Tennessee Rescue. Carolyn McSparren

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СКАЧАТЬ of the store said. “And who’s this pretty lady?” The man who came to meet them wasn’t quite as tall as Seth but outweighed him by a factor of two or possibly three. Somewhere under the thick layers of fat could be glimpsed layers of muscle. He wore actual bib overalls that stuck out in front.

      “Hey, hon.” He engulfed her hand in a rough sunburned paw as gently as though he was holding a butterfly. “Seth giving you the grand tour of our fair city?”

      His grin was broad, gleaming, but with something of a mountain lion behind it. A man who could handle himself, Emma thought, and probably Seth, as well.

      “Shoot, you’re the biggest tourist attraction we got,” Seth said. “Emma French, meet the mayor of Williamston, Sonny Prather. Sonny, this is Emma French. She’s Miss Martha’s niece. She just moved in across the street from me.”

      “And you figured you’d introduce her to old Sonny. ’Cause you gonna need to buy out the store to get that place all fixed up after the last people. Friendly enough folks, but didn’t do much to take care of the place that I could see.”

      “I’m afraid I can’t afford to buy more than a tiny piece of all this,” Emma said and waved a hand at the shelves around her.

      “Sure you can. We gonna open an account for you like everybody else in the county. That way, you can send your contractor in to buy whatever you need.”

      “As for the contractor, you’re looking at him,” Seth said. “This morning, all we need is stuff to build an outdoor run. Emma here is thinking about bringing her dog up from Memphis to stay. He’s a city dog.”

      Emma gaped at Seth. She now knew that he could lie like a rug. Good information for the future. She had to admit, however, that he’d sounded plausible. And not a word about skunks either.

      “Lord, yes. Miss Emma, you got to have a kennel for a city dog around here ’less you want him running off after the coyotes or getting hisself snakebit.” He turned to Seth. “You know what you want, or you want me to work it out for you? Is it a large dog?” he asked Emma.

      “Uh...”

      Seth stepped in. “Large enough. Long as we’re building, might as well do a decent job of it.”

      “You got you a new dog yet, Seth?” Sonny asked over his shoulder as he walked off down the store and through a wide doorway at the back. “Know you miss Rambler. He was a good ol’ dog.”

      A fine epitaph, Emma thought. Interesting that Sonny knew the particulars about Seth’s dog. But then he probably knew the names of the dogs and horses owned by all his customers. Maybe sheep and goats, too. Certainly bulls. Possibly even cats, although she doubted it. Men tended to ignore felines, but from where she stood, she could see a pair of yellow tabbies curled up in a ray of sunshine beside the front door. No doubt if she mentioned them, Sonny would blush and tell her they were good ratters.

      “Barbara’s looking out for a rescue for me,” Seth said as he followed Sonny. Emma trailed along in their wake, feeling like a third wheel.

      The same thing had happened when she first started working for Nathan Savage. Once a prospective older client sat down at their conference table, turned to her and said, “Get coffee.”

      Not even a “please.” She didn’t hit him, but that was because Nathan intervened, explained that Emma was one of their top marketing executives and thus did not act as a waitress. The man never so much as looked at her throughout the meeting. But then he signed a contract for more money than anyone had expected. Guilt, probably. That worked. After she’d engineered the launch of his metal-roofing company with more media coverage than he’d expected for such a specialized top-of-the-line niche product, he became a friend. Who would work with him now that she no longer worked for Nathan?

      She glanced over at Seth and Sonny. They weren’t cutting her out. They’d simply forgotten she was there. She left them to it.

      By the time they’d worked out everything that would be needed for the so-called kennel, she had accumulated a wicker basket full of little cans of cat food, a bag of dry food and several small cat toys.

      Sonny said, “Thought it was a big dog.”

      “We’ve seen a couple of feral cats around,” Seth said. “If they have kittens, Emma may domesticate a few to keep down the mice.”

      Saved again. She looked at the length of the invoice Sonny held and groaned. She might have to borrow money from her father, after all, if she didn’t get a job soon. When she reached for her credit card, however, Sonny waved her away.

      “Don’t you know the old saying about farmers, hon? A farmer’s solvent one day a year.” He grinned up at Seth. “Tell her.”

      Seth shrugged. “From the afternoon of the day he sells his crop until the next morning when he buys his seed.”

      “The rest of the time, everybody keeps paying on their accounts,” Sonny said. “You gonna move up here, you got to do like everybody else.”

      “Don’t I have to fill out some paperwork? Give you a credit card?”

      “Shoot, I know where to find you if I need to. And Seth can track you down, can’t you?” He flashed that smile at Seth. “Not that you’ll be considered a native, except through Miss Martha. Have to live here a minimum of three generations for that. Now, since Seth has to go to work, and you don’t have a pickup, my boys’ll be up late this afternoon to deliver your stuff.”

      “But where?”

      “Sonny and I worked it out,” Seth told her.

      “Got the perfect place up under that big water oak. Plenty of shade, good drainage, close to the house. Sonny, you can put the tools and concrete bags on the front porch.”

      “Shouldn’t they be locked up?” Tools? Emma thought. Shades of enormous hammers and four-inch nails! And concrete? What were they building, the Brooklyn Bridge?

      “Nobody’ll bother ’em,” Sonny said. “Now, Seth, when you gonna bring your riding lawn mower and your four-wheeler down for a checkup? You already need to be mowing that little place you got.”

      Emma waved at them and started out of the store.

      “Hey, sweet thing, wait up!” Sonny said. “We’re right glad you moved in. Don’t you worry. Anything you need, we’ll fix you up.”

      “I’ll come by after work,” Seth said to her retreating back.

      She climbed into her SUV. It was nearly nine o’clock. She’d had one cup of coffee, and she was absolutely starving. Two hours to go before she had to feed the skunks. Must be someplace around here she could get some breakfast. Someplace where she could be a stranger and not the absolute most worthless out-of-her-element female in this universe. She considered she had a fairly good skill set. For the city. Out here she didn’t understand the language, much less the customs.

      It definitely was another universe. Oh, the endearments were the same as in town. She never minded being called “sugar” or “honey” or “sweet thing.” There was a wide gap between sexual harassment like the casual hand on her rear end—which she recognized instantly and took care of even faster—and the complimentary appellations from good ol’ boys СКАЧАТЬ