Free The Shop of Shades and Secrets (Modern Gothic Romance 1) by Colleen Gleason Page A

function.”
     
    …Or felt the need for a more intimate fulfillment.
     
    “You know that I don’t intend to marry—at least for a long while.” He kept his voice light but firm as he poured steaming water over Iva’s tea bag in a cup with his monogram on it. “Now, where are we going for dinner?”
     
    ~*~
     
    Later that night, Gideon lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. He folded his hands over his chest and absently rubbed thumb-pad against thumb-pad, remembering the conversation he’d had with his grandfather.
     
    Gideon Senior had been annoyingly vague about Nevio Valente and his concerns about the man’s estate, but, when pressed, he’d admitted nothing other than a niggling concern— “my sixth sense” he’d called it—about Valente’s estate.
     
    Trying to hide his annoyance, Gideon had asked his grandfather, “If there’s nothing that you can put your finger on, then why in the hell did you come back early from your honeymoon?”
     
    Adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses up and down on the bridge of his nose—a sign that he was uncomfortable—the older man replied, “Why, I suppose I just jumped the gun, m’boy. I always felt there was something not right about him, and, to be completely honest, I must admit I never liked the bastard one whit, even though he was a good client. I always felt like he had something to hide, something that lurked just below the surface…and what better time for it to come out than when he’s dead and gone, and his family is quibbling over the estate?”
     
    “But the family isn’t quibbling over the estate. There was no problem whatsoever with the reading of the will, no one contested anything or even hinted about it—even when they learned about F—Ms. Murphy’s bequest.”
     
    Gideon Senior frowned as he shoved a forkful of salmon into his mouth. “Yes, this Miss Murphy is a mystery. You say she didn’t even know who he was? What kind of idiot thing was Valente thinking?” He shook his head, his unruly silver hair gleaming in the low light of the restaurant. Stabbing another forkful of the fish, he stared at it for a moment, then stuck it in his mouth.
     
    “Not only did she not know who he was, but once I showed her his picture and she remembered him, she raved on about how sweet and kind the elderly man was.” Gideon took a sip of wine as his grandfather’s jaw dropped.
     
    “Close your mouth, dear,” Iva suggested. “The view is quite unappetizing.”
     
    “Valente was as far from sweet and kind as a piranha,” her husband informed her, ignoring the fact that he still had a mouthful of food.
     
    Clucking, Iva smoothed back a white curl and smiled with mildness. “Now, Hollis, don’t tell me that even a piranha doesn’t have a soft, warm side—after all, look at you .”
     
    Gideon vacillated between merely rolling his eyes and turning away from the sappy sentiment that now flowed between the newlyweds. Instead, he settled for taking another bite of steak.
     
    “Regarding Miss Murphy’s comment about Valente—as I was saying, is it so far-fetched that he might have a soft side? And that, for some reason, she brought it out? After all, it could just be that he interacted with people who didn’t bring out the best of him,” Iva continued.
     
    Gideon looked at her in surprise. “Fiona said almost exactly the same thing,” he said.
     
    “Fiona?” his step-grandmother asked delicately.
     
    Gideon felt his face warm slightly. “Fiona Murphy, the woman who inherited the shop.” Just as he said this, he looked away and happened to see a cloud of auburn hair, thick and curly, on a woman whose back was to him at a table across the room. His heart gave an unnatural, off-rhythm thud, then returned to its normal pace as he directed his attention to the meal.
     
    So what if she was eating at the same restaurant?
     
    With a man.
     
    After he’d kissed her—only yesterday.
     
    His fingers tightened around his fork as a wave of