Logan’s gaze drifted over her face and shirt. “You look nice.”
“Thank you.” His expression revealed an assumption that she’d dressed up for their brief date. But he was wrong. Knowing Gray would be at the bookstore had her all messed up. It was a normal inclination, wasn’t it?Since her ex-boyfriend had arrived in town he’d only seen her at her worst.
“So do you,” she added belatedly, then tore off a piece of the flaky croissant and tried to enjoy the rich, buttery flavor. They made small talk while they ate and sipped coffee, the conversation mostly revolving around Gram’s funeral and plans for Thanksgiving. It was only mid-October, but the holidays would be here before they knew it.
When she finished her pastry, she wiped her hands and dropped her napkin on her plate. “What’s on your agenda today?”
“A few meetings, one of which is with Leo...”
“About the promotion?”
“I think so, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up.”
“You deserve it. You work so hard.” Logan came from a prominent family. He was smart and dedicated to his job, but she suspected he was sometimes overlooked. He was an introvert and didn’t socialize much with his coworkers—something she’d begun encouraging him to do. “I’ll say a little prayer for you.”
“Thank you. You’re always so encouraging.”
He wouldn’t like what she had to say next. She should’ve told him last night during their brief phone call, but she’d still been overwrought about the whole thing. “So I didn’t really go into details about the will reading yesterday, but there’s something I need to tell you.”
He set down his mug, giving her his full attention. “What is it?”
Logan knew her history with Gray—the entire town did. Over the course of her relationship with Logan, she hadn’t divulged much beyond the basics. “Everything went pretty much as we expected with the bequeathments except one thing—the ownership of the bookshop. It seems Gram left me only 51 percent of the business.”
His brows furrowed. “Did she leave your brother the rest? He doesn’t even live here.”
“No, she didn’t leave it to Caleb.” The reality of the situation hither fresh. Gray was going to be all up in her business—literally—every day for the next two weeks. She cleared her throat. “She left it to Gray.”
His head jerked back. He searched her eyes for a long moment and didn’t seem to find what he was looking for. “Grayson Briggs? But why? That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. I’m still processing it. Gram had kept in contact with him over the years. You know she and Dorothy were lifelong friends.”
“I knew that. I just didn’t realize your gram still communicated with him.”
“I think she felt she owed it to Dorothy to look out for him.”
Logan grunted. “There’s looking out for him, and then there’s giving him half her bookshop.”
“I think she may have done that with my best interest at heart. I think she wanted me to have closure.” Guilt tweaked at the partial truth. She suspected Gram had hoped for far more than closure. But there was no reason to worry Logan when those hopes would never come to fruition. “I know we were young back then, but his leaving left a mark, and I made no secret of how I felt about the whole thing.”
“You have good reason. He was callous. No one blames you for having ill will toward Gray. I guess that explains why he’s still in town. People at the bank were talking about it yesterday. Is the will contestable?”
“Not according to Mr. Greenwood.”
“So what then? Will you have to buy him out?”
“I don’t have that kind of money. And it won’t come to that anyway. We made a deal yesterday. He offered to stay and take Gram’s place for a couple weeks. Then he’ll sign his 49 percent over to me.” With that legal document she’d be formally undoing her grandma’s final wishes. Maybe Gram had been meddling, but another prick of guilt stabbed her hard just the same.
“Do you really trust Gray with the finances of your business? What if he embezzles money from the shop?”
“He currently owns half of it. Wouldn’t that just be stealing from himself?”
“You can’t trust him, Shelby.”
She didn’t trust him with her heart. But according to Gram he’d completed a bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in accounting from the University of North Carolina. He was filling a couple of roles for some construction company and apparently doing quite well.
“I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Logan frowned. “I don’t like it.”
