Rebuilding Valley View (Valley View Book #4)

Chapter 2

Downtown Valley View looks exactly like the Hallmark movie that you think it would. In my anxiousness for this move, I did a lot of research on the tiny town that I would be calling home for a year. Tiny town almost doesn’t even describe it. It takes less than ten minutes to drive through the entire town. They don’t even have a large grocery store, just a smaller market. The fast-food options are limited too and found mostly on the outskirts of town in what is the newer area.

The apartment that I’m staying in is actually an apartment above a little flower shop on Main Street. I thought it was going to be outdated, but when I walked in I was surprised to see it fully updated with a hit of rustic charm. It is more of a studio than a one-bedroom apartment, a sliding door the only thing that separated the bedroom from the living space, but it was perfect for what I was going to ned.

Most of my things won’t be here until tomorrow, thankfully I have a bunch of clothes and essentials that I packed and brought with me. I take a quick shower and change into a pair of khaki shorts and an army green t-shirt before heading down to the flower shop to see if my landlord was there still.

The shop was still open and I was able to get information about places to eat. Apparently, you get two choices here unless you want to drive to the newer area on the outskirts. After driving for two days, I just preferred to walk so my options were the diner on one end of Main Street and a bar on the other end. I’m pretty much right in the middle, so I decide to just go to the diner. I’m not really sure what the bar scene in this town is like, so let’s be safe rather than sorry.

The door to the dinger rings as I open it and I hear a voice from the back hollering at me. “Hey, take a seat I’ll be right there.”

There are only five other tables in the place filled, so I just take a seat in the front bar area. I grab a menu to look over while waiting for the voice to show his face. He startles me a bit when he shows up from the other side. “Hey there, what’ll it be.”

“Oh!”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

I laugh, “I was really into the menu I guess. What’s good here? Any suggestions?”

“Everything. But I might be biased, this is my diner.”

I look at the front of the menu. “Are you Rickie? Or is that just a name?”

“A little of both. My grandpa opened this diner years ago, he was a Rickie. My parents named me after him, so I’m a Rickie too.”

“Well almost like it was meant to be, huh?”

“Exactly. So are you passing through or new to our slice of paradise?”

“I’m guessing this is the type of town where everybody knows everybody so you know I’m not actually from here?”

Rickie nods, “Pretty much.”

I put my hand out to shake Rickie’s, “The name’s Charlie. I’m here running a project out on Highway 78.”

“Ahh, so that’s you.”

I put my hands up, “Don’t kill the messenger. It wasn’t my idea, they just pay me to make sure it goes as planned.”

It doesn’t surprise me to get a reaction from him as I did. People don’t tend to like road construction and by default end up disliking those who work in road construction. I can’t say I blame them though. I’ve cursed out plenty of no-name construction workers when I get stuck in traffic or have to be rerouted somewhere.

“Doesn’t impact me a lot, but we have a bunch of ranches in that direction, lots of complaining that it is going to take too long for them to get into town once the construction starts.”