Page 19 of The Christmas Blueprint

Riley, dividing the three holiday coffees into three separate cups so that they could actually do a taste test, nearly poured some of the coffee on the table. Her eyes were wide as saucers, and she looked between Sophia and Killian like it was match point of a mental ping-pong game.

“Killian,” Riley said, her eyes lasered on him and her voice laced with warning.

“I can leash my own dog if I need to, Riles,” Sophia said.

The whipped cream plopped out into one of the cups of the mystery holiday coffee brew even though Riley had been trying to divvy it evenly.

“I’ll take this one,” Sophia said, swiping the one with all the whipped cream. She lifted the cup to her lips to hide her expression.

She felt on edge, and the tension in the room was cuttable if anyone had thought to bring a knife.

“How does it feel to be home, Killian?” Sophia didn’t mean the question to sound like a challenge.

“Weird,” he answered. “I just got called into Bane’s office, and he tried to put some power moves on me like he was the principal and I was the dumb jock on academic probation.”

“Like you’d know what that felt like.” Riley smiled. “But that does sound so like Bane.”

“He doesn’t make sense to me.”

“What? You’re just noticing this now?” Sophia asked.

“I just got this vibe that he’s not fired up about Zhang donating the building to the city. Plus, he had some plans on a computer, and he nearly broke my arm when I tried to look at them. Shouldn’t he, as mayor, be trying to promote business, not shut it down?”

“He’s Bane,” Riley said. “No-Brain Bane, which I did not just say.” She laughed. “You got whipped cream on your lip, Sophia. That’s what you get for being greedy.”

Sophia licked her lip, thinking about what Killian had said about the mayor. Killian walked around her store, scrutinizing everything, and she tried to not feel defensive.

“You really want in on the planning for the mill building?” Killian said. “There’s a lot of tedious back and forth, compromises, revisions, meetings.”

“Absolutely,” she said firmly. “I joined the planning commission. It’s not like anyone has designated me queen of anything, but a lot of success is showing up and having a can-do attitude.”

“I’m going to head over there and look around in the daylight,” Killian said. “It’s a lot to process. Glad I hit town early. Then I want to meet with the other planning commissioners.”

Sophia looked at her watch. Doable. She was Wonder Woman Merchant. She could even execute a pirouette and flash into her superpowers. “Not without me, you aren’t,” she announced and grabbed her coat along with one of the pumpkin spice lattes. “Lock up, Riley, please.”

Chapter Six

“To continue withour attempt to be team players, we should stop by Bear Creek Realty and the bank to see if Les Brandis and Bruce Wilcox want to join us sometime soon at the old mill site,” Killian suggested after they’d struck out at Chase Hill’s The Last Stampede barbecue restaurant. “I have a feeling that Les speaks for his brother.”

“He does. It’s a bit weird,” Sophia said pocketing her phone. “So, Chase is out this month. He says he’s too busy at his restaurant catering holiday parties the first few weeks of December, and then his family shuts down the restaurant for three weeks and takes a vacation, so he doesn’t want to hear about any city planning business until mid-January.”

Sophia sounded shocked that someone could ignore their civic responsibilities, and Killian wondered when he’d become so cynical.

“Chase says to knock ourselves out.” She huffed a breath.

Killian preferred to check out the site on his own in the hope he could harness the confusing emotions Sophia kicked up in him that warred with his rampaging childhood memories. He’d been right to avoid Bear Creek and Sophia until he felt more established and distant from Enrique’s passing. But he’d made a commitment, and he intended to see it through.

He’d seen the specs Zhang Shi’s foreman had emailed, but he wanted to get a feel for the site and do more research before he had the planning commissioners weighing in with their opinions. He didn’t want to come in from Seattle and act like he knew everything. That attitude wouldn’t fly in a small town. And he had a feeling Sophia would roast his toes before she’d let him get away with acting like a know-it-all. But he was on a tight timeline. He needed to be in a groove before the first of the year because that was when Hunter risked being called up for deployment.

Just the thought of acting as a substitute parent for a nine-year-old girl made his mouth dry and skin feel too small.

“I can drive,” Killian suggested, wanting the distraction.

“The town is walkable, Mr. Big-City Seattle,” Sophia ribbed. “It’s not like Bruce or Les are going to risk leaving their small but established domains unless it’s to play golf.”

“Men with sticks,” he muttered, not wanting to tell Sophia that his former boss in Seattle had suggested he take a series of golf lessons and start hitting the driving range regularly.

“You’d be surprised the number of deals that are still struck on a golf course even in a small town. Jeffrey Bane has his own locker at the Jacksonville clubhouse.”

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