Finding Love (A Mill Creek Crossing Romance) (3 page)

Clay walked slowly back to the diner, his head hanging low as he saw Gracie. She looked at him with a smile, but then realized he must have gotten bad news from Amelia.

“What happened?” Gracie asked.

  “Denied,” Clay said with a smile.

  “Really? I'm surprised at that. Amelia has spent the last decade taking care of her younger siblings, and she's done a great job. In fact, I think the youngest one just left for college.”

   “Yes, and that's the reason she used to get out of helping me too. She basically said she's working on her new business and doesn't have time to take care of any more children. I get the feeling she's exhausted from taking care of kids, and she doesn't want to get caught up in it again. And I can understand that, I suppose. Doesn’t help me, but she seems to be a nice person who deserves the best.”

“I'm so sorry, Clay. I really thought she would want to help you with this. But don't give up yet. I have a feeling after she gets squared away and she gets some space from taking care of her siblings, she might reconsider helping you. After all, that real estate business she's working is slow going in this economy, so she's going to need the extra income,” Gracie said.

“Well, thanks anyway, Gracie. Come on, kids! We need to get on with our evening. We'll see you around, Gracie,” Clay said as he gathered up his kids and headed out the door.
 

Over the next week, Amelia struggled to get leads for her real estate business. Her broker was starting to push on her about not getting enough business brought in. She had no listings and had only had one sale, and that commission certainly wasn't going to float her for more than a couple of months. If she had any additional bills or children around, Amelia would never be able to get by on the money that she had made so far from the real estate business.

Deciding she needed to take a break from knocking on doors looking for listings, Amelia wandered into Stella's Diner to have a cup of coffee. It wasn't even lunchtime yet, but she was already mentally exhausted. She’d really hoped that her real estate venture would be more fruitful a lot quicker. She pondered back to having to leave college after her mother passed away and wished she had gotten a chance to finish her degree. How her life might have been different was something that always plagued Amelia's mind. She loved her siblings, and she was glad that she was the one to raise them instead of them having to go to foster care, but it did make her feel a little resentful she never got the chance to enjoy her twenties.

“Good morning, Amelia!” Gracie said from behind the counter. As she wiped up a coffee spill left by another customer, Gracie came around the counter and gave Amelia a big hug.

They'd known each other for many years, although Gracie was a good bit older than Amelia. However, Gracie had always been like the older sister Amelia wished she had. She helped out the family a lot when they first got started after her mother passed away. Gracie cooked some meals and even stood in as a babysitter when Amelia wanted a much-needed break.

“Good morning, Gracie. How are you doing today?” Amelia asked. Gracie could tell that Amelia was down, so she followed her over to a booth and sat down.
 

“Okay, girl, what's going on?” Gracie asked.

“What do you mean?” Amelia asked trying to look unaffected.

“I mean what's going on with you? I can always tell when something is wrong, so don't even try to pretend like everything is alright. You must be missing your little brother.”

“Of course, I am. It's weird to have empty nest syndrome at thirty years old,” Amelia said with a halfhearted smile.

“I'm sure it is. But, you deserve this break in your life, Amelia. How's the real estate business going so far?”

“I think you can tell by the look on my face, Gracie. It's not going so well. I think the first sale I had was a fluke because I can't get anyone in this town to even talk to me about real estate right now. It's very depressing, actually. I just needed to take a break this morning, so I thought I'd come in and grab a cup of coffee.”

“I hear that my new friend, Clay Barnes, came by to see you the other day,” Gracie said with a smile.

“Yes, he did. And in the future it would be nice if you give me a call before sending a handsome man over to my door,” Amelia said laughing.

“He is quite handsome,” Gracie said.

“Yes, but I just can't take care of anyone else's kids right now. After all, I just got rid of my last sibling, and I don't want to mess up my new business that I haven't even got started yet,” Amelia said.

“I understand that, Amelia, but I also know you're going to need income. Mr. Barnes needs desperate help with his kids after losing his wife, and you'd be the perfect person to help him with that. After all, he's only looking for help after school and maybe the occasional weekend day. Most of the time, you'll have already gotten your work done during the workday, right?”

“Boy, Gracie, you just don't know when to give up, do you?” Amelia said with a laugh.

“Have I ever known how to give up?” Gracie said smiling as she patted Amelia’s hand.

“Well, maybe I'll think about it, but I'm not promising anything. I just don't know if I have time to take care of Mr. Barnes’ kids in the right way,” she said.

“That's all he's asking for, for you to think about it. Of course, he's getting ready to start the new job over at the resort, so it would probably be good if you gave him a call before too much longer. I ran into him yesterday morning, and he said he still hadn't found anyone reliable to take care of his kids. I really hate for him to have to give up the prospects of that job over there, especially since this is a new beginning for him and his children.”

“Okay, Gracie. Point made. I said I’ll think about it, and I will,” Amelia said, starting to get a little irritated at her friend.

“Alright now, don't get mad at me,” Gracie said smiling as she stood up. “But, let me say one more thing, Amelia.”

“Can I stop you?” Amelia asked shaking her head.

“Of course not. Look, I've known you practically your whole life. And something tells me that your not wanting to keep Clay’s kids has little to do with your schedule and a lot to do with your feelings. Think about it,” Gracie said as she walked off.

Amelia sat there in shock as her friend went back behind the counter and started dealing with customers again. What was she talking about? Feelings? She just met this guy, so she had no feelings at all for him. Of course, he was handsome and she’d had a little crush on him when she saw him on TV before, but she didn't know anything about him. Just because he lost his wife and was a father didn't mean that he was even a nice guy. Amelia shook her head and tried to shake the thought of having any feelings for a perfect stranger away.

As Amelia watched people walking on the street outside of the diner, she wondered about their lives. Were they married? Were they single? Did they have careers? Children?

She realized somewhere along the way of raising her siblings, she had lost herself. She didn't even know the answers to some of the major questions people normally would ask themselves. She didn't know what she really wanted or what kind of relationship she wanted or if she ever even wanted to be married. She felt like a stranger in her own body much of the time. Everything she had had been put into taking care of her two brothers and sister, and there had never been anything left for Amelia herself.

After enjoying her coffee, Amelia left some money on the table plus a tip for her friend and walked back out onto the street. She decided to do a little window shopping to clear her mind. There wasn’t a lot to look at in Mill Creek Crossing, but she did have a couple of favorite shops. She loved the little coffeehouse that had the great guitar music on Friday nights as well as the small bookstore that was like a blast from the past.

It was rare to see a bookstore like this in existence anymore, and Mill Creek Crossing was so out of the way there were no big bookstores to compete with it. She wandered into the store to see what they had that she might be interested in reading over the weekend. Now the house was quiet, Amelia had a lot more time to herself to read and enjoy some of her favorite hobbies.

“Good morning, Amelia!” the lady behind the counter said.

“Good morning Zelda. Good to see you again. How's your husband?” Amelia asked.

Zelda had worked at the bookstore for a little over thirty years, and Amelia had known her for her entire life. Zelda had cooked meals and even helped out with the kids on occasions after Amelia’s mother died. That's what it was like living in such a small town. People tended to band together and help out someone who was going through a rough patch.

“Oh he's doing much better, thank you Amelia. The surgery went well, but he'll be out of commission for another few weeks healing.”

Zelda’s husband had suffered a heart attack, and he’d had bypass surgery just a couple of weeks before.

“He also wanted me to tell you thank you for bringing over the apple pie. I put it in the freezer for him, so when he's able to get back to his normal eating habits I'm sure he'll enjoy it,” Zelda said with a smile. The old woman was getting on in years, and Amelia assumed she had to be in her late seventies.

“Tell him he is more than welcome. In fact, I'll make another one once he's feeling better,” Amelia said with a smile.

“I know he'll be happy to hear that!”

“So, do you have anything new that I might be interested in?” Amelia asked. Zelda knew her likes and dislikes when it came to reading, so Amelia trusted her with her book selections.

“As a matter of fact, I just got in a whole new batch of romance novels that you might like,” Zelda said with a grin.

“Now, Zelda, you know I'm not a fan of romance novels,” Amelia said laughing. It'd been an inside joke between Zelda and Amelia for years. Amelia insisted she only liked to read mystery novels, but Zelda had noticed the novels she was reading had more romance in them than a good mystery.

“I think you like romance more than you let on,” Zelda said laughing. “Every woman should like romance. After all, that's how my husband and I got together. He was quite the romantic…”

“Yes, I know the story of how you two love birds got together,” Amelia said. “However, that doesn't mean I like romance novels anymore than I did before. Not every woman gets to be swept off her feet like Gus did with you.”

“Well, honey, you're in luck on the books. Take a look at this romance novel. It has a lot of history and intrigue in it. In fact, it's set in Paris. What you think?”

Amelia took a look at the novel and read the back cover. As she always did, she also read about the author. Smiling, she looked up at Zelda.

“You've done it again, Zelda. This looks like the perfect book for me to enjoy this weekend. Let me take a look around and make sure there's nothing else I need, but hang on to this one behind the counter for me.”

Zelda laughed. “Yes, we wouldn't want a stampede of buyers to come into my little bookstore and take this book away from you, now would we?”

Amelia returned the laugh and started to look around in the back of the small store. The store was pretty dingy and dark, especially since it was a very small space on the square. You could smell a musty smell and there was lots of dust around, but that was because the store was so old. However, it smelled like a bookstore should smell. Full of paper and ink, and it was the happiest place on earth as far as Amelia was concerned.

As she perused the business section, which was not a section that she normally looked at, she decided to try to find any kind of real estate related book that might help her generate more leads.

“I’ve heard that lead generation is one of the most important parts of the real estate business,” a voice said from behind her. She immediately stopped in her tracks as her skin tingled when she realized that it was Clay Barnes standing right behind her in the bookstore.