Bright Day: Old Town Braverton - Secondhand Rose Vintage Thrift Shop

By Roxie Clarke

Three years ago, billionaire Belle Walden was sent on a secret mission to Braverton by her vengeful grandfather. But instead of acting on his wishes, Belle fell in love with small town life, her job at the Secondhand Rose, and the person she's become while undercover.

 

When billionaire Tyler Day recognizes her at a party, she fears he'll call her out, but surprises her when he invites her to be his date at a charity gala.

 

As they spend more and more time together, Belle questions if there's a better way to be a billionaire or if her feelings for Tyler are clouding her judgement.

 

Either way, her time in Braverton is ending, and she has to choose between family and fortune, or love and community, and Tyler isn't making her decision any easier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Write Free Press
• Release date: Sep 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215338780

Roxie Clarke

Roxie Clarke writes sweet romance featuring houseplants, hunky heroes, and happily ever afters. She lives outside Portland, OR with her husband and their five children. It is loud at her house.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

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1

Belle lounged in a yellow plastic Adirondack chair in the courtyard behind the Braverton Bed and Breakfast, or the 3B as the locals called it, sipping on a tall glass of watermelon iced tea. Partygoers milled about, chatting each other up, congratulating Tabitha on the elegant soiree, and lamenting Lettie’s move from small town Braverton to an even smaller town.

Belle didn’t know Lettie all that well. She was best friends with Belle’s boss Maryann, the owner of the Secondhand Rose, who’d closed the shop and given them all the afternoon off to attend Lettie’s going away party. Lettie had managed the 3B for over a decade but was moving to the middle of nowhere to run some cottages in the woods surrounded by haunted caverns. 

Or something like that. Belle was half listening behind her as Lettie talked to the guys from the Tiny Tea Shop, and half scoping out the tall, muscular, ginger-haired man who was feeling the outer brick wall of the adjacent abandoned movie theater.

He was grinning, his mouth slightly open, and practically caressing the building. His actions put a grin on Belle’s face as well. She’d admired the rustic brick earlier, particularly the patina acquired over seventy years of rain, although she’d been more covert about it.

Of course, she was covert about everything, and had been since she’d arrived in Braverton three years ago. Belle was only supposed to have stayed a year. Her instructions were to buy up as many of Old Town Braverton’s buildings as she could, and then peace out back to St. Louis where she’d officially become the head of acquisitions for the Walden group–the real estate branch of her grandpa Walden’s global empire.

But she’d fallen in love with Braverton and with Oregon. She adored her job at the Secondhand Rose, her studio apartment, and the people she’d befriended. Belle genuinely liked the version of herself she’d created for Braverton. She got to be weird. Whimsical. She got to color her hair purple and wear loud vintage frocks and use age-appropriate slang.

So, she hadn’t tried quite as hard as she should have to buy up real estate in Old Town. Because, if her grandpa has his way, he’d knock all these lovely old brick buildings down and put up a Wal-Shop Superstore. He had a personal vendetta against the Braverton City Council for not letting him build a big box store on the edge of the city.

I’ll own Old Town and then we’ll see what they say about having a store right smack dab in the center of Braverton. They’ll regret denying my original plans. Her grandpa had stewed about the denial for a year until he decided ‌Belle was ready to implement his plan.

Lucky for her, someone else had out bid her on a few of the buildings she’d wanted. The Walden group needed a blocks worth of structures next to one another, and Belle hadn’t been able to make that happen yet. In fact, she was in a bidding war over the theater next door.

Which she had to win to complete a block. If she got the theater, then the owner of the 3B would sell. She reckoned no one would want to stay in a quaint Old Town B&B right next to a Wal-Shop Superstore. Please let the 3B owner sell.

She cringed, thinking about the phone conversation she’d had with her grandpa earlier in the day. If you could call him yelling and threatening while she quietly withstood his insults and accusations a conversation.

The red headed man turned away from the wall and toward her. Their gazes met. He winked but couldn’t manage to do it with only one eye, so it was more of an exaggerated blink than a wink. She laughed, as did he, as he strode over to her.

Do over, he said, holding one eye open with his index finger and winking with the other.

Clearly you’re skilled in the art of flirtation, Belle said, setting her empty glass on the wicker side table. She wiped the condensation on her palm discreetly along the side of her red linen cigarette pants. Introductions were about to be made. She couldn’t say she minded.

Clearly, he said, chuckling. He extended his hand. Tyler Day. I’ve seen you around, but I haven’t had the pleasure.