Falling for Grace (5 page)

“
I’m bleeding,
Dad.”

Glancing back to Izzie’s hand, Grace caught
sight of the thick bubble of blood oozing up out of the wound. She
grabbed the damp wash cloth and covered the cut, applied some
pressure, and cradled Izzie’s small hand with her own.

Somehow, Carson’s hands simultaneously ended
up around hers.

Surprisingly, she
felt
his
hands
shaking.

He jerked them away again quickly and said,
“Oh! You have that? Okay...I’ll fix a bandage.” He then proceeded
to busy himself with cutting a swatch of sterile gauze. He dropped
the roll of gauze once, then twice. Gracie tried to concentrate on
Izzie, rather than on the fact that her father seemed to be having
a heck of a time managing the bandage.

“
You like cheeseburgers,
Ms. Hart?”

She looked at Izzie. “What?”

“
Cheeseburgers? You like
‘em?”

Studying the child’s impish face, Gracie’s
heart suddenly turned warm and fuzzy. Isabella Price was a
beautiful child with an animated face and big ol’ Disney character
eyes. She was looking at her now, those huge blue eyes full of
question.

“
Well, do you?”

Gracie hadn’t eaten a cheeseburger since she
was sixteen. “I love them,” she replied.

“
Me, too. Wanna come with
us to McDonald’s?”

Gracie felt her own eyes widen at the
question. “Me?”

“
Yeah.”

Her heart suddenly didn’t feel warm and
fuzzy anymore, but lurched abruptly into panic mode. She glanced at
Carson, who had finally managed to cut the bandage and was looking
at her with an unreadable expression on his face, then back to
Izzie. Sharing kitchen space was bad enough at the moment, she
wasn’t up for a cozy lunch for three at the neighborhood kid
hangout.

“
I...well, thank you, but
perhaps another time.”

“
I’m sure Gracie has to
stay with her shop, Iz.”

My shop? Yes. I have to stay with the shop.
Did he call me Gracie?

Nodding profusely, she agreed. “Yes. That’s
right. I need to stay with my shop.” The shop which, she suddenly
realized, was standing wide open to the street with no one manning
the cash register. “And, I really should be getting back down
there.”

Slowly, she removed the wash cloth and sort
of pushed the child’s hand toward Carson. “Perhaps you should take
over from here.” She felt like she was backing up at the same time.
Well, actually, she was.

“
All right,” he replied.
He glanced to his daughter. “Don’t you have something to say to Ms.
Hart before she leaves, Iz?”

Izzie screwed up her face and slowly turned
to look at Gracie. “Sorry,” she finally whispered.

“
I know,” Gracie returned,
then smiled back. “It’s okay. I’m just glad you weren’t badly
hurt.” Then she turned quickly back to Carson. “I...um, really do
need to get back down there. The shop is open.”

“
I understand.”

She retreated two more steps. “Help yourself
to whatever you need.”

“
We’ll be fine and will
join you in a few minutes.”

“
Oh, sure.” She was nearly
in her living room now. “And we’ll finish our business
then.”

“
Yes.”

“
Good.”

“
Okay.”

Then Gracie left. She tripped over the throw
rug at the entrance to her door and nearly turned her ankle on the
first step down the stairway. What in the world was wrong with her?
Obviously, stupid mode had traveled down to her feet.

Stopping at the first landing, she paused a
minute, allowing a couple of thoughts to collect themselves in her
head.

At that point she decided that she hoped
stupid mode wasn’t going to bounce back up to her heart. She’d kept
such tight control over that heart for such a long time, it would
surely be a shame for it to do something stupid, like get broken
over a guy like Carson Price.

* * * *

“
Your change comes to two
dollars and sixteen cents,” Gracie told the young woman on the
other side of the counter. The woman took her change, the
Aromatherapy candle she’d just purchased, smiled, then leisurely
left the shop.

Gracie watched her leave then made a mental
note to order more of those candles. This was something new from a
different supplier and that particular brand was flying out of the
shop faster than she could keep them in stock.

Turning, she glanced about and decided that
instead of a mental note, she needed to make reference to the
candles in her computer inventory software program before she
forgot about it.

She booted up the computer and glanced once
more at the back stairway. Twenty minutes earlier she’d left Carson
and Izzie upstairs. She’d seen hide nor hair of them since.

Odd, she thought, hoping that Izzie was
okay.

“
He’s probably still
fumbling with the bandage,” Gracie said to herself, then chuckled.
Her computer screen came to life with a series of clicks and clacks
and pings. Every time she started the thing, she said a little
prayer that it would keep working for a while longer. She couldn’t
afford to buy a new one quite yet, although it was on her wish
list. She started clicking icons to open the file she was
after.

During the time Carson had been upstairs,
Gracie had seriously contemplated the sanity of renting the shop
and the apartment to him and his daughter. She’d had her doubts
early on—then in a moment of stupidity had reconsidered—now, she
was sure she should not rent to him. Quite sure.

There was no sound reason
why she shouldn’t, really. He appeared to be a friendly person with
good character and sincere intentions. Obviously, he wasn’t some
derelict off the street. He was a family man with a child to raise.
Besides, a nice
café
next door would certainly compliment her shop.

The members of the Chamber would surely
welcome the new business endeavor.

But she didn’t know the
wisdom of renting to this man who made her insides flutter. Fact
was, she wasn’t used to fluttering insides and she was quite sure
she didn’t want them to flutter. She’s was just going to have to
come up with some excuse
not
to rent to him.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

“
Oh, shut up!”

“
Excuse me?”

Startled, Gracie turned toward the voice.
“Oh! Mr. Price.”

“
Were you talking to
someone?” he asked with a slight smirk on his face. “I swear I
heard you tell someone to shut up.” He glanced about the shop. “And
I don’t see anyone else here but the two of us.”

Gracie felt her cheeks grow warm with
embarrassment. He was teasing her, sort of, and she wasn’t quite
sure she liked it. Or maybe, she liked it at little too much.

“
I was—” She glanced
around the shop. Where in the heck was that darned shop cat when
she needed her? A lot of people talked to animals, didn’t they?
Then she glanced back at her computer. “I was...I was talking to
the computer,” she added quickly, then patted the monitor and
turned back with a small grin. “I have to talk to her once in a
while, a little sweet talk, you know. She works better for me that
way.”

“
She?” Carson arched a
brow in amusement.

Gracie wrung her hands and glanced off to
the side. “Ah, yes. She. The computer is definitely a she.”

He nodded, slowly, the expression on his
face still resembling amusement. “But that didn’t sound like sweet
talk to me.”

How in the heck was she going to talk her
way out of this one? Gracie cocked her head to once side. “Well,
I’d be inclined to agree with you, Mr. Price, but— “she turned and
patted the computer monitor again, “you don’t know old Clara Belle
here. She needs a good swift, sweet-talking nudge once in a
while.”

As if on cue, the newly-christened Clara
Belle sputtered with another series of clicks and a bing as if she
were acknowledging her own incompetence.

Gracie then arched her brow and looked once
more to Carson. She shrugged. “See? What did I tell you?”

“
Well, I fail to
see—”

“
So how is Izzie?” She had
to turn this conversation quickly. She had no intention of sharing
with Carson Price the fact that she had these ongoing conversations
with her biological clock once in a while.

“
Oh, she’s fine. All
bandaged up and ready to move on to another escapade.” He glanced
back toward the stairwell. “She’s actually staking claim on her
room in the apartment upstairs. I hope you don’t mind, but while we
were up there, we went ahead and looked around.”

Gracie was a bit taken aback. “Oh?” She
remembered now that she had unlocked the apartment earlier this
morning.

“
Yes.”

“
And?”

“
We love it.”

“
Oh.”

“
So we’d like to take the
package deal.”

“
You would?” Gracie wasn’t
sure to be thrilled or panicked.

“
Yes. The apartment and
the shop. I’d like to move as soon as possible, if that’s okay with
you. In fact, I’d like to start this weekend.”

“
But I have to
clean—”

“
No, forget about that. If
you’ll give me a cut on the first month’s rent, I’ll clean and even
paint Izzie’s bedroom upstairs. She wants purple. I hope you don’t
mind. She said pink was for girls. And I’ve claimed dibs on the
blue room at the back so the pink room has to go.”

The blue room in the back. The room next to
mine, Gracie thought. One thin wall separating us.

Oh, boy.

She took a deep breath. “Mr. Price. I think
we need to discuss a few things before—”

“
Do you have a
lease?”

Puzzled, Gracie suddenly lost her train of
thought. “Well, yes, I do. It’s in the computer, in fact, but—” She
wasn’t sure she was ready to do this yet.

“
Good. Why don’t you print
one off, I’ll take it with me tonight, read it over, and then come
back in the morning with either the signed copy or notes about
issues we need to discuss.”

“
But you haven’t filled
out an application yet.”

He nodded. “Well, print one of those off
too, and I’ll bring it in the morning. You can sign the lease after
you’ve checked my references.”

“
Well, I—”

Clara Belle clicked and pinged in the
background again.

Carson chuckled and smiled at the machine.
“I think she agrees. So, would you print all that off for me while
I fetch Iz? I should be getting back to Louisville. We’ll touch
base in the morning then, if that’s okay with you.”

“
Well, sure, I suppose.
But—”

But he was gone, already moving toward the
back of her shop. Gracie was at a loss for words.

Clara Belle pinged again. Gracie turned
toward the computer and gave it one nasty look. “I didn’t need your
input back there a minute ago, you know. Whose side are you on,
anyway?”

The computer monitor sat unmoving,
silent.

“
Oh hell,” Gracie muttered
quietly. Then she clicked on the program on which she’d saved a
copy of her standard lease and application, made a few impromptu
adjustments, tweaked a couple of other items, and generally made
some overall ridiculous changes. Maybe, once he’d looked this over,
he would decide not to rent after all.

She sure hoped so. It would be much easier
if he said no, rather than her having to say no to him. She didn’t
want him to get the wrong idea, or anything. She didn’t want him to
think that Izzie was the reason she couldn’t rent to him.

In fact, she actually liked Izzie a whole
heck of a lot. She just couldn’t see how she could live next to her
father. Not when he made her insides flutter like he did today, on
the first day they’d ever met.

She printed off the lease and application
then, not putting any further thought into it, keeping her fingers
crossed that he would decide not to return with them in the
morning.

Chapter Four

Normally, after a day like today, Carson had
little trouble dropping off to sleep. He’d ran from one thing to
another all day long; the trip to Franklinville and back, a meeting
with a client, and a quick conference with Jack—all with Izzie in
tow—which was, of course, a challenge. Always happiest when he was
the busiest, though, he’d never had trouble with insomnia.

Until lately.

And tonight didn’t seem to be an
exception.

Lately, there had been one too many things
on his mind, and it didn’t matter how many sheep he counted or how
many pages of some boring legal document he perused, sleep just
sometimes didn’t come.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Tonight, however, he wasn’t thinking about
Izzie and some problem at her school. He wasn’t thinking about how
Marci had all but abandoned her daughter three years ago—and now
was making noises about coming back into his daughter’s life. Nor
was he thinking about the lucrative legal practice he was giving up
to set up an “establishment” in the small burg of
Franklinville.

No, none of those things entered his mind
this night.

He was thinking about Gracie Hart. And why
in the world she didn’t want to rent to him.

Lying in his bed, a soft, cool breeze
blowing over him from the window, Carson welcomed the night calm.
Spring had finally arrived in Kentucky and not only was he thankful
for the warm night, but also the soothing quiet it brought to the
end of his day. The day had been rather hectic. He wished he could
just let this calm wash over him totally and lull him to sleep.