Paradise Peak (New Americana 5)

“I’ll give you fair warning,” Hannah said, motioning toward the bright pink and yellow facade of the little store. The small shopping strip housed three other stores with sedate brown and green trim, and Gloria’s shop looked as out of place as a clown behind a preacher’s pulpit. “Gloria is the nicest person you’ll ever meet, but she’s also the nosiest. The best way of handling her is to follow wherever she leads, nod while she rambles, and answer her questions with only one word.”

Although, if Travis had the same effect on Gloria that he had on her, one word would be enough to goad her into asking a million more questions just to hear his sexy rumble.

“Okay.”

Case in point, Hannah thought as her belly fluttered. One word from this man was enough to turn a woman’s head.

She stopped with her hand on the door of Glory Be’s entrance and looked up at him. “Just . . . try not to encourage her, okay?”

He frowned but nodded.

Hannah opened the door and they entered, the bell over the door chiming their arrival.

Gloria Ulman, sitting behind a wide desk in front of the entrance, called out, “Welcome to Glor—” Her mouth dropped open and her white eyebrows shot up as she caught sight of them. “Well, Glory be! Look who it is.”

She sprang out of her chair and hustled around the counter, her white bun bouncing on top of her head with each of her cheery steps. “Hannah Newsome, I haven’t laid eyes on you in forever. Get over here in this old woman’s arms.”

In the next instant, Hannah was wrapped up in a perfume-laden hug so tight she could barely catch her breath. Wincing, she glanced at Travis, who silently watched the breath being squished out of her, his lips twitching.

“Just last week, I saw Red and told him he’d better tell you to get in here and say hi to me. Vernon,” she shouted, her voice ringing in Hannah’s ears. “Vernon, you’ll never guess who’s here! Come say hello!” Gloria squeezed her once more for good measure, then released her and stepped back, frowning over her shoulder. “Oh, gracious. I must not have shouted loud enough. My Vernon’s got to where he can’t hear much of anything anymore.”

Imagine that. Hannah rubbed her ears—still ringing from Gloria’s shouts—and her pity for Gloria’s husband, Vernon, increased a tad.

Gloria’s eyes lit up as they focused on Travis. “And who do we have here?” She cocked her head to the side, excitement shining in her expression as she glanced at Hannah. “A new beau?”

“Oh, no.” Hannah shook her head. Good grief, the last thing she needed was for her and Travis’s names to be circulated as Paradise Peak gossip. “No. This is Travis Miller—one of Red’s new hires—and Travis and I are working together. We’re coworkers and . . .” She smiled apologetically at Travis, searching for the right word as his bright expression dimmed. “Friends. You could say we’re friends.”

Of some sort, she guessed. He’d saved her neck yesterday and, Lord knows, she’d shared enough secrets on the drive into town that she supposed they qualified as something more than strangers.

At her answer, warmth reentered Travis’s expression, but Gloria jostled his slow smile out of him when she threw her arms around his big frame, too.

“Any friend of Hannah’s is a friend of mine,” Gloria said, hugging Travis hard.

Gloria was so short, the top of her gray head only reached the center of Travis’s chest and he hugged her back awkwardly, his cheeks blushing a fiery red as

he patted her back gently and met Hannah’s eyes.

Hannah laughed, and when Gloria released him, said, “Travis plans to stay awhile and help renovate the ranch, so he needs some work clothes.” She glanced around the interior of the store, eyeing the shelves of jeans lining the walls and the racks of shirts and jackets. “I’m thinking at least three pairs of durable jeans, a few long-sleeved shirts, and maybe a couple T-shirts for layering when it warms up next month.”

Gloria looked Travis over and clapped her hands. “You came to the right place, my dear. I have plenty of big and tall apparel for a strapping man like you.” She grabbed Travis’s hand and tugged. “Come with me, Travis. I’ll set you right up.”

Hannah watched Gloria lead Travis through a maze of clothing racks toward the shelves of jeans and stifled another laugh. By the time Gloria finished with Travis, the poor man would be ready to hightail it out of the Smokies altogether.

CHAPTER 5

“Hope my wife didn’t run you off,” Vernon Ulman said, patting Travis on the back as he opened the passenger door of Red’s truck. “Gloria can talk the hind leg off a donkey. I swear her endless gabbing is what caused me to have to get a hearing aid.”

Travis ducked his head to hide his smile. “No. Gloria was very informative.”

About everything. His grin widened.

After spending one hour in Glory Be, Travis now knew that Gloria had eight grandchildren, two sons, and one daughter (the latter was currently out of favor for not visiting often enough), and an unhealthy—but amusing—obsession with lantana plants. She’d insisted Travis take the first pair of jeans he’d tried on for a test drive by walking with her through a small greenhouse attached to the back of her store. There, Gloria had formally introduced him to thirty lantana plants—each of which she’d named—and had shoved one potted, yellow lantana into his politely protesting hands, advising him to keep it indoors until the spring planting season arrived.

“This one here’s named Joyful Judy. Plant her in full sun after the last frost, and she’ll lift your spirits every time she blooms,” Gloria had said with a smile. “Consider it a welcome gift to Paradise Peak.”

Travis had never felt more welcomed in his life.

“I enjoyed Gloria’s company,” Travis said, smiling at Vernon and meaning every word.