Famous in a Small Town by Kristina Knight

Author:Kristina Knight
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

HE’D BEEN A DICK.

Collin threw a red-tipped dart at the board, but it hit the wall to the side and he watched as it clattered to the floor.

A dick who couldn’t throw darts.

“That leaves me and Levi,” Adam said, gathering the darts littering the corner at the Slope. It was their usual Wednesday night, and it should be as familiar as going to the barn every morning before heading out to the orchard, but Collin couldn’t relax.

He didn’t want to follow Adam’s inane conversation or to try to figure out why Levi was barely talking at all. James had picked up an extra shift at the sheriff’s office, so it was only the three of them.

“I’ll get the next round,” Collin offered and headed to the bar. Merle wiped down the wide strip of mahogany. “Three longnecks,” Collin said.

The bar was mostly empty tonight, but he couldn’t stop picturing Savannah sitting at the bar in her tight sequined party dress from the other night. He wondered where she was tonight. Not that it mattered.

He kept making an idiot of himself when she was around, and he couldn’t figure it out. She wasn’t wrong. She’d basically echoed what he’d been telling himself—the deal would benefit the orchard and his wallet significantly.

So why did he keep coming up with reasons not to take it? As adamant as Granddad had been about how to run the orchard, he’d always supported Collin’s plans to make it bigger and better. Hell, he’d put the idea of contracting with a bigger grocer in Collin’s head after reading about the farmers along the gulf coast who’d contracted with the big cruise lines for fruit and produce.

Merle put the three cold bottles on the counter. “You boys are my best customers tonight. Summer tourists haven’t picked up yet.”

“After Memorial Day you’ll wish we were your best customers,” Collin joked.

Merle pretended to hate the increased traffic through town during the summer months. He pooh-poohed the boaters who came in, complained about the increased wait times at the restaurants and grumbled about mixing the fancy drinks a lot of tourists wanted. Merle was a beer, whiskey and tequila kind of man. But, like the rest of the town, he knew the tourism industry was what kept a lot of the local businesses going.

Slippery Rock Lake was one of many man-made lakes in Missouri, created by damming the Slippery Rock River, in part to ease flooding and in part to provide water for the growing city of Joplin. Merle and many of the older business owners had agreed to the creation of the lake, but insisted on a nondevelopment clause, similar to Stockton Lake in another part of the state, so that the area wouldn’t be too overrun with tourists during the summer months.

“You catch that bit in the paper about the fishing tournament?”

“What tournament?”

“Bass Nationals. They’re looking for a spot for one of their big tournaments next summer. Apparently our lake made the short list, something about the mayor meeting up with one of the sponsors at that city planning expo in Little Rock in the fall.

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