Then a giggle or two. Mixed throughout were
yips and yaps and sometimes even a feisty little puppy growl.

The dog’s name was Bandit, she’d also
learned. Izzie had screamed the pup’s name every time it yipped and
growled.

Gracie searched her fuzzy little brain. Had
she put anything in the lease about pets?

Damn. She couldn’t remember.

She pulled her covers up tighter over her
ears. She’d managed for two weeks to avoid Carson and she really
didn’t want to approach him first thing this morning. Certainly,
she could just ignore the child and the dog, stuff some imaginary
cotton in her ears and go back to sleep—

“
Bandit,
no
!”

“
Yip! Yip!”

“
Eeeek!”

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

“
Izzie! Quiet that pup
down!”

That last shout was from Carson.

How quickly the two weeks had passed. It
seemed only yesterday she had embarrassed herself to no end when
Amie made that crack about busybodies and matchmakers. Along with
the covers, Gracie pulled her pillow over her head and grimaced,
still embarrassed at the thought of her spitting tea across the
table all over Carson.

How stupidly embarrassing.

She’d not faced the man since.

And no matter what, she didn’t plan on
facing him this morning.

Ahhh...silence. Blessed silence.

Gracie inhaled deeply, then let out a
relaxed sigh. Carson must have commandeered the child and the pup
to another location.

“
Thank you,” she
whispered, as she felt herself drifting again.

Then she heard:
Eeeeeeeeeek! Yip! Yip! Yip! Me-OWWWWW!
And a loud tumbling and rumbling which echoed
down the stairwell mingled with a small whine, a puppy whimper, a
final shriek, and a sob.

Silence.

“
Izzie!
”

That was Carson.

More silence. Then heavy footsteps.

Gracie sat straight up in bed. Izzie had
fallen down the stairs! The dog! The cat?

Like a gazelle, she leapt from her bed and
took off toward the door with no regard to the fact that she didn’t
want to see Carson or that she probably looked like hell or that
she was wearing nothing more than an oversized t-shirt and black,
bikini panties.

Jerking open the door leading directly to
the stairway landing, Gracie bolted smack into Carson. She shrieked
and each of them scrambled and side-tracked the other and made
apologies and some sort of incoherent babble, then raced to the
bottom of the stairs.

“
Izzie! Oh my
God!”

Gracie wasn’t sure if those were her words
or Carson’s.

They lay in a pile at the foot of the steps,
the pup and the girl. The pup was whining. The cat was no where to
be found. The girl was softly sobbing—big, fat tears sliding down
her face as she looked up at the two adults barreling down the
stairs toward her. Izzie held the tiny Bandit in her hands.

“
I smashed her!” she
sobbed loudly. A look of horror lanced across her face.

“
Let me see,” Carson
softly told her, reaching for the pup. He did a quick inspection,
Bandit nipped at his finger, and he proclaimed her okay.

Gracie breathed a small sigh knowing that if
Izzie was more worried about the pup than herself, she was probably
okay. Carson gathered both child and dog into his arms and pulled
them closer. She noticed he was doing a quick inspection of his
daughter as well, running his hands over her arms and legs,
checking for injuries.

“
Izzie,” he breathed, “you
scared the heck out of me.”

Gracie realized her own heart was beating
mighty quickly as she watched Carson sit on the bottom step and
cradle his daughter and her puppy closer. She placed a hand over
her heart and willed it to stop beating so wildly. Carson’s eyes
closed as he stroked her head and placed a light kiss on top her
head; his strong arms wrapped securely about her.

Finally, her heart slowed a bit.

“
Are you okay, Munchkin?”
Carson whispered to Izzie.

She sniffed and nodded. “B-Bandit—”

Carson cradled the tiny pup in his hand. The
pup nuzzled under his chin. “She’s fine.”

Izzie sobbed again. “I didn’t mean to fall
on her.”

“
I know,
honey.”

“
My...my feet got
tangled...around her...and the kitty...and I tripped and...” she
said between sniffs.

“
She’s okay, Munchkin,”
Carson assured her.

Izzie looked up at her father. “You’re
sure?”

As if on cue, Bandit barked.

Carson nodded. “See, she’s fine.”

“
What about the
kitty?”