“Um hum,” her father grumbled from behind his paper. That sound said he didn’t believe her but wasn’t going to call her on it—at least not yet. But he would, someday. She only had to wait.
She hadn’t learned her tactics in a vacuum. Everyone in town thought she was the manipulator. But she’d learned at the foot of the master.
“Your breakfast, Miss Victoria?” Marta, their seventy-year-old housekeeper, smiled at her, placing a plate of eggs, fruit, and whole wheat toast in front of her.
“Thank you, Marta.” Victoria smiled back before taking a bite. She wasn’t hungry, but she had to admit she felt a little better with something in her stomach besides the aftereffects of last night’s whiskey.
She’d definitely learned her lesson. She was never doing that again. No more hard liquor. No matter what man crossed her path.
“Did you girls have a good time?”
Victoria nodded. “We had a great time.” Though in truth she had no idea how good a night the rest of the girls had. She’d texted them all early this morning, and hadn’t heard back from any of them. From Riley that wasn’t a huge surprise, she rarely responded to texts in less than three days, but Grace and Lydia were usually better about responding. Maybe they’d actually managed to get some sleep after a late, fun night. Victoria was jealous.
“How was the party for you? Did you get everything you were looking for?” In another household in Frostbite Falls her question would have been in reference to the event, the decorations, the food, the drinks, the dancing. But not in the Willis household.
Her father nodded his head, “The ball was good.” He turned the newspaper page, glancing over at her from the side. “I got most of the support I need for next year’s election.”
She nodded. “That’s fantastic.” The purpose of the party was supposed to be to raise money and toys for the less fortunate in the area. At least that’s the reason it had been started over a hundred years ago. But the ball had become a front for her father to garner the town’s support years ago. Just another venue for him to secure his next election.
It had never bothered her before. She’d always been happy to do her part to support her father. They were a team. They always had been. But today it felt different. Wrong in some way she couldn’t describe.
Luckily she had a whole year to figure out how and to fix it for next time.
“I saw you talking to those Sullivan boys last night.” Just like everything else her father did, his words had a double meaning. Trained in double speak, Victoria was usually good at deciphering his implications, but this time she had no clue. Maybe because just the sound of their name had a chill seeping through her right into her bones.
“They’re new in town. I thought it prudent to be friendly with them.” She sipped her coffee, trying her best to look unaffected by his question. “It never hurts to cultivate another supporter.” At least that was logic her father would understand.
“I wouldn’t worry about getting their support too much. It won’t be long before they move on.”
Victoria forced herself not to choke on her next sip. “What do you mean they’ll be leaving?”
She didn’t think she could feel worse but she did. Even after last night, the thought of them leaving town was like a knife to the gut. Is that why they’d been acting so weird? Why they’d sent me away without an explanation? Were they planning on leaving?
“You know how city boys are,” her father continued with a shrug of his shoulders. “They come in, think they can make a bunch of changes and teach us country folk how to do things. Once they figure out they can’t make a fortune by showing us bumpkins the error of our ways, they’ll head out again.”
She shook her head. That was how some city people acted in Frostbite Falls. Like the guy who had opened a sushi bar, or the other who had launched a reiki healing center. Though thanks to her, Janice’s yoga studio had thrived. Even Frostbite Falls had to embrace some aspects of the twenty-first century. No matter what her father thought, some new blood was good for Frostbite Falls.
“Do you know they cleared out the back corner of the feed store, and now they’re trying to sell bits and saddles there?” Her father shook his head behind the paper, disgusted, though nothing about what he said sounded appalling to her.
“No, I didn’t know that.” She didn’t go to the feed store often. Since she didn’t have an animal, she didn’t need to. But the change made sense to her. Most people drove over a hundred miles to purchase their bits and saddles because no place in town sold them. The feed store sounded like a perfectly good place to offer such products.
“That was supposed to be an area for the men to socialize. Discuss important local activities. Where are we supposed to go now, a coffee shop?” Her father rolled his eyes.
Not that there was a coffee shop in town for them to gather at. Starbucks was yet to find a home in Frostbite Falls. But she didn’t see much difference between a couple old men talking at a coffee shop and her father and his buddies drinking coffee in the back of Sullivan’s Feed Store, laughing about the good old days. The coffee was probably worse, and hay and corn feed covered the floors. Other than that, it didn’t sound that different to her.
Not that she’d tell her father that.
“I still can’t believe old Travis let those boys take over his shop.” He turned the page of his paper again, shaking his head. “I thought he knew better.”
Victoria looked over at her father. “Why? Because people in town wouldn’t want to work with them?” It was Travis’s decision who he gave his store to. Why wouldn’t he want to hand it over to family? Seemed as good a future owner as any to her.
“No.” Her father folded his paper and laid it on the table next to his own breakfast. “Because they ran their own business into the ground.”
Victoria sucked in a deep breath. How had she not heard about this? She was supposed to be queen of the town gossip, and she hadn’t learned this critical information about the men she’d been covertly researching for almost six months.
“What business?” She tried to sound nonchalant, but doubted she’d fooled her father. To date, the student had never surpassed the master, and she doubted this would be the moment she’d succeed.
“Some business they had in San Francisco, one of those app things.” Her father shook his hand. Mayor or not, the man was old-school. He didn’t own a smartphone, preferring an old flip phone. If he had any idea how much money some people made on those app things he’d probably fall off his chair. “They put thousands of dollars into that thing, poured three years of their life, and then lost every dime they ever had. And their investors’ money. And fifty thousand dollars Peter lent his son.” Her father forked some eggs into his mouth, before continuing. “A hundred thousand dollars in total.”
That explained a few things. At least it made sense why they thought they weren’t good enough for her. But one failure didn’t mean anything. Especially on something like an app, which could be volatile to say the least. It didn’t say anything about them as people. They had to know that.
“Travis was looking to retire so he said his nephews could take over the store, while they got themselves in order, but I don’t know why. He should have just sold the store to someone else. Got out of the game altogether. Instead, he’ll have to watch from afar as they ruin the place. It’s a crying shame.”
“Who says they’ll ruin the store?” She leaned back from her plate, her stomach rolling too much to eat. All this conversation about Trevor and Sam was enough to upset her on a normal morning, let alone after the night she’d had.
“I don’t see how it will end any other way. This town won’t accept changes from those city boys. If they don’t watch out, everyone will abandon the store altogether.”
Victoria stared at her father in disbelief. He never made it a secret he wanted to keep the town the way it was, but the way he spoke now sounded so short-sighted. So old. She’d never looked at her father and seen him
as an old man before, regardless of the gray peppering his naturally strawberry-blond hair. But he was. She could see it now. He was an old fogey, stuck in his ways and willing to do anything to keep it that way. Whether it was what the rest of town needed or wanted.
And eventually the town would want more. They might not want pressed juice bars or vegan restaurants, but they’d want something else. They’d want to be able to buy a saddle without driving a hundred miles, or they’d want to receive more than just the Frostbite Falls Gazette on their stoop each morning. And when they outnumber her father’s supporters, he’d be on his way out. Willingly or not.
But her father wasn’t the only one that could make decisions for Frostbite Falls. She was a Willis, after all. And she loved this town as much as he did. What she loved about it wouldn’t change because she couldn’t drink coffee in the back corner of the feed store, or because a few new people settled in town.
This was about far more than Trevor and Sam, but she couldn’t ignore the light of hope that leapt to life in her chest as a plan started to form. She might be able to save the town she loved and the men she felt almost as much for in one scheme. If nothing else, Trevor and Sam seemed like the perfect place to start. The only real place she wanted to begin. If she was being honest. Hurt or not.
“I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens.” She sipped at her coffee, her stomach suddenly feeling a lot better.
“I guess so.” Her father smiled back to her.
Chapter Eight
“Are you really going to open today?” Trevor looked at Sam from the top of the stairs that led to the small apartment they shared above the store.
Sam only nodded, continuing to count out the required tens and twenties to fill the cash drawer. They’d decided before the ball not to open today. Most of the town would be sticking close to home, sleeping late. Very few of the shops on Main Street would open for business today at all, and those that did had shortened hours.
Their plan had sounded good before. A legitimate excuse for a day off no matter what their father or uncle said. But now, he didn’t see any reason not to open. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t even close his eyes without thinking about her. The smell of her skin, the feel of her soft body against his, the taste of her against his tongue.
No, it was better to work. Better to be distracted than to realize how much he missed her. How much they both missed her, if Trevor’s grumbly mood was any indication.
Trevor folded his arms across his chest. “What’s the point? We aren’t going to have any customers today.”
“Then it will be a waste of my time. You can go back to bed.” He didn’t have to see the wrinkles forming across Trevor’s brow. He’d seen it enough to know the expression without actually looking at him.
“It was the right thing to do,” Trevor whispered from the top of the stairs, low and just as pained as Sam felt. “We had to let her go.”
“I know.” But that didn’t ease the ache in his chest, or the pounding behind his temples. It didn’t erase the vision of Vic’s face twisted in pain from his mind. Not for a second.
He couldn’t do anything about last night. He couldn’t take back the pain, or stop her from feeling it. And he definitely couldn’t make them what she needed. The type of upstanding men who deserved a woman like her. What he could do was open the store. He could keep himself busy.
Maybe if they worked hard enough, one day all this pain would be a distant memory. Even as he thought it, he knew it was false. He’d never forget Vic. The pain of losing her would never completely fade away. Something that deep marked you for good. It had to.
A knock sounded at the door, and Sam turned back to his cousin, raising an eyebrow at him. “No customers today, huh? Who do you think that is?” Sam walked to the door and threw it open with such triumph he almost didn’t notice the woman standing there.
No customer stood on their stoop. Only Vic.
She looked almost exactly as he imagined her. From her red hair twisted to her head, fashionable black coat, down to her purple pumps. Snow and cold would never stop Victoria Willis from dressing like the fashionista she was. Nothing would stop her from what she wanted. He probably should have hated that quality, especially today, but he couldn’t do it.
She didn’t wait for an invitation. She just walked right in. Not that he was surprised. Vic wasn’t a woman who waited for anything. Apparently that even included them.
But beneath all her bluster, she didn’t look any better off than they did. Her big blue eyes stared up at him, a bit red and puffy. Her chin drooped. It wasn’t much, but he imagined it was the most Vic would allow herself to show. It tore his damn heart out to see her hurt that much. And he hated even more that they were the cause of it. But it was better for her in the long run. Much better. She just couldn’t see it yet.
“What can I help you with, Miss Wills? Do you need some feed?” The sarcastic tone of his voice even irritated him, but it was all he had to hold on to. If he didn’t keep her at a distance this way, he didn’t know any way to stop himself from racing to her and holding her close, until the pain vanished from her eyes.
At the sound of her name, Trevor descended the remaining stairs. While Sam couldn’t see him, he could hear his heavy breath behind him. His own interest in her arrival radiated through the air, matching Sam’s own.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t need feed. I’m here to talk to you.”
He’d assumed as much. In the six months they’d been running the feed store, she hadn’t walked into the store once. She didn’t look right in their store, with her high heels and short skirt. Women like her weren’t meant to walk on their dirty straw-covered floors.
She took a deep breath, gearing herself up for something. It didn’t surprise him, even with everything that had happened between them, she still came straight to them when she wanted something. That’s how she was. Straightforward and to the point. Vic would never hide from anything, no matter how difficult. Which only made him feel even shittier that he couldn’t do the same. He couldn’t just come right out and tell her why they had to walk away from her. That he had to couch it in pain and hurt, instead of just telling her the truth.
“I need your help. I want to work on improving the town.” She walked around the room like she owned the place, and for a majority of the town that was true. If he hadn’t personally seen the deed in his uncle’s hand, he would have thought it was possible for this place, too.
They followed behind her, pulled like magnets to metal. It took everything in him not to touch her. They’d only been apart from her for a few hours, although it felt like centuries. Way longer than he wanted.
“We’d be happy to help the town,” he answered automatically, Trevor nodding beside him. It would be good for business, but that’s not why he wanted to do it. He wanted to help her. Plain and simple.
She strode to within a foot of the cash register before turned back. Those observant eyes of hers, that saw so much more than he’d ever realized, assessed them with the focus of a laser.
“Before I tell you my plan, I need to know something.” She took a deep breath, glancing back and forth between them. “I want to know why you left last night. The real reason. Not that fluffy bullshit you told me.” She raised an eyebrow at them, her eyes critical.
Sam shoved his fingers through his hair, hating every word she was about to make him say. “Do we really need to go through this again, Vic?” Didn’t she know it was killing them? Saying those same words, hurting her over and over again. It was the last thing he wanted. Yet she continued to force his hand. Why is she determined to make this so damn hard?
“Yes.” Her tone was as cool as steel in winter. He almost flinched beneath the sting. “I want to know the truth.”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to delve into this.” Trevor tried his best to dissuade her, even though they both knew it wouldn’t work. Not when she looked at them with that blind determination, her mouth fl
attened into a hard line. A resolved Vic would get her answers one way or another. No matter what.
“That’s what you said last night.” She placed a hand on her hip, staring them down harder than a detective on an old police show. He had no doubt if she were the arresting agent, every criminal would be tripping over himself to reveal every crime he’d ever committed, just to escape that laser-focused stare of hers.
“It’s not good enough.” Just looking at her, in her high heels, and perfectly manicured nails, she looked like any other pretty girl. But her growl revealed the truth. Deep down, she was a lioness, who would rip apart anyone who messed with her or her pride.
“Well, it’s true, honey. We aren’t good enough for you.” Just saying the words nearly tore up his throat. Sam hated them with every fiber in his being, but that didn’t change anything. “We’re screw-ups. Fuckups. We’re not good enough for a woman like you.”
There it was. Finally out in the open. Undisputable.
“I don’t see how that’s true.” She spoke so matter-of-factly he had to smile. She didn’t say it to comfort them, but merely because it was accurate.
“Yes, we are. We’re failures. We don’t have anything to our names. Not a car or a bank account with more than a hundred dollars in it. We’re thousands of dollars in debt. If our uncle hadn’t taken pity on us, we wouldn’t even have a place to sleep. We don’t deserve a woman like you.”
“Shouldn’t I decide that for myself?” That growl was back in her words. The fire in her eyes showed how close she was to losing her calm. But no matter how angry she was, that didn’t change anything.
“We’ve been here before, baby,” Trevor brushed a finger across cheek, and a stab of jealousy twisted in Sam’s gut. God, he wished he could be the one touching her. “It always ends the same. Pain, regret, heartbreak. We hurt so many people before, we don’t want to hurt you any more than we have to.”
Straight Up [Frostbite Falls Christmas 4] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) Page 7
