Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“I’ll get a business partner,” I said desperately.
“You need a life partner,” she insisted. “Someone whose investment isn’t just monetary. Someone whose attachment doesn’t hinge on financial gain. Someone who loves Snowberry because he loves you and wants to build a life here.”
I slumped back into the kitchen chair. “Well, I’m sorry. But that person doesn’t exist.” I thought he had, once upon a time. But I’d been wrong.
“Bosh.” Gran waved a gnarled, blue-veined hand in front of her face. “He exists. You just have to keep an open mind. Take Dr. Smalley, for example.”
“Your dentist?” I frowned at the non sequitur. “What does he have to do with anything?”
“He’s widowed, you know, and he’s looking to get back out there.”
An alarm bell dinged in my head. “Good for him.”
“I thought so too. After all, he’s only thirty-five. And in the right light, he’s very handsome.” Gran smiled with meddlesome satisfaction, a glimmer of mischief in her pale blue eyes. “So I took the liberty of arranging a little meet-up for you.”
“What?” I shrieked, bolting upright in my chair. “Gran, you didn’t! In the middle of all this? I can’t!”
“Why not? Do you have plans tonight?”
“You arranged this for tonight?”
“Yes. He’s dropping his kids off at their grandmother’s house, and he’ll pick you up around eight. He thought maybe he’d take you somewhere called . . .” She set her teacup down and pushed herself out of her chair with some effort. Shuffling over to the counter by the telephone, she picked up a notepad. “The Broken Spoke.”
I shook my head. “Call him and cancel.”
She looked at me, her expression not at all apologetic. “I’m afraid I can’t, darling. I don’t have his number. I arranged it all last week when I was there.”
“And you just decided to tell me about this now?”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
I closed my eyes. Counted to three. Took a deep breath.
“It will be good for you, Lexi darling,” she went on in a soothing tone. “You haven’t been out with anyone in such a long time. You work too much.”
“We only have one other full-time employee right now, Gran. And she’s not terribly reliable.”
That would be Tabitha. She was younger than me by three years, and we’d grown up together. As a kid, she’d cheated at board games, cried when she lost, and blamed me when she was the one who threw the shoe that broke Gran’s heirloom vase. If there were two different flavors of something, she always got first pick. And even if she changed her mind after licking the cherry Dum Dum sucker and demanded my butterscotch, I had to give it to her or listen to her scream.
She wasn’t my favorite.
“I know,” Gran said. “But she tries hard.”
She didn’t.
“Gran, she spends all her time at the desk scrolling social media.”
“Well, she’s trying to be a travel instigator.”
“Travel influencer. And if that’s the case, why doesn’t she ever talk up Snowberry? She’s got a platform.”
“I don’t know about those things, darling.” Gran shuffled back to the table and sat down. “But she’s working reception tonight, so you’re free to meet Dr. Smalley.” She picked up her tea. “Now let’s talk about what you should wear. How about that pretty white dress you wore to my birthday dinner last month?”
Defiant, I folded my arms. “Gran, I’m not going on a date with Dr. Smalley tonight. Or any night.”
My grandmother’s eyes grew misty, and she put a hand over her heart. “Oh. I’m—I’m short of breath, all of a sudden. My heart, it’s—it’s beating so fast. Bury me in my pink suit please. The one with the pearl buttons.”
“Gran!” I jumped up and went around to her side of the table, crouching down beside her. “Are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?”
“No, no, darling.” She patted her chest. “I’ll be fine. I think it’s simply that I’m so concerned about you. I’m getting older, you know, and soon I’ll be gone, and I don’t like to think of you alone. My heart can’t take it. Sometimes I can’t even sleep at night, I’m so anxious.”
“Oh.” Seeing through the act, I slowly rose to my feet. “So you’re all right?”
“I will be.” She looked up at me, her expression pained. “If only you’d ease my worries by seeing Dr. Smalley tonight. Then maybe my heart would slow down, and I could breathe again. Isn’t that what you want for me? To be able to breathe properly?”
I clenched my teeth. “Fine. I’ll see Dr. Smalley tonight—on one condition.”
“What’s that, darling?” Gran was perky again.
“You bring me with you to that lunch on Tuesday. I want to make sure some smooth-talking shark in a suit doesn’t think he can just chew us up and spit us out.” Fired up all over again, I looked down at my list of ideas. “I want to negotiate. Snowberry might be small, and it might be struggling, but it’s worth fighting for.” I looked across the table at her. “Deal?”