Page 47 of This Heart
He waved his hand in front of him. “No offense to her or your best friend.”
I leaned back in my chair and gave the guy a good look. He was a bit shorter than me, with light brown hair and eyes that reminded me of a mouse I once had when I was a kid. They were dark and beady-looking. He wasn’t bad looking, but then I didn’t go around judging how men looked. “Did you come here for me to introduce you to women or to talk business?”
Rich cleared his throat. “Of course, I’m sorry.”
He launched into his pitch about the upscale steakhouse restaurant he wanted to build on a lot he had purchased the previous year.
“You realize it would mostly be tourists who would come to the restaurant. I highly doubt any of the locals would be interested in a five-star steak restaurant.”
His brows rose. “You’d be surprised. People like to have a fancy place to go to for special occasions and such. From what I can tell, The Muddled Moose is the closest thing to that. You’re a restaurant, but you’re also a bar.”
“You wouldn’t have a bar?” I asked.
He laughed. “Of course I would. But it would be in a more elegant location inside the restaurant.”
It was my turn to raise my brows back at him. He held up his hands. “Not knocking this place at all, from the few times I’ve been here, you are pulling in the crowds.”
“I don’t do bad. The last few months I’ve been absent, though.”
“Really?” he asked, leaning forward. “Been traveling? Are you looking to sell your place?”
I blinked a few times at him and ignored the instinct to say yes, I was interested in selling. I could spend more time with Winnie if I didn’t have The Muddled Moose to run.
“I am not interested in selling. My wife died this past February. I have a young daughter I was staying home with.”
His face fell and that fucking look of pity washed over his face. “I’m so sorry, Liam. I had no idea. Forgive me.”
I shook my head and waved him off. “You couldn’t have known. It’s fine. Each day it…well…it gets better. For lack of a better word.”
Rich exhaled. “I lost my mother not that long ago. I felt lost for several months. I still do at times, if I’m being honest. They say losing a parent is one of the worst things, but I cannot even imagine what losing your spouse is like.”
“It sucks,” I answered with a half-smile. “Back to business. You’re looking for a partner. A silent one or someone more involved, because I can tell you right now, I’ve got my hands full with The Muddled Moose.”
“You can be as involved as you’d like. I don’t need money from someone else to open the restaurant, but I’d like to have someone local involved, and if you put your money into it, you’d be more likely to be involved. I’ll hire out someone to manage the restaurant, take care of the day-to-day things, but it would be nice to have you make an appearance once a week.”
“And where will you be?”
He grinned. “Italy? France? Who knows. I like to travel, Liam. Opening another restaurant isn’t going to stop me from doing that.”
Rich Mitchell would have been the ideal man for Hope to have married. Then again, he probably would have been the type to cheat on her.
“So what you’re saying is you’ll want me to make sure everything is running smoothly while you’re having a grand time touring the world.”
Rich shrugged. “I need someone local who knows what it means to own a place. You’re successful, as we can see by the packed house out there.”
“I also have a two-year-old daughter for which I’m solely taking care of.”
That surprised Rich. “Who is watching her now?”
“The nanny.”
“The nanny?” he asked. “Then what’s the problem? Sounds like you have someone who will watch her.”
I let out a breath. “Listen, Rich, I appreciate you thinking of me for this opportunity, but I think I’m going to have to pass. My dream has been The Muddled Moose, and to be honest, right now, where I am in my life, I’m barely hanging on by a thread. I don’t think I want to take on anything else.”
He looked disappointed. “I’m sorry to hear that, Liam, but I understand where you’re coming from. Are there any other business owners in town who you think might want to get in on this project of mine?”
I leaned forward and placed my elbows on my desk. “Rich, have you taken this to the city yet to see if it will even pass? Moose Village isn’t like Lake Placid; they prefer to stay small. A hidden secret, if you will. They allowed an Italian restaurant up on the lake, and it took several months for the owner to convince the town to give him the permit, and he isfromMoose Village.”
