Free Starting Over (Nugget Romance 4) by Stacy Finz Page A

pulled off.
    She looked taken aback. “Uh . . . could we do it tomorrow?”
    “Why not tonight?” Maybe she had a date. Not his business.
    “I have to meet with my lawyer.”
    Again, not his business, but the words left his mouth before he could stop them. “Your lawyer? What do you need a lawyer for?”
    “I’m suing my father. See you tomorrow.”

Chapter 5
    “C an you break away for about an hour after breakfast?” Emily asked, putting the last touches on the best eggs Florentine Sam had ever eaten. It was only her first week on the job, but Emily seemed like she’d been working here forever. “Get those out while they’re still hot, okay?”
    Sam scooped them onto individual plates and carried them out to the Dolbys from room 210. The couple, school teachers, were visiting from Seattle.
    “Thanks, Sam,” Mrs. Dolby said. “Everything is delicious.”
    “Just let me know if there’s anything else I can get you,” Sam said, and dashed back into the kitchen. “Where are we going?”
    “To get wedding boots.” Emily said it while her head was in the oven, so Sam thought she might’ve heard wrong.
    “Wedding boots?”
    “Yep.” Emily straightened. “They’re a surprise for Clay.”
    “That’s nice. You know his size?”
    “They’re for me. To wear with my wedding gown. Clay has a thing for me in cowboy boots.”
    Sam giggled. “Seriously?”
    “What do you want? He’s a cowboy.” And Emily giggled too. “There is a woman across town who custom designs them, and she said if I come in today she can have them done in time.”
    “So you want me to come with you?”
    “I want to make sure the style works with my dress. And you’re my bridal consultant.”
    “Yes, I am,” Sam said with pride.
    “Donna’s coming too. Maddy had to take Emma to a doctor’s appointment.”
    “Is everything all right?”
    “Everything is fine,” Emily said. “Just a routine checkup.”
    Sam served the stragglers, cleared the tables, and loaded the dishwasher. Until she’d worked at the Lumber Baron, she hadn’t done too many domestic chores, but now she did a little bit of everything. Emily had already wiped down the stainless-steel countertops. The kitchen in the inn was as efficient as it was beautiful. Sam especially loved the copper pots and pans that hung over the center island.
    “You ready to go?”
    “Yep, let me call Donna and tell her to meet us there,” Emily said.
    On their way out, Sam left a sticky note on Nate’s door, letting him know she’d stepped out for a while. He’d been deep in the weeds all morning and she didn’t want to disturb him—or disrupt what seemed to be a silent truce between them.
    Emily drove them in her van to a part of Nugget Sam had never seen before. It looked pretty shabby, with small, crowded homes, broken-down porches, and dirt yards. The streets didn’t even have sidewalks.
    They pulled up in front of one of the nicer homes. A tiny Craftsman with a fresh coat of paint and a wreath of dried flowers on the door.
    Emily stuck her head out of her window and read the address on the mailbox. “This is it,” she said.
    “Should we wait for Donna?”
    “Nah. Let’s go in.”
    Sam grabbed her purse and followed Emily onto the front porch. Before they even knocked, a young girl about nine or ten answered the door.
    “Hi, is your mother home? I’m here to get boots made.”
    The girl didn’t say a word, just disappeared inside the house. Emily and Sam looked at each other like What do we do now? But a few minutes later a woman appeared.
    “Hi, I’m Tawny.”
    “Emily Mathews. I called about boots.”
    “Yeah, come on in.” Tawny opened the screen door for them.
    Like the outside, the inside was tidy but extremely modest, with only a worn couch and a set of mismatched recliners in the living room. Tawny led them through the closet-sized kitchen, out the back door to a stand-alone workroom. The space, probably an old garage, housed bolts of every kind