The Sisters Montclair by Cathy Holton

Author:Cathy Holton [Holton, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Fiction, Historical, Contemporary Women, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯), Family Life, Retail
ISBN: 9781938529009
Google: pnJ9LwEACAAJ
Amazon: 1938529006
Barnesnoble: 1938529006
Goodreads: 15714601
Publisher: Branwell Books
Published: 2011-12-31T18:30:00+00:00

He was waiting for her outside The Blue Bird Café. As she emerged from the alley behind the building where she had parked, he saw her and took off his hat, walking slowly toward her. It was a beautiful evening, warm and balmy. Above the roof of the Chattanooga Hotel the sky was a pale blue, tinged with pink clouds.

“Good evening, Miss Montclair.”

“Good evening, Mr. Burke.”

His manner was jovial, slightly teasing. He did not take her arm but walked beside her, matching his stride to hers. The café was crowded but she didn’t see anyone she knew, and she saw now why he had picked the place. They chose a small table in the corner near a window. The waitress came and brought them menus, smiling at Brendan, and Alice took her gloves off and laid them across the table.

“She seems to know you well,” she said, looking at the menu.

“I eat here a lot. My shop is just around the corner.”

She looked at him. “I thought your shop was in Brainerd.”

“I have one there, too.”

“So you have two service stations?”

“Three, actually.”

She looked down again at the menu, reading carefully. “Is there money to be made servicing automobiles?” she said rather casually, and then instantly regretted it. He would see her as one of those women who cared only for money. He probably already saw her that way.

“Automobiles will change everything about this country. Look at all the state highways being built. And there’s even talk of a national interstate system crossing the country at sometime in the future. People will move freely from place to place, they’ll no longer be tied to the small patch of land where they were born. Goods will be shipped from one end of the country to the other.”

“But isn’t that why we have trains?”

“Trains were the past. The automobile is the future. There’ll come a time when every family will own one.”

She glanced up at him, her light-colored eyes resting for a moment on his face. “You have a rosy view of the future considering we’re still recovering from one of the worst Depressions in history.”

He stared at her, his face darkly handsome, his expression bold but wary. “I’m an optimist,” he said.

She felt the comment was directed at her and, despite her reservations, she smiled.

“You have a lovely smile,” he said.

She read the menu and said nothing.

He leaned toward her, lowering his voice. “You really are quite pretty. But I suppose you hear that all the time.”

“I think I’ll have the catfish,” Alice said.

“I’ll bet you hear it all the time from pompous fools like Bill Whittington.”

She closed the menu and laid it on the table, sitting back in her chair with her hands crossed in her lap. “You don’t know Bill,” she said. “You shouldn’t pass judgment on people you don’t know.”

“I know he and his friends tried to have me blackballed from the Country Club. Luckily I know several of the membership committee and I was able to call in a few favors.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.