Smitten (14 page)
“Outside the box? I can’t think at all in here. All I want to do is grab some bleach and grease-cutter. Do you mind if we get on to the next building? I have an appointment.”
“Julia, forget the appointment. Work with me here. You’ve got all the elements built in.” He took her by the hand and walked around the expansive room. “Wood . . . water . . . fire would be easy enough to put in . . . metal . . .”
Devlin went on in his Eastern meditation trance, and she questioned his involvement for the first time. She could handle his flirtatious passes, but not actually meddling with the location or “feel” of the spa. Maybe she had been in New York too long. She certainly knew Devlin’s belief system to be different from hers, but for the first time, she questioned if she’d truly relied on faith for Smitten’s future rather than Devlin’s money. She slipped off a heel and emptied it of sawdust.
“Can we talk about this after we’ve seen the other building? I told Ms. Draper we were coming. She owns the fudge shop and keeps the key.”
She didn’t want to mention that the people of Smitten didn’t bow out of appointments. It simply wasn’t done.
Besides, she wanted to get out of there before—“Zak!”
She felt the blood drain from her face at the imposing sight of Zak Grant. He hadn’t changed at all, and she willed herself to lose the swirl in her stomach that made her feel like a prepubescent girl at a Justin Bieber concert.
Zak Grant, with his sleepy-eyed gaze and stretched, taut T-shirt. She searched for an excuse as to why she’d entered his antlered, medieval lair. He raked his hand through his thick, boyish curls, and she noted that being out of business had apparently left Zak plenty of time to build up his muscles. He was built like a Vermont maple: tall, filled out, and sturdy. She felt sawdust invade her shoe again and twitched her leg trying to get it out.
“Julia,” Dev’s smooth voice chastised. “You look like a dog being tickled on its belly.” He chuckled.
She glanced at Zak, who bit his bottom lip. “Do you own a broom, Zak?”
“I do. You looking for a job? I was just thinking I should hire someone.”
“You two know each other, I assume,” Devlin said, eyeing what he must have seen as competition. The truth was, any normal fifty-year-old man would know he was no match for the athletic perfection that was Zak Grant, but Devlin’s delusional view of himself trumped his reality.
“This is Smitten. Everyone knows each other,” she said. “I’m sure Zak has lots of work to do. We’d best get out of his way.” She grasped at Devlin’s elbow. “Zak, this is my former boss from New York, Devlin Stovich. Devlin, my brother’s best friend, Zak Grant.”
The two men shook hands.
“Julia’s going to open a spa here in town.” Devlin’s eyes narrowed.
“So I heard,” Zak said. He rubbed his three days’ worth of stubble. “What kind of treatment would you give me?” He bent toward her and rubbed his jaw. “Do I have sun damage?”
“Can we get out of here now?” she asked Devlin. “There’s no texture here. Wood on wood. Oh, and while you’re at it, add some wood.”
“That’s part of the beauty of it. You could so easily add the other elements. This pond, it’s positively picturesque.
Man-made?”
“God-made,” Zak clarified.
“I can see the brochures now. From across the pond, we see the massage tables on the deck in the distance. Can’t you see it, Julia?”
“No.” She crossed her arms in front of her.
“A few orchids in the background, some rock water features . . .”
“Sounds like you have big plans. That right, Julia?” Zak, with his barrel chest and dark, earthy green-brown eyes, stared at her with his meaty hand wrapped around some blueprints.
His muscles bulged out of his dark gray T-shirt, and she wondered if he had added to his wardrobe at all since high school.
She thought all those nasty things rather than remember his stinging rejection as one of the popular boys in school to her quiet, pensive geek. She used to spy on him when he’d play basketball in the backyard with her brother, but he’d never noticed her. Just like that woman in Nordstrom, she’d been invisible to Zak.
“Looks like you’ve plans of your own.” She nodded at the blueprints in his hand. “Sorry to have bothered you.” She hooked her arm into Devlin’s.
“Are you renting the place out?” Dev asked Zak.
“Only half of it. I’m using the other half for my office. I live upstairs.”
“Unemployed bodybuilders need an office?” Julia regretted her words immediately, but she couldn’t take them back.
Both Zak and Devlin gazed at her as if she were the devil himself.
“Still as charming as ever, huh, Julia?”
“What do you plan to rent the place for?” Dev asked him.
“More than she can afford.” His steely gaze rested on her in a silent challenge.
“I’m considering investing in her business,” Dev said, handing Zak a business card from a jacket pocket. “But only if she’s smart about it.”
“It’s more than either of you can afford.”
“I doubt that. I take it you two don’t care for one another,”
Devlin said. “But you seem to be a businessman, Mr. Grant, and I’d consider it a great favor if you’d reconsider Julia as a tenant. I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically believe in her abilities as an esthetician.”
“An esta what?”
“Julia, look here. These cabinets are already built in. I’m seeing earthy browns under soothing candlelight, cedar and sandalwood as signature scents. Or perhaps maple, if you want to go for that local flair. Muscle repair massages after skiing, with mountain arnica extracts and oregano . . . Surely even you can see the need for that, Mr. Grant.”
“Nope. Oregano goes on food, not me. If Julia wants to make me spaghetti sauce with it, we can talk.”
Zak’s refusal seemed to ignite Devlin’s competitive nature. “Mr. Grant, wouldn’t you like to see the women of
Smitten looking younger with antiaging facials after a day in the sun? It repairs the collagen with licorice extract.”
“What? Food
on
people instead of
in
people isn’t right for Smitten. We don’t go for all that froufrou stuff you city people like.”
“Detox? Surely a bodybuilder knows about detox. Julia could do the best detoxifying treatments there under the crackling fireplace.” He pointed toward the corner.
“There is no fireplace,” Julia said dryly.
“There will be. An exfoliation treatment with the local maple sugar scrub. Julia, Zak, this is a gold mine. What’s it going to take to get you two to see it?”
“A miracle,” they said in unison.
“I need to get back to work.” Zak tapped his blueprints against the wall. “Let yourselves out when you’re done.”
Julia watched him stride to the back room, untouchable as ever.
Z
ak’s fists tightened and the blueprints crumpled in his right hand. He dropped them on a nearby table
. Devlin
. What the heck kind of name was that? His name was probably really Irwin or Gilbert.
Julia had returned to Smitten months ago. Zak promised her brother, Greg, he’d check on her, but he’d avoided her. Julia wanted a bigger, better life than he could ever provide, so why tempt himself? She was sophisticated and elegant, and seemed to want a different world than what Smitten could provide. She probably never would have come home if her mother hadn’t broken her ankle and needed her help. He didn’t want to watch her leave again.
He heard the door slam out front and made his way into the main section of the restaurant. He could still smell her perfume lingering in the air. He had to go after her. The deck door latched behind him, and he turned to see her standing on the deck overlooking the pond, deep in thought.
Tension tightened at the base of his neck as he pushed the door open and followed her out onto the deck. The sun sparkled in reflection off the pond, and she brushed off an Adirondack chair and sat, never noticing him.
“Julia?”
She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears.
“Where’s Devlin?”
“He left.”
“How?”
“He took my car. I’ll get Natalie to drive me to the airport later and pick it up.” She sniffled, and his fists tightened again at the idea of that city slicker making his Julia cry.
“I’ll take you to the airport.”
“I thought he was the answer. My dad offered me the money if I stayed in Smitten, but he doesn’t have that kind of money. It’s nothing to Devlin, so I thought—”
“It’s more money to his kind than you realize. Besides, think of the pressure with that tool in your business. It’s hard enough to make a go of it here in Smitten. You don’t want that guy telling you what works in New York City. You know this town. You know how things work. When are you going to trust yourself?”
She laughed through her tears. “Thank you, Zak. My faith is wilting. I need to have a job if I’m going to stay here and take care of my mother. What else do I know how to do?
Maybe I should go back to school and become an accountant.”
He looked down. “You can do anything you want to do, except for maybe shoot a basket.” He winked at her. “And if you want to set up here, I am going to be renting out half the building. You’re welcome to it. Maybe that turkey is right about something. It is a beautiful setting here.”
“I don’t need charity, Zak. I pictured the spa closer to town. Nearer to the main businesses. Devlin said if I wasn’t going to take his advice, there was no sense in his wasting his time on me. Then he just left. He took my car while I stood idly by. That’s not me.”
“The location isn’t that far from town. Certainly within walking distance, and the horse-drawn carriage could bring people from the bed-and-breakfast here. You wouldn’t be alone out here if you worked nights, if that’s what you’re worried about. The restaurant will open again soon after the upgrades.”
“You’re upgrading?”
She looked up into his eyes, and he knew he would remember that innocent, hopeful look for the rest of his days. It melted his heart.
“The town’s getting older, and people want chairs, not stumps to sit on.”
She grinned. “And the sawdust?”
“So 1990.”
“You mean 1890.”
“I’m a fourth-generation logger, Julia. I didn’t know anything about opening up a restaurant. I just saw a need and I filled it.”
She stared off toward the pond. “I like it out here. It’s so calming.” She lay back in the Adirondack chair and let the sun soak into her perfect, clear skin. Her complexion was her own best advertisement.
“You look like you belong here. The queen of all you survey.” A trout leapt from the water and created a ripple over the previously glassy-calm pond. “See, even the fish agree.”
She stood abruptly and brushed off her backside. “I’d better go. I’m back at square one now.”
“What’s that you’re carrying?”
“It’s a wreath Mia made for me. Like the ones in town, it’s supposed to be a wreath of faith for Smitten’s future. I think I should just give it back to her.”
“Why won’t you take me seriously? You think I’d offer half my building to just anyone?” He missed the lighthearted Julia who smiled constantly and giggled girlishly like she always had a secret. She’d changed since coming home. “The Julia I used to know wasn’t afraid of anything. I know she’s in there somewhere.”
“Don’t worry, Zak.” She rested her hand on his. “I’ll tell Greg you did your part and offered me the help.”
“It isn’t that,” he protested. “I don’t understand why you’re waiting for some guy to tell you what you already know.
You can make the spa work here. You can do whatever you set your mind to. What do you need that guy’s permission for?”
His jaw clenched at the thought.
“Devlin threw an adult tantrum and said if I didn’t see the spa here in this building, there was no hope for me. If Devlin doesn’t think it will work here, how can I gamble my father’s money?”
“Your father believes in you. Devlin’s a toad. Why do you care what he thinks?”
She rose. “I’d better let you get back to work. I need to go ask Natalie for a ride to the airport.”
“You said yourself that I had nothing to do. Sit down, Julia.”
To his surprise, she sat back down, and he sat in the adjoining chair, turning it to face her and watch as the sun highlighted the coppery strands in her dark hair.
She leaned forward and rested her elbow on her crossed legs. “I need to find the right place. Smitten needs more romance if we’re to attract tourists after Sawyer’s wedding.
This building is dripping masculinity, so I appreciate the offer, Zak, I really do, but—”
“That was the idea. A place for a man to get decent grub and get back to the mill before he was missed. Not much need for prettying it up back in the day.” He leaned back in the chair and kicked out his legs. “But times are changing. I don’t need so much space now, and you said yourself this place could use a woman’s touch. So be an accountant and do the math. It all adds up.”