Read Sweet Tea at Sunrise for Free Online Page B

satisfy her curiosity soon.”
    “Give me a timetable,” he suggested. “What’s soon?”
    “About a nanosecond,” she said. “She’s on edge. She likes being the first to know things. You’re frustrating her.”
    He gestured around him. “Do you seriously think this looks like something disreputable?”
    “I don’t, but I’ve been fooled before.”
    “Really? You don’t seem to me like a woman who could be fooled very easily.”
    “How would you know?” She honestly wanted to know how he’d reached such a conclusion from a few very brief and mostly impersonal conversations. Even his outrageous flirting, she had concluded, was more from habit than anything to do with her.
    “I’m a good judge of character, especially when it comes to women,” he claimed. “For instance, I look at you and I see a woman who’s not afraid of hard work. I see a responsible mother. And when I listen to what you have to say in Wharton’s—”
    “When you eavesdrop,” she corrected.
    He didn’t seem embarrassed by the accusation. “When I pay attention,” he said, giving it another spin, “I hear a woman with intelligence and wit.”
    His words filled Sarah with a sense of wonder. How had he managed to hit on so many of the areas in which she doubted herself? To hear that he found her to be more than adequate was a revelation. In fact, if she’d trusted him from here to the corner, his comments might have been reassuring. In her experience, though, no man who talked this smoothly was up to anything good.
    Ignoring the satisfaction she took from his words, she said, “I’m just warning you, open up about your plans before Grace stirs up trouble. That’ll have way too many repercussions.”
    “Such as?”
    “People in town love Grace. They won’t appreciate it if you make her look like an idiot for making a fuss, only to discover that you’re planning something totally innocent. Your business, whatever it is, might never recover from that. People have long memories around here, and they look out for their own. Despite their respect for Tom, they’ll see you as an outsider. You’ll find yourself with a whole store full of widgets or whatever and no buyers.”
    He nodded, his expression sobering. “I’ll keep that in mind. As much of a kick as I’m getting out of all this wild speculation, I certainly don’t want to embarrass Grace.”
    “You almost sounded sincere just then,” she said, regarding him with surprise.
    “I am sincere. I like Grace. She’s one of the reasons I decided to stick around Serenity. Places like Wharton’s turn a town into a community.”
    Sarah was even more startled that he’d grasped that after such a short time. Maybe he’d fit in here, after all. She decided to try one last tactic to see if she could pry a little information out of him.
    “I could always fill her in on your plans, if you just want to tell me,” she offered casually. “I might even be able to swear her to secrecy for the time being.”
    Travis laughed. “Now, sugar, I’d put my faith in you when it comes to most things, but I’ve seen Grace in action. There’s not a secret on earth that would be safe with her.”
    Oddly enough, it didn’t sound like an insult the way he said it. It was almost as if he viewed her pride in spreading gossip as a good thing, even a necessary thing. That’s the way most folks in town looked at it, as a frequently exasperating but much loved grapevine that kept them all informed.
    “Which makes her a valuable resource, if you ask me,” Sarah said, defending Grace. “As much as it might annoy people to have their business turn into today’s hot topic, at least it keeps most things out in the open. There’s not a lot of secret backstabbing that goes on in Serenity.”
    “And how many small towns can make a claim like that?” Travis said, clearly amused by the boast.
    Sarah regarded him with a narrowed gaze, not quite sure whether to take him seriously or if he was