Bluegrass Courtship. Allie Pleiter

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      “Well,” Drew said, shucking off his coat and tossing it on the couch behind him, “if you don’t mind my saying so, you looked a bit skeptical back there in the store.” He took another swig of water and pulled Annie’s file of lists over in front of him. “So you’re the Bishop in Bishop’s Hardware?”

      “That’d be me.”

      He cocked his head to one side and eyed her. He had brown hair, shot through with a smattering of very hip-looking blond streaks. He sported an expensive brand of athletic shoes, but they’d definitely seen a lot of wear. His jeans were one of those expensive brands, too, but they had rips in both knees and a streak of paint down one side. Still the kind of man better suited for some slick California café than a Kentucky diner. There was no arguing he had a face worthy of television—tawny complexion, strong jaw, killer dimples. The color of his eyes wasn’t that noteworthy—it was mostly the gigawatt intensity that made Janet look twice. “You don’t see too many female owners in the hardware business,” he offered. “Especially in small towns. How’d you get into it?”

      Janet was well aware of her uniqueness. Even though she’d been around the store for years, contractors all over the county gave her a hard time when she first took over, testing to see if she really knew her stuff. And she did. Janet knew the name of every type of screwdriver by the time she was three. She was mixing paint by the time she was ten, and could recommend the proper pipe fitting by the time she could drive. “Genetically,” she replied. “My dad owned the store.”

      “My dad was a plumber,” Drew said as he dug his hand into the box of cookies and pulled out two. Janet could see the memory overtake him, diffuse the light in his eyes. “He wouldn’t know what to make of what I do now.”

      “Was?” She just knew by the way he said it.

      “He died four years ago, just before we signed the deal for Missionnovation. Your dad like how you run the store?”

      “He’s been gone for a couple of years now. I like to think he’d be fine with how it’s going.”

      Drew raised an eyebrow. “You’re old enough to have been running a hardware store for five years? Don’t they have child labor laws in Kentucky?”

      Janet crossed her arms and tried to look every one of her twenty-eight years. “They teach you that in Hollywood charm school?”

      “Okay, so maybe we skip the charming small talk and you tell me what’s really on your mind. I like it better that way, anyway.”

      Janet decided to take him at his word. “Look, I’m glad the preschool’s getting an overhaul. We needed it, even before the oak tree went through the roof. And I know the school and church’ll get all kinds of bells and whistles that they’d never get any other way. And this,” she tapped the files between them on the table, “is a whole lot of business for me, that’s true. But all that doesn’t change the fact that Middleburg’s problem is about to become prime-time entertainment.”

      “Because you don’t trust us to get the job done right. You’re afraid we’ll manufacture drama. Exploit your hardship.” He pushed up the sleeves of his green Missionnovation sweatshirt.

      “As a matter of fact, yes.”

      “Well, Janet.” He leaned forward in his seat. “I’ll make you a deal. You won’t have to trust me. I’m giving you full access. Inspect any of the construction at any time of the day or night.” He stood up and went over to a little office built next to where all the electronics stood. “Here are the direct lines to our production staff and our accountants. Call anyone you like to confirm anything you hear from me.” He handed her a paper while he pulled open a cabinet revealing a safe. Opening it, he pulled out a fat checkbook.

      “I, however,” he sat back down again, “am going to trust you from this very moment.” He pointed to the file. “There’s a list of what we’ll need so far. That’s only the beginning, of course, but it should keep you busy while we set about finishing the job that oak tree started.” He pulled a check from the checkbook and wrote it out to Bishop Hardware, signed it, but left the amount blank. “And this here’s a blank check made out to your store. We want satisfied customers. This check is for you to make any repairs or modifications you find you need after we’re gone. If the plaster cracks, fix it. If the pipes leak, call a plumber. We’ll cover your costs for anything you need to fix that you think was our doing. I don’t want you to feel we’ve taken advantage of you or Middleburg in any way.”

      Janet stared at the check, filled—except for the “in the amount of” line—with Downing’s large, flamboyant handwriting. He’d signed his name so large it overshot the signature line on either side.

      “I was raised to be a man of my word. I believe in what I do. I’m the real deal, Janet Bishop, and I mean to prove it to you.” He extended his hand with something near fire in his eyes. “Will you let me?”

      Chapter Four

      “Can you believe it?”

      “Hi, Mom.”

      Barbara Bishop, “Bebe” to her close friends, rushed into the store. “I saw the bus out front even before Sandy Burnside called me at the library.” Janet’s mother read books for the preschool story hour every Wednesday. It didn’t take much imagination to picture Goodnight Moon coming to a screaming halt once word of Missionnovation’s arrival hit the streets. Bebe Bishop was a big fan, and part of the reason Janet ended up watching the spectacle every other Thursday when they had dinner together. Before she heard Howard own up to it, Janet half-suspected her own mother of sending in a tape. “Can you believe it?” Her mother’s breathless excitement bounced the words out in short spurts. “I mean, can you really believe it, Jannybean?”

      “With that huge bus parked right in front of the store, it’s a little hard to ignore.”

      “I heard he came right in here. Did you meet him? And anyone else? Did you meet Kevin Cooper?” Her small, lean frame was practically vibrating with excitement.

      Kevin Cooper was the landscaping expert of the Missionnovation team, and a personal favorite of Janet’s mother, who was close to her pruning shears and potting soil herself. The trellis of blooming flowers that graced Janet’s back deck this summer was copied directly from a Missionnovation episode. Janet had the misfortune to mention to her mother during said episode that she had “some spare lumber just like that lying around the shop.” Before she knew it, Janet’s back deck had its own Missionnovation-inspired garden trellis.

      “No.” Janet hadn’t yet seen any of the people she saw on TV except for Downing. Despite her “Shenanigan” title, Annie must be a producer or some such thing because Janet had never seen her on the show. “But Drew Downing was in here.”

      “I got to meet him,” her mother boasted as she unzipped the dark blue canvas Bishop Hardware windbreaker she always wore. It had been Janet’s dad’s and she had to cuff up the sleeves more than a few times in order to make it fit. “He seems just like he is on the show. A nice fellow. Bit high energy, but of course I knew to expect that. He invited me to the prayer meeting at the bus tonight.” She pulled a Missionnovation Daily Devotional booklet out of one of the jacket’s interior pockets. “They don’t ever show those on TV, but I read about them. And now we get to be part of it. It’s just amazing. Even you have to think this is amazing. After all we’ve been through trying to raise enough money to fix that preschool?”

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