Sam stood, vacating his stool. He pushed his way toward the back of the line to observe the controlled chaos.
When he’d spoken to the mayor of Wayback, Sam hadn’t received any objections to circulating his flyers. Beer was a big seller at the rodeo, which in turn, brought in a nice profit for the town. Yesterday, Sam had hired a few kids from a local junior college to post his flyers about town. Apparently they’d gone a little crazy, hanging them everywhere without asking permission from the store owners. Sam sighed inwardly. One thing he didn’t need was a bunch of angry proprietors. So here he was apologizing to Delia for the mix up. It looked like he’d be spending the rest of the day apologizing to annoyed townspeople.
After the stream of customers slowed to a trickle, Sam stepped up to the counter.
Delia let out a heavy sigh as she closed the cash register. “Back for more?”
“I never left.” Sam leaned a hip against the counter and crossed his ankles. The scent of vanilla drifted across the close space to tease his senses.
“Oh, is there something else you’d like then, something else I can get you?”
“No, the muffin and fritter did the trick. But...” He paused and removed a flyer from his briefcase. “I noticed you removed the flyer from your door.”
Sam set it on the counter between them. Delia unfolded it, appraised it, and threw it down after reading the bold large print at the bottom.
She pointed an accusing finger at him, then at the advertisement which she’d torn in half. “So, this is yours. Let me guess; you’re hoping I’ll post this in my window and show it off to my clientele.”
She continued before he could apologize. “First off,” Daisy folded her arms across her chest. Leaning over the counter she stared him directly in the eye. “You didn’t ask me if you could post that.” She jabbed at the torn flyer. “On my window, or anywhere else in this bakery. So yes, I did destroy it, and this one, because I don’t want to advertise alcohol at my place of business.” She swiped the two pieces of paper into the trash can at her side.
“Actually no, Daisy. I came to apologize.”
“I’m Daisy to my friends, but it’s Miss Porter to you.” She bit out as the air sparked between them.
“Um, right, okay. I’m sorry, Miss Porter.”
He ran a hand over his stubble-shadowed jaw. “I’m going about this all wrong. I’m going to be spending the rest of the day apologizing to business owners for this mess. When I arrived in Wayback about a week ago to do some advertising at the rodeo, I decided to hire a group of college kids to tape up my flyers around town.” He sent her a disarming, charming smile as he explained. “Yesterday, they kind of let things get a bit out of hand.”
“Only a bit out of hand?” She asked, raising a brow.
“Um, yes, well, like I said, things got a little out of control. It was very rude of them to not ask before taping the flyer to your door, but when I spoke to the mayor, she said that it wouldn’t be a problem, that most entrepreneurs wouldn’t mind.”
“Well, I’m a small minority of those who don’t take too kindly to finding a beer advertisement stuck to their door for anyone to see. I don’t care what the mayor told you. She’s only concerned with the town, not my business. Of course, she’d say we wouldn’t mind. You’re going to bring in money for her town.”
Daisy had nothing against Gretchen Fremont, the mayor, but Gretchen was a politician through and through. She’d do whatever she thought needed to be done to make Wayback the most popular rodeo town in the country
She glared. “There are plenty of other places around town to do your advertising. I don’t see how not having a window or two not displaying your smooth-sliding ale will hurt your sales.” She contemptuously eyed his designer outfit and briefcase. “You appear to be doing just fine as it is.”
A flicker of annoyance showed in his eyes before the coolness returned. ”Yes, ma’am. You’re absolutely right. It won’t make a difference in my sales. You have a great business here, clean, G-rated. Your customers, especially the kids, appear to love this place. Once again, I’m sorry for what happened. I’m going to circulate my flyers myself from now on just to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Daisy tapped her foot. She’d like to give him a hard kick in the butt . Who the hell did this guy think he was oozing such ease and confidence?