TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series) (10 page)

“You know you don’t really want an answer to that question.” Katie wiggled her eyebrows at her brother and grinned before she stuck another bite in her mouth. “I would come here every morning if I lived in town,” she said after she swallowed.

“And then you would be as wide as you are tall,” Logan grumbled, pushing back his chair to stand up. “And I wouldn’t have to worry about you tempting men anymore. Maybe you should have a second helping. I’m going up to start hunting for shelves that might work. I’ll see you both up there.”

Allie watched him head for the stairs, thinking, not for the first time, that some men were just born to wear jeans and tight T-shirts.

“He’s grumpy enough today, isn’t he?”

Katie’s comment snapped Allie’s attention back to the table.

“Oh, yeah? I didn’t really notice.” Allie tried for a nonchalant response, fixing her gaze on the last bites in front of her. If she was lucky, maybe Katie hadn’t realized she’d been staring at Logan’s backside as he’d walked away.

Katie nodded, finishing off the last of her bread and washing it down with coffee. “I don’t think he wanted me to tag along this morning, but oh well. That’s what little sisters are for, right? Besides, I wanted to see what was going on in town.” She grinned and stood up, pinching her fingers together. “I’m going to wash off this sticky caramel sauce and then I’ll meet you guys upstairs. Behave yourselves until I get there!”

It would appear that Katie hadn’t missed a thing.

Allie’s face flamed as she gathered up their plates and carried them back to the counter, forcing herself to concentrate on the task at hand rather than the man upstairs.

“Thanks for doing that,” Dulcie said as she took the stack from Allie. “Do you think you’ll start moving things down today?”

“I don’t know yet.” But it wouldn’t surprise her. Contrary to what she’d expected when she made the decision to come back to Chance, circumstances in her life felt like they were moving at the speed of light.

* * *

Damn, but that woman rattled him.

Logan carried another box of books out into the hallway, placing it on top of the stack he’d already started.

Allie only needed to turn those big, blue eyes in his direction and he had trouble thinking of what to say next because his brain morphed into a confused mush. How else could he explain what had happened downstairs?

“Lack of sleep,” he muttered, tipping the big bookcase on its end to drag it out into the hallway.

Four nights on call at the firehouse and three off with no vacation breaks must finally be getting to him. That had to be it. He could come up with no other reasons for his temper to flare over some silly girl-talk between Allie and his sister.

An anxious twitch rumbled through his chest and he jerked the heavy bookcase into place.

As ridiculous as it sounded, the idea of Allie with another man — any man — set his jaw tight enough to crack nuts.

He’d already tried to convince himself it was only because Allie was his best friend’s sister and he viewed her in the same light as his own little sister. It was as good a working theory as any.

“Wow. You really got a lot done up here. I’m impressed.”

She stood at the top of the stairs, one hand on the banister and the other on her hip. Blood raced through his veins, pounding at his eardrums in response to her compliment.

So much for his working theory. That reaction alone was enough to prove he felt anything but brotherly when it came to Allie. He was back to square one, where he could only assume he was responding in this unusual way because he was too tired to control his reactions.

Her expression changed, her nose wrinkling as she looked from the stacks in the hallway to the stairs and back again.

“You think we’re going to be able to manhandle that heavy furniture down these stairs?”

She had a point. He could certainly carry his end of the effort, but neither she nor Katie would be very useful.

“How about we stage everything you want to take downstairs out here in the hall and then I’ll grab someone to help carry the heavy stuff down this evening after the girls close up shop? Sound like a plan?” He felt sure his partner at the firehouse wouldn’t mind lending a hand.

Relief lit Allie’s face as she nodded her agreement.

“Tanner?” Katie’s head popped out behind Allie on the stairs. “If you’re asking him to come help then I’m definitely coming back to watch tonight. That man has some serious muscle definition going on.”

His sister only giggled when he pasted his best big-brother glare on his face. Allie appeared to be hiding her own smile as she ducked into the next room to begin her search for more usable furniture.

“You could probably get Cody to help, too,” Katie offered as she followed Allie into the second room.

It was a good suggestion. As local marshal, their older brother saw it as one of his missions to help people and businesses in the community any way he could. This should certainly qualify.

“So if that’s all, that’s not going to be nearly enough.” Katie turned as Logan entered the room. “Don’t you agree, Logan?”

Rather than answer, he held up his hands as if to defend himself from an onslaught. The way his morning was going, there was no way he was going to agree to anything without knowing what the two women were talking about.

“You’re safe. Even I agree with her,” Allie said on a sigh. “The books I found last night aren’t anywhere near enough to start a decent lending library, let alone to set up a used-book sales section.”

“You should advertise. Post a notice or something.”

His sister just might be on to something.

“Katie makes a good point. Bobcat is an old friend of your grandfather’s. I bet he’d be willing to run an ad for what you’re trying to do. Maybe even let you ask for donations in his paper.” He should have thought of that himself without Katie’s suggestion.

A smile crinkled the corners of Allie’s eyes as she pushed a loose strand of curls back from her face, leaving a smudge of dust on her cheek. “I remember Bobcat Baker. He still runs the newspaper here?”

“Still running the paper, all on his own. Puts a new issue out every other Monday,” Logan confirmed. “You should go call him right now. He might have space to put you in the next issue.”

“Maybe what you should do is call your grandfather. Let him ask Bobcat,” Katie suggested. “You know how those old guys are sometimes.”

“Great idea.” Allie headed for the stairs, stopping only long enough to grab a box to carry down with her. “I’ll go call Papa Flynn right now.”

Logan let his gaze follow her progress, resisting the urge to chase after her and take the box from her hands.

“When are you going to pull yourself out of that overdeveloped, self-imposed load of misery you wallow in?”

He jerked when his sister spoke standing right next to him. He hadn’t even noticed her move across the room in his direction.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Katie snorted her disbelief. “Like hell you don’t. Don’t you think it’s about time you stopped living like a monk?”

“I don’t live like a monk,” he denied, knowing as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he should have kept quiet.

“Oh, really? Well, I can’t remember the last time you brought a woman to the house to meet the family. Oh, wait!” Katie did that wide-eyed fake-innocent thing he hated so much. “I
can
remember. It was five freakin’ years ago.”

“Just because I don’t bring anyone home doesn’t mean I don’t see anyone.” Bringing a woman home to introduce to his family would indicate a relationship, and that wasn’t going to happen. He didn’t do relationships. Not anymore.

“Obviously you like Allie. You should just ask her out already and get it over with.”

He shook his head, doing his best to display total disinterest in whatever else Katie said.

He
obviously
liked her?

That would never do. If he couldn’t control himself any better than that around Allie, his safest course of action just might be spending less time around her.

Either that or reconsider everything he’d decided up to this point in life.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“If Harley himself hadn’t called me up, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now talking to you. I hope you know that.”

Allie wrapped herself in a calm facade as the old man across from her leaned forward, examining her as if she were some strange exhibit in a biology class. It took everything she had not to squirm under his inspection.

No wonder he’d always been such a good reporter.

Robert “Bobcat” Baker sat back in his overstuffed chair and picked up the pipe lying by his computer keyboard. He puffed away, reminding Allie of a cartoon train she’d seen on the television as she’d walked through the living room this morning.

“I appreciate very much your making time to see me.”

“I should hope so,” he said. “I seem to remember you as an altogether different girl, trailing around after Harley. You wore glasses back in those days. Big, square brown ones, as I recall. Why aren’t you wearing something like that now?”

They’d been thick as Coke bottles, too, but Bobcat hadn’t used that description. Maybe he’d wanted to spare her feelings.

“I had laser eye surgery a few years ago.”

The process had depleted her meager savings account but, after a couple of unsuccessful tries at wearing contacts, she’d considered the expenditure well worth the price.

The old man sitting across from her tapped the bowl of his pipe against his desk and continued his inspection. “You used to be a real roly poly little thing, too, as I recall it. What happened with that?”

So much for sparing her feelings.

“I guess I grew up, Mr. Baker.” She could feel her carefully neutral mask beginning to slip as her face heated. She needed to move things away from the past and confront her future plans. “Right now I’m hoping we can come to terms on an ad of some sort in your paper to help me collect books to start a lending library at The Hand of Chance Coffee Emporium.”

“Mr. Baker?” He smiled around the pipe clamped between his teeth. “That was my daddy. I’m just plain ol’ Bobcat. Why don’t you tell me why you think this plan of yours is such a good idea for our little town.”

“Because we don’t have a public library in Chance and people love to read.”

“Not enough people,” he muttered. “So what’s in it for you, girl? You can’t make a living just loaning out books. And I know enough about your people to know there’s not an independently wealthy Flynn in the whole bunch to support you.”

He was certainly right about that.

“I’m opening a new-and-used bookstore in the coffee shop. I see the lending library as a draw. Once people have read what’s available to check out, I’m hoping they’ll bring books in to trade, or purchase new books.”

Bobcat fumbled with his pipe as she explained her plans, but his expression was sharp and his eyes were clear. Allie had not one doubt that his “crotchety old man” act had worked on more than one story source in the past.

She steered the conversation back to the business at hand. “If you’re accepting advertising, I need to know what your pricing is. My funds are limited.”

“What do you know about running a bookstore?”

With a sigh, she listed her qualifications—her love of reading, her six years of working her way up in the bookstore back in Waco—only to have Bobcat veer off into another question when she finished. And yet another after she answered that one.

Twenty minutes later, she made one more attempt at getting the information she needed.

“Do you maybe have your advertising rates printed out? I could just take a look at that, if you prefer.”

“Rates?” Bobcat pushed his black-rimmed glasses back up on his nose and frowned at her. “Why are you worried about my rates?”

“Because, as I mentioned a while back, I don’t have much of a budget for advertising.”

Again he puffed on his pipe, grinning before he spoke. “Then it’s a damn lucky thing for you that I’m doing a front-page feature on your little venture instead of offering you a spot on the classified page.”

“A feature?” And on the front page! She could hardly believe her luck. Everyone who got that issue of the paper would know about her business and her need for books, even if they didn’t turn past page one. She couldn’t have imagined such wonderful publicity.

“I’m always looking for a good human interest story. I’ll stop by soon to snap a few candids for the article.” Bobcat rose from his chair and extended his hand.

Allie hopped out of her chair to grab his hand and pump his arm up and down. “You can stop by whenever you want to, Bobcat. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

She hurried out into the bright sunlight, more excited than she could remember being in months. She needed to thank Papa Flynn for whatever he’d said to his friend. She needed to thank Katie for suggesting that she consider some kind of advertising.