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consider a good idea? Yankee thrift was well and good, but the town needed an infusion of cash from somewhere, and this seemed like a relatively benign solution. Meg was startled to hear her cell phone ringing in the depths of her purse. She pulled it out: Frances. “Excuse me, but this may be relevant.” She stood up and walked over to the window overlooking the green, where the Stebbins house was bathed in evening light. “Frances?” she answered.
    “They did it! Offer made and accepted—assuming you get the folks at Town Hall on board. First real sale this year!” the real estate agent crowed.
    “That’s great, Frances. I’m at Town Hall now, so I’ll pass on the news. Thanks for letting me know.”
    “And there’s more! I got the owners’ permission to let them go ahead and move in as soon as tomorrow while the paperwork clears, but they’ve already done the credit check and all that, so there shouldn’t be any problems. I owe you a bottle of champagne, lady!”
    “I’ll take you up on that! See you.”
    Meg turned back to the others. “The buyers have made an offer, and the sellers have accepted it. Granford will have a restaurant—if we can make it happen.”
    Seth grinned at her, Tom applauded, and Mrs. Goldthwaite sat silent, her eyes empty.

4

    Nicole Czarnecki knocked on Meg’s front door the next morning, holding a covered plate of something that smelled of cinnamon. Her dark curls were barely restrained by a colorful kerchief that had several floury fingerprints on it.
    Meg’s mouth started watering immediately. “Nicole, if you’re looking to bribe your way into my house, you’ve come prepared. Come on in.”
    “Nicky, please! I don’t mean to bother you so early, but I really wanted to thank you for finding the house for us, so I brought you some scones. We’re so excited! I can’t wait to get started.”
    “Can you stay to eat some with me? I’d love to hear how things are going. Where did you even find a place to cook them? I thought the old kitchen was a mess.” Meg left the door open to catch the morning breeze and led the way back to the kitchen.
    “Heck, a good cook can produce a meal with a campfire and one pan. This was almost luxurious.”
    Bree was seated at the kitchen table, leafing through the paper, and looked up when Meg and Nicole came in. “Hello.”
    “Bree, this is Nicole Czarnecki. She and her husband just bought that house at the top of the green and want to open a restaurant. Nicole, this is Briona Stewart, my orchard manager.”
    Nicole smiled widely. “Can I call you Bree? And I’m Nicky. My husband’s Brian. You want a scone?” She slid the plate onto the table and removed the wrapping.
    “Sure, Bree’s fine. Those look great.” Bree helped herself.
    Meg poured coffee all around, and then joined the others at the table. “So, Nicky, you’ve really moved fast. You’ve settled in the place already?”
    “Well, we kind of fell in love with it, you know? It was funny—we had to try real hard not to look too excited when Frances showed it to us, because we thought maybe she’d hike up the price.”
    Meg had a ballpark idea of what the house had sold for, and wondered just how big Daddy’s wedding check had been. “I’m sure Frances has been fair to you. I always heard that starting a restaurant was expensive. You’ve got to remodel the building, buy equipment and all the stuff for the front, supplies—and you’ve got to have some cushion for your start-up period, until you’re established. Are you ready for all that?”
    Nicky laughed. “You sound like Brian. He’s the numbers guy, and he says he’s looked at all of that. You know—lots of spreadsheets and estimates. I know we’ve got to be careful, but I’m so looking forward to this! I’ve been cooking since I was a kid, just messing around with recipes. I’ve got lots of ideas! And I’m really thrilled to be in a place that’s a lot closer to the food. I grew up in New York,