Wind Chime Café (A Wind Chime Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t sure how many changes she could afford to make before opening, and after the bomb Will had dropped about his grandparents’ inn that morning, she feared it would be a lot less than she’d originally planned.
    Breaking down an empty cardboard box, she added it to the growing stack in the kitchen. The way she saw it, she had two options: continue opening her restaurant as planned and have faith that everything would work out in time, or agree to go out with Will and try to seduce him into selling the inn.
    But did she even know how to seduce a man anymore? She knew how to flirt, how to turn on the charm when she was waitressing to maximize her tips. But she hadn’t had much of a love life since Taylor was born.
    Apparently, she was so out of practice, she’d forgotten how to react when a man kissed her.
    She groaned and walked over to the sink, fishing a wet rag out of the suds. She still couldn’t believe she’d just sat there when Will had kissed her that morning. She went to work scrubbing the grease spots off the walls over the stove.
    The kiss had only lasted a second, but it was long enough to learn that his lips were the perfect combination of soft and firm, that when he was that close his skin smelled like the ocean and sunlight, and the rest of him…
    Good God.
    What would it have felt like to lean in and run her hands all over those hard muscles?
    At the knock on the door, she stepped back from the sink. Get a hold of yourself!
    The last thing she needed was to start fantasizing about the man who had the power to destroy all her hopes and dreams.
    She dropped the rag in the sink and walked out of the kitchen, pausing when she spotted the woman peering in the glass with both hands cupped around her eyes. The contractor hadn’t said anything about sending someone else in his place, but maybe he’d gotten hung up on another job.
    The woman straightened and waved.
    Annie crossed the dining room and opened the door.
    “Hi,” the woman said, holding out her hand. “I’m Grace Callahan. You must be Annie.”
    Annie nodded, taking in the woman’s wide gray eyes and long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. She was dressed in running clothes and looked to be about her age. “Did the contractor send you?”
    “The contractor?” Grace walked into the dining room, looking around at the bare walls and boxes stacked up on the floor. “No. I heard someone bought this place and I wanted to get a look at you before the gossip mill churned out its own muddled version later tonight.”
    “The gossip mill?”
    “You’ll get used to it.” Grace flashed her a smile and strolled over to the empty display case, running a hand over the dusty glass. “There aren’t any secrets on Heron Island. People here know everything about everybody.” She looked back at Annie. “We make it our business to know.”
    “I see,” Annie said warily. She realized people were naturally curious. She wanted Taylor to grow up in a town where neighbors dropped by unannounced, where people cared enough to ask questions. But she didn’t like the idea of them gossiping about her later tonight, when she wasn’t there to defend herself. And she especially didn’t like the idea of them gossiping about Taylor.
    Grace leaned against the counter, sizing her up from across the room. “I heard you moved here from D.C.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Did you work downtown? You look vaguely familiar.”
    “I used to work at a restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the Capitol.”
    “Which one?”
    “Citron Bleu.”
    Grace nodded. “That’s where I’ve seen you before.”
    “You’ve been there?” Annie asked, surprised.
    “I’ve been there tons of times.”
    Annie’s eyebrows shot up. Citron Bleu wasn’t the kind of restaurant you went to unless you were made of money or had serious connections to the top players in Washington politics. She hadn’t expected to meet someone on Heron Island who frequented her old