Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.
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Chapter One
Eight a.m. was a weird time for a grown woman to be sitting on a swing in the park, but Alesha Reed didn’t care. It had been almost twenty years since she’d been in this particular park and right now in the early morning quiet, it was perfect.
Coming back to Hope Falls was exactly what she needed.
It was cold out but at least the sun was shining. In the years since her parents’ divorce, Alesha had never come back to Hope Falls. It wasn’t for lack of wanting. She had. Desperately. The small town was the only place she had ever lived where she felt at home. In the three years they’d all lived in the small town in the Sierra Nevadas, Alesha had made friends and started school; even though she was only seven when they moved away, her time there had left her with some wonderful memories.
Now she was back again and trying to wrap her brain around what it was she was supposed to do. Her father’s failing health had been the catalyst to bring her back, and as he’d driven away this morning to go start cancer treatments in San Francisco, she’d felt as if she were standing at a crossroads. Alesha had wanted to go with him, to stay with him, but he had other plans for her—to take over his beloved bookstore, Read Between the Lines.
For almost twenty years this was her father’s life. His dream. He’d sacrificed everything to make that dream a reality—his wife, his daughter, and his law practice. Martin Reed wanted to own a bookstore. For the life of her, Alesha never understood why. He’d been a brilliant attorney, but apparently the heart wants what it wants.
Although she was only four when they had originally moved from Tahoe to Hope Falls, Alesha could still remember the way that move had changed their lives. At first it was simply a move to a small town. Then it became about her father wanting something less stressful for his livelihood. By the time he quit the law practice, her mother had had enough and packed herself and Alesha up and moved them to Oregon.
And her father had let them go.
A weary sigh escaped her as she set the swing in motion. For just a few minutes she was going to allow herself to simply feel the sun on her face and not think of anything negative.
Not as easy as it sounds.
The cold air stung her cheeks as thoughts of how much her life had changed in the last month flooded her. Four weeks ago she had been sitting in the library of Jefferson Elementary School back home in Portland. Then one brief phone call later and Alesha found herself packing up her life and loading it all in a U-Haul truck. Was it only a month ago? She asked herself and then shook her head. Yup. One. Month.
It wasn’t that she’d left anything important behind—her job had been cut back to part-time, her rent had just gone up on her apartment and she had no one special in her life. So the timing of this move was good, but she still never imagined life bringing her here.
Off in the distance she saw joggers making their way along the paved path. That was never her thing. Every once in a while she’d guilt herself onto her treadmill—which she’d conveniently left behind—but other than that, Alesha was blissfully happy just thinking about being athletic.
She’d take ice cream over jogging any day.
With the current early morning temperature of twenty-seven, ice cream should have been the last thing on her mind, but…you know. Ice cream.
It didn’t seem like the cold was stopping people from getting out and doing their thing. Alesha was kind of amazed at how many people were in the park. If it weren’t for the fact that she was up early watching her father leave, she’d still be inside where it was warm.
“I wonder if I know any of you,” she murmured. She was seven when she’d moved away from Hope Falls and she doubted anyone would even remember her, but it was still an idea that made her curious. In the time she’d been back, almost all of her time had been spent helping her father prepare for his move to San Francisco and learning the bookstore business; there had been no time for socializing or reconnecting with anyone. Alesha could only hope that people weren’t viewing her as some sort of social misfit.
Deciding that maybe it was time to head back to her father’s house, Alesha allowed herself a final swing when she heard approaching footsteps. Turning, she saw a guy heading her way. He was jogging—maybe he found the path too crowded for him—and he looked fairly intent on his task. He was tall and well-built—clearly athletic. She couldn’t tell what color hair he had because he was wearing a dark blue wool hat, but if she had to guess, she’d say dark hair. It would match the stubble on the strong jaw.
Yum.
His eyes locked with hers as he got closer and Alesha felt as if the temperature outside had risen a few—or several—degrees. She smiled shyly as he jogged past and she couldn’t help but admire his athletic build as he kept moving. Eye candy from the front and back, she thought to herself.
And then mentally cursed herself for not being the athletic type. If she were, she could have simply gotten up and joined him on his jog.
“Damn ice cream,” she mumbled as she stood and turned toward home.
****
Reece Brooks was ready to bang his head against the wall.
Again.
Why had he thought coming home and helping his parents with the renovations on Two Scoops would be a good idea? He’d been back in Hope Falls for all of a day and he was desperate to jump back in his truck and head back to Tahoe. His morning jog normally helped him clear his head and get ready to take on the day but his parents were making him crazy.
When they had first mentioned doing some work on the ice cream shop, Reece had thought it was nice—some new paint, new pictures, maybe some new tables and chairs. Then it started to snowball into something more and somehow he had gotten conned into coming home and helping. Actually, both he and his brother Robbie were supposed to come and help but Robbie couldn’t take the time away from work and being that Reece was in construction, it made more sense for him to be here.
Lucky me, he thought.
“So we’ve been talking it over and we think we’d like to turn the upstairs into usable space,” his mother said as she spread out some drawings on the table. Marlene Brooks was many things, but artistic wasn’t one of them. Her drawings resembled something Reece would have pegged as coming from a preschooler—stick figures and all.
“Mom…”
She held up a hand to stop him. “No, no, trust me. It’s going to be good. We’re going to use the space upstairs for extra seating and maybe a meeting space—you know, something smaller than the community center.”
“Much smaller,” Reece commented. “There are a lot of things involved in something like this. That space was built for storage. We have no idea if it could handle the weight of everything you’re wanting to do. I’ll need to get an engineer in here and we’ll have to talk to the town about zoning…we can’t just go up and do this. Are you prepared for the possibility that it might not work out?”
His mother looked at him as if he had broken her heart. Tears started to well in her eyes. “But…but it would be something wonderful…”
Reece reached out and touched her hand. “Yes it would, but there are structural issues that we’ll have to check on and you�
��ll probably need to get some approval from your neighbors. They may not want something like this.”
Just then, his father walked over and pulled up a chair, placing a cup of coffee in front of Reece. “We’ve already talked to Dave Jenkins next door at the bowling alley. He couldn’t care less what we do with the space.”
“And what about Mr. Reed?” Reece asked, staring down at his coffee. “Surely he gets a say in this too. His space is like yours and I’m sure people already use the bookstore as a meeting place.”
Harry and Marlene looked at each other briefly before Harry spoke again. “We tried talking to him about it but he kept putting us off. His health hasn’t been so great lately and we didn’t want to bother him.” He paused. “I can’t imagine he’d have a problem with it.”
“I do have an idea,” Marlene said, smoothing out her drawings. “Maybe we could find out if Martin would consider selling the store. We could buy it and expand and…”
“Just hold on,” Reece interrupted, “don’t go getting ahead of yourselves. A small expansion upstairs is one thing; the cost of completely renovating a separate storefront is something else. Are you aware of how expensive it could be?”
“Well,” Marlene began a bit bashfully, “I’m sure it won’t come cheap but…with you as our contractor I’m sure we could save a little money on it.”
Great. Guilt. “Why don’t we just focus on the upstairs for now?” he replied casually, reaching for one of the drawings. After a minute of trying to figure out which way he was supposed to be looking at it, he put it back down. “How about we go upstairs and you tell me what you’re thinking?”
His parents stood and smiled. His father patted Reece on the back, squeezing his shoulder. “I’ll let your mom take it from here. It’s almost time for the lunch crowd.”
“Lunch crowd? Do you really get one of those? I figured everyone still went over to Sue Ann’s.”
Marlene waved her hand at him dismissively. “Sue Ann’s is wonderful if you have time to sit down. We get the people who are running errands or have a short lunch break and just want a sandwich and a drink.” She motioned to one of the display cases. “The pre-packaged sandwiches have been a big hit.”
He remembered her mentioning this to him during almost every phone conversation and yet somehow he still couldn’t imagine it. When he looked over at his mom, she was looking back at him expectantly. “Looks great!” He smiled. “I’ll try one too as soon as we do the walk-through upstairs.”
“Wonderful!” Marlene beamed at him as she reached for his hand. “Now come on. I have a ton of ideas!”
Reece groaned inwardly.
That’s what he was afraid of.
****
Alesha stared at the storage space above Read Between the Lines and groaned. It was like stepping into an episode of Hoarders.
Since her father had dropped the bombshell about his health and giving her the store, they had talked about some of the things Alesha might want to do with it now that it was hers. Martin had always dreamed of renovating and updating but he kept putting it off and once he had gotten ill, it had seemed like the last thing on his mind. The business was debt-free. Martin owned the building and the mortgage had been paid off. He left Alesha with a substantial bank account along with the means to do extensive renovations on the space. Looking around, however, she seriously contemplated changing her mind.
That wasn’t an option and with a weary sigh, she began moving around the room to see exactly what she was dealing with. After an hour, Alesha knew she was in over her head. She was going to have to hire someone to come in, help her and look into getting a construction dumpster to help her get rid of most of the boxes. She was certain that once the space was cleared of the junk and debris, she would be able to do something impressive with it. Maybe she would make it a space with sofas and tables so customers could come up here to read or hang out with friends.
The thought inspired and energized her and with renewed energy, she began moving boxes around until she cleared a path to the far wall. It was the one that divided the bookstore from Two Scoops and it was made completely of exposed brick. If she could move all of the junk away from it, Alesha envisioned some antique tables and lighting there to play up the wall.
Thank you, HGTV!
Up against the wall the boxes were piled from floor to ceiling and for a minute, Alesha could only stand and stare as she tried to figure out how she was going to tackle them. Turning, she grabbed a step ladder that was tucked in the corner and set it up in front of the first pile. It wasn’t easy to maneuver the top box while keeping her balance but luckily it wasn’t too heavy. She moved the first stack and noticed they had been blocking a door. Testing the handle, she found it locked. With a shrug, she moved the ladder over and began working on the next stack.
“Making progress,” she murmured. Her stomach growled and Alesha realized it had been a while since she’d had breakfast, and that had been before her walk to and from the park. “Just a few more stacks and I’ll stop.”
Reaching out, she went to pull the next box down and found it to be heavier than the others. She struggled with it and her hands slipped, causing her to lose her balance on the ladder. In an instant she heard herself scream as she lost her footing and she and the boxes fell to the floor.
There were voices and noises and maybe someone knocking on the door—at least that’s what Alesha thought she heard. Or maybe she was hallucinating. With a groan she tried to focus but everything was still spinning and with nothing left to do, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and figured she’d just wait a few minutes for it all to stop.
The banging got louder—or maybe it was the pounding of her head—and Alesha’s hands came up and rested on her head in hopes of making the noise go away. “Ow,” she moaned.
Things instantly got quiet and she let out a sigh of relief. The next thing she knew, there was a loud crash as the door flew open. She screamed and then cursed because of all the noise.
“Oh my God! Are you all right?”
Alesha looked up and gasped.
Hovering over her was the sexy jogger from the park.
Chapter Two
“It’s you,” she said softly.
For a moment, Reece was too stunned to respond. It was her—the woman from the park. He had seen her earlier when he was out jogging and had almost tripped over his own feet. She was beautiful—wavy brown hair and whiskey colored eyes and when she had given him that shy smile, he almost stopped.
Something about her had sent him on a bit of a trip down memory lane. As a kid, he’d always played at Riverside Park but he hadn’t been near that swing set in probably close to twenty years. That was the spot that he and…
Reece’s eyes went wide as everything seemed to fall into place. “Alesha?” he whispered. She looked at him oddly and Reece had to wonder if it was because of her fall or what he’d said. Reaching out, he touched her hand and squeezed it and gave her a reassuring smile.
He knew the instant she figured it out.
“Reece?” Her voice was small and she winced as she tried to sit up.
“Don’t move,” he said softly. “We need to make sure you’re okay.”
She wasn’t listening and began to sit up. “I’m okay…I think.” She paused. “The wind got knocked out of me. That’s all. I was only on the third step of the ladder.”
He helped her sit up and then gently felt around her scalp to make sure there were no bumps. Reece couldn’t help but meet her wide-eyed gaze as he touched her and he almost groaned when she tried to discreetly lick her lips.
Clearing his throat, he asked, “Does anything hurt? Should I call for an ambulance?”
Alesha shook her head. “I’m fine. I just need a minute.” She gave him another of those shy smiles and took a steadying breath.
“What were you doing in here?”
She chuckled. “Look around. This room is a nightmare. I’m trying to sort through it and see what I can g
et rid of. I want to renovate the space into something usable for the bookstore.”
Reece sat down on the floor beside her. “Wait…you want to? What about your dad?”
Alesha gave him the Reader’s Digest version of what was going on with her father’s health and how it was that she was back in Hope Falls. “So basically the store is mine to do with what I want.”
“And how do you feel about it?” Ugh. He almost smacked himself in the head when he realized what he’d just asked. All of a sudden he sounded like Dr. Phil.
She shrugged. “I’ll admit that I’m a little overwhelmed but Dad’s going to be available to talk me through things. He didn’t want to close the store—it means too much to him. So I want to do this for him.”
“I can understand that and I think it’s great that you want to. But what about your job and your life back in…?”
“Oregon,” she supplied and then shrugged again. “I hate to make it sound like all of this is a good thing considering Dad’s health, but the timing really was perfect. I was sort of in a place where I wasn’t sure what to do with myself, so coming back to Hope Falls made sense.”
“So you’re going to run it until he’s better?”
She shook her head. “He signed it all over to me. Read Between the Lines is officially mine.”
Reece’s eyes went wide. “Wow. That’s incredible. My folks had no idea. I mean…”
“Your folks? What do they have to do with this?”
He remembered that Alesha had been long gone when his parents opened Two Scoops. Pointing over his shoulder to the open door he said, “They own Two Scoops. I’m here to help them do some renovations too.”
Her brows furrowed as if she didn’t understand so Reece explained how he was now a general contractor living in Tahoe and was here for the time being to help his parents do the work on the store.
“What about your job back in Tahoe? Isn’t this going to take up a lot of your time?”
“I’m not really that far away and even though I’m planning on staying here in town, I can get back and check on other jobs that I have going on without it being a big deal.”
Hope Falls: Wildest Dreams (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 1