by Alexa Davis
I let her inside and raced up the stairs to get dressed as Nancy and Rae chatted downstairs. By the time I got back down, I could tell from the pale expression on my friend’s face that something had taken a turn for the worst. My heart raced as I surveyed the scene in front of me, trying to work out exactly what had happened, but I couldn’t see anything obvious to cause the atmosphere that was clinging in the air.
“I’m sorry,” Nancy mouthed at me. “I didn’t think.”
I shot her a curious look, but she didn’t get the chance to explain anything because Rae jumped in with the question that she’d clearly just asked Nancy, the one that had caused so much tension. “Mom, where is my dad?” Oh my God, I froze deep inside, trying to work out how the hell I was supposed to answer that one. “Nancy has a dad; why don’t I have one?”
Oh no…this was too much. This was a subject that I was never going to want to cover, and Rae had never asked.
I glanced up desperately at Nancy, but she simply made her excuses and left the room, leaving me alone to deal with the awkwardness of this. It was the right thing to do, of course. This was my story to share with my daughter, and Nancy didn’t really know the full details of what had happened, anyway, but still it left me feeling afraid and alone.
I took Rae’s hands in mine and stared lovingly into her eyes, tears affecting my gaze. This really wasn’t what I’d been expecting to talk about today. “You do have a dad, sweetie,” I told her kindly. “He just…well, he isn’t here anymore.” I should have planned for this; I should have known that the question would come eventually. It was naïve of me to think that I would have more time.
“Well, where is he? Can we go and visit him?” she asked with such a childish innocence that it broke my heart. Now I was going to have to shatter a piece of her youth, and I hated to have to do that.
“We can’t, I’m afraid.” I did my best to gulp down the massive ball of emotion that lodged itself firmly in my throat, but unfortunately, it wasn’t going anywhere. “He’s…in Heaven.”
“Does that mean dead?” Okay, so she knew more about the world than I had given her credit for. Underestimating her had been my first mistake! “If he’s dead, why don’t we have any photos of him in the house? I want to know what he looks like. Do I look like him?”
Oh God, so much…too much…
This was all becoming too intense, too overwhelming for me, so I slid my chair back quickly before the tears consumed me totally. I didn’t want my daughter to ever see me crying, especially not over this subject. Once I started, I might never be able to stop. “I’ll have a look for some pictures later on, darling, but I need to go to work now. I’m almost late to open up the shop.”
“Okay…” I could tell from the spaced out look on Rae’s face that she was already distracted, her brain already thinking about something else, but I wouldn’t be able to move on from this conversation so easily. It was very likely that I would feel haunted for a very long time. “See you later, Mommy.”
***
The day whizzed past much quicker than I’d expected it to, considering how unsettling my morning was. I did my best to forget about Rae’s little face as she asked me why she didn’t seem to have a daddy, but I couldn’t shake it. I just had the strong sense that now she’d started along that line of thought, she wouldn’t let it go. It wouldn’t pop up all the time, but every now and again she would mention it, and it would break my heart every damn time.
The only problem was I didn’t think that she was anywhere near old enough to hear the full truth just yet. I hadn't expected it to come up so soon.
“Bye, Mr. Smith,” I smiled at one of my newer customers. He was an older gentleman who had lived in Florence for a long time, but had just come back from a worldwide trip to find solace in Boffees and the other people that hung out here. “I hope to see you tomorrow.”
I let out a deep sigh as I closed the door behind him, locking the world out. Much as I loved the people of Florence, for tonight, I just needed some time alone. I just wanted a moment to myself, but of course, I wasn’t about to get that lucky.
“Damn it,” I muttered before grabbing my phone from my pocket as it rang. When I noticed a number on the screen that I didn’t recognize, I rolled my eyes, but answered anyway, just in case it was something important. I couldn’t ever seem to ignore calls, even at my lowest ebb. “Hello, Annie Driscoll, how may I help you?”
“Hi there,” came the chocolaty-smooth reply, instantly grabbing my attention. “My name is Justin Gains. I don’t know if you’re expecting a call from me, but I got your number from Roy Larkin.”
Justin Gains?
Roy Larkin?
It had to be the investor – that was the only option. My heart raced in my chest, and I could feel a perspiration starting to form on my face. I stood up straighter and smoothed my clothes down, despite the fact that he couldn’t see me. This was potentially the biggest moment of my career…and again, I wasn’t really prepared for it. I knew Roy had suggested it, but I didn’t think that it would come around so quickly.
“Oh, erm, thank you for calling me, it’s…it’s great to hear from you.” Stop stammering! Don’t screw this up!
“Yes, well, Roy speaks very highly of you and your coffee shop, so what I want to do is come and see you, if that’s okay?”
Oh my God, this is too much, this is too soon, but it’s all I’ve been wanting for so long.
“That would be wonderful. I mean, I don’t know what Roy told you about me, but I have a solid business plan behind me. Expanding Boffees isn’t something that I’ve just decided to try; it isn’t an idea that I’ve come up with on a whim. I’ve sat down and thought about it, studied the numbers, and I know that with the right investment, I can succeed.”
I got the impression that the concept of Boffees didn’t impress him and that I needed to show him some of my business acumen to help get him on board. I wouldn’t be able to do that properly over the phone, but I could start. “I want to expand way past Oregon, and I know I have what it takes to make a success of that.”
“Okay,” he jumped in quickly before I could get into a full-blown rant. “Obviously, I can’t get too much of an impression of the business over the phone, so what I need to do is come and see you at some point. I’m not totally sure when I’ll be in Florence, but I’ll come and see you when I am.”
I glanced around the shop, noticing a mess everywhere. It wasn’t dirty, but it was a little disorganized, which it couldn’t be if I had someone who actually might want to put some money into the company coming around. It was fine for everyday use, for the customers who came in here all the time, but not good enough for Mr. Gains. I would have to make it better for him! I didn’t know when he was coming, but I wanted to be prepared.
“Of course, that sounds wonderful,” I replied distractedly. “I look forward to meeting with you.”
Shit. This is real. This is actually happening. With everyone turning me down for investment, I had been starting to feel like it might just be a pipe dream, the sort of idea that could never come true, but now I actually had a shot and I needed to make it work.
With that one thought in mind, I hung up the phone to Justin and put in a call to Nancy, my entire body trembling with anticipation the whole time. I needed her now more than ever, and I knew that she would be there for me no matter what.
“Nancy, I need your help,” I started happily, not even giving her the chance to greet me. “I’ve just had a call from a potential investor, and he might be coming to visit the store tomorrow—”
“Are you serious?” she squealed, happy for me and understanding just how much this meant. “That’s incredible news.”
“I know, I know.” I was actually shaking now. “I just need to clean the place up. Will you be all right with Rae for a little while longer? I hate to put you out.”
“Of course! Don’t you worry about a thing,” she exclaimed, just as I knew she would. “You just worry about your sho
p. I’ll do dinner, bath time, bed time…”
“How has she been?” I asked curiously. “After this morning, I mean? That was heavy. I really wasn’t prepared for it.”
“If it helps, she hasn’t mentioned it again,” she told me, the apology obvious in her tone. “I’m so sorry about that, I just started telling her about something my dad used to do with me, and she took off with it.”
“Oh don’t worry, it had to come eventually. It just took me by surprise, that’s all. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it. I’ll find something better, though. I’ll talk to her again.”
I wasn’t sure how I would face it again, but I hoped to do better the next time Rae asked. I hoped that with a little more preparation, I would be able to find the right way to tell her the truth about her father and what happened to him. I would have to take a timeout to work out exactly what I intended to tell her and how I would word it. I had no intention of getting caught off guard like that again.
I’d spent far too long just putting my head down and getting on with it. I had tried so hard not to think about things, and now I would have to stop that. For Rae’s sake, she needed to know the truth.
Chapter Five
Justin – Thursday
I stretched widely as I stepped out of the car, breathing in the fresh, Florence air. It had been a long three-hour drive, but it was worth it to get out of Portland for a while.
I never actually realized that I needed a break until I got out, but now it was hitting me hard. Portland was a wonderful city and I loved my life there, but there was something breathtaking about this little town. If I didn’t have my business and my fast-paced lifestyle, this would be the sort of place I wanted to end up in.
I glanced at the piece of paper in my pocket with the address that Roy had given me to meet him at, just to check that I was in the right place before stepping inside the quaint café. Not only was I greeted with the fresh scent of a hot breakfast, which was enough to have my stomach growling angrily, but I also had everyone’s eyes upon me. I was being looked upon like the out-of-town stranger that I was, but rather than making me sink in on myself, it made me stand up straighter, it caused me to push my shoulders back, it made me smile.
“Hey, buddy.” I felt Roy pat me on the back as he joined me inside. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Hey, Roy.” I turned and embraced him wholly, realizing how much I’d missed him. We might have met through business, but he’d quickly become classed as a friend in my eyes. Unfortunately, as life caught up on us, we just didn’t have the time to hang out as much as either of us would like. “How’s it going?”
“Yeah, it’s good. Come on sit down. I can’t be too long because I’ve got my dog Tank with me in the car.”
I joined him at the table and we had our food brought over to us. This was the sort of thing that I used to eat all the time, but since I’d become rich, I’d taken to consuming the finer things in life. This was probably the reason I needed people like Roy in my life – he was richer than me with his feet still firmly planted on the ground. Maybe Garrett had had a worse effect on me than I thought…
“Things are good,” he told me with a smile. “Business is amazing. I had a few hiccups along the way, but things are back on the right track now.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear that.” Roy had built his life up from nothing; if anyone deserved any serious success, it was him. I was happy for him, and not just because he’d been the springboard upon which my own success was built. “I’m glad that things are working out for you.”
“And you?” he asked between mouthfuls. “How’s that brother of yours?”
“Oh, you know, same old,” I sighed sadly. “A pain in my ass. But apparently, he wants to come and work at the business with me now, so we’ll see how that works out.”
“Don’t let him drag you down,” he warned me. “I know he’s your brother, and you love him, but don’t let him come into the company and start being lazy. You’ve worked too hard for that. You are the one who has built this business up from the ground, not him. Don’t let him ride your coattails forever.”
I didn’t want to admit how worried I was about that, if Garrett even bothered to follow through with the plan at all, so I simply nodded. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Garrett had a very short attention span and that the impassioned speech I made might already have been forgotten, but I wanted to give him a chance anyway, just in case.
“Anyway,” I needed a change of subject. “Tell me more about this coffee shop that you’re so desperate for me to invest in. I spoke to the girl…Annie, is it? She seems really switched on and everything, but I have to admit I’m still a little confused.”
“I can’t explain it to you; you’ll just have to see it,” he insisted. “Trust me, this woman has done an amazing job. I know that it might not be the sort of place you’d usually consider, but I think you’ll change your mind when we get inside.”
“Hmmm…” I didn’t think there was anything he could say at that point to convince me, but I didn’t want to totally dismiss him, either. There was something about all of this that had him so convinced, and I had to admit that intrigued me.
“We’ll go over there in a minute. Do you want to call her and change your meeting time, or shall we just go over there?”
“Let’s just go,” I told him quickly, wanting to stick to my original plan. “I want to see the place from the point of view of a customer first. Is that all right?” It suddenly occurred to me that Roy might not like me doing things that way. He might perceive it as sneaky.
“Nah, that’s okay,” he smiled back at me, moving to stand up. “I think that’s a good idea, show you the real Boffees.”
I chuckled at how excited he was, almost bouncing off the walls. “Okay, sure.” I held my hands up in a defeated gesture. “Let’s get going, take me there. Is it within walking distance?”
“Nearly everything in Florence is within walking distance!” he joked. “Leave your car here; it’ll be fine.”
He quickly took me inside the friendliest-looking shop in town, and I had to admit that I was impressed. There was a certain feel to the shop, one that told me it was about so much more than the wonderful-smelling coffee and the endless rows of paperback books. I only had to look at the faces of all the people inside to see how happy the shop made them.
I was really impressed, but it didn’t make me want to invest. It might have been a solid business, but I needed to make money – lots of it, and very quickly.
“Hello there, Roy,” a cheery voice called out. “Your usual?”
As I span around to see the owner of that voice, the person I presumed was Annie Driscoll, my heart stopped dead in my chest. I instantly found myself looking at the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid my eyes upon.
Her wavy, long, light-brown hair swung past her shoulders. She had piercing brown, friendly eyes, plump lips that had me instantly thinking about kissing, and reddened cheeks, like those of an English rose. On top of that, she had curves in all the right places and milky skin that I had the intense desire to run my lips along.
I had seen a lot of beautiful women in my life – I had slept with many – but none of them made me feel like this. Annie was gorgeous, a natural beauty, but she had an intense aura that drew me in, too.
“Yes, please,” Roy grinned at her. “And the same for my friend, too.”
I couldn’t keep looking at her; it was getting much too difficult to keep all of the emotions inside, so instead, I forced my eyes away and started to wander among the bookshelves, just to give me something else to focus on.
Which was how I almost ended up falling over a young girl sitting in a chair. “Oh, I am sorry,” I told her quietly. “I didn’t see you there.”
“I’m being quiet,” she told me proudly. “My mom told me that I need to behave today.”
The more that I looked at her, the more I could see elements of Annie Driscoll in her – the same wavy hair, just wit
h a different color, the same face shape…it had to be her daughter. “Is your mom the owner of this shop?” I asked curiously, just to be sure.
“Yes, and she has a very important man coming to see her…maybe even today. My babysitter is sick, so I have to behave, just in case.”
I couldn’t help but grin to myself at that one. Obviously, I was the important man, and I had told Annie that I would be in Florence from today. It sucked me in a little bit to know that this woman had her daughter to support, but I couldn’t allow myself to invest simply based on that. That wasn’t the way a ruthless businessman, such as myself, made money.
“Well, that’s just great; why don’t you tell me about the book you’re reading?”
As the girl explained the story about a blue dog trying to find his friends, I allowed my eyes to travel around the room and back to Annie. It was like a magnet that I couldn’t stop myself from being attracted to, which confused me inside.
I had come here with the intention of seeing the store, then cancelling the meeting, but now…now I had the strong feeling that I wanted to get to know her more. I wasn’t sure that my intentions were pure, and I was pretty certain that they had nothing to do with the investment possibility, but still…I wanted to know more.
“Here,” Roy made me jump by standing by my side and handing me my coffee. “So, what do you think? Nice, huh?”
“It’s nice,” I confirmed skeptically. “I don’t know what Harry would say about it, though.”
“Well, I have to go soon,” Roy replied, glancing down at his watch. “Plus, with Tank in the car, I can’t be too long. Are you all right finding your way to the B and B?”
“I’ll be fine,” I confirmed, smiling at him. “Don’t you worry about me, and thanks. It was good to see you again. We’ll have to make sure to do it more often.”
