Restoration: Wolves of Gypsum Creek
A Paranormal Romance Story
Serena Meadows
Copyright ©2019 by Serena Meadows - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
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Chapter One
***Natalie***
Natalie pushed open one side of the big wooden double door and slipped inside. She shut it behind her and slipped the lock back in place and reset the alarm. It seemed strange to set an alarm on the old store, but the insurance company had insisted so they’d put in the best one they could find.
The store was dark; only the faint glow from the emergency lights kept it from being pitch black—not that she needed light to see. She groped around on the wall until she found the light switch, then stopped and closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
The scent of old wood mixed with new filled her senses and made her smile. The store smelled just as it always had, but she knew that it would look much different when she opened her eyes, and that was the moment she was building up to.
Switching on the light, she let her eyes travel over the store. Taking it all in from an outsider’s view, she decided that they’d achieved exactly the effect they were looking for. It was even more convincing when it was dark outside, the dark windows masking the modern world just outside the door.
If not for the modern products on the shelves, she would have thought she’d stepped back in time and wasn’t sure she liked the feeling. But as she continued to walk around the front section of the store, the feeling began to fade, and she once again began to appreciate what they’d achieved.
She’d had no idea what she was getting into when she’d taken on the project with her brother, David, nor that he’d practically abandon her during some of the most difficult parts of the project. But thinking about the reason he’d disappeared made her smile and reminded her that she didn’t want to wake her brother and sister-in-law sleeping just above where she was prowling around.
Walking past the display cases full of fresh meat and dairy products, she headed for her favorite part of the store. She stood looking at the jars and jars of penny candy lined up on the shelves behind the counter, their bright colors reflecting in the glass behind the shelves, pleased with the effect.
When she looked down into the glass display case and imagined it full as it would be in the morning, she couldn’t help but smile. She’d had to fly half-way across the country in a horrible snow storm to get the little sweet shop in an auction and made a fool of herself in the process. But she’d come home with all of it, jars, display cases, even a vintage coffee maker.
As she walked past the sweet shop and over to the soda fountain, it hit her that after tomorrow, her job here would be done. The store had been all she’d thought about for almost a year, and suddenly she’d be just like everyone else when she came in: nothing more than a customer.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true; she was the sister of the owner. Not that it would do her any good; David had already told her she wasn’t getting a discount. Walking back across the store, she looked out the window at Millie’s old house across the street.
Her cousin Jessie had turned it into a boarding house, and since it was the only place to stay in town, it was bursting at the seams. It was going to be her next job to oversee its restoration, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to do it with all the construction workers living there.
Jessie had promised to find a solution to that problem and several others that had been plaguing them since their project to bring the little town of Gypsum Creek back from near death began. Everyone had been working for months, some, like herself and her family since the summer before, but it looked like it was working.
Tomorrow they would celebrate the first annual Gypsum Creek Town Faire, and it would feature the grand opening of the store, school, and diner, all carefully restored to their glory days. For some people, it would be like stepping back in time, back to a time when Gypsum Creek was a bustling little town. For others, it would be a fun distraction from their real purpose: the Appalachian Trail.
Either way, with the people would come money, and with the money, the sleepy little town would awaken. There was a lot at stake for everyone, but for Natalie, there was even more; this project would either make or break her career. Thanks to her brother and Jessie, she’d been given an opportunity that few people her age had been given and she wasn’t going to blow it.
The store had only been the first step, and while she’d had a few problems, it had come out perfectly in the end. If she could do the same with the boarding house, she’d been promised what she really wanted, what she’d been dreaming about since she’d gone to her first class at the university. If she closed her eyes, she could picture it in her mind, and her heart leaped with excitement.
But then she looked across the street and saw what was standing in her way. The old house almost seemed to be laughing at her in the dark, daring her to step inside and learn all its secrets. The old house might have looked charming on the outside, she’d even heard it called majestic, but to her, it was the final hurdle to fulfilling her dreams.
***Dillion***
Dillion slammed the truck door shut and slumped back against his seat, hoping his temper would drop to a manageable level before he did something that would make the morning paper. As the anger began to drain away, so did the need to shift into his wolf form and release that anger.
It wasn’t a surprise to him that his father had made good on his threat, but he hadn’t expected it to be quite so brutal. What was a surprise to him was that it hadn’t taken very long for his father to come looking for him: only six years.
Throwing the stack of mail he’d just picked up on the seat of the truck, he was tempted to check his bank balance again but knew it would only make him mad. So, he started up the truck and headed for the garage where he stored his tools, wondering what he’d keep and what he’d have to get rid of.
Feeling the anger begin to rise when he realized just how easily his father had destroyed his life, he thought briefly of going home, of ending the battle between them and becoming the son he was supposed to be, but quickly discarded that idea as impossible. He could never be the son his father wanted, and he wasn’t even going to try.
His father wasn’t going to win this round; he started with nothing once before, and he could do it again. San Francisco was getting old anyway; he’d been here six years, restored over a hundred buildings, so maybe it was time to move on.
The problem was that he had no idea where to go, had no idea where he could find a place to hide from h
is father and rebuild his life. It would have to be someplace off the beaten path, someplace away from the cities where it was too easy trace him.
Then he remembered Gypsum Creek and a phone call he’d received a few months back. It had been a phone call that had tripped him up at first, then made him smile at the memory of the old woman on the other end of the line.
He’d only been ten when his father had started sending him to Gypsum Creek to spend the summers with his Uncle George. He had many memories of his time in the Appalachian Mountains from those summers, but he’d never forget the first time he met the little old lady who lived in the old house across the street from the store his uncle owned.
His uncle sent him over with some groceries a few weeks after he got there, and he remembered walking up to the back door, sure that she was going to jump out and eat him. He’d been in town long enough to hear stories from the other boys, and although he pretended not to believe them, a small part of him thought they might be true.
When Millie opened the door and silently gestured for him to bring the box of groceries inside, he almost dropped it and ran. But he didn’t want to disappoint his uncle, so he stepped inside, but it wasn’t long before he was sitting at the big kitchen table.
While he put away a huge plate of cookies and a glass of milk, she told him stories, and it wasn’t long before he realized that none of the stories about her were true. Their friendship grew over the summers when he came to visit, and when the day came that he didn’t return to Gypsum Creek, she was one of the things he missed most.
They’d stayed in touch over the years, mostly through letters, so it was a surprise when he answered the phone a few months ago and heard her voice on the line. “Dillion, I need you to come to Gypsum Creek and help me,” she said, getting right to the point.
“What’s wrong, Millie?” he asked, immediately concerned.
“It’s all these contractors up here; they’re a bunch of idiots. I need you to come work on my house,” she said. “I’ve got an empty room for you.”
Dillion had been so busy that day, and so relieved that there wasn’t a real emergency, that he’d told her he’d think about it and ended the call. Later, when he’d called her back to explain that it would be months before he could be free, she wasn’t happy but understood.
Now, he wondered if the offer might still be open. Gypsum Creek would be the perfect place to disappear for a while. His Uncle George would never tell his father where he was; they’d stopped talking years ago.
Picking up the phone, he dialed Millie’s number but got only an answering machine. He left a message, then opened the storage shed and started sifting through the tools. In the end, he cleaned up and reorganized, packed what he thought him might need most and left the rest, paying six months of storage fees on his way out.
He just couldn’t bear to part with all his tools; some would be expensive to replace, so the little dent the storage fees put in his savings was worth it. After he left the storage facility, he headed for his apartment to pack, like he should have done when his father contacted him weeks ago.
Job or no job, he was going to head for Gypsum Creek for a few weeks, hopefully longer. There was nothing to keep him in San Francisco since his father had seen to it that he had no work, nor was there a woman to make him want to stay. It would be good to see Uncle George and Millie, take some time and catch up before he figured out his next move.
It didn’t take him long to pack what he wanted to bring, the rest he left behind, along with a month’s rent and a short note to his landlord instructing him to contact his father for the rest. Then he went to the bedroom, pried up the loose board under his bed, pulled out his life’s savings, and shoved it into a bag, glad that he’d had enough sense to keep it where his father couldn’t get it.
He had enough money that he could go without work for a long time if he lived frugally. Maybe it was time for him to see the country; maybe when he left Gypsum Creek, he’d travel, just get in the truck and drive. It was an enticing idea, one that suited him and the way he felt right then.
But Gypsum Creek was calling him, with its single road, creaky old buildings, and ghost stories that had thrilled him as a kid. He was ready for some peace and quiet, a little home cooking and some time to roam free in the forests in the mountains around town. It had been a long time since he’d been able to shift and run free, years since he could just step out his back door and shift into the fearsome predator that was his other side.
Chapter Two
***Natalie***
Natalie stepped back from the window, not sure she could believe what she saw outside on the street. When she’d been out earlier that morning to check on the food vendors and craft tables, there had already been a lot of people in town, but now the street was teeming with people.
She watched the shuttle bus drop off another group and wondered how many more people could fit into the small town. Never in her lifetime had she seen this many people in Gypsum Creek at one time, and for the first time, she began to believe that Jessie and Sophie’s plan to bring the town back might actually work.
It helped that they’d gone overboard advertising the weekend they had planned, but she’d never expected this kind of response. She recognized many of the people milling around outside, but there were also a lot of unfamiliar faces in the crowd.
“Stop staring out that window like a ghost,” her brother David said, coming out of the storage room.
Natalie jumped, then turned from the window and glared at him. “You scared me,” she accused, “and I’m already nervous as it is.”
David walked up and looked out the window. “Looks like we’ve got quite a crowd out there.”
“I hope they all don’t try to come in here at once; maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Natalie said, looking around the store and seeing it trampled and destroyed.
“Don’t worry, there are lots of other things happening; it won’t be a stampede,” David said, going over to the front doors. “Ready?”
Natalie looked up at the clock and realized that it was almost time. She took a deep breath and said, “Open the doors.”
David smiled at her, unlocked the big wooden double doors, and swung them wide open, then stepped onto the porch. Natalie stepped up behind him and looked down the street to the little pavilion where Jessie was giving a speech.
When the crowd roared its approval, she knew that the people would be on their way and they were, turning and streaming in all directions. A group headed straight for the school, which matched the store in its 1920s restoration. And another group headed for the church, which was still as it had always been, a perfect example of the earliest churches built in the mountains of Appalachia in the late 1800s.
The largest group was headed down the street straight for them, but when they got nearer, part of the mob split off and headed for the 1950s diner across the street. It was still a big group headed their way, but with the additions they’d built, not more than they could handle.
Stepping behind the sweets counter, Natalie put a smile on her face, prepared to charm every customer that came through the door. By lunchtime, the cookies, cakes, doughnuts, and bread that had filled the counter that morning were gone, and the candy jars were nearly empty, but luckily, the crowd was slowly moving to the other end of town.
Knowing that she could be spared now that the rush was over, she took off her apron and headed outside. She couldn’t see much over the crowd that was still milling in the street in front of the store, so she grabbed the porch railing, put one foot on the bottom rung, and lifted herself up.
She could see much better, all the way down to the end of the street, but the first thing she saw was the old house across the way. Millie was sitting on the porch with a man she didn’t recognize; they looked deep in conversation, and she was glad that Millie had someone to share the day with.
Jumping down from the rail, she decided to stroll through town, check out the food stal
ls and the crafts for sale. Crossing the street, she made a bee-line for the lemonade stand and bought the biggest one she could, sighing after she took the first sugary-sour sip.
As she walked by Millie’s, she glanced up to find Millie watching her, and a shiver went down her spine when she saw the look on her face. She waved, wondering what was making Millie study her so intently, but soon forgot about it when the stranger looked up, and their eyes met.
Goosebumps broke out on her arms when his hazel eyes met hers, and for a second, she was sure that she knew him. But then he looked back at Millie and the spell was broken: the goosebumps disappeared, and her heart, which had been beating rapidly, slowed back to normal.
Shaking off the encounter as the result of the pressure she’d been under the last few weeks, she headed for the tent where the band was setting up to play for the afternoon and tried to forget about the stranger sitting on Millie’s porch.
It didn’t take the band long to get going, and before long, she’d been swept onto the dance floor. For the next few hours, she didn’t have time to think about the handsome stranger who’d captured her attention when she had no business even looking.
When she came off the dance floor for the last time late that afternoon, she was hot and sweaty, and all she wanted was a shower. Glad that she was spending the night in town instead of at the farm, she headed for the apartment over the store, hoping she might have it to herself for just a few minutes.
Restoration: Wolves of Gypsum Creek (A Paranormal Romance Story) Page 1
