Changing His Plans Read online

  Is he ready to have his mind—and heart—changed?

  Ambitious real estate developer Brittany Doyle wants to bring Nate Thomas’s quiet Catskills town into the twenty-first century. Nate is dead set against her proposed plan, fearing it will destroy his mountain community’s rich heritage. But the more time he spends with Brittany, the more she is winning his heart. He just hopes he’s not heading for heartbreak.

  The heel on one of the ridiculously high heels she was wearing had snapped off.

  “Having a bad morning?”

  The woman looked up in annoyance, strands of dark wet hair falling across her face.

  “You could say that. I don’t suppose you have a shoe repair place in this town?”

  Nate shook his head as he approached her. “Nope. But hand it over. I’ll see what I can do.”

  A perfectly shaped brow arched high. “Why? Are you going to cobble them back together with...” She gestured around widely. “Maybe some staples or screws?”

  “Technically, what you just described is the definition of cobbling, so yeah.”

  Something about this soaking-wet woman amused Nate. He couldn’t help admiring this woman’s ability to hold on to her superiority while looking like she accidentally went to a water park instead of the business meeting she was dressed for. To be honest, he also admired the figure that red suit was clinging to as it dripped water on his floor.

  He held out his hand. “I’m Nate Thomas.”

  She let out an irritated sigh. “Brittany Doyle.” She slid her long, slender hand into his and gripped it with surprising strength. He held it for just a half second longer than necessary before shaking off the odd current of interest she invoked in him. He turned his hand palm up and she dropped the broken heel into it.

  Dear Reader,

  Nate Thomas hates change. He’s the fifth-generation owner of the hardware store in Gallant Lake, and that legacy is important to him. He wants the store and his hometown to stay the same as always. He’s suspicious of anything that threatens that.

  When Brittany Doyle shows up with her fancy clothes and take-charge attitude, Nate’s skeptical. He should be, because she’s there to help her boss change the town forever, quietly buying up businesses to raze them and build vacation condos. Her boss promised her a partnership if she succeeds.

  She and Nate couldn’t be more opposite—flannel shirts vs. designer suits. And yet...there’s something sizzling between them that they can’t deny. Add in a scrappy stray mutt and a foul-mouthed parrot, and life starts changing in a hurry.

  Love is in the September air, but once Nate finds out the real reason Brittany came to Gallant Lake, they have to decide what their priorities truly are. Some things are worth changing for.

  It’s not surprising that I wrote a book all about coping with change at the same time that himself and I decided to pack up and move from North Carolina back home to upstate New York! There were times in this move when change definitely did not feel good, but we embraced it as a team and took turns holding each other up. Just as Nate and Brittany learn to do.

  I hope you enjoy following their journey as much as I did!

  Happy reading!

  Jo McNally

  Changing His Plans

  Jo McNally

  Jo McNally lives in coastal North Carolina with one hundred pounds of dog and two hundred pounds of husband—her slice of the bed is very small. When she’s not writing or reading romance novels (or clinging to the edge of the bed), she can often be found on the back porch sipping wine with friends while listening to great music. If the weather is absolutely perfect, Jo might join her husband on the golf course, where she tends to feel far more competitive than her actual skill level would suggest.

  She likes writing stories about strong women and the men who love them. She’s a true believer that love can conquer all if given just half a chance.

  You can follow Jo pretty much anywhere on social media (and she’d love it if you did!), but you can start at her website, jomcnallyromance.com.

  Books by Jo McNally

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Gallant Lake Stories

  A Man You Can Trust

  It Started at Christmas...

  Her Homecoming Wish

  Harlequin Superromance

  Nora’s Guy Next Door

  She’s Far From Hollywood

  HQN

  Rendezvous Falls

  Slow Dancing at Sunrise

  Stealing Kisses in the Snow

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  To our grandchildren as they deal brilliantly with the biggest change of all, becoming adults.

  To Courtney, Jake, Megan, Ali, Eric, John and Haley.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from A Winning Season by Rochelle Alers

  Chapter One

  Brittany Doyle saw the gathering storm clouds on the horizon.

  She simply deemed them not worth her attention.

  Clutching her leather-clad tablet and wearing her favorite I-rule-the-world stilettos, she stood on the corner of Main and Maple in the center of Gallant Lake, New York, and smiled. It was easy to see why she’d been sent here. The waitress at the resort restaurant this morning described the town as “quaint.” Quaint, schmaint—this tired old town was dying. On the way into town, she passed half a dozen For Sale signs on homes. A number of businesses in town were boarded up. She couldn’t blame them for leaving. Unless they could find work at the resort, what chance did a regular person have to make a living here?

  Oh, sure, there was a cute coffee shop across the street from the waterfront. A custom furniture shop. A liquor store. Dress boutique. They might be able to survive. But the buildings along the water? A closed-up gift shop. A so-called consignment store that looked more like a shady pawnshop. And an ancient hardware store that was straight out of the 1930s. She took photos and tapped away on the screen with her notes. Those places would all have to go.

  An old blue pickup truck rumbled down Main Street, disturbing the early-morning quiet with its nonexistent muffler. A few minutes later a sleek BMW convertible purred past her, followed by a Gallant Lake police car. The officer nodded casually in her direction as he drove by. Charming, small-town Americana. Ripe for the picking.

  Located in the Catskills, Gallant Lake was only a few hours from Manhattan. There was a recently refurbished resort that was already attracting tourists. A gorgeous lake—she held up her tablet and snapped a picture of it across the way—for summer fun, and mountains all around for skiing. This town was a potential year-round gold mine. The scene on her tablet was something straight out of her top secret guilty pleasure movie—Dirty Dancing. Maybe because she’d read in the brochure that the Gallant Lake Resort had once been one of those grand summer resorts during the ’50s. The downtown brick-and-clapboard buildings hadn’t changed much since then. It definitely held a Mayberry vibe. They could use that in marketing the place.

  No wonder Conrad offered a six-figure bonus
if she could secure the properties they needed in just two months. Quietly, efficiently and without drama. Basically, the Quest mantra.

  A distant rumble of thunder echoed through Gallant Valley, which some people would find ominous, but Brittany just smirked. Bring it on, world. Her coworkers didn’t call her The Barracuda for nothing. That bonus was hers, and so was this Podunk town. After this deal, Conrad hinted strongly that a partner position could be waiting. There was a corner office with her name on the door, she was sure of it.

  She stepped into the Gallant Brew for a cappuccino. Her expectations were low, but she was pleasantly surprised as she watched the gray-haired hippie lady behind the counter. The woman knew her way around an espresso machine. And that bright red machine was state-of-the-art. She set an insulated to-go cup near the cash register and smiled at Brittany.

  “We’ve got fresh pastries, honey, if you’re hungry this morning.”

  Brittany smiled politely. “No, thanks. I had breakfast at the resort.”

  “Oh, you’re visiting, then? You’ll love the resort—the Randalls have done a wonderful job bringing it back to life. You’re a few weeks early for leaf-peeping. Are you here for a wedding or something?”

  “No, no. I guess you could say it’s business-related, but really, I’m just enjoying the area.” She looked out the window, across the street to the buildings that lined the lakeshore. “I see some empty storefronts in town. It’s surprising with the resort as full as it seems to be.” Brittany was fishing, strictly out of habit. She already knew the names of the owners of each property on Main Street. She knew that only a handful of businesses, including this coffee shop, were doing strong business in town. The resort didn’t hold visitors long enough for most businesses to survive year-round. But vacation condos and luxury lake homes? That would bring people to Gallant Lake who would need places to shop and dine. It might even attract some chains to the area.

  She realized the woman behind the counter—her name tag read “Cathy”—hadn’t answered. Instead, the woman was staring at her with a great deal of uncomfortable interest.

  “What kind of business did you say you were in?”

  Brittany mentally kicked herself. She should have been more careful. She shrugged and flashed a bright smile as she evaded the question. “Oh, a...a friend of mine knew I was thinking of moving to the area and recommended the resort as a base for my research. Are there any towns you’d recommend?”

  Cathy relaxed and started rattling off names of Realtors and towns and properties Brittany should consider. Brittany nodded and smiled, enjoying the delicious cappuccino. After a polite period of time, she excused herself and headed for the door. Time for more recon before she started knocking on doors.

  “Oh, honey, I’d stay inside if I were you,” Cathy called out. “Looks like a heck of a summer storm brewing this morning. You’ll get yourself soaked.”

  She looked at the clouds, which were now boiling and dark. Gusts of wind had the small trees near the water dancing back and forth. There was an energy in the air that made her fingers tremble slightly on the door handle. She loved the thrill of the hunt, and this just made it more fun. Cathy-the-aging-hippie might be right about the weather. But Brittany hadn’t made it this far by showing fear in the face of a challenge. She laughed over her shoulder at the woman behind the counter.

  “It wouldn’t dare rain on me!”

  * * *

  Nate Thomas put his key in the back door of Nate’s Hardware at exactly 6:30 a.m. He’d been doing that for over fifteen years now. The rest of his routine was just as predictable—back lights on, coffee maker started, jacket on hook, cash box removed from safe, cover pulled from the large cage outside his office. Then Nate headed up front to unlock the shop door.

  Hank the parrot ruffled his bright turquoise feathers, then screamed a string of obscenities, knowing full well it was the only time he was allowed to do so. After he ran through his impressive repertoire, the bird gave a wolf whistle, and Nate whistled back. Just another day at work.

  It was Tuesday, so Nate settled at the rolltop desk in the back office to go over the books and check inventory. Because that was what he did on Tuesday mornings. His first cup of black-as-tar coffee sat on a coaster his great-grandfather had bought at the Montreal World’s Fair in 1967. That would have been Nathaniel Hawthorne Thomas number three. Nate was Nathaniel number six. Unfortunately, Nathaniel number five had been more interested in the racetrack and chasing skirts than the family business.

  Nate promised his grandfather he’d keep this store going, just the way it had always been. That he’d keep Gallant Lake going. Gramps saw the town when it was booming, and he’d watched its slow decline as the resort fell into disrepair in the 1970s. He kept telling Nate the town could bounce back if it was smart about it. He begged Nate to make sure the town stayed smart. He’d done his best, starting a business owners’ association and working on sprucing up the waterfront.

  He was determined to keep his promise, even if his mother and sister wanted him to sell out and join them in Florida. What the hell would he do in Florida? Work at some impersonal box store? No, thanks. His roots were deep in the floorboards of the eclectic old store. This was where he belonged. He stared out the window at Gallant Lake.

  The water was being whipped up by gusty winds this morning, and the color of the water matched the charcoal clouds rolling in low from the west. Looked like a sharp August storm was headed their way. Sure enough, the opposite shore was white with a downpour, and he could see the rain sweeping across the water. He never tired of watching the ever-changing view from this office. He used to sit on his grandfather’s knee and listen to the stories of great blizzards, the near miss of Hurricane Hazel, the great drought in the 1930s that dropped the water level so low people walked out hundreds of feet from what should have been the shoreline. Gramps would talk about the original heyday of the Gallant Lake Resort, visible a mile or so away, when the rich and famous came to Gallant Lake by carriage and train to leave the dirty air of the city behind. Beyond the resort was the pink granite castle called Halcyon. People used to whisper that it was haunted.

  He and his pals used to sneak into the old place when they were kids. It was vacant back then, and they were sure they could get the ghost to show up, but no such luck. They just saw big, empty rooms paneled in mahogany, with dusty marble floors. When its current owner threatened to demolish it, it was Nate who led the community protest that started with a few people carrying signs and ended in court, where a judge declared Halcyon a landmark that couldn’t be torn down. Ironically, the owner, Blake Randall, ended up refurbishing it into a family home and moving in. Nate’s relationship with Blake was still a little strained, so he’d never gotten around to asking if he and his family shared the space with a ghost.

  Nate leaned back in his chair and the oak planks creaked beneath him. Too bad this place wasn’t haunted—he could charge money for ghost tours. He took another sip of coffee and closed the ledger. The books were just barely in the black, but he was getting by. Life was good enough.

  Sheets of rain slapped against the window, quickly turning the view to gray. There wouldn’t be much business today if this kept up, so he may as well get to work on taking inventory. He’d just started sorting the pesticides, getting ready to put most of them away until spring, when the front door swung open with a loud bang and a string of colorful swear words spoken in a female voice. He stuck his head around the corner of the fasteners aisle just in time to see a tall brunette stagger into the revolving seed display. Some of the packets went flying, but she managed to steady the display before the whole thing toppled. He took in what probably had been a very nice silk blouse and tailored trouser suit before she was drenched in the storm raging outside. The heel on one of the ridiculously high heels she was wearing had snapped off, explaining why she was stumbling around.

  “Having a bad morning?”

&
nbsp; The woman looked up in annoyance, strands of dark, wet hair falling across her face.

  “You could say that. I don’t suppose you have a shoe repair place in this town?” She looked at the bright red heel in her hand.

  Nate shook his head as he approached her. “Nope. But hand it over. I’ll see what I can do.”

  A perfectly shaped brow arched high. “Why? Are you going to cobble them back together with—” she gestured around widely “—maybe some staples or screws?”

  “Technically, what you just described is the definition of cobbling, so yeah. I’ve got some glue that’ll do the trick.” He met her gaze calmly. “It’d be a lot easier to do if you’d take the shoe off. Unless you also think I’m a blacksmith?”

  He was teasing her. Something about this soaking-wet woman still having so much...regal bearing...amused Nate. He wasn’t usually a fan of the pearl-clutching country-club set who strutted through Gallant Lake on the weekends and referred to his family’s hardware store as “adorable.” But he couldn’t help admiring this woman’s ability to hold on to her superiority while looking like she accidentally went to a water park instead of the business meeting she was dressed for. To be honest, he also admired the figure that expensive red suit was clinging to as it dripped water on his floor.

  He held out his hand. “I’m Nate Thomas. This is my store.”

  She let out an irritated sigh. “Brittany Doyle.” She slid her long, slender hand into his and gripped with surprising strength. He held it for just a half second longer than necessary before shaking off the odd current of interest she invoked in him. He turned his hand palm up and she dropped the broken heel into it.

  “Come on back, Brittany, and I’ll see what we can do.” He took a few steps before he realized she wasn’t following. He turned to face her and read her expression with understanding. She had no reason to trust him. “You’re right to be cautious about following strange men around, but it’s ten o’clock in the morning in Gallant Lake. I’m just offering you a place to sit while you wait.” A shiver ran through her. “And a towel. And a hot cup of coffee. And that’s it.”