“We’ll have to stop meeting like this.” He hoped his words would make her smile, but her surprise turned into a frown. He looked over his shoulder at the recycling sitting in the back of the truck. “Do you need a hand?”
“I’ll be okay.” The woman stepped around him and stacked the flattened boxes with the others.
Before she left, he wiped his hand on his T-shirt and held it toward her. “I’m David. I still feel bad about knocking over your glass of wine.”
“You don’t need to. We’d almost finished dinner, anyway. I’m Andrea.”
When their fingers touched his heart gave a nervous jolt. He’d felt exactly the same when he’d bumped into her last week, and he didn’t know why. Sure, she was easily the most attractive woman he’d met, but he’d learned not to judge people by their appearance.
A pair of shy blue eyes and hair the color of honey wouldn’t normally make him feel so off-center. He was forty-one years old, focused on his career, and terrified of meeting anyone who could be more than a friend.
Two builders carrying sheets of drywall walked around them.
Andrea sent him an apologetic smile. “I’d better get back to work. Enjoy your run.”
He glanced at the second cottage, and then back at her. “Are you doing the remodeling?”
“I’m only getting the furniture and the fittings ready. The construction crew had already remodeled most of the cottage before I signed the lease. I’m opening a café.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks. There’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m getting there.” Her cell phone rang and she looked at the screen. “I need to answer this call. It was nice meeting you again.”
Before he could say the same, she walked away with the phone pressed to her ear.
At least, this time around, he’d introduced himself. It was better than leaving her with a wine-soaked sweater and soggy pizza. Hopefully, Peter or his fiancée, Katie, knew more about the mysterious café owner than he did.
Andrea listened to the kitchen supplier tell her the news she didn’t want to hear. After searching through every secondhand appliance store she could find, she’d called a business in Kalispell, hoping they might know where she could find the oven and refrigerators she desperately needed.
Even using their contacts, they couldn’t find any reconditioned appliances for the café. Apart from leasing them, her only other option was to talk to the bank to see if she could borrow more money. With a mortgage that already made her eyes water, it was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Cheer up. It can’t be that bad.”
She turned to her friend Paris. She’d rented the first cottage in the lane and opened a gorgeous flower shop. “You don’t know anyone who wants to sell a secondhand commercial oven and refrigerator, do you?”
“I wish I did. Are you still having trouble finding them?”
“Plenty of stores will sell me new appliances, but they’re too expensive and will take too long to get here.”
Paris handed her a takeout cup of coffee. “What will you do?”
“If I’m lucky, I might be able to lease what I need. Thanks for the hot drink.”
“You’re welcome. I thought you might need it after your early start. Are the boys still enjoying helping you?”
“They have their moments, especially Charlie. The novelty of having his mom own a café is wearing off.”
“He’ll recover once you start baking yummy food. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“If you have an extra thirty thousand dollars I could borrow, it would be great.”
Paris grimaced. “If I had that much money, I’d be sitting on a cruise ship in the middle of the Mediterranean. Is that how much the appliances will cost?”
“Combi ovens are expensive and the refrigerators aren’t much better. I’m worried I’ll never find what I need.”
“The café is too important to let a little thing like some appliances stop you. What you need is a plan.”
Andrea sighed. “I had a plan, but it’s fallen apart.”
