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“Interesting,” Martha said, shooting me a sideway glance. “Seems like we’ve been getting a lot of Austin folk coming by this way. On your way to Houston?”
“Nope,” the man shook his head, every now and then stealing glances at me. “Our company has sent us here to renovate a new office space. We’re overseeing the work over the next few weeks.”
“Weeks?” Martha asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” the man nodded. “Didn’t I say? Oh, sorry, yeah, we’re booking the rooms until a few days after New Year’s Day.”
“That’s two months,” I said despite myself, and the man turned to look at me. He frowned a little, as if he were trying to place me, and that only made me feel worse about him.
“Yup, two months,” he said, turning back to Martha. “Is that a problem?”
Martha looked at me, as if asking me if my offer was still on the table. I shrugged. How much worse could they be?
“Nope, no problem,” Martha said. “Just let me get the paperwork ready.”
I didn’t know that Polly Wagner had sold her store, which was strange. Information like that would have travelled across Ludwig in less than an hour, but somehow, the sale had remained a secret.
I passed by the place on my way home, slowing down as I looked in the dark windows and padlocked door. Polly had run a pretty successful bakery out of there, until her husband had passed away and she had to pay back gambling debts she did not know he had. She had sold everything except for the store itself, probably in hopes that one day she’d be able to reopen.
Apparently, she had given up on that plan. I made a mental note to pass by her place to see how she was doing. It couldn’t be good if it meant selling the store.
But who the hell would buy it?
I frowned. Who in his right mind would buy and turn a store into office space? And exactly what kind of business was this? There was something off about all this, and I didn’t like it one bit. It was not normal for something as big as this to go unnoticed, or ignored for that matter.
Normally, the sale of a store would be the topic of gossip in town, but things were different here. I hadn’t heard anything about it at the diner, which was known to be Ludwig’s gossip center, and even Martha had seemed surprised when the man had explained why he and his friends were here. And when it came to Martha, she took pride in knowing everything that went on in town. This must have been killing her.
Let it go. You’ll find out soon enough. Taking one last look at the store, I shook my head in wonderment and drove away.
17
Ashlyn
I groaned when the knocking on the door woke me up.
I was under the covers, my phone on silent and my alarm turned off, having had fully intended to sleep in as much as possible. It was December 31st, and the fact that the New Year was rolling in just twenty-four hours away had made me feel even more depressed than the cold weather did.
Plus, I had spent Christmas alone for the first time in years. I had put up and decorated a beautiful tree, but that was the extent of my holiday cheer. I made myself a pitiful turkey TV dinner for Christmas dinner and cried myself to sleep.
I know. Pathetic.
Chuck and Martha had taken that vacation they had wanted to take, and for the past seven weeks, life had been pretty slow and mundane. The motel didn’t get any new guests, and the men responsible for the renovations at Polly’s old store had been almost as secretive and quiet as the writer, despite their leader’s initial creepiness and perverted glares at my ass when he thought I wasn’t looking.
They had checked out yesterday, and although they said their work was over, no one in town had any clue as to what exactly they were doing or who was the new owner of the renovated space on Main Street. It had been a little mystifying at first, slowly developing into annoyed curiosity, and then angry demands that the people of Ludwig had a right to know what was going on in their own town. Soon, though, that passed as well, and people began to ignore the store completely, which had sat perfectly well with the four strangers from Austin.
The writer had checked out as well, a week before the renovators, a wide smile on his face and a loud declaration that his work here was done, and he was ready to return to civilization. I would have found that insulting had I not been happy to see him go.
With all three rooms now vacant, I had decided to lock the motel up for a few days and just spend New Year’s in bed, sleeping through the festivities, waking up when the world was back to its normal routine and the only difference anyone could recognize was the need to get accustomed to remembering the right date.
I felt like a hibernating bear, completely content with staying in my room until winter was over. I had even brought a few books up to keep me company.
Which was why the knocking that had woken me up annoyed the fuck out of me.
I pulled a sweater on and made my way downstairs, the cold floor making me shiver as I skipped to the front door. I had half the mind to verbally assault whoever it was who thought it a good idea to wake me up, but froze when I opened the door.
“Good morning, Miss Carter.”
I blinked several times, instantly recognizing Chance’s driver, Miles, but oblivious as to why he was here.
