Selling Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 1)

by Samantha Westlake

  "Well, that's okay - I snuck in over the back fence," I replied, feeling a rush of sympathy towards this elderly gentleman. If he had to deal with the arrogance of Sanford Welles every single day, he deserved every bit of sympathy I gave him. "But I'd prefer to go out through the front, if that's alright with you."

  "Yes, yes, of course," Winston replied. "And I understand that there's a cat here, too?"

  I moved over towards Whiskers, hoping that he wouldn't get into one of his moods and go bolting off. He stayed in his warm spot, however, just watching as I approached. I reached out and snagged onto him, scooping him up into my arms in a warm, surprisingly heavy ball of fluff and limbs. He let out a soft miaow, but made no other attempt at protesting or wiggling his way free.

  "Ah, your cat," Winston commented, following after me. He reached out with a gnarled finger, gently stroking Whiskers under the chin, and then moving around to gently scratch the side of his head. In my arms, Whiskers purred like a steam engine, squeezing his eyes shut and tilting his head to put Winston's fingers up against the right spots to scratch.

  That earned the elderly butler a few points in my book, I decided. If Whiskers tolerated him, he couldn't be all bad. "Yeah. So, how do we get out of here?"

  Giving the cat one last scratch under the chin before pulling his fingers away, Winston led me across the overgrown backyard of the Winterhearst mansion. "There's a gate over here," he called over his shoulder. "Unfortunately, Miss Dean, the latch only opens from the inside, so it would not have helped you avoid your tumble over the fence."

  "Elaine, please," I corrected him. "Miss Dean sounds way too formal."

  Winston smiled back at me. "As Mister Welles' personal assistant, I'm afraid that I will insist on the formality, Miss Dean - but I appreciate the kind intentions."

  We reached the gate, and Winston reached out and flicked a latch to open the section of fence. He held the swinging section of wood open for me as if holding a door for a lady, and I had to resist the urge to curtsey at him as I exited. Fearing that Whiskers would take advantage of the motion to mount an escape attempt, I instead smiled at him as I exited.

  "Sorry about your boss being such an uptight jerk," I couldn't resist saying, as I sailed past the butler.

  Winston, of course, was far too professional to acknowledge that he thought exactly the same thing of Sanford, but I caught the brief little smile around the corners of his eyes before he cleared his face. "The man is actually quite kind and noble, if you got to know him," he replied. "In fact, I believe that he's simply quite depressed, although I have, as of yet, been unable to find anything that will sufficiently cheer him back up."

  I tried to see Sanford as depressed, but my mental picture of the man, and my idea of depression, didn't overlap at all. "Well, thank you, at least," I told Winston, stepping through the gate and finding a small cobbled path leading back to the sidewalk. I knew my way back to my house from here.

  "Consider it nothing, Miss Dean," he called after me, just before the gate shut with a soft click of the latch engaging on the other side.

  For a moment, I stood outside the fenced-off backyard of the Winterhearst mansion, replaying the events of the last few minutes. Sanford Welles was really back, just as rude as I remembered him, and living next door to me! Oh man, this was the juiciest gossip I'd ever had to myself.

  In my arms, Whiskers squirmed, yearning for freedom, and I quickly headed back over to my cottage to deposit him back inside. Even with a squirming cat in my arms, however, I couldn't help slowing for a moment as I headed up the little path to my own home, taking in the sight of the little house I'd agreed to purchase nearly a decade ago.

  Sanford might have called it pink, but I thought that the color of the house looked more like softly poached salmon, a warm tone that seemed to brighten up the entire property. Two stories, it was definitely designed for a single person, or maybe a couple who were okay with a lot of close quarters time together. I couldn't even begin to imagine trying to raise an entire family in the two small bedrooms, waiting in line for the single bathroom, or all crammed into the tight little kitchen around the central counter that some long-dead interior designer decided was the season's must-have kitchen feature. I didn't do nearly enough yard work, mainly because of the aforementioned lack of a green thumb, but the house itself was neat and fairly well kept up, not showing its age.

  And despite the brown grass spots and the flimsy, struggling bushes in front of the house, despite the tiny interior and the old appliances, despite the creaking wooden floor and the outdated light fixtures, I loved my little house. I wouldn't trade it for any other place, not even for the massive, gloomy mansion that sat on the property next door to me.

  Tightening my grip on a now-loudly protesting Whiskers, I carried him back inside. I didn't let him down out of my arms until I heard the door latch shut behind me, and I picked up a couple of light scratches on my forearms as a sign of his gratitude as he struggled for freedom, sensing that he was back on familiar territory.

  "Way to be a jerk, cat," I muttered to myself once I finally released him, throwing the deadbolt on my front door shut and rubbing at one of the scrapes he'd left on my arms. "Come on, I'm bringing you back to the one place that you know as home, and you attack me for it? Who says that cats are smart, again?"

  Whiskers, of course, didn't have a response to this. Instead, he'd already sniffed out the open can of wet cat food that I'd pulled out in the previous attempt to locate him. He currently had most of his furry face buried inside the shallow little can, and he filled the small kitchen with the sounds of his slurping.

  "Gross," I told him, and set about finding something to eat for breakfast.

  Two eggs (scrambled, because I messed up flipping them) and a piece of toast later, I pulled out my computer and began searching for work. To an observer peeping in through my window, I might have looked like I was just browsing the pictures on estate sales, but this was hard work for me, and I even fetched another cup of coffee to help my concentration.

  I work as a furniture and art appraiser, which is much less exciting than it sounds. Most of my days are spent looking at dusty old pieces of carved wood, or other ancient and corroded bits of furniture, and then telling their owners the bad news - that antique lamp isn't a genuine Tiffany, but just a cheap knockoff. No, the "Amish-made" furniture that you bought from the flea market isn't actually worth thousands. Just because someone decided to use a spare bit of canvas to catch all the drips of paint from whatever they were doing, that doesn't make the result a Jackson Pollock, and it certainly won't fetch anything at an auction.

  Most of my customers don't walk away happy, unfortunately, which isn't amazing for repeat business. Thus, when I don't have anyone paying me to appraise their belongings, I'm often forced to spend my ample amounts of free time searching estate sales and other online auction sites for items that actually have some value, hoping to pick them up for cheap and flip them for enough profit to pay my rent, bills, and keep Admiral Whiskers stocked with wet cat food and kitty litter.

  Business had been especially slow, as of late, and I'd been spending more time on the auction sites than usual. After an hour of scrolling through page after page of blurry, out-of-focus pictures of old bits of someone else's life, I groaned and pushed my laptop away. I reached up to rub my eyes, although I still saw old roll-top desks and bits of tarnished silverware when I pressed my palms against my face.

  I needed a job, a real one, something bigger than just driving out to some farmer's barn to look at the old chairs he'd found underneath the stacked bales of hay. I needed something that had a contract, that could pay me for multiple full days of work.

  Also, despite the clock barely having rolled over from AM to PM, I needed a drink, something with more than caffeine in it.

  Fortunately, although I didn't know where to find a decently paying job in my field, I did have a line on that drink situation. And best of all, I knew that my drink would also come wit
h a comforting shoulder to lean on, and free advice thrown in, courtesy of Della.

  Besides, I told myself as I packed up my laptop, sliding it into its fuzzy carrying case and then sliding that into my shoulder bag, Della's wine bar had wifi, so I could do work there at the same time as I enjoyed my drink. I could probably even write off the alcohol as a business expense, assuming that I ever sat down and figured out exactly how to track all of these itemized deduction things on my taxes.

  In my driveway, my little two-door Mazda started up on the second try, and I breathed out a little sigh of relief. "Good job," I told the car, reaching forward and patting the dashboard, trying not to feel at all silly about talking to the vehicle.

  I took my time in weaving my way out of the little residential development, into downtown. Of course, given how it was only slightly after noon, I didn't have any trouble finding a parking spot outside my destination. I climbed out of my car and looked up at Della's storefront.

  VINI WINE BAR, the top line of text read, in big, reassuringly clear letters. Just below this, in curving cursive script, was the second line: DOLORES RUTHERS, PROPRIETOR.

  I smiled, checked the handle of my car to make sure that the doors were locked (I'd somehow managed to break the automatic locks almost two years ago, and three different mechanics hadn't been able to figure out the root cause of the issue. Resulting to practicality over paying more men to frown at my car's innards, I just got in the habit of making sure that I locked the doors whenever I got out, and using my key to get in.), and then headed up to the wine bar's front door, tugging it open and slipping inside.

  The little bell over the door jangled at my arrival, and I saw my best friend glance up from her spot behind the counter on the far side, her big, expressive features spreading into a genuine smile. "Elaine!" she called out, like she was announcing my arrival to the empty room.

  I smiled back. "Hi, Della. Glass, please?"

  Chapter Four

  *

  Della's wine bar was, as I'd told her many times, a technological marvel.

  All along two of the sides of the interior, large machines were set into the walls, rows of thin spigots extending out from the wall over narrow drip trays. Just below these spigots, a glass panel revealed rows of wine bottles tucked inside these machines, a straw sliding into the neck of each bottle and down to its base. Little placards above each spigot revealed details about the wine flavors, origins, and types, and at the push of a single button above each spigot, that spigot would dispense a perfect three-ounce pour from the wine bottle behind the glass panel.

  Whenever I wanted a drink, I'd meander along the wall, running my eyes hungrily over the labels and the rows of displayed bottles until I found my chosen variety of wine. I'd then slide a little plastic card into a slot above that section of machine, press the button above the spigot, and wine would be dispensed out into my waiting glass. The cost of that glass of wine was automatically deducted from the cash balance on the card, which I could withdraw and take with me.

  Until someone worked out a machine that would literally dispense wine at the swipe of a credit card, this was the next best thing, and I never got tired of watching the wine come flowing out of the thin little spigot I chose.

  Della had seen a similar setup in another bar out on the west coast, in California, and immediately wanted to try it for herself. She'd contacted the manufacturer, gotten him to bemusedly agree to ship some of these machines out to Illinois, and opened up her own wine bar. The place was an immediate hit, and she loved how she largely just had to swap out empty bottles and keep a supply of fresh wine glasses flowing, and the rest of the bar practically ran itself.

  Now, as I dropped my computer on one of the empty little cafe tables scattered around the interior, Della snagged two clean wine glasses from beneath the counter and bustled over to me, setting one of them on the table beside me so that I could choose my first glass when I was ready. With a flourish, she reached into her incredible, expansive bosom and produced a plastic card of her own, making it twist and bounce around her fingers before catching it out of the air and turning to the row of wine choices.

  After I'd withdrawn my computer from its protective case, I grabbed my own glass, my own wine card out of my wallet, and stood up to join her. "So, what's good today?" I asked, my eyes greedily running over the rows of wine bottles.

  "How do you feel about white?" she replied, nodding towards one end of the spigots. "I just got a bunch of fresh riesling in. No oak, lots of fresh berries, very forward and bright. Good for a midday wine to sip."

  I grinned at her, already moving forward. "Either I'm an easy mark, or you're a heck of a saleswoman, Della," I said, finding the new bottle (Della put little orange stickers above new additions, making them easy to spot) and dispensing a serving into my glass.

  After a moment, Della chose a light, bubbly red and settled down into the seat across from me at my little table. "I think you just know how amazing my palate is, that's all," she chuckled, beaming at me over the lip of her glass before taking a sip. "Although you do seem to get me drinking far more of my own product than I ought to consume."

  "At least you've got business," I said after taking a sip of my own choice of beverage. "Want to send some of those good vibes my way?"

  She regarded me sympathetically, and I knew that she was fighting the urge to lunge across the table and pull me into one of her soft, plushy, comforting hugs. "Not getting much business in the furniture appraisal world, these days?"

  "Little jobs, here and there. But if I want to get all of my bills out of the way, make some headway on actually building up some savings, I need a big job. And those don't come along too often." I sighed, pushing my computer back shut. I wasn't going to get any work done here, no matter my original intentions. "And it's been a while."

  "Aww. I'm sorry, honey." Della reached up and brushed her waves of almond brown hair back behind her ears. The effort was useless, of course, because it all immediately sprang back out into waves falling all around her head, but she still looked amazing. Somehow, in the years since high school, Della had blossomed from a chubby and self-conscious little girl into an outgoing and confident woman who wore her curves like a badge of honor. Instead of hiding the round lines of her hips and bosom, she embraced them, and she drew the eyes of every single man who walked into her wine bar like a magnet.

  We both sipped wine for a moment, and then Della clapped her hands. I glanced up, trying to not feel envy at how that clap made ripples run through her bosom, her deep cleavage quivering in a way that would probably melt the brains of every man within a ten foot radius. My curves tended to reside more around my butt, no matter how many half-hour sessions I spent on the stair climber in my little basement.

  "I know what can cheer you up," she exclaimed to me. "I've got a great new bit of gossip!"

  I didn't bother protesting that Della was the one who truly loved gossip, not me. I mostly just enjoyed watching her wide-eyed reactions whenever she found out some little secret about anyone else in Truckee - and besides, Della never passed judgment, or spread any cruel rumors. She just liked knowing everything, and was sometimes almost childishly eager to tell others about her discoveries.

  "Okay - let's hear it," I replied, lifting up my wine glass for another sip.

  She set down her glass and leaned forward, lowering her voice like she was sharing state secrets. "Remember those rumors about Sanford Welles, how he's moved back? Well, guess what?" She didn't give me a chance to guess. "He's really here! And you'll never believe where he's living!"

  "The Winterhearst mansion," I said.

  Della's mouth opened up into a perfect little circle of surprise. Her eyes widened too, and she looked almost like a child's cartoon. "How did you know that?"

  "Because I ran into him there," I answered, and my best friend nearly had a heart attack as she gasped in mingled surprise, amazement, and anger that I hadn't called her the very second that I saw Sanford and told her eve
rything.

  Quickly, before Della collapsed down onto the floor, I walked her through the events of my busy morning - how Admiral Whiskers escaped, how I found him in the backyard of the mansion next door, how I climbed over the wall in a wild attempt to get him back, and how I opened my eyes to find Sanford standing over me on the other side, annoyed that I'd dared to trespass on his property. I saw Della bubbling over with questions as I talked, but she somehow managed to contain them, at least until I paused for breath.

  "Oh my god. I can't believe you waited this long to tell me. This is so much better than my secret - I just talked to old Mrs. Henders at the grocery, and she'd talked with some old man who did the shopping for Winterhearst-"

  "Probably Winston," I guessed.

  "-and he told her that he was working for Master Welles, who has to be Sanford, since I think his dad died, like, twenty years ago. But you actually met him! What's he like?" Della propped her wide-eyed face up on her elbows and leaned across the table at me.

  I shrugged. "I dunno. He's kind of an ass, I think-"

  "Yeah, but is he still hot?"

  I raised my eyebrows at Della, and she grinned without a single ounce of shame. "Come on, don't you remember him from high school? He was totally the hottest guy there! God, if he'd ever noticed me, he could have melted my panties with just a single smile."

  "Whoa, way too much information!" I protested, although I knew that it wouldn't stop Della from over-sharing.

  Indeed, she was already frowning introspectively down at her cleavage. "Heck, he hasn't seen me since then. I bet he'll be impressed with how I've matured. You should invite him to come out for a night at the wine bar."

  "I'm not inviting him to anything," I said firmly, putting my metaphorical foot down. "Didn't you hear me? The guy's a total ass, and you don't want anything to do with him." Even if he actually was still quite fine, I added in the privacy of my head. I thought back, remembering Sanford's curly black hair and broad shoulders, his toned and tall body.