Selling Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

have to deal with the whole thing."
    "And that's what you do?"
    He nodded. "I manage most of the downtown commercial properties around here. All the storefronts and restaurant buildings and such. If someone wants to rent one of those places for their business, they come to me, and I find out what they can get for their money. On the other side, if someone owns one of those buildings but they want to be more hands-off and not have to deal with collecting rent and checking in on their tenants, they can hire me to manage the building for them."
    "So you fill both roles."
    "And sometimes, I have a building owner come to me with an empty building just after a business owner has stopped by and requested a space!" Carter grinned as he spread his hands wide, and then brought them together. "All I need to do is connect the two of them, take my commission, and sit back and relax."
    "So where does the art come in?" I asked.
    Carter paused for a moment as we sat down at the cafe and picked up the menus that the waitress had deposited on the table in front of us. "Well, leasing out these buildings often requires some staging; I need to make the building look attractive. If it's a communal building with a bunch of different offices in it, for example, there needs to be some nice artwork hanging in the lobby so that clients have something to look at while they wait. It's also harder to convince tenants to move into some place that's bare-bones, with zero decoration."
    I nodded. It made sense. My eyes traveled back to the menu, and I realized, as my stomach let out a little gurgle, that I actually felt quite hungry.
    But then again, with Carter sitting across from me, maybe I should order a salad or something small, just enough to tide me over so that I wouldn't look like a total glutton as I stuffed myself. Making matters worse, Carter looked up at me over the menu. "What looks good?"
    I shrugged. "I'm not sure yet," I lied, as my mind conjured up an image of a big hearty sandwich.
    "Well, get whatever you want. My treat," he said, which didn't make my anxiety lessen at all. Now I needed to make sure not to pick out something expensive, either, or else it would seem like I was taking advantage of his generosity!
    Eventually, arguing fiercely against my stomach, I picked out a salad with grilled chicken and some avocado. I conveyed my order to the waitress, trying to not sound grumpy. Meanwhile, Carter had no problem in ordering a nice big sandwich and fries for himself. I wondered if he'd mind if I stole a few of them off of his plate.
    "So, you own a house?" Carter asked after taking a sip of his water, and my spirits plummeted.
    "Uh, no, not exactly." How could I phrase this without adding in all sorts of ugly details about my past? "I used to, but I'm now in an apartment, actually not far from here." There. Hopefully that would change the topic without leading to more questions.
    But Carter didn't appear quite ready to let it go. "What changed?"
    "I got divorced," I said shortly, seeing no way around it.
    Great. There it was, out there on its own like a fat, pregnant frog. I waited for Carter's whole attitude to change, for him to regard me as used and potentially already damaged goods.
    Instead, he just nodded, as if he'd been half expecting this. "How long ago?"
    "Six months," I said, feeling a little less distraught at the calmness of his tone. "Still picking myself up, if you know what I mean."
    He nodded again. "It's hard. I haven't been through it myself, but I've helped friends with it. Why'd it happen?"
    "Because the bastard cheated on me." What was I doing? Why was I spilling out all my secrets to this man that I barely knew, a man that I was supposed to maintain a professional working relationship with?
    "And now?"
    "And now, I think I'm going to take a break from men," I said, thinking about the plan that my best friend and I had discussed and decided upon after the divorce papers were signed. "Try and get my own life back