Matinees with Miriam

by Vicki Essex

  “It was Arty’s idea to save something of the old Crown to keep for you. I just ran with the idea and talked to the designers and engineers. The whole company loves it. On top of that, I got them to add a rooftop garden. It’ll add to the building’s LEED score and give the place a beautiful green space.”

  Mira’s vision blurred, and she wiped her tears away, smiling.

  Shane set the folder aside. “I’ll have some paperwork for you to sign. Nothing major, just a letter that says you’ll let us put his name on a plaque. I promise, nothing hinky.”

  “That’s fine. I trust you.”

  “Do you?” His lips pinched and he released a breath. “I haven’t been able to sleep wondering what you must think of me, of the way I’ve handled things. You have to know I didn’t set out to deceive you...not consciously. But my manager went over my head and told the mayor about the high-speed rail line even when she wasn’t supposed to—”

  “It’s okay, Shane. I understand.” She folded her hands to keep from fidgeting. “You were doing your job. And you meant well. You’re trying to make things better for the whole community. My grandfather tried to do the same when he bought the theater in the first place. He gave up all he had to save the Crown. But there’s a season for everything and now...well, that season is over.” She glanced out the windshield. Large flakes of snow drifted down, settling on the ground.

  Shane sighed. “I never wanted to hurt you, even in the end. I convinced myself I was helping you by forcing you to move out, but it wasn’t my place to make that decision for you. And I shouldn’t have ratted you out the way I did.” He wiped a hand over his mouth. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were still mad.”

  “I guess I should still be mad, but I’m not. I worked so hard to keep the theater. I convinced myself it was what I really wanted.” She shook her head. “I thought I could only honor my grandpa and keep his memory alive through the business he loved. But I see now there’s so much more I can do.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like doing all the things he dreamed of doing. I watched the sun set from the Eiffel Tower. I went on a tour of Buckingham Palace. I ate gelato on the Spanish Steps.” She smiled. “And I met all kinds of people. People who didn’t judge me, who were interested in who I was, what I did, what I had to say. People who wanted to be my friend, who I wanted to be friends with, who didn’t have any agendas and weren’t looking to screw with me.” She chuckled drily. “I never realized how cynical I was. It took getting away from Everville to gain perspective.”

  “I understand. And you have every right to be cynical. I wouldn’t want you any other way.” At that, she blushed. Shane cleared his throat. “Anyhow, it sounds like you had quite an adventure.”

  “I did.” She lifted her eyes. “But something else I’ve discovered is that I don’t want to travel alone. After three months away from the shop, Maya won’t be able to go on more trips for a while.” She bit her lip. “I was hoping... If you have any vacation time coming up, maybe you’d like to go with me?”

  Shane blinked. “You want me to travel with you?”

  “Not far,” she said. “I was thinking something more local. I haven’t seen a lot of New York City. I don’t suppose you know somewhere I could crash?”

  His lips slowly spread into a smile. “When do you want to go?”

  “I’d say now, but I just got back, and I feel like I need to spend a few days here. Have Christmas dinner with Arty.”

  “How about Boxing Day?” Shane suggested.

  She laughed, unable to contain her happiness. She reached across the console at the same time he reached for her. Their lips met over and over again, reacquainting, overjoyed by the reunion. She grasped him tightly. “I’m sorry for making life difficult for you. I’ve been stubborn. About everything.”

  “You were never difficult. Challenging, but not difficult. You held your ground and you didn’t budge on your principles. It’s what I love about you.” He pressed his forehead against hers and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m sorry I made your life difficult. I was a real pain.”

  “But if you hadn’t been as persistent as you were, we would never have gotten to this point. It’s what I love about you.”

  “So...we’re in agreement for once? We love each other?” He grinned impishly.

  “That depends.” She cut him her naughtiest look. “Where are you staying tonight?”

  He exhaled a shuddery breath. “I’ve got a room at the Sunshine B and B.”

  “Well, I think we have notes to compare. How about we head back to your place and we’ll see just how much we agree on?”

  Eyes alight, Shane put the car into gear. Mira quickly buckled herself in and turned to him.

  “I think this,” she said, pecking him on the cheek, “is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from UNDERCOVER IN GLIMMER CREEK by Julianna Morris.

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  Undercover in Glimmer Creek

  by Julianna Morris

  CHAPTER ONE

  TESSA CONNOR KNELT on the hardwood floor and looked at the cat under the four-poster bed. “Please come out, Mr. Fezziwig.”

  Mr. Fezziwig yawned and continued bathing himself. He felt the room was his exclusive property and the people who rented the deluxe bed-and-breakfast suite were merely servants who catered to his whims.

  “Believe it or not, the guests coming to stay tonight don’t like cats,” Tessa said. “I know you think there’s something wrong with their opinion, but twenty-five years ago they honeymooned in this room, and they’re sentimental about it.”

  The enormous brown tabby yawned.

  “I understand how you feel, but you have to—”

  “Tessa, I want you to meet the new maintenance employee,” interrupted her father.

  Tessa straightened and looked toward the door where her dad stood with a tall, unsmiling man.

  “Hey, Pop.” Tessa got to her feet and walked over to shake hands with the new guy. Lord, he had the most gorgeous gray eyes she’d ever seen...and the hardest to read. “You must be Gabe McKinley. Welcome to Poppy Gold Inns. My father is a terrific boss. You’ll enjoy working with him.”

  �
�Thankfully, these days I mostly mulch flowerbeds and jockey a lawn mower around,” Liam Connor declared. “Tessa handles everything at Poppy Gold except maintenance.”

  They exchanged an affectionate look, yet a familiar stab of sorrow went through Tessa. She’d always expected to take over Poppy Gold when her parents retired, but then her mother had died a year and a half ago. She still remembered feeling as if the world had stopped turning, and it had been even worse for her father. For months he’d gone around in a shocked fog, barely eating or sleeping. When he’d decided running the business alone was too much for him, she’d resigned from her position in the contracts division at her grandfather’s company in San Francisco to help out. Poppy Gold wasn’t just a business to her—it was home.

  “Your father has been showing me around,” Gabe McKinley said. “You have quite a setup here, Ms. Connor.”

  “It’s Tessa. We’re informal at Poppy Gold. We... Oh, you finally came out,” she exclaimed as a furry body butted her leg. She bent down and scooped Mr. Fezziwig into her arms. His purr boomed until he fixed his gaze on the new employee; the purring stopped as if turned by a switch, and his mouth opened into a long-drawn-out hiss.

  Whoa.

  Generally Mr. Fezziwig liked everyone, which made him ideal for the Victorian Cat Mansion, one of fifty-plus historic buildings that had been converted to a complex of bed-and-breakfast inns and visitor facilities. These days they hosted business retreats and special events along with tourists. The Victorian Cat was unique because of the amiable felines who lived there—repeat guests usually requested a specific cat for their visits, rather than a room.

  “It may take me a while to become accustomed to calling my employers by their first names,” Gabe said stiffly.

  “Pop is your employer, not me,” she clarified.

  “Gabe is a veteran,” her father interjected. “This is his first position since getting out of the navy.”

  “Thank you for your service.” Though it was an automatic response, Tessa meant it sincerely. Pop and one of her maternal uncles had done a tour in the army, while another uncle had died flying a navy jet.

  “Er...yeah.” Gabe peered around the room. “I understand you have some sort of patchwork quilters group coming in a few days. And the day they leave, a number of executives are arriving for a retreat.”

  “That’s right. Thomas International Products is one of our best business contracts, though it’s a fairly small group this time.” Tessa shifted the cat she held, uncomfortable for several reasons. For one thing, Mr. Fezziwig weighed a ton, and for another, there was something about Gabe McKinley that made her vaguely wary. Her father tried to hire veterans who were struggling to adjust to civilian life, but Gabe didn’t seem the type to struggle with anything.

  Appearances can be deceiving, she reminded herself. Yet it was difficult to picture him pruning trees and replacing sod torn up by energetic kids. He seemed more like someone accustomed to giving orders, instead of taking them.

  “Could you finish the tour for Gabe?” her father asked. “I just got a call that an order needs to be picked up from the Sullivan Nursery down in Stockton.”

  “Sure, Pop. Are you taking the long truck?”

  “No, the old one. It’s large enough.” He turned to Gabe. “Poppy Gold has a 1928 AA pickup. People have fun seeing it and think it’s great that such an old truck is still being used. Tessa, can you also show Gabe our fleet of antique vehicles? I hadn’t gotten that far with the tour.”

  “No problem. Call when you get back. If you aren’t busy tonight, come over and I’ll fix you dinner.” Tessa kissed his cheek.

  When she was alone with Gabe McKinley, she gestured at Mr. Fezziwig. “Just let me deal with this fellow. I’ll be right back.”

  Gabe must have missed the “I’ll be right back” because he walked with her to the opposite end of the Victorian Cat. Since no guests had checked in for the day, she’d left the access open to her private, two-story apartment.

  “So you live on-site,” he commented.

  “Yes, though Guest Registration handles check-ins.” She put Mr. Fezziwig on a chair by the window and ran a finger down his neck. He was still looking at Gabe suspiciously, and Tessa understood exactly how he felt. Gabe had walked right in, past a sign marked Private. “But living at the Victorian Cat works out well, because if one of the cats doesn’t have company for the night, they can stay with me.”

  “How often does that happen?”

  “We aren’t always fully booked during the off-season, but the closer we get to summer, it’s rare to have rooms available. We try to have something unique about each of the B and Bs, and returning guests have their favorites. Cat lovers usually pick the Victorian Cat, while railroad buffs prefer the Gold Rail Hotel, and so forth.”

  “It must be difficult to manage the bookings.”

  “We have staff dedicated to reservations and event planning. Poppy Gold Inns is the biggest employer in Glimmer Creek,” Tessa said proudly, “and we support other businesses by buying local whenever possible and outsourcing various services.”

  Gabe nodded as if interested, though it was impossible to tell anything from his face. Honestly, they’d only just met, but it was hard to imagine an emotion daring to crack his iron jaw.

  “You appear to have a good many antiques. Do you have live-in staff to keep an eye on things at night? I haven’t noticed any video cameras.”

  It was probably an innocent question, but it seemed odd to Tessa. She’d dealt with a wide range of new employees and eager beavers who asked everything under the sun on their first day, but Gabe’s manner seemed more like an IRS auditor than an eager beaver. Not that it was fair to make snap judgments; he was still adjusting to civilian life. Anyway, her father would have run a background check before hiring him.

  “Actually, we don’t have live-in staff. Security is on duty around the clock, so you won’t need to get involved with those issues,” she said carefully. “Guest Registration is at Old City Hall, which is located by the original town square park.”

  “I see.”

  Tessa firmly escorted Gabe out and locked the door behind them. “Now, what have you been shown so far?”

  “The working areas for Maintenance, including the greenhouses, orchards and vegetable gardens. Also the general employee facility.”

  “All right, we’ll go to Old City Hall next.”

  They stepped out into the Victorian garden surrounding the large house. Birds twittered in the spring sunshine, splashing in the birdbath and perching on the edge. The California foothills were always beautiful, especially in the historic Gold Country, but spring and summer were the seasons that Tessa particularly loved.

  She didn’t even mind the hot days. As a kid she’d swum in the creek when the temperature went up, panned for gold dust in the shallows and picnicked along the shore with friends and family. However busy her parents might have been running their bed-and-breakfast business, they’d tried to join her adventures. Lately Tessa didn’t have much time for adventures, but someday she hoped to get back to them.

  “This way,” she said, pointing north.

  * * *

  CAREFUL, GABE WARNED himself as Tessa Connor continued the tour of Poppy Gold. It was a bad idea to ask too many questions. After all, he was supposed to look like a navy vet, working his first job after leaving the service.

  Actually, it was his first job, but he hadn’t applied to Poppy Gold because he needed to make a living. Between his twenty-year retirement from the navy and being a part owner of the family company—Thomas International Products—he had a generous income.

  Gabe left running TIP to his younger brother; the thought of being stuck behind a desk all day was more than he could swallow, and doing it for the family company would be that much worse. A muscle in Gabe’s jaw twitched. The company was an
other reminder of his lousy childhood with a work-obsessed father and a vodka-guzzling mother. He’d enlisted when he was eighteen to get away from the misery at home.

  Nevertheless, when Rob suspected a problem with industrial espionage, Gabe had insisted on helping. As a former navy SEAL, Gabe had experience in putting together missions and following suspicious activities around the world. And that didn’t include the joint operations he’d done with the CIA. Together, he and Rob had narrowed down the most likely location where information leaks could have occurred—Poppy Gold Inns. TIP had been holding executive retreats, training and strategy meetings at the small conference center for the past two years.

  They’d contacted the FBI with the information, but the agent had said it was only supposition at this point. “Bring us real evidence and we might be able to do something,” the agent had declared.

  He and Rob had decided the best way to get the necessary evidence was for Gabe to go undercover. In the past two years, the company had lost millions in deals that had fallen through; it couldn’t continue.

  “This is Glimmer Creek’s original city center,” Tessa said, stopping and gesturing around a picturesque park, complete with a gazebo-style bandstand and large fountain. “The town has a different center now, of course, in front of the new city hall. Not that it’s new any longer since it was built in the 1930s, but that’s what it’s called.”

  “Why did they build it instead of using the original building?” Gabe asked, trying to sound more like a new employee than an investigator.

  “The story is too long to tell right now, but it’s tied up with family history on my father’s side. The short version is that my grandfather owned all of the land and buildings in this part of town before he deeded them to my parents to start Poppy Gold. Before that it was nicknamed Connor’s Folly.”

  Connor’s Folly? Obviously that was part of the long story Tessa didn’t have time to tell him.