LITMIR.BIZ

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great news for you.”

      He leaned back in his chair. “I could use some of that.”

      “I just heard from Justine Ware that the Brazos Baker is opening a restaurant here in town.”

      “Who?”

      “The Brazos Baker, Lauren Shayne.” At what must be a confused look on his face, she continued, “She has a cooking show on TV. Mom watches it all the time. She has a magazine, too. Some cookbooks. And now she’s planning to open a barbecue restaurant in what used to be Otto’s.”

      No, anywhere but there.

      Part of him was excited to have such a high-profile prospective customer, but he’d had his eye on that building for a while. His imagination had seen it as a mercantile filled with Rocking Horse Ranch–branded products—prime steaks from their herd, Ben’s hand-tooled saddles and leatherwork, Angel’s photographs, his mom’s chocolate cake. He’d seen it all so clearly—except for the money to make it possible. The branded-beef operation was supposed to fund those big ideas, but he needed time for it to grow. Time he evidently no longer had.

      He had to stop investing so much time and energy in the cart before he could even afford the horse. But maybe, despite the disappointment, this opportunity would help him take a leap forward toward the eventual goal. A goal that would now have to reside somewhere else, though at the moment he couldn’t imagine where.

      Still, the prospect of supplying not only a restaurant of that size, but also one operated by someone famous felt like Christmas presents for the next decade dropped into his lap.

      Angel motioned for him to stand. “You need to go shower and put on clean clothes.”

      “Um, why?”

      “Because when I came through town just now, I saw vehicles at the restaurant. She’s probably there right now, just waiting to hear all about awesome locally grown beef.”

      A shot of adrenaline raced through him. When he started to gather the papers strewn across the table, Angel waved him away.

      “I’ll take care of this. Go on.” As he headed toward the bathroom, Angel called out, “Oh, and tell her Mom loves her show. Maybe that will win you brownie points.”

      Adam raced through his shower and getting dressed. Before hurtling out the door, however, he decided he should learn a little bit more about this famous cook before showing up to meet her unprepared. He couldn’t blow his only shot to make a positive first impression. He opened his laptop, which Angel had deposited in his room, and did a search for the Brazos Baker.

      A quick web search brought up her page. He wasn’t prepared for the beautiful, smiling face that greeted him. With that long, straight blond hair and those pretty blue eyes, she looked one part model and one part girl-next-door. He wasn’t a viewer of cooking shows, but he had to admit the deep-dish apple pie in her hands made his mouth water.

      He forced himself to navigate away from her photo and read about how she got her start—learning from her grandmother, entering 4-H baking competitions, publishing her first cookbook when she was only twenty. Lauren Shayne appeared to be a lot more than just a pretty face.

      Nowhere on her site was there any mention of plans for a restaurant, but perhaps that was under wraps. Well, it would be until the Blue Falls gossips got hold of the news, which they probably had ten seconds before she’d even rolled into town. The fact his sister had already found out and blown in like a storm to tell him was proof enough of that.

      Not wanting to delay contacting her any longer, he shut down his computer and headed out the door. As he drove toward town, he couldn’t keep his imagination from wondering what it would mean to have his family’s beef used by a celebrity. Would she mention it on her national television program? The possibilities began to supplant some of the disappointment over her choice of building.

      His mind skipped ahead to Rocking Horse Ranch beef appearing on the menus of fancy hotels and the catered events of the increasing number of actors and musicians calling the Austin area home. A flash of brown on the side of the road intruded on his daydream a moment before a deer jumped in front of his truck.

      He hit the brakes and tensed less than a breath before the unavoidable thunk and jolt as he hit the deer dead-center. His heart was still racing when the hiss of steam rose from his radiator. There were times when Adam thought his family’s motto should be One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. Why did that deer decide today was the day he couldn’t handle the pressures of life anymore and taken a flying leap in front of a pickup truck? A truck Adam had bought used and finally managed to pay off exactly one week ago, just in time for its tenth birthday. And as a bonus, it appeared his air bags were not operational.

      After turning on his hazard flashers, he stepped out onto the pavement to verify the deer that had gotten knocked into the ditch was indeed dead. One look was all the confirmation he needed. Same with the front grille of his truck. With a sigh, he pulled out his phone and dialed Greg Bozeman and his always-busy tow truck.

      Half an hour later, instead of introducing himself to Lauren Shayne and singing the praises of his family’s locally raised beef, he was at Greg’s garage, waiting for the man to tell him how much the tow and repairs were going to cost him.

      He considered buying a bag of chips from the wire rack to calm his growling stomach, but he figured that was a buck he should save.

      Greg stepped through the doorway between the repair bays and the small office of the garage, which had been in his family for as long as Adam could remember.

      “I think your family could keep me in business just replacing radiators and front grilles.”

      Adam knew Greg was referring to when Adam’s brother Ben had accidentally run into Mandy Richardson’s car the previous year thanks to a pigeon flying through his truck’s window and hitting him in the side of the head. He’d had to repair Mandy’s car, but it hadn’t turned out so badly in the end. Ben and Mandy were now happily married with an adorable little girl. Adam was pretty sure his encounter wasn’t going to turn out with that sort of happily-ever-after ending. The best he could hope for was the lowest possible repair bill Greg could manage.

      “Yeah, seems the area wildlife has it in for us.”

      “At least the deer didn’t hit you in the head.”

      After Greg gave Adam the estimated price and said he needed a couple of days to complete the repairs, he asked if Adam needed a ride anywhere.

      “No, thanks. Got a couple things to take care of in town.” He’d figure out how to get back to the ranch after that.

      Greg waved as he picked up his ringing phone.

      Adam started walking toward downtown Blue Falls, thankful the day was overcast so he wouldn’t be sweating buckets by the time he reached his destination. Now he needed Lauren Shayne’s business more than ever. He’d launched the branded-beef business with his family’s blessing, hoping to contribute his part to the diversification that would allow the Rocking Horse Ranch to stay solvent and in the family, something that had been touch-and-go on more than one occasion. But if he didn’t land some big accounts soon, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep seeing money going out without enough coming back in.

      Sure, the business was less than a year old, but there wasn’t a day that went by when he wasn’t conscious of the figures in the operation’s balance sheet. None of his siblings, or his parents, had said anything about his shuttering the operation, but he was also aware that his attempt to carve out a distinctive place for himself in the family’s business was costing more than Ben’s saddle-making or Angel’s photography supplies.

      By the time he reached the restaurant, he’d managed to adjust his attitude from his earlier annoyance to being the friendly, approachable local businessman he needed to be to meet a potential customer. A small blue hatchback sat alone outside the building. He grinned at the big yellow smiley face sticker on the hatch. It was surrounded by several other stickers—a few flowers, one that said I Brake

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