She grabbed the plate of rolls and followed him, picking up the coffee pot on her way. “I see you’ve made yourselves at home as usual,” she said, setting the plate down and refilling their cups.
“We wouldn’t have to if the service here wasn’t so terrible,” Hiram said with a big grin.
Scarlet just laughed then said, “Funny, I haven’t heard anyone else complaining.”
“That’s just because the food’s so good,” Sean said, taking a huge bite of a roll.
They all laughed, then Hiram got a mischievous look on his face. Scarlet knew that look all too well; he always looked that way before he began teasing her about something. It could have been any number of things: her need for a man, the possibility of marrying him, but his favorite was her garden and that was what he choose that morning.
“So, got your tomato plants in yet?” he asked, looking out the window. “Been pretty warm the last few days.”
“Hiram, you devil. When are you ever going to let me live that down? I can’t help it that I didn’t grow up in these mountains and I still say shame on you for letting me do it,” she said, pretending to be mad.
“Oh, it was just a little fun and I did help you replant everything,” he said, giving her a grin.
“Well, you did do that, but I was so horrified that morning. I had no idea it could snow here in May. Back home, we would have already been well on our way to the first crop,” she said, thinking back to the first summer in Montana.
When she’d taken possession of the property in Miner’s Ridge, she was shocked to discover that not only had she bought the café but the entire block. The price had been so low that she’d never really thought about how much land she’d purchased; things were much cheaper here. That should have been a good thing, but, much to her dismay, the rest of the block was nothing but weeds and trash surrounded by a chain link fence.
It was a depressing, ugly sight to behold sitting next to her cute little café. Well, the café hadn’t been all that cute back then, but she had a plan and the money to give it a little make over. But she’d had no plans for a vacant lot; it was in a prime location, but she had no money to develop it. She’d scraped up enough money to pull down the chain link fence and replace it with a wooden one so at least it didn’t show, but it still bothered her.
One morning, when she’d been looking out the window at the weed-cluttered yard, Gus suggested that she plant a huge garden, then she’d be able to supply her own vegetables. He’d been joking, but Scarlet loved to garden, had always done so at home, and the idea had grown in her mind. But as she’d discovered that first summer, turning the weed patch into the garden would take some major work.
She stared but only managed to cut herself a small plot, which she’d filled with plants on Hiram’s suggestion on the first of May. The very next morning, she’d woken to several inches of snow and her plants frozen and ruined. When Hiram had shown up, he’d laughed and then promised to help her replace them, which he’d done as well as giving her a crash course in raising plants in the mountains.
Scarlet, never one to hold a grudge, had taken it all in stride, laughing along with Hiram and the boys while promising to get even. It had proven to be a turning point in her friendship with the men, which in turn had made her more welcome in town. Once she’d gained their stamp of approval, there were more friendly faces around town and more customers in the diner.
Now, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She had a good life in Miner’s Ridge. Great friends, a business that paid the bills, and a nice little house. Sean was thriving here, growing into a fine young man, and would go on to be a fine grown man someday. They’d gotten lucky with her crazy choice to buy the diner and move across the country, but she’d also worked hard to make the business thrive, and as long as her ex-husband left them alone life would be fine.
Chapter 2
He’d been driving for hours before he realized he was on the way to Las Vegas. He and Scott made the trip at least once a month; gambling was another one of Scott’s passions. Those trips were never very much fun for Marc who didn’t like gambling or the town of Las Vegas, but it was what his brother wanted so he went along with it to keep the peace. But as soon as he saw the bright lights in the distance, he realized that the last place he wanted to be was Las Vegas, especially the way he was feeling now, so he changed his route.
It would add a few miles to his trip, but he didn’t care, he had no place to be. He drove through the night, feeling the anxiety he’d been carrying for far too long beginning to fade. Each mile putting some distance between who he used to be and who he was going to become, it was a long-needed fresh start. Driving through the night, he tried to remember when he’d had dreams of his own, things that were important to him. But he found that to retrieve those wants and desires, he’d have to go way back.
As the sun began to come up, he found himself in Grand Junction, Colorado, not far from where his cousins lived in Pleasant Valley. He’d been driving for almost twelve hours and hadn’t slept in much longer than that. He could barely keep his eyes open, so he pulled over to the first motel he found. He checked in and fell into bed, asleep almost immediately, thoughts of stopping to try and smooth things over with his cousins floating through his mind.
The truth was if he’d been left on his own, he would have made an effort to get to know his uncle and cousins; he’d always wished that they’d had more family growing up. But instead he’d done as he’d always done and followed Scott, creating a barrier between them that would only be healed with time. As much as he wanted to visit, he knew that leaving things alone for a while would be the best path to take.
He slept for twelve hours, waking confused about where he was, then realizing that he was on his own. It was actually a nice feeling to know that from now on he’d be making all the important decisions in his life, not his brother. For his first independent decision, he had breakfast for dinner, something Scott had never been able to stand. Then he gassed up the car, sorry that he’d be traveling through the mountains when it was dark, but unwilling to postpone the next leg of his trip until the next day.
When he drove through Pleasant Valley, he couldn’t help but get off the highway and stop at a convenience store; he missed the little town more than he’d thought he would. When he’d first arrived, he’d been contemptuous of the place, thinking that it had little to offer compared to Los Angeles, but what he’d discovered was that he liked living in a small town. The entire vibe of the town was different; even when it had been full of skiers, it had felt like everyone knew one another and cared.
Back on the road, he headed for Denver, not sure where he’d go from there, but sure that he wasn’t going to end up in any kind of a city. For now, he wanted someplace small and quiet, where he could reevaluate his life and come up with some kind of goal. Money wouldn’t be a problem for a long time, but that didn’t mean that he’d sit around doing nothing. He’d never been the type to be idle.
He hit Denver in the middle of the night and turned north, heading into new territory for the first time; he’d always wanted to see this part of the country, but Scott hadn’t been interested. As he drove. he wondered how long it would be before he stopped thinking about Scott and his likes and dislikes. One thing he knew for sure was that he’d be glad when that day came because that would mean that he was finally free of his brother’s shadow.
Scarlet had just cleaned up the last table from the breakfast rush when a very attractive blonde man came through the front door. He looked around himself in a daze and took a booth by the front window overlooking Main Street, slumping down and resting his head on the back of the seat. Then he took a deep breath and sat up straight again.
Crossing the room with a menu in her hand, she approached him carefully. It was only eight o’clock in the morning, but the man looked like he’d had a bad night. His clothes were expensive but ruffled; his jeans and shirt obviously new. His hair was mussed, like he’d been running his f
ingers through it, but most telling were the dark circles under his eyes.
“Can I get you some coffee?” she asked, setting the menu down in front of him.
He looked up at her with bleary eyes and said, “I’d rather have a big glass of juice and some food.” Then he returned his eyes to the street.
“What kind of food would you like?” she asked, becoming concerned by his strange behavior.
“I don’t really care. Surprise me,” he said, giving her a weak smile.
She went back to the kitchen and had Kevin make him a breakfast special, then delivered it to the table. “Here you go, hope you’re hungry,” she said, setting the plate on the table.
The smell of food perked Marc up a bit. “Thank you, it smells wonderful,” he said, digging in right away.
Scarlet felt better when she saw him begin to eat with enthusiasm, returning only when the plate was empty to slide a plate of her famous cinnamon rolls in front of him. Hiram and the boys were watching from across the room and couldn’t resist teasing her when she came over to fill their cups for the last time.
“So, I see you gave pretty boy over there three rolls. What gives, Scarlet? If I’d known being good looking would get me extra food, I’d dress up more, maybe even shave,” Gus piped up, rubbing the stubble on his face.
“Gus, if you’ve made it this long without figuring that out, I don’t think I can help you. But I can’t wait to see you in your Sunday best, I’ll make extra rolls,” she said, winking at him and walking off. She could hear them laughing all the way back to the kitchen.
The boys seemed to linger longer and she wondered why. It was a beautiful day and she knew that the park bench they always sat on for most of the day was bathed in sunlight this time of day. When crossing the dining room to get the dirty plates from the man’s table, she realized that they were waiting for him to leave. She silently put his check down and was just about to walk away when he cleared his throat.
“Could you recommend a good place to stay in town?” he asked, finally meeting her eyes.
When their eyes met, Scarlet drew in a breath when she suddenly had a strange sense of recognition or attraction, she wasn’t sure which. “Um, there are some good ones back out by the highway,” she finally managed to say, thinking he’d be more comfortable in a chain than the little motel in town where Brenda always managed to get her nose into her guest’s business.
“I was hoping for something smaller, less commercial,” he said, surprising her.
“Well, then you’ll want the Sleeping Miner, it’s just down the street. It’s a great little place, one of the first brick buildings built in town, with big comfortable rooms and a continental breakfast,” she said, wondering if she should warn him about Brenda but suddenly very curious about what the handsome stranger was doing in town and knowing that if anyone could find out his secrets Brenda could. So, she stayed quiet.
“Thank you for the information as well as the food. Best cinnamon rolls I’ve had in a long time,” he said, handing her some bills to cover his check, then adding, “Keep the change.” He got up and walked out the front door. She watched as he got into a very nice car and drove up the street.
When she turned away from the window, the old men were grinning at her. “Pretty good looking man,” Hiram said. “Must be about your age too.”
She actually blushed but simply shook her head at them and began clearing the table. When they shuffled past her, Hiram said, “It wouldn’t hurt you to have some fun, that’s all we’re saying.”
Watching them walk out the door, she tried to remember the last time she’d been out on a date and realized that it had been more than a year since she’d been out with a man. Dating had never been high on her priority list, but occasionally she’d accept an invitation to a dance or movie just to have some adult time that didn’t involve serving people food.
But she’d never really been attracted to those men and they’d known it, but the man who had just walked out of there had stirred something in her. Something that she’d buried deeply for a good reason. From the time she could remember, she’d always been attracted to the wrong kind of man. From her first bad boy in middle school right up until she’d married the man of her dreams right out of high school, she’d had a way of picking the worst of the worst.
Louis had seemed different with his fancy clothes and big bank account, but underneath all that he’d been nothing but another one of the losers she always seemed attracted to. Eventually, the real Louis had surfaced, leaving her disillusioned and stuck in a marriage she didn’t want. When that had ended, she’d promised herself that it would be a long time before she let anyone into her heart again, which had been easy when Sean was little. But now that he needed less and less of her time, she’d begun to think about the rest of her life.
The last thing she wanted to do was to be that mother who only lived for her child, or the find herself with only the diner to live for. But finding love in a little town like Miner’s Ridge wasn’t easy; there weren’t that many single men to begin with and the fact that she was taller than half those men didn’t help. That was probably the reason why the man had seemed so attractive to her, he was at least six inches taller than her and built like a football player with broad shoulders and powerful legs.
Just thinking about him started a little tingle in her middle, shocking her into actually gasping out loud. Kevin must have heard her from the kitchen. “You okay out there?” he called through the passthrough.
“I’m fine,” she said, shaking her head at the train of her thoughts. Opening herself to those kinds of feelings could only spell disaster even if the man never showed up in the diner again.
Marc got into his car wondering if what he’d just felt was a product of his exhaustion or a real feeling. He was so exhausted he could hardly see, not just physically tired but mentally tired, a product of the emotional upheaval in his life, as well as his flight across the country. But as numb as he still was, he’d felt something when he’d looked into the waitress’ eyes in the diner. A slight stirring deep inside him, a feeling of recognition which was impossible since he’d never met her before.
Too tired to think about his reaction any longer, he found the hotel she’d recommended and rented a room, ignoring the owner’s questions about where he was from and what he was doing in town. It had been rude, but he’d been too exhausted to feel bad about his silence, all he wanted was a bed and some sleep. There would be plenty of time to mend fences after he’d gotten some sleep and taken a shower.
He slept through the day and night, waking the next morning with the sun, surprised to find that he felt better. He took a long shower, then headed for the dining room suddenly starving, but when he saw the owner of the hotel perched on a stool in the back of the room, he just kept going right out the front door. The diner seemed a much better idea. Once outside, he decided to walk. It was a beautiful day and he’d have a chance to check the town out more. On the way, he looked around him at the little downtown area feeling like he’d stepped back in time. Although it was May, the air still held a little of the night’s chill, making him think of Colorado and the cold nights he’d loved so much.
As he walked down Main Street, he again thought that this was the perfect place to stop and try to build a new life. The town was only about ten square blocks with a park in the middle, but it offered everything a man could want, including a very beautiful waitress at the diner. That thought made him stop in his tracks; he hadn’t thought about women very much in his life other than the need to have one on his arm at certain social functions. He’d long ago stopped trying to meet that special someone, his brother making it impossible, most likely intentionally, with his unreasonable demands on his time.
But his brother was no longer a part of his life, and if he wanted to, he was free to pursue anyone he wanted, including the gorgeous waitress. Realizing that he probably looked stupid standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, he continued on his way, thinkin
g about Scarlet but also the cinnamon rolls she’d given him yesterday. It was going to be a great day, he could just feel it.
When the man from the day before walked into the diner Monday morning, she was surprised to see him. She’d assumed he was just passing though since Miner’s Ridge was the last place someone like him would vacation. But he was a customer and that meant she was that much closer to her new freezer, an increasingly stressful situation as the old one continued to die a slow death.
He came in and took the same booth he had before but sat on the other side of the table, giving him a view of the mountains. Scarlet watched him for a second, then finished packing cinnamon rolls into the box on the counter, her normal Monday morning offering for the staff at the medical clinic in town. They’d saved Sean’s life a few years ago when his appendix nearly burst, getting out of their beds in the middle of the night to see him safely airlifted to a hospital in the city.
Closing the box, she picked up a menu and the coffee pot and approached Marc’s table, her heart beating a little faster. “Good morning. You look better today,” she said cheerfully, holding out the pot.
“I’d love some coffee, thank you. And could you bring me the exact same breakfast as yesterday, please,” he said, smiling up at her.
Scarlet’s heart began beating even faster and she could have sworn that she was blushing. “Okay, I’ll get that for you right away,” she said, backing away from the table.
Feeling silly, she wrote up his order and shoved the ticket through the window to Kevin, who looked at her strangely then started the order. She glanced over that Hiram’s table, embarrassed to find them all looking at her with grins on their faces. Even more embarrassed, she ducked into the kitchen and pretended to check on the freezer, trying to get herself under control.
When his order was ready, she took it out to him and set it down, filled his coffee cup, then turned to walk away. She was much too nervous for any of the usual casual banter she often engaged customers in. It was part of the charm of the diner, but she was so nervous she couldn’t think of anything to say. Scarlet was well aware that people were attracted to her, she wasn’t sure why, but people had a tendency to share their secrets with her. At times, it could be difficult to carry around the town’s private business, but it seemed to be a role she’d acquired over the years.
Hold Me Close: BWWM Romance (Brothers From Money Book 6) Page 2
