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She eyed the tall, well-dressed man, recalling that he’d once told her that his parents had never gotten a single pet for their family. It hadn’t made sense to her then, and it still didn’t make much sense to her. She had never understood how someone could be “not a pet person.” As far as she was concerned, most pets were wonderful, including Gus.
“I’ll be back in just a sec,” she told Noah, not bothering to comment on the obvious distrust between him and Gus. She headed into the cozy den, where her coat and purse were both propped on a reading chair.
Mindy shrugged her coat over her shoulders and draped the purse’s strap across her body, and by the time she stepped back out into the entryway, Noah had moved from the doorway to stare at the pictures on her wall. He was looking at a photo of Mindy and her parents—it had been taken on one of the few vacations she’d taken with her folks during her adult years, when they’d gone to Cape Cod to do a seafood tour. The picture brought back fond memories, despite the fact that her parents had only wanted to discuss Mindy’s career the entire time, as usual.
“How are your parents?” Noah asked absentmindedly, throwing a glance over his shoulder at her.
“They’re fine,” Mindy answered, and her tone came out a bit more clipped than she had intended.
She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge their past, not if she could help it. And yet, here Noah was, asking questions as if he wasn’t a complete stranger to her now. They hadn’t spoken in years, and she could only imagine all of the ways that he had changed.
“Want to get going?” she asked, nodding toward the door and not waiting for him to respond as she strode forward and pulled it open.
Mindy stepped out into the cold, waiting for Noah to join her before closing the door behind him and locking up. They began walking down the sidewalk, Noah’s movements a little bit delayed as he tried to read which direction she was going to go. An awkward silence descended between the two of them, and as they turned off the residential street a few minutes later and the downtown area came into view, Mindy had to shake herself internally with a reminder that her task was to make Noah come around on the charm of her small town. Surely she wouldn’t be able to convince him that his plan to build a massive industrial complex here was a terrible idea withouttalkingto him.
“So,” she began as they turned onto Main Street. “This is Snowy Pine Ridge.”
“I’d figured that much out for myself,” Noah half muttered, and Mindy glanced at him, not able to stop herself from rolling her eyes.
Her heart thudded heavily at the sight of the all-too-familiar smirk that pulled at his lips, the one that she’d used to kiss away every time he flashed it at her.
No, no. Absolutely not,she thought as she forcefully banished all memories of any kissing they’d done in the past from her mind.
“We’re coming into downtown,” she tried again, grateful that the cold nipping at her cheeks would disguise the blush creeping into them. “This is where a lot of the local businesses are located. I’m going to take you to a couple that are staples.”
“Will you be showing me yours?”
His question caught her off guard, and Mindy shot a look at him. She hadn’t said anything at all about being a business owner, and she began to wonder if he’d been keeping tabs on her all these years. Noah must have read the question in her eyes because he quickly explained.
“When Hugh called me yesterday to say that someone had volunteered to show me around, he mentioned that you run a business in town.” He shrugged one shoulder to finish his sentence.
“Oh,” Mindy said, still feeling a bit flustered despite his incredibly reasonable explanation. “No, that won’t be one of the places we’ll visit today.”
“What kind of business is it?” he asked, and when she didn’t immediately answer, she could hear the grin in his voice as he continued. “I bet it’s a bakery. Or some kind of artisanal café.”
She felt his eyes on her as they walked, and she didn’t look at him, wondering if her blush was now so blatant that it couldn’t even be disguised as the cold.
“Itisa bakery, isn’t it?”
Mindy caved and glanced at him, finding a smug smile lighting up his ridiculously handsome face. And once again, her heart gave a powerful, painful tug.
“It’s a bakery,” she admitted sheepishly, and he rewarded her with an even larger smile.
“I knew it. That apron you wore when you showed up at the town hall meeting yesterday was a dead giveaway.” He chuckled, but then his expression turned more serious as he added, “I knew you’d have your own bakery one day. You were always such an incredible baker.”
Not quite sure what to do with that compliment, Mindy just shrugged, then quickly changed the subject as she pointed to a large building up ahead.
“That’s the ice-skating rink,” she explained as they walked toward it. “It’s owned by a man named Rudolph Hutchins. Shelley Martinez, who moved here a few years ago, was once an Olympic figure skater, and she works with Rudolph at the rink. She offers classes there for kids, and plenty of people from surrounding towns travel to Snowy Pine Ridge just to be able to skate. There’s also an arcade in the building, and—”
She led Noah inside, then cut off abruptly, blinking in surprise. Chaos had erupted around them the moment they’d walked through the door, and the sounds of whirring machinery and men yelling back and forth filled the air. Mindy stopped in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at the scene before her.
The rink was completely bare, not a single speck of ice to be found. And in the distance, through the large open archway that led to the arcade, she could see that every single machine was dark.
“Hey, Mindy,” a voice called from her right, and she turned to see Shelley waving at her as the petite woman approached.
“What’s going on?” Mindy asked, her gaze darting from her friend to the disaster zone that had once been a beautiful ice rink.
“Oh, Rudolph needs to reseal everything. So we had to melt it down and whatnot. It’ll be back up and running before too long. Rudolph didn’t want to miss out on the holiday skaters and the business they bring, so it’ll definitely reopen before Christmas, don’t worry.”
