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"You spent the night doing what?" Krista asked.
"Learning about hunting cryptids. It's really pretty cool."
"How's the cafe?"
"It's OK. The staff seems to be pretty stable which is good. I guess there's not that many places around here for people to work."
"Are you going to make lots of changes?"
"I'd like to update the place and brighten it up a bit. The menu definitely needs some changes, but I don't want to move too fast. I need to understand the local customers. I don't want to make the cafe into something where I'll be the only customer."
"You sound so mature. Any cute lumberjacks out there?"
"There are definitely some lumberjacks—real ones, and I've met a couple of nice looking men. One's a lawyer, and the other one's being a pain at the moment."
"Sounds like you need to keep looking. If the cafe is too slow for you, maybe you could set up a lumberjack dating site."
"I'll add that to my list for possible future expansion. Have a good day and enjoy your sunshine today. My goal for the day is to unload Snickety and get a handle on the cafe's finances."
"Sounds like fun," Krista said before ending the call.
Even though the walk to the cafe was only a few steps, I put on my heaviest jacket. One of the things on my list today was to find out where I could shop for warmer clothes. The heaviest things I brought from Georgia were barely warm enough now and it was late summer.
When Rita brought my breakfast to the table, I asked, "Where do y'all go clothes shopping here? I need to get some warmer stuff."
She grinned. "There's no real place for clothes here in Wilkins’ Gap. You'd have to drive a couple of hours to anyplace with much choice and even that's pretty limited. We do most of our shopping online these days."
"Great. Thanks. I'll get online and order some stuff."
She delivered a couple more breakfast orders and stopped back by my table with the coffee pot. "Just remember when you're shopping, this is summer here. It's going to get a whole lot colder. If you're going to spend that week in the woods with Chance Munroe, you need to get some serious outdoor gear."
She started to walk back to the kitchen, but I grabbed her wrist. "How do you know about the thing with Chance Munroe?"
"Wilkins’ Gap is a small town. There's not much privacy around here."
After breakfast, I relocated to the office and dug into Hairy's financials. I wasn't sure I understood it, but the bank account for the business was surprisingly healthy. As long as I didn't chase off the regular clientele, I shouldn't have to worry about the financial picture for a while. Looking at the monthly records, I could see that things slowed down in the winter, but the cafe made a profit even in January.
Uncle Harry left me a fairly large sum of money in a savings account, and I had saved up some money of my own, but it was good to know the cafe was self-supporting. I could take some time to settle in without a financial crisis looming. It was strange though, the Magnolia Tea Room struggled to make ends meet every month. I thought maybe it was because there were so few options out here, but there were also so few people. I decided a more detailed look at the finances was needed, but it could wait since there was no immediate problem in that regard.
I just finished sorting through another file drawer when there was a knock on the door. "Come on in," I said.
I was surprised to see Jim Stafford standing in my doorway with paint cans and other things I didn't recognize. "Hi, Jim. What's all that?"
"You said you needed to brighten up your office. I thought maybe you'd like a little help."
"Have you had lunch yet?" I asked.
"Not yet," he said.
"Put that stuff down, and let's go grab lunch out front." On my way out the door, I stopped to check the paint color.
"Sunshine Yellow, huh?"
"You said you missed the sunshine, and I figured you liked yellow since that's the color of your car."
"Good call," I said as he followed me out to the dining room. I led the way to an open table in the back corner I hadn't yet tried out. I wanted to get a closer look at more of the wall decorations.
We made small talk until Rita came by to take our orders. "It was really nice of you to bring the paint. I've never had a man give me paint before. Thank you," I said.
"I'm sure you have a long to-do list."
I nodded in agreement and turned my attention to the photo over the table. It was a picture of a man with his foot inside a large print. Jim stood and walked over to peer over my shoulder at the picture that captured my attention.
"I think that's your Uncle," Jim said.
I read the caption aloud. "Bigfoot track found by Harry Wilkins and Dutch Munroe."
"Is Dutch Munroe Chance's father?" I asked.
"Yeah. He and your Uncle were hunting partners. Speaking of Chance, what do you plan to do about the hunting trip?"
"I really haven't given' it much thought. He stopped by last night. I expected him to try to convince me to do it, but instead he suggested we find a way around the requirement. I guess the idea of a week in the woods with me didn't really seem like his idea of a good time. Should I be relieved or offended?"
"I'm relieved," he said, looking at me. "But I can't tell you want to think about Chance. As far as I know, he a good guy. He's pretty well known in cryptid circles. I guess you couldn't really call it famous, but he's been on hunts all over the world."
"Do you think I should go?"
"Go where?" Rita asked as she set our plates on the table.
"Go on a hunting trip with Chance Munroe," I said.
"Depends on what you're hunting," she said over her shoulder as she headed back to the kitchen.