Return of the Last McKenna (Harlequin Romance) Read Free

before. Lived in this neighborhood
for a while and I’ve seen it often, but never stopped by.”
    “Well, thank you for coming and shopping at Nora’s Sweet Shop.”
She gave the basket a friendly pat. “I hope your grandmother enjoys her
treats.”
    “I’m sure she will.” For the hundredth time he told himself to
leave. And for the hundredth time, he didn’t. “So if you’re Kate, who’s Nora?”
He asked the question, even though he knew the answer. Andrew had talked about
Nora’s Sweet Shop often, and told Brody the entire story about its origins.
    “Nora is my grandmother.” A soft smile stole over Kate’s face.
“She opened this place right after my grandfather came home from the Korean War.
He worked side by side with her here for sixty years before they both retired
and gave the shop to my brother and me. She’s the Nora in Nora’s Sweet Shop and
if you ask my grandfather, she’s the sweet in his life.”
    “She’s still alive?” Ever since Brody had met the jovial, brave
soldier, he’d wondered what kind of people had raised a man like that. What kind
of family surrounded him, supported him as he went off to defend the
country.
    “My grandparents are retired now,” Kate said, “but they come by
the shop all the time and still do some deliveries. My brother and I grew up
around here, and we spent more time behind this counter than anywhere else. I
think partly to help my grandparents, and partly to keep us out of trouble while
my parents were working. We were mischievous when we were young,” she said with
a laugh, “and my brother Andrew served as my partner in crime. Back then…and
also for years afterwards when we took over the shop from my grandma. He had the
craziest ideas.” She shook her head again. “Anyway, that’s how a Kate ended up
running Nora’s.”
    Brody had heard the same story from Andrew. Both Spencer
children had loved the little shop, and the indulgent grandparents who ran it.
Andrew hadn’t talked much about his parents, except to say they were divorced,
but he had raved about his grandparents and his older sister.
    It had been one of several things Brody had in common with the
young soldier, and created a bond between the two of them almost from the first
day they met. He’d understood that devotion to grandparents, and to
siblings.
    “My grandmother runs a family business, too. A marketing agency
started by my grandfather years ago. My brothers and I all went in different
directions, so I think she’s pinned her hopes on my cousin Alec for taking it
over when she retires.”
    She cocked her head to one side and studied him, her gaze
roaming over his suit, tie, the shiny dress shoes. A teasing smile played on her
lips, danced in her eyes. Already he’d started to like Kate Spencer. Her sassy
attitude, her friendly smile.
    “And you, Mr. Red Sox ribbon, you are far from the business
type, being a doctor?”
    He chuckled. “Definitely.”
    “Well, should I ever feel faint,” she pressed a hand to her
chest and the smile widened, and something in Brody flipped inside out, “I know
who to call.”
    For a second, he forgot his reason for being there. His gaze
lingered on the hand on her chest, then drifted to the curve of her lips. “I’m
right around the corner. Almost shouting distance.”
    “That’s good to know.” The smile again. “Really good.”
    The tension between them coiled tighter. The room warmed, and
the traffic outside became a low, muted hum. Brody wished he was an ordinary
customer, here on an ordinary reason. That he wasn’t going to have to make that
smile dim by telling her the truth.
    Kate broke eye contact first. She jerked her attention to the
register, her fingers hovering over the keys. “Goodness. I got so distracted by
talking, I forgot to charge you.”
    “And I forgot to pay.” Brody handed over a credit card. As he
did, he noticed her hands. Long, delicate fingers tipped with no-nonsense nails.
Pretty hands. The kind