Page 36 of The Sugar Maple Inn

There was a pause. Then:

WildTrailGuide: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. My mom worked herself until her knees gave out, figured wanting more was selfish. Like decent was all she was allowed. You know what I learned from watching that?

AutumnDreams87: What?

WildTrailGuide: That the folk who love us hardest are the ones most scared to watch us fall.

Grace felt something loosen in her chest.

AutumnDreams87: How do you always know the right thing to say?

WildTrailGuide: I don’t. I just know what I needed to hear when I was where you are now. Scared. Doubting myself. Wondering if I had any right to want something bigger.

AutumnDreams87: And what happened?

WildTrailGuide: I went for it anyway. Scared the hell out of everyone who cared about me. Almost failed more times than I can count. But I did it. And you will too.

AutumnDreams87: God, I needed to hear that. Thank you.

WildTrailGuide: Anytime. I gotta go. But don’t overthink last night. It was good. Don’t feel embarrassed. Talk soon, yeah?

Grace closed the app and nodded to herself. “I can do this.”

She smoothed back her hair and straightened her shoulders.

She’d raised a kid alone. She’d put herself through community college while working full time. She’d turned her mother’s failing catering side business into something profitable. She’d survived every curveball life had thrown at her and come out standing.

She could handle an old inn and whatever challenges came with it.

And she could definitely handle one smug billionaire in a cook-off.

Grace looked at herself in the mirror one more time, lifting her chin.

“I’m going to win this place,” she said firmly. “And that starts with making a great meal.”

She headed for the door, ready to show Reese Spencer exactly what she was capable of.

Thirteen

Reese

Reese looked out at the lakeview from his room, phone still in his hand from messaging AutumnDreams87. He’d just sent her into battle against someone who was just like him. Told her to destroy her competition. Given her a pep talk about believing in herself, about not letting doubt win.

And now he was supposed to go downstairs and crush Grace’s dreams.

Christ.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. This shouldn’t bother him. Business was business. He’d competed against hundreds of people over the years. Some he’d liked, some he’d respected, all of whom had wanted the same properties he did. You didn’t get sentimental about it. You made your play, you won or lost, and you moved on.

But AutumnDreams87 wasn’t just another competitor. She was…

What? A woman he’d never met? Someone he knew through messages on a screen? Someone who’d trusted him with her fears and her hopes and who he’d made come the other night through nothing but words and want?

Someone who was fighting for something that mattered to her the same way this inn mattered to him. Because it did. Not because of money but because of that note scrawled in his dad’s journal. He needed to access whatever was buried under this building. Something that seemed to have haunted his dad, even if it meant tearing down some walls to find it.

But where was it buried?

He walked down the hallway. Margaret and Abe were in the main parlor with their guests, sharing storm stories. No one paid attention to Reese as he slipped past, heading deeper into the building.