Falling for Grace (7 page)

Lesson learned, Price. Next time keep it all
under your hat until everything is squared away.

“
Dad?” Her eyes were huge
with question.

He took in a stabilizing breath. “No, Iz.
I’m sorry to say, but that didn’t work out.”

“
But I thought that’s why
you went back to see Ms. Hart today? To work out the
deal?”

“
I did.”

“
But you
didn’t?”

He shook his head. “No, we didn’t agree on a
couple of things.”

“
But I liked...my room. I
liked her.”

The words stunned him. Studying his
daughter’s face, he took in the honest expression in her eyes.
Izzie was a lot of things—mischievous, sneaky, and more often than
not carried around more than her share of assertiveness—but she was
never dishonest with him. She always owned up to things and to his
knowledge, she never said things she didn’t mean. For some reason,
she had suddenly accepted this move. And for another, it seemed she
honestly liked Grace Hart.

“
Well, yeah, I know. I
sort of liked her, too. And I really liked the shop and the
apartment and the town. But the fact remains that the place was
just too expensive for us and she wasn’t willing to lower the
rent.”

“
But did you try to talk
to her?”

“
I did.”

“
Did you talk to her real
nice and sweet?”

He smiled. He hadn’t, had he? Suddenly, he
wondered if that would have worked.

No. It wouldn’t. Grace Hart was all
business, he wouldn’t have swayed her with sweet-talk. In fact, she
probably would have booted him right out on his ear had he
tried.

“
You didn’t, did you Dad?”
She furrowed her brow at him, pretending to be mad, but he saw
right through her.

Smiling, he shook his head and ruffled her
hair. “Nope, you little Munchkin, I guess I didn’t. Think that
would have helped?”

Izzie tilted her chin and tossed him a saucy
little grin. “I bet you didn’t do the eye thing, either, did
you?”

This time she had him. “The eye thing?” he
questioned.

“
Yeah.” She nodded. “You
know, like when you talk to a pretty lady and you do that thing
with your eyes.”

Carson guffawed. “What! What thing do I do
with my eyes?” Obviously, his daughter was a lot more observant
than he realized.

“
Oh, you know. You do like
this.” Izzie narrowed her eyes a bit, a sort of half-open,
half-closed bedroomy eye thing, and arched one brow a bit. There
was a little come-hither twinkle in the eye under that arched brow
that took him totally by surprise.

Carson laughed out loud. “Izzie! I don’t do
that!”

“
Oh yes, you do,
Dad.”

“
Do not!”

“
Do so!”

“
Says who?”

“
Says me!”

“
I don’t think
so.”

“
The phone!” Izzie jumped
up and scrambled out of the bed the instant the shrill ring
sounded. She was gone in a flash and the eye thing was
forgotten.

“
Izzie! Let it go. Let the
machine...”

But it was too late. He heard his daughter
answer with an excited hello. God, how he hated this. Every time
the phone rang late at night she rushed for it, thinking that it
might be Marci. It rarely was. The California calls were few and
far between for the past couple of years.

Izzie returned to the bedroom with portable
phone in hand and a disappointed face.

“
For you, Dad.”

He smiled at her and she shrugged, then
handed over the phone. Slowly, she climbed back into bed and
cuddled closer into him.

He put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“
Mr. Price?”

“
Yes?”

“
Grace Hart here.”He sat
up, suddenly more interested in the call. “Yes?” he repeated. Izzie
sat up too, watching him and listening to his every
word.

“
I’ve been looking over
your suggestions for the lease. I was wondering...perhaps we could
talk about them.”

For some reason, his heart started pounding.
“Absolutely.”

“
Tomorrow?”

“
Yes, of
course.”

“
One o’clock?”

“
That’s fine.”

“
Please bring
Isabella.”

He nodded and then felt silly, knowing she
couldn’t see the nod. Suddenly, he was glad she couldn’t see him,
because he was smiling, very broadly. “Yes. She’ll come, too.”

“
Wonderful.”

“
See you at
one.”

“
I’ll be here.”

The phone clicked. Carson pushed the button
to disconnect from his end. For a few seconds, he sat in disbelief
of the brief conversation.

“
Dad?” Izzie punched him
and he smiled.

“
Yes?”

“
We going back to
Franklinville?”

“
Yep.”

“
Are we happy about
it?”

“
Yep.”

“
Are we
moving?”

“
I think so.”

“
Good.”

Izzie grinned and for some crazy, silly
reason, Carson joined her.

“
Dad?” she queried
again.

“
Umhmm?”

“
You’re doing that eye
thing.”

* * * *

Gracie slowly placed the phone back on the
hook and tried to quiet the small quivering in her heart. She still
wasn’t quite sure why she’d made that call. Something, she wasn’t
sure what, had nagged her the remainder of the day after Carson had
left.

In fact, it had nagged her until she’d
picked up the lease he’d altered and read it.

He’d offered her a fair deal. The rent was
more than she would have asked for in the first place, more than
what she’d gotten from the last tenant. He’d offered to clean up
both places, do a little repair work, paint and make all
alterations to the building and apartment under her guidance.
Nothing would he do without consulting her first. He offered a fair
deposit up front, a year’s lease, and would pay all utilities and
deposits.

What more could she ask for? It was all too
perfect. The dream tenant come true.

She’d thought long and
hard about it and finally, had concluded that this was a deal she
could not pass up. Fluttering or no fluttering. The town could use
another
café
, and
she, in particular, was happy one would be located next to her
shop. It would do wonders for her business. Actually, the two
businesses would wonderfully compliment the other.

The downtown business association would be
pleased.

But besides all that, she was ecstatic that
she was finally going to have income from the rental again.

That had been too long in coming.

There was nothing to do but take his offer.
That’s why she’d made the call.

That was the
only
reason she had made
the call.

It was a business reason, pure and
simple.

She was just going to have
to keep that in mind. And she was just going to have to stand her
ground about that
fluttering-of-the-heart
thing.

Chapter Five

“
Deal?”

“
Deal.”

“
Deal!”

Izzie was the one to seal the deal with that
final exclamation. Carson grinned at his daughter then put his hand
out to shake Gracie’s. He watched her eyes as she hesitantly thrust
her hand forward, gripped and shook his hand very quickly, then
dropped her arm to her side.

Her hesitance bothered him a bit. Unsure as
to whether she was still reluctant to rent to him, or whether
something else concerned her, he wasn’t sure. But there was
something there, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Her hand was warm, soft, and much smaller
than his. Her fingers were long and graceful, just like the rest of
her, and it seemed, for the brief second they’d touched his, they
had wrapped around his hand in one fluid movement. He almost didn’t
want to let her go. In fact, he wouldn’t have minded at all if
she’d let her hand linger a bit longer so he could lightly caress
her softness.

But she let go much too quickly and he
dismissed the direction of his thoughts.

“
Mr. Price, it looks as if
you’ve got yourself a
café
.”

Stunned at the sound of that, Carson’s
thoughts immediately shot back to his purpose for renting the shop
and apartment in the first place. The sudden insight that his goal
was about to become reality was almost startling. “Well, yes, I
suppose I do,” he said sheepishly, then glanced to Izzie. “That’s
right, hey Munchkin?” He winked at her, hoping she would take the
hint and not spill the beans.

Izzie winked back. Carson sighed.

“
So tell me, Mr. Price,”
Gracie continued, “will this be just a soup and sandwich kind of
place, or more than that?”

This Mr. Price stuff was getting to him.
“Carson. It’s Carson. I’m leaving Mr. Price back in Louisville,” he
told her. “If you don’t mind.”

Gracie dipped her head in a slow nod, her
eyes playing over his face. “Oh! Well, of course. Carson.”

“
Good.”

He could tell she was
thinking about that. “If you don’t mind me asking, Carson, may I
inquire as to what
is
the “Mr. Price” profession you are leaving back there in
Louisville?”

“
Attorney,” he answered
quickly. Then he decided to go on with his usual disclaimer, “I’m
tired of the rat race, the long days, and the hours spent away from
Izzie. It’s time for a life change. This appears to be
it.”

“
And the
café
?” she queried
again.

“
Yes, the
café
.”

“
More than soup and
sandwich?” she asked again.

“
Umm...yeah. More than a
soup and sandwich place,” he told her.

“
Dinner?”

He nodded. “Oh, yes. Dinner, too.”

“
How lovely! We need a
nice dinner
café
around here. All the
café
s on Main Street are open only for lunch right
now. Having someplace for dinner will be quite nice. In
fact...”

Carson watched her gaze drift off to the
side. He could literally see the wheels inside that pretty head of
hers turning. Damn.

“
...you know, I might even
consider staying open late an evening or two, in case some of your
dinner customers would wander by.”

Hell. He felt like a heel
and he didn’t want to talk about his “
café
” plans any longer, should he
let something slip. Or heaven forbid, Izzie let something slip. He
shouldn’t have clued her in on all the plans yet for
Geekmeisters Cyber
Café
. But he’d thought it such a
neat idea, he just had to share it with Izzie last
night.

He supposed bar food could
constitute dinner. And he supposed video computer games and a big
screen TV for sporting events could count as
more than a soup and sandwich place.
So, he really wasn’t lying, was he?

He didn’t want to stick around any longer
than necessary to contemplate that thought.

It was time to give Gracie the check for the
deposit, let her bank it, and get this show on the road. He’d feel
a whole lot better about the situation when all that was done and a
few days had past.

He cleared his throat and reached into his
back pocket for his checkbook. She glanced back to him.

“
Well, I’ll have to think
about that,” she said.

She was talking about her late hours. “Yes,
you do that.” God, he hated deceiving her, if one could actually
call this deceit. Really, though, his crime was nothing more than
just letting her assume his plans. He’d never really indicated
otherwise.

“
Please let me know your
plans about moving and such,” she said, bringing him back to the
moment at hand, “and I’ll make sure the apartment is
cleaned.”

“
Oh, but we’ll do that.
You don’t have to.”

She shook her head. “No, I insist. It will
be easier to clean now that after you’ve moved things in. I’ll have
a service come in tomorrow morning if you like.”

He nodded. “Well, all right. Actually, I was
thinking of taking next week off to do whatever is necessary about
getting the place livable. You know, get the utilities turned back
on, paint Izzie’s room...”

“
The utilities are already
turned on,” she told him. “All you have to do is have the accounts
transferred into your name.”

Carson liked the sound of that. “So, we
could actually move in tonight?” He was already thinking sleeping
bags and camping out in the living room floor. His brain was
reeling. He could get Izzie registered in school and actually get
started on their new life.

“
I suppose,
but…

“
Then that’s what we’ll
do.” Glancing at his watch, he mentally calculated how much time
was left in the day to get to Louisville, gather what they’d need
for a day or two, and get back here tonight. No time like the
present to get started on his new life. He was deep in thought when
he realized Gracie was talking to him again.