Love In a Small Town Read Free Page B

think you're the best."
    She'd called him 'dad.' Emotion overwhelmed him. Fatherhood was a lifetime obligation he was only beginning to understand. He tried to make light of it by saying, with a smile, "Well, good. I'm glad we got that settled." He stood and placed his plate and glass in the sink. "Well, gotta get ready. I'm working tonight."
    Sarah was smiling now. "You must really like that job. Why do you work? You don't need the money."
    He shrugged. "Consider it my hobby." There was a ring of truth in that statement. He'd no time for hobbies as a child. There were always tutors and studies. "It's only a few nights a week. Gets me out of the house, and close to something I like to do. I like being around a restaurant kitchen. I've always wanted to be a chef, but I never had the chance to try." That was an understatement. His parents would have had him in therapy at the merest suggestion. "Besides, I earn plenty of money. I can afford to indulge myself."
    "Oh, come on. There has to be more to it than that, since you can afford to do whatever you want."
    They were finally bonding in a way. She really wanted to know more about him. He decided to confide.
    "I've never had male friends my own age—nobody to talk to, really, about all the stuff boys talk about. I was too smart and too young for the kids in my classes. Hell, I was fourteen when I was a college freshman and my classmates treated me like a baby brother. But I did have one friend, Don Leone, the family chef, who filled in the lonely times teaching me to love properly prepared food. I know I'll never be a chef. I'm too good at what I do now. When I work at the hotel, I guess I'm living those good times and making a connection."
    "Yeah, but waiting tables for seven bucks an hour and tips?"
    "Don't knock it. I meet interesting people." He paused at the look in her eye, and added, "Other than women on the prowl."
    "So, get going already." She grinned. "I have a new book from the library about some high school brainiacs who hack into the computers at a bank in the Bahamas and take down the oil cartel."
    Apparently the storm was over and they'd made some real progress.
    He laughed. "You are one scary woman."
    She returned his smile and relief filled him. He'd managed to fumble his way through another parental crisis, but he was left with a sharp awareness of just how fragile their relationship had become, and how ill equipped he was for parenting, but maybe they could be friends. His background had not prepared him to know how to manage being a parent.

Chapter Three
     
    Lindsay loved the Victorian ambience of the Kensington Royale, a living anachronism, holding court among massive oaks on the highest hill in the town, like an aging queen, unaware of the modern world around her.
    The investors who built her over a hundred years ago had a grand dream of owning the country's greatest destination resort hotel—a dream never quite fulfilled. Today she catered to the tourists' yen to experience a life of Victorian elegance, with all the modern amenities, discreetly hidden, of course. The belief that the hotel was haunted only added to the attraction.
    Her role as a surviving relic served as a reminder of the Victorian era—halcyon days in the late eighteen hundreds when fashionable city dwellers came to 'take the waters' of the nearby springs. In the late 1890s, the town was a thriving spa and the single-track railroad delivered carloads of health-seekers daily, before the Great Depression changed everything forever.
    Lindsay's imagination required only minor tweaking when she entered the lobby graced with antique settees placed around the pink marble fireplace. Crystal-paned doors opened into the dining room. She imagined the guests who had lingered there, a century ago, waiting for the dinner gong. The gong was no more, but a hostess greeted her as she entered the hushed elegance of the Crystal Room.
    "Your group is already here, Lynn, over there in the corner, where