worked, the mechanic had probably told him she couldn’t have her car repaired, and Nate had already known she couldn’t afford to stay in a motel. To cover her embarrassment, she babbled, “When I was looking up the hardware store on the Internet, I was shocked that a small-town store had its entire inventory online.”
“Hal’s not the only owner,” Nate said. “His partner has plenty of money to put into the business. You’ll find that a lot around here.”
“Silent partners with plenty of money?” she said dryly. “That could sound suspicious.”
“If we weren’t so close to Aspen. People are always looking for investments. Or else they’ve moved here from somewhere else to semiretire.”
“Like the lawyer, Mr. Carpenter?” she said without thinking.
He shot her a surprised glance. “Cal? Where’d you meet him?”
“Oh, around,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. “He introduced himself, just like everyone does around here.”
When he accepted her explanation without comment, she quietly let out her breath. He didn’t need to know about the ache in her heart over her father. He unsettled her, made her babble when she should choose her words carefully. But he had a lot of experience with home repairs, so she’d take his advice, regardless of what it cost her in pride or composure.
She wasn’t there to buy, only to make lists and plan her purchases. Nate followed her around the store, mentioning the extras she hadn’t thought about, filling in details that the videos online hadn’t. He didn’t seem to care that the two of them were a source of amusement to the men hanging out in the paint department.
She did pick up some cleaning supplies, and as she took them to Hal at the counter, she overheard Deke grumbling to Francis.
“A restaurant for raw fish? Isn’t that what sushi is? Who needs it?”
“The diner is just fine,” Francis shot back. “And when I want fancy, there’s the steak house at the Hotel Colorado.”
All the men nodded.
“And about that other place,” Deke continued. “What does ‘new age store’ even mean?”
Though she’d brightened at the thought of sushi, now she winced, having spent her life hearing variations of that question. There was a new age store in Valentine Valley?
“The owner’s a woman,” Francis said. “Maybe ‘new age’ is code for bein’ younger.”
“Or maybe she’s a witch,” Deke shot back.
That made everyone guffaw.
She could be a witch, Emily thought mildly, but if she tried to explain the Wiccan religion to these old guys . . .
“She did have witch books,” Bill insisted.
“So you went inside?” Francis asked incredulously.
“Naw, saw it through the window. She had a sign about getting one of those card readings. Who the heck believes in telling the future?”
“Why does it matter?” Emily heard herself asking. She might have distanced herself from her mother’s interests, but the store had put food on her table.
She was suddenly the focus of all the male attention.
She shrugged. “People have a right to open any business they choose, and only the customers can decide if it will succeed. How long has this store been open?”
“A year,” Deke gruffly answered.
“Then she has customers.”
“Tourists,” Francis snorted.
“Just tourists?” Emily smiled. “You sure none of your wives and daughters have stopped in?”
A couple of the men frowned, a couple looked shocked.
“Oo-kay,” Nate said, smiling at Hal. “We’re ready to check out.”
By the time he escorted her out of the hardware store, Emily was almost enjoying herself. “My, you’re sensitive,” she said, when they were out on the sidewalk. “You practically yanked on my arm to get me out of there. No healthy discussions in the paint department?”
“The old-timers have their own problems,” Nate said, taking the bag out of her hands.
She tried to tug it back. “I can carry my own bag.”
“And what would my mother think if she drove by right now and saw that I was empty-handed?”
She was tempted to answer that since she hadn’t met his mother, she didn’t know—but that would sound like she wanted to meet his mother, that she wanted to get to know him better. Bad impression. She began to walk up Main Street, and Nate fell in at her side.
“So the old-timers don’t like anything new or different moving to town?” Emily asked. “That kind of leads to stagnation, doesn’t it?”
“Whatever they think about mystical stuff, they know that modern technology has revolutionized ranching and can save them money in the long run. They aren’t against new ideas.”