September 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Contemporary Romance, Looking for Home, Nan Donahue
Go to Page 1 or Previous Installment
After he paid for ride passes, she asked, “Do you need to pick up a brochure and a map?”
“Nope. We know this place like the backs of our hands, don’t we, Allioop? Which way from here?”
“This way!” She pulled on his hand, leading them to the left, along a pathway that hugged a channel of water separating Centre Island and another small island.
The amusement park itself proved to be charming—except for the faint odour emanating from the petting zoo at the far end.
“All right, kiddo. This is your show. What do you want to do first?”
Alicia didn’t hesitate. Bouncing up and down in front of her brother, she bellowed, “Pony ride! Pony ride!”
M winced. She hated to admit it, but she did feel a measure of satisfaction at the return of the loud kid of yesterday. If, one day, Alicia made M’s ears bleed, she’d rather the noise stemmed from joy, not some form of angst.
Moments later he had her astride, and he headed back to stand beside M. She couldn’t control the surge of alarm that shot through her.
“Ah, shouldn’t you stay beside her? What if she falls?”
He started to laugh when he saw her expression, but suddenly his look of merriment changed to one of reflection.
He tilted his head. “You really are worried about her, aren’t you?”
“Well, yes. She could hurt herself if she falls.”
“Take a look at her. Look closely. Does she seem afraid? Unsure?”
M took a deep breath and concentrated on Alicia. “Um, no. I guess not.”
“She’s fine, and she doesn’t need me hovering. My father and I had her on a horse a year ago. She’s a natural. The pony is nothing. Are you afraid of horses? Or ponies?”
She let her breath out and shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been around them.”
As a child, some of her schoolmates rode or took lessons, but not her. She’d been lucky if her parents put food on the table; forget about forking over the cash to pay for riding lessons.
“Then we’ll need to make sure we change that. Alicia has been begging for her own horse for a year now, but it’s not going to happen. At least not when we live in the city and would have to stable it elsewhere. But we’ll go riding sometime again in the fall, and you can come along.”
She decided to ignore the last comment. “Are you thinking about moving out of the city?”
“I think about it occasionally. I have some ideas…”
He shut his mouth, visibly drew himself in, and changed the subject. “What about you? Why did you move here?”
Keeping her eyes on Alicia, she answered. “I want to start my own business here. I needed a place to stay, and Summer had told me I could stay with her—maybe—if I ever needed a place. I quit my job, sold my car for some extra capital, and moved out here.”
“What kind of business?”
She glanced down at the ground, shrugged, then returned her gaze to the pony rides. “I’m a chef. I’d love to open my own restaurant, but…”
“But? I guess you know how difficult the restaurant business is. I’m a CA, and some of my clients are restaurateurs. The statistics for new restaurants are frightening, aren’t they?”
“What statistics?” Damn, she hadn’t meant to voice her question. But as her mind grappled with his disclosure of being a Chartered Accountant, it slipped out.
Her first impression of him yesterday had been uptight and humourless. Dry and boring. The Accountant news fit that impression. But the more time she spent around him, the more she realized something quite different lurked underneath.
His voice brought her back to the present. “There’s a high failure rate for new restaurants. A third of them go out of business in the first year, and about seventy percent of them in the first five. What about your financing? Do you have it nailed down? What bank are you working with? I’d be happy to look over your business plan.” He spread his hands. “This is what I do.”
He was obviously in his element, firing all those questions at her. But the more he talked, the more inept he made her feel.
A business plan? Well, she had an idea—kinda—in her head, but she had a feeling he meant something far different. And he wanted to know if she had bank financing?
Thankful for the excuse watching Alicia provided, she didn’t look at him. Sticking her hands in her pockets, she said, “Ah, no. That wasn’t where I was going when I said but. I’d like to open a restaurant, but um…I’m thinking of starting a catering business instead.”
“Ah, that’s a good choice. You don’t need huge start up costs, and there’s certainly a demand. So, what plans do you have in place?”
She was evil and deserved to be struck by lightning, but she started to wish Alicia would have some sort of accident. Anything to stop him from asking questions she couldn’t answer.
“Um, plans?”
Unfortunately, she turned her gaze away from Alicia to him. Her timing sucked, since at that moment a look of—what? Disbelief? Stupefaction? Disgust?—crossed his face.
She’d been mocked and looked down at all her life, but she could tell you, it never got any easier to take.
“You do have some sort of plan in place, don’t you?”
She angled her chin upward. “Of course. Just nothing…concrete.”
He narrowed his eyes, as if he were trying to pierce through skin and bone with his gaze in order to see her thoughts beneath.
Yeah, right. She gave herself a mental shake. He isn’t Superman, and he doesn’t have x-ray vision.
“Okay, so you’re still in the early planning phase. What have you got in place so far? I know caterers do a lot of their work onsite, but they also have a lot of prep work they do elsewhere. Have you rented kitchen space somewhere? Or are you setting up with a partner who has the space in their home? And what about transportation? Do you have a van or truck of some sort for hauling supplies?”
M thought of the promise she’d made to herself after calling her parents earlier. She’d refused to allow her own mother get her down. The same held true for this—stranger. She might not have her own little brain trust going on, but she wasn’t lazy or stupid. She had goals and motivation. She would work hard and achieve those goals.
She clenched her fists and got right up in his face. “None of this is your business, is it? You hired me to do a job, so keep your questions centred on that. Will I let my personal business interfere with Alicia? No. That’s all you need to know. You don’t need to know anything about my business, nor do I need to tell you. Got it?”
“Yes. I’m…”
“Jonny?”
They both swung toward Alicia. Her face expressed the distress of her voice as her gaze bounced back and forth between Jonathan and M, before lighting on M.
She sat astride, waiting her turn as the attendants helped the other children off their ponies. Unfortunately, her ride had come to a halt not far from where they stood, and she’d obviously been privy to M’s outburst.
Propping her hands on her hips, she glared at M. “Don’t you yewh at my Jonny!”
Want to read the entire story now? Complete ONE free survey, and download a PDF of the full length version of Looking for Home!
Thanks to Nan Donahue for sharing one of her manuscripts.
