Summer In Stanton (Stanton Falls #3) by Kaci Hart Page A

go.”

 
    They ran around to the
lakeside where it seemed like a lot of people were already meeting up.
 After finding a spot on the ground, they sat and watched the fireworks
together.  Occasionally, he would catch her stealing glances in his
direction. The whole time his mind thought back to what she’d said minutes
before.  That there was something about the town and the people that made
her want to stay.  

 
    He knew it was silly and
that he’d only known her for a short amount of time, but that didn’t mean
anything right then.  As they sat there looking at the kaleidoscope of
colors decorating the sky, she lay her head on his shoulder and he found
himself hoping that he was one of the people that made her want to stay.

Chapter Seven

 
 
    Tessa looked at the
pictures on the wall as she made her way to Connor’s office in the back.
 Connor had told her some history on the old great house the day before.
 It turned out that his grandfather was very much into civil rights when
he bought the house, refusing to buy a place that had ever had slaves working
the land.  It took him a good amount of time to find the property but he
was highly satisfied with it and Tessa could see from the rich stories the
pictures told that the families that lived here in the past were interesting
ones.  

 
    She hadn’t really been
through this part of the house before since she had no reason to really visit
Connor.  He really had been avoiding her but in the past few days they
were warming up to one another.  She had hoped to catch him before lunch
today.  She wanted to make him a nice meal.  Something special to let
him know how much she appreciated his newfound hospitality to her.
 She knew it was dangerous ground but she found herself thinking that she
just might add a little more time on to her trip.  

 
    That was before common
sense and good logic kicked in.  As much as she really did enjoy it there,
Stanton Falls wasn’t her home.  New York was.  And no matter how much
she was starting to like it here with him, she wouldn’t be here much longer.
 She had been here a week already and only had one week of time on her
self-approved work hiatus.  Of course she could add more time to her trip,
and maybe she would, but at the end of the day, she couldn’t stay.  

 
    None of that meant that
she couldn’t enjoy the time she was having already.  She just had to make
sure she wasn’t getting too overly attached.  But then, Connor
wasn’t making that easy.  She was having a terribly hard time figuring out
what to do and when that happened, she remembered her mother always saying when
you can’t decide, eat.  Now she just had to know whether Connor wanted
meatloaf or a pot pie.  She was hoping pot pie.  She loved baking
with dough.  

 
    When she got to his
office, the door was slightly ajar.  She got ready to knock on it but
heard him talking on the phone, so she waited.  She hadn’t expected to
hear what she did though.  From the sound of the conversation, and the
frustration in his voice, she knew whatever he was talking about, it wasn’t
going the way he would like it to.  What she gathered from it was that he
might have to consider selling the place.  She couldn’t imagine what
scenario would ever cause him to do that.  

 
    As much as it seemed like
he loved the place, she couldn’t see why he would sell it.  She made her
way back to the front desk, careful to make sure that he didn’t hear her
creeping around his office.  She needed to find Libby.    

 
 
    ***

 
    “I had no idea things
were that bad.”

 
    “Yeah.  Remember
when I told you the chef left and all the other issues here?”

 
    “Uh huh.”

 
    “Well that wasn’t the
worst of it.  Last year things got so bad that he almost lost the place.
 He’d taken a loan out for repairs on the building but that was when things
started drying up round here the worst.  If this were a big