Small-Town Hearts by Ruth Logan Herne

Author:Ruth Logan Herne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Danny Graham was really Daniel Graham Romesser, vice president in charge of Eastern Region marketing for Grandma Mary’s Candies, one of the biggest and best candy conglomerates in the country.

Meg was still trying to digest that information the next morning, half wishing she hadn’t looked him up on Google. But she had, and the idea that Grandma Mary’s intended to build a store in Allegany County bit deep. She already worked night and day all summer and fall to offset the weaker months of winter. What would she have to do to survive with a competitor minutes away?

Fear clenched her heart. She’d worked hard to gain ground, to become a money-making enterprise. With one swipe of a pen, Danny Graham might wipe that all out. Small businesses operated on a thin profit margin, a concept pretty boys like him might not understand.

But Meg got it because she lived it. By the time she met Hannah to plan the week’s fudge and cookie schedule in preparation for the onslaught of July festivals, she was ready to burst.

“You’re sure?” Hannah hiked a sympathetic brow in Megan’s direction as she set out fudge pans, checking off the list in her hands as she went. “You didn’t make a mistake? Pull up the wrong Danny Graham? It’s not an uncommon name.”

“Yes, it’s the right guy. I double-checked by going to Images, and there he was.” She didn’t add that the shots of Danny in his corporate suit and tie were to-die-for or that the one with a very pretty girl in a great designer dress made her rue her full-length calicos.

Nope. Obviously Danny’s other life encompassed a laundry list of things she wouldn’t, shouldn’t and couldn’t afford to care about.

“You need to talk to him. Straighten this out. And he did tell you why he was in town.”

Meg hauled the big mixer bowl to the corner and began tossing in ingredients for molasses cookies, an old-fashioned town favorite at festival time. “Right. Yesterday. After spying on my store for weeks.”

“Spying?”

Meg shrugged, counting scoops of flour. “He might have been spying. We don’t know.”

“If he was, I think he was checking out the girl, not the store.” Hannah offered her wise counsel while she inventoried ingredients stock for fudge production. “This is Grandma Mary’s we’re talking. They’re huge.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Meg grumped back. “And I can’t believe he didn’t tell me right off, let me know what he was here for. Of all the underhanded, low-down—”

“Mm-hmm.” Hannah kept her face pseudoserious as she stacked cooling racks on a bakery cart. “I’m minding my own business, but it’s pretty funny to see two eligible, intelligent adults tiptoe around each other like adversaries in a boxing ring when their only crime is running similar businesses.”

“It’s not funny, it’s exasperating. Frustrating. Annoying.”

“I get it. You sure you guys can’t entertain the option of a merger? Because it makes perfect sense to me.”

The thought of merging with Danny Graham had a special ring to it, providing all the more reason to shut the thought down.

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