Free Falling for Grace by Maddie James

get coffee as well. She glanced back at him and both
girls giggled. He thought he heard one of them say something about
“his honeybuns” and tried like hell to ignore that statement.
    Briefly, he closed his eyes and shook his
head. It had been like this all week. If it wasn’t the two
teenagers behind the counter who served him breakfast every
morning, it was the same group of women who sauntered by his place
every afternoon as though they were window shopping. Sighing, he
glanced around the shop. His gaze immediately latched on a tall
brunette in the back of the room.
    Gracie?
    “ Honeybun...and
coffee.”
    He turned back to the girl. She sat his
coffee and pastry down on the counter with a sassy
seventeen-year-old smile and stared at him while he produced the
couple of dollar bills and the change he owed her.
    What was it with this town? Ever since
Tuesday women had been parading by his windows, staring like they’d
never seen a man before.
    New man in town. Single. Eligible
bachelor.
    Oh, hell.
    Out of the blue, the concept hit him square
in the face. He didn’t like it. Memories of old festered up mighty
quickly and he shook himself, desperately trying to tamp them
down.
    Living in Louisville for the past twenty
years, he’d forgotten about small town antics. He should have
known. He’d grown up in a little village just east of Cincinnati
where everyone knew everyone else and no one thought twice about
getting involved in their neighbor’s business. That was one of the
reasons he had preferred the city. One could get lost in the
shuffle and do their own thing and not worry about what their
neighbor thought or did. It just had never occurred to him that he
would have to revert back to dealing with small town antics here in
Franklinville.
    It was the one thing he’d forgotten.
    He just hoped...oh, hell...that he could at
least avoid the gossips, busybodies, and matchmakers. He’d had
enough of that growing up. If there was anything he disliked more,
he didn’t know what it would be.
    “ Get you anything else?”
The teenager batted her eyes and he felt a little
queasy.
    “ No. No thank you,” he
told her.
    He risked a quick glance back to Gracie
again. Yes, it was her. Just as quickly, she averted her gaze.
    For some reason, that bothered him.
    Gathering up his breakfast, he headed for
the door, wondering why she’d kept to herself all week. Then again,
he’d not ventured far from his little corner of the world, either,
had he? He’d thought, at the very least, she might be curious as to
the renovations. Obviously, she wasn’t, which was all the better
for him.
    “ Oh, Mr.
Price?”
    Gracie?
    No. It wasn’t her voice. For some reason,
though, he sort of wanted it to be Gracie’s voice. Stopping, he
turned to look behind him.
    The woman who owned the
coffee shop stood about three feet away. He’d not met her but he
knew who she was. He’d seen her here every morning and figured she
was the “Amie” of Amie’s
Place . She commanded the most authority
and was definitely the one in control. He’d also seen her at
Gracie’s once or twice and assumed they were friends.
    She stepped closer. “If you’re not in too
much hurry, why don’t you join us for breakfast?” She glanced back
to Gracie. Carson followed her gaze and Gracie finally gave him a
feeble smile and a little finger wave. She almost looked like she
was embarrassed.
    It was a small smile. Almost an insecure
little half-grin. And it intrigued the hell out of him.
    Turning back to Amie he said, “I should
really get down the street and to work.”
    But Amie was not about to take no for an
answer, it seemed. In one motion, she slipped her arm through his
and led him toward the back of the coffee shop. “Oh c’mon, just for
a few minutes,” she told him. “Have a seat and savor that honeybun
and coffee. Besides, I can’t give you free refills down the street
and if you stay, you can take one to go when you leave.”
    Well, she was