Jessica Keller - Small-Town Girl

His hand closed around his car keys, letting the metal bite into his palm.

This wasn’t like him at all—entertaining daydreams of spending time with a woman he hardly knew. No...make that spending time with any woman at all. He’d set the desire for a wife and family to the side. He had his shipping business to worry about, his little sister to watch over, but most important, he’d decided ten years ago that relationships weren’t for him.

A man tended to think like that after the woman he was dating responded to his marriage proposal by laughing right in his face.

He shook his head.

Maybe he was overtired or stressed. Brice rubbed his jaw. He hadn’t been sleeping well. That had to be it. Because it couldn’t be that he was attracted to Kendall. That didn’t fit into the plan he had for his life. Not one bit.

Chapter Four

“I’ll check into the hot air balloon idea, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” Kendall smiled as she spoke into the phone because she’d learned early on in her event-planning career that doing so made her voice stay pleasant despite her stress level. The man on the other end of the line was planning how to propose to his girlfriend; of course Kendall would do everything she could to make the date perfect.

“Great. Do you know when you’ll be able to call me with a ballpark figure?”

“By Monday at the latest.” Kendall wrote a note in her planner along with the man’s phone number.

“That’ll work.”

“She’s blessed to have you.” She turned toward her computer and opened a new web browser. “You sound very thoughtful.”

“Not as blessed as I am to have her.”

The bell that hung above the door to her building rang as Kendall ended the phone call, but she turned away from the entrance, back to her computer, determined to find a good deal for the hot air balloon date. So far, yesterday and all of today, not once had the creaking front door meant someone was entering her portion of the divided building. Although a very steady line of customers—mostly women—entered Evan’s woodshop.

Brice’s younger brother definitely had the charm of the family. Kendall fought an eye roll. She’d experienced the attention of enough charming men to last a lifetime. No, thank you. Her past showed that men like Evan only stayed interested in a woman until the next one walked by. Attention was nice, but it didn’t last. If she had to describe the man of her dreams—which of course she wasn’t looking for because she wasn’t interested in dating—these days Kendall preferred men like Brice. Steady, dependable and—

“Well, don’t you just look all in a daze?” The singsong voice of Claire Atwood broke through Kendall’s thoughts.

“Claire.” Kendall jolted from her seat, upending her foam coffee cup. Her mocha spattered over the edge of the desk and cascaded onto the floor with a splash. A small eep! escaped from Claire’s lips as she dodged the liquid, narrowly missing getting some on her white pants.

“Oh no.” Kendall raced to the back room and returned with a wad of paper towels. “I know there’s a bell on my door, but I didn’t hear you. I’m so sorry.” She dabbed at the spilled coffee, catching most of it before it rolled toward the computer tower. Her day planner, on the other hand, was completely soaked. Ruined.

Sesser’s daughter sprang into action. She ran back for more paper towels and then bent down to mop up the rest of the mess from the floor. “You didn’t hear me? I don’t know how that could be possible! We’ll have to get you a bigger bell over the door.” She laughed.

“Please don’t.” Kendall shoved all the dripping towels into the waste bin. She’d deal with emptying the now-jammed trash can later. “You and your father have already done so much for me. I can’t accept any more. I can’t—”

“How about one more tiny, little thing?” Claire held up a manicured nail and winked at her.

“I couldn’t pos—”

“But first, care if I close the door?” Claire padded across the office on ballet flats and shut the front door.

The woman was everything Kendall wasn’t—poised, tall and slender—beautiful with pale skin and reddish copper hair. Even in four-inch heels, Kendall wouldn’t have been eye level with her.

“Here.” Claire walked back to Kendall’s desk and placed a business card in front of her in the same manner as if she was handing over a trophy. “He’s going to call you for an interview probably in the next day or two, so if you want to work through some quotable material, I’m game.”

Kendall picked up the card. Jason Moss. Reporter. “An interview?”

Claire nodded. “He’s the editor of the local paper, but his pieces often get picked up by the bigger papers and news outlets, and he’s a part of a tourist-friendly blog too. The initial publicity will be great, and if it gets picked up, that could mean big business for you.”

“It’s all a bit overwhelming.” Kendall still had dates to research, another client to call back and a meeting with Brice in the morning to help paint the boat they would use for the sunset cruises. Her business had been open for only two days. How would she manage more? “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“Remember not to mention the partnership with my father, though.” Claire tilted her head and spoke in a whisper. “If it becomes public, he has the right to back out of his deal with you and call in your loan in full. Remember that.”

A rumble of dread simmered low in Kendall’s chest. “I’m aware of that.” She pressed a pushpin through the business card and stuck it onto the corkboard wall behind her computer. “I won’t say a thing.”

Claire sank into the chair on the other side of the desk and dropped her large purse into her lap. “Speaking of Daddy, he mentioned that you’ve already set up a weekly event. Way to make quick work of that.” She winked. “I’m so impressed.”

Kendall folded her hands on top of the bare desk, missing her day planner already. “Brice Daniels and I are going to host weekly sunset cruises and have even talked about expanding to dinner tours if the cruises go well.”

“Oh.” Claire’s smile faltered. “One of the Daniels boys. I see.”

Kendall licked her lips. “Do you know him?”

“Of course.” Her smile came back, but it pulled tight around the corners. Forced. “It’s my family’s business to know everyone in town.”

“But...do you like him?” Why was Kendall’s heart pounding so hard?

“Honestly I’m not close to Brice Daniels, but I’ve had...dealings with other people in his family.” Claire’s gaze skirted toward the wall that separated Kendall’s office from Evan’s storefront. “Let’s just say they didn’t prove to be dependable.” She closed her eyes tightly for a moment. “But we’re talking business, not gossiping about Goose Harbor locals, right?”

“Of course.”

“My father thinks you have a great idea, and he’s excited to be a part of it. I just stopped by to see if you needed help with anything else.”

“Excited?” The man had not seemed thrilled when she last talked to him. Pleased maybe—at the opportunity to diversify his business dealings—but not excited.

“Well, as excited as my dad gets.” Claire grinned. “He has a pretty monotone emotional scale, so don’t take any offense if he acts like being your partner is as fun as eating broccoli.”

“Good to know.”

“Besides, you’ll deal with me and not him most of the time.” Claire laid her hand over her heart. A gold watch with diamonds around the face let Kendall know that while Claire might joke about her father’s monotone emotions, she was a daddy’s girl. Or at the least, didn’t mind spending her father’s money.