Since Claire had agreed to his fake dating idea, Benton decided that they should begin immediately. As in a few hours after she said yes. That was the only reason he was at the door of Ruth’s Place when it opened at seven o’clock the next morning. He held Claire’s hand and pulled her toward an empty table before the diner filled up with the commuter rush as people came in for breakfast before driving to Brandon to start their workdays.
“Hello, Benton.”
“Hey, Mrs. St. James. This is my girlfriend, Claire Kincaid. Claire, this is Mrs. St. James, proud proprietor of Ruth’s Place.”
“Hello. You’re here awfully early, Benton,” Mrs. St. James said. “Aren’t you missing out on one of your brother’s homecooked breakfasts?”
“It’s Shannon’s turn to cook today, so not really. Besides, it’s Claire’s first day at a new job, and I want to set her up right. She’s starting with the Hieberts this morning,” Benton said, giving the woman all the details she needed to pass on to the rest of the locals who would be filtering through the restaurant all day long.
“Well then, welcome, Claire, and congratulations. I’m sure you’ll do a fine job. What can I bring you to start your day off right?”
Ten minutes later, Benton was mashing his shredded hash brown into the yolks of his over-easy eggs when he noticed that Claire hadn’t taken a bite. “You need to eat something. Ticking Mrs. St. James off by insulting her cook is not a good way to win friends and influence people,” he said under his breath.
“I’m too nervous to eat!”
There were two ways he could handle that. The first was to smother her in sympathy. Instead, he decided to go with “Why would you be nervous? It’s not like it’s your first day on a new job with a new boyfriend in a new town. What will you do when you have something to be really stressed about?”
Claire froze at his words, then laughed for the first time that morning. She picked up a slice of toast and began slathering it in raspberry jam. “Obviously, I’m being totally ridiculous.”
“Obviously.” Benton took a sip of coffee. “So what do we do next?”
“You keep pretending to be my boyfriend, and I’ll continue my investigation. As soon as I’m accepted and people are used to seeing me, I’ll make quiet enquiries to see if anyone’s had any trouble. By the way, have you heard anything about any robberies in the area? Trespassers? Stuff going missing?”
He took a moment to think. “No, nothing. It’s a bad time for anyone trying to sneak onto a farm. Folks are working all hours getting machinery up and running and getting their planting done. On the other hand, smaller farms might be empty if everybody is out in the fields, so they might not even notice small stuff going missing. Do you want me to ask around?”
Claire didn’t have time to answer before Mrs. St. James returned to check on them. Then the entire diner fell silent when the front door opened. The momentary hush in the middle of the morning rush was deafening. When the conversations resumed a couple seconds later, Claire quietly asked, “Who’s that?” She tilted her head slightly toward a tall, black-haired man stalking toward the counter.
Benton didn’t recognize him, but then he usually wasn’t in the restaurant at this hour. “I don’t know.” He did know that he hadn’t seen the stranger around town.
“I don’t either, but I’ll find out,” Mrs. St. James whispered as she moved away. “Hi, welcome to Ruth’s Place. What can I get you?” she asked in a regular voice.
“Did people react like that when I walked in?” Claire asked.
“No.”
“Because I was with you?”
“Probably,” he admitted.
She gave him the biggest smile he’d seen on her since he’d surprised her with a triple-chocolate-scoop cone when he’d taken her to a baseball game two summers ago. “Okay, I fully admit it. This plan of yours is genius. If the rest of the town reacts to me this well, I’ll be accepted in days instead of weeks or months.”
Benton grinned. He’d take that kind of praise any day. “Stick with me, Claire. We’ll solve your case in no time.”