Longing for Home

His gaze shifted to the third brick building in the lineup and snagged on a faded sign above the door.

The Grapevine Café.

Jerking the Viper to the right, Alex’s foot tapped the brake so the vehicle wouldn’t jump the curb and take out a pot of marigolds.

He cut the engine and stared at the old-fashioned diner in disbelief. Call him crazy, but for some reason, he’d pictured something with a little more curbside appeal. Something a little…bigger.

“What are you thinking, Abby?” he muttered. This was taking her friendship with the owner of the café—Kate Nichols—too far.

A memory, one that had lodged deep in his subconscious like a splinter, shifted and poked him again.

Almost a year ago, when he’d shown up at Abby’s bed-and-breakfast to make one final appeal for her to come home, he’d walked right into the middle of a renovation party. Alex had confronted the first person he saw—a young woman with a cap of flame-colored curls and eyes as green as a field of fresh clover—and asked where he could find Abby. Instead of taking him to his sister, the pixie had had the audacity to lead him to a dilapidated cabin down by the lake instead. Then she’d pressed a hammer into his hand, pointed to the roof and told him to “make himself useful.”

He hadn’t appreciated being told what to do. Especially by a petite, redheaded firecracker.

Alex had tried to put her out of his mind but that wasn’t easy when the name Kate Nichols popped up with annoying frequency during his phone conversations with Abby.

Business wouldn’t exactly be booming for the owner of a café in a town the size of Mirror Lake. If he knew his tender-hearted sister, Abby had felt sorry for Kate, put aside her misgivings and hired her to cater the reception dinner. It might explain the strain he’d heard in Abby’s voice when they had gone over the details for the reception the day before. Even with the simple wedding she was insisting upon, resources had to be limited.

Alex’s eyes narrowed on a tear in the striped awning that shaded the sidewalk.

Very limited.

He got out of the car and reached the door in two strides. According to a piece of cardboard taped to the window, the café opened for business at six o’clock.

Alex glanced at the TAG Heuer on his wrist.

Two minutes past six.

Great. He’d be the first customer of the day.

Chapter Two

The bells over the front door jingled as Kate piped neat rows of whipped cream over the top of a fresh strawberry rhubarb pie.

“Find a place to sit and I’ll be right with…”

You.

Kate felt a sudden disconnect between her brain and her voice when she spotted the man standing just inside the entrance, backlit by the early morning sun.

Alex Porter, in the flesh.

In her café.

She’d sat right next to Abby in church the day before and her friend hadn’t warned—told—her that Alex would be in Mirror Lake.

A week early.

Their eyes met over the counter and Kate’s heart did a backflip. As impossible as it seemed, the man was even more good-looking than she remembered.

She could see traces of Abby in the straight nose and high, smooth forehead, but the resemblance between the siblings ended there. Abby’s silver-green eyes were warm, as if lit from within. A smile always played at the corner of her lips, ready to bloom at a moment’s notice.

Alex’s features, on the other hand, looked as if they’d been chiseled from a hunk of granite. His eyes were the same shade of green as the jade paperweight on Kate’s desk. And just as cool. The fact that those eyes happened to be framed by ridiculously long lashes didn’t count.

Not at all.

Short, windswept hair, toasted a light golden brown from the sun, made him look more suited to the deck of a sailboat than an office. The khaki pants and lightweight cotton shirt he wore looked casual enough but Kate wasn’t fooled. Both looked as if they had been custom fit for his lean, muscular frame.

“Alex.” Kate found her voice again. “What a surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you.”

Until the wedding.

“Abby sounded a little stressed out the last time I talked to her.” The rough velvet voice wielded an edge that immediately put Kate on the defensive. “I decided to drive up a few days early to help out.”

Kate knew better. Men like Alex Porter didn’t help out. They took over. And the guy probably didn’t have a clue that he had been the cause of Abby’s stress.

“Oh. Wonderful.” Just wonderful. “Abby will be—” insert tactful word here, Kate “—surprised.”

“Not for another hour or so.” Alex’s eyes narrowed when she didn’t respond. “The café is open, right? So you don’t mind if I sit down?”

“You want to eat here?” Kate blurted out.

Alex hesitated a split second too long. “Yes.”

This is Abby’s brother and she loves him, Kate reminded herself. For that reason and that reason only, she flashed one of her sunniest smiles. “You’re the first customer of the day so go ahead and sit anywhere you like.”

His gaze swept over the empty diner. In ten minutes she would be caught in the middle of the morning breakfast stampede; but judging from the skeptical look on his face, Alex doubted she would have another customer besides himself. All day.

Kate kept the smile pinned in place. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

He gave a curt nod. “No cream or sugar.”

Of course not. We wouldn’t want to add something that might sweeten our disposition, now would we?

“No problem,” Kate said out loud. “I’ll be right back to take your order.”

As Alex stalked to the back of the dining area to claim an empty lair, Kate retrieved a carafe from the coffee station. Her hands were actually trembling. Not out of fear but frustration. She couldn’t believe that Abby shared the same DNA with this man.

Long lashes or not, Alex Porter was arrogant. Cold. Condescending.

And Kate knew exactly what had brought him to the Grapevine. He wanted to see for himself what Mirror Lake’s greasy spoon had to offer.

She searched her memory for an appropriate Scripture. One that would give her the self-control to pour the coffee into Alex’s coffee cup, not over the top of his head.

Lord, I know there has to be one. Or one hundred. But I’m coming up empty at the moment. Sorry.

Kate set his coffee down and whipped the pen out of her apron pocket. Smile carefully balanced in place. “What can I get for you?”