“She hasn’t even had any pancakes yet,” Ace said, noticing my empty hands. “So, this was all Codie. And she’s allowed to eat what she wants seeing as she lives here, fucker.”
Darby rolled his eyes and pulled three perfectly formed pancakes onto an empty plate.
“Just sayin’,” he said. “Food is important to me. It’s my only solid relationship.”
My lips twitched.
“Want some pancakes, Candy?” Desi asked.
I opened my mouth to decline when Banks answered for me. “Yes, she does.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
Because he was right.
I did want some.
Desi was a phenomenal cook, and if she wanted to offer up some of her pancakes, I would be a fool to tell her no.
Banks let me go and went to the plates, selecting two before handing me one.
“Take as many as you want,” he ordered.
I took two.
He added one more, then took four for himself.
I bit my lip as he guided me through the kitchen, stopping to add butter to both my stack and his, before guiding me to the table.
He held out the chair for me and I sat, feeling something deep inside of me start to flutter with anticipation.
“You’re looking mighty excited there, Sunshine,” Darby said, observing me from across the table.
“If these pancakes are half as good as the rest of her food,” I said. “Then they’re going to be life-changing.”
Desi snorted from the other side of the room.
“Sadly, these are from the box. I didn’t have time this morning to get creative,” Desi called from across the room.
I doubted they’d be bad.
“And why is that?” Callum teased her.
Desi’s face flushed. “Because someone doesn’t understand the concept of time management.”
Callum looked unrepentant, and honestly, kind of proud of himself.
I snickered.
“There was this one time last week that she allowed the bottom of one of her scones to get this side of crispy,” I said to the room at large. “She refused to sell them to the customers because they were wrong. I waited until she was delivering our deposit to the bank and sold them anyway. Nobody noticed. But I can honestly inform you that she is very picky about how her food comes out.”
Desi gasped. “I was wondering where that batch went!”
I shrugged. “I didn’t see any reason to throw them away, to be honest.”
Desi wrinkled her nose.
It was cute.
Moving until I was comfortable, and not too close to Banks, I dug in.
There was no out of the box taste to the pancakes. In fact, I hadn’t ever had anything that tasted so good, and I was a regular at Desi’s pastry counter.
“Who’s opening today?” Desi asked.
I looked over at Darby.
“She who shall not be named.”
Darby choked on a pancake and glared at me.
“Good,” Desi said. “Are you going in at all?”
I nodded once. “Yes. I’m going after I visit a couple more job sites after this one. I’ll be closing.”
Desi looked torn.
“What?” I asked around a mouthful of pancakes.
“I think that you should consider doing the half days like we talked about over dinner,” she said. “I know that you were kind of on the edge about it, but the more I think about it, the better I think it’ll work out for when, further down the road, we decide to have families and stuff.
I nodded once.
That, I could see.
For her, anyway.
When she had babies, she wouldn’t want to be getting up at oh-dark-thirty to bake. She’d want to be spending that time with her kids.
“I keep telling her to drop the pastries altogether,” Callum said as he licked his fingers free of stray syrup. “And you know you were talking about just selling the coffee. And if you dropped down to only that, you could drop the licensing that you need to serve food and drinks.”
Now that sounded like heaven, and my plan all along.
But when Desi had come to me with the idea of the coffee shop, I’d been so excited to finally have my way out, that I hadn’t considered the consequences of the rest of what she suggested.
“That’s what I want to do,” I admitted. “That’s really what I want to do.”
“Then it’s settled,” Callum said. “Drop the pastries and the coffee. Sell the display cases. Sell only coffee beans and ground coffee. She works out of the back on her special-order items. Win-win for everybody.”
“Then you can allow that girl,” Darby said, “to open or close or find someone else to open or close since you won’t need someone cooking and supervising. And you can help your father out more when he needs it.”
I turned to look at Darby.
“When did you get so smart?” I wondered.
“I also have another suggestion, though I’m thinking about not expressing them since Banks is so close to me,” he continued.
Now that intrigued me.
“What?” I pushed.
Banks growled. “Don’t.”
“You know it would solve some other things, too.”
“What’s going on?” I pushed.
Callum coughed and looked elsewhere. Ace buried his face in Codie’s hair, pulling her in tight.
It was surprisingly Desi, though, that came out and said it.
“Banks has some overzealous fans that are following him on the rodeo circuits,” Desi said, sounding not amused in the least. “We were brainstorming solutions when you came in.”
“And what solutions would that be?” I asked, turning to survey Banks.
Banks shook his head. “No good ones, that’s for sure.”
Desi snorted.
“I think you should go with the marriage one,” Codie suggested. “I mean, nothing says final like a ring on your finger.”
I looked at him with surprise.
“What kind of things have been going on?” I wondered.
“The kind of thing where he finds women in his camper after he rides,” Darby said.
“And the kind that has women following behind him every step he takes,” Ace said. “They followed him into the bathroom the other day when he took a shit. They recorded him.”
That was honestly the most embarrassing thing I’d ever heard.
“Shit,” I said.
“And we’ve been getting reports of people coming around town asking about him,” Callum said around his final bite of pancakes. “We’ve been doing our level best to hide where we live, but it’s only a matter of time before they find out.”
“When did this start?” I questioned, pancakes forgotten.
Banks continued to shove food into his mouth, acting for all he was worth as if he wasn’t affected.
But the stiffness in his shoulders told a different story.
Banks shrugged, as if he didn’t know when it started.
“We’re thinking it really started after he won nationals last year,” Ace said, ignoring his brother’s glare. “But he only started telling us about it after last week.”
“What happened last week?” I asked.
“Last week,” Banks sighed, “two girls tried to get into my truck where I was sleeping. I’d had something to drink before that the bartender had said was from a couple of girls. I didn’t drink it, but they thought I did. Which was why I was more than aware of them getting into the vehicle with me.”
I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.
“They tried to drug you?” I guessed.
“Yeah,” he grumbled.
That’s when nice Candy went out the window.
***
“Ummm, what?” my father asked.
“I’m going to go on the rodeo circuit with Banks,” I said. “I’m still going to do al
l of this other stuff for your business. I’ll be doing it all remotely, though. At least for this week. I have access to all of the accounts, and I’ll be taking the business laptop with me to make sure that I can continue with the work while I’m on the road.”
My father blinked. “But what about the coffee shop?”
“That’s on me,” Desi broke in.
She’d come with me after I’d explained that I had to talk to my father. She’d promised that she would help smooth things over, and at first, I hadn’t thought it was necessary.
Then my father started to throw questions my way about whether I’d really thought about what I was telling him.
And the reason Desi wanted to come became clear.
Because she was the clearheaded one in this situation.
Something had snapped in me after hearing that Banks had almost been drugged.
What in the hell was the world coming to that people thought that was okay to do?
Ugly feelings were rearing their head as I remembered my own rape, and a decision had been made without my conscious thought.
Banks probably didn’t need my protection, but I would feel better if he had it.
Even if all I could offer him was the protection of being his fake girlfriend.
“We discussed it, and the coffee shop has turned into something that we would rather it not be,” Desi continued as if my father’s ferocious scowl wasn’t directed toward her. “We really never intended it to turn into what it’s turned into, and we’re going to change it up.”
“Y’all have only been open for a couple of months,” he pushed.
“And that was all it took for us to realize that’s not what we wanted out of it,” she said honestly.
My father sighed. “I just don’t want y’all to regret this.”
“We won’t,” both Desi and I said at the same time.
“You’re sure?” he pushed, hooking his arm around my neck and pulling me into his side with his good hand.
“Promise.” I gave him the scout’s honor sign. “We have discussed this, and it’s exactly what we want. And, in the end, it saves us about two thousand dollars a month because we don’t need a food distributor’s license.”
My father’s scowl lessened.
“You’re going to make enough doing it this way?” he worried.
Desi snorted. “She makes more in direct sales of her coffee than I do in my pastries. Plus, she has her online sales.”
That was true.
I was honestly extremely surprised that it was working the way that it was.
People were loving the coffee.
When I’d started out, I was contacting a lot of veteran owned coffee distributors that formed solely online profits and asked them if they’d like a store where they could sell their goods. Seven different companies had agreed, and now I was the only store in the world that carried them.
I was doing well.
“What about all the sites that need visited?” he asked.
I looked at him pointedly.
“I’m trusting you to go visit them yourself,” I paused. “But also, you’re not allowed to pick up a screw gun, or a hammer, or anything. Do you understand?”
My father’s lips twitched. “You don’t know me.”
“I know that I’ve asked all three foremen at all three construction sites right now to make sure that they watch out for you,” I said. “And they’re under explicit instructions not to allow you anywhere near the construction zones without supervision.”
My father’s head went back on his neck and he laughed.
“Oh, shit.” He wheezed when he was done. “You do know me.”
I did.
“I’ll be back in a week,” I said. “We’re headed to Houston this week, then Louisiana next. But we’ll stop by so I can sign paychecks on Thursday to go out on Friday. Also, I’ll be visiting all three of the sites before we head out, too. And checking up on you and picking up your groceries.”
“What about your animals?” he asked.
“I’m trusting that you can feed them?”
He turned up his nose at me. ‘Of course, I can.”
“Then there’s no other problems, now are there?” I asked teasingly.
“There is one other thing,” Desi stated. “We’re inviting you to dinner each night. It’s not a far drive, and we always have more than enough.”
My dad looked considering for a long moment before he said, “I might very well take you up on that. Candy’s spoiled me. I’ve loved having a home-cooked meal since I’ve been staying with Candy.”
I heard the words that he didn’t say.
Since my mother had passed away.
I felt guilty for a long moment as I thought about all the time that I’d stayed away.
But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t visit with my father.
“I think you should sell your house,” I found myself saying. “You have no reason to live there anymore. I have a small cabin that’s perfect for you and having you close will be good for both me and you.”
My dad’s brows shot up.
“That… is nice of you,” he admitted. “But, I like my own place. I also like that I can do what I want when I want.”
My lips twitched. “You could do that here.”
He shrugged. “I like peeing off my back porch without worrying that I’m going to offend someone with my saggy balls.”
With that I burst out laughing.
“That’s awful,” I told him. “But I still love you.”
He sobered then, eyes going to me.
“This brings a lot of emotions up for me,” he said soberly. “But, just sayin’, I’m okay with you making a life without me. Don’t feel bad for that.”
With that he pressed a kiss to my forehead, held out his hand for Desi to shake, and gestured to the mess on the table. “Let’s get this sorted, baby girl. Then you’re free to go.”
I couldn’t do anything but shake my head.
***
The next couple of days moved fairly fast.
We went from selling coffee and pastries to pissing off the masses of Kilgore, Texas in twenty-four hours. One day we were the most loved pastry/coffee shop in town, and the very next there were a bunch of unhappy customers.
“It’ll be okay,” Desi said after yet another mad post to our shared Facebook page. “They’ll calm down. And it’s not like they can’t still get the cakes or pastries. They just have to call ahead. And that’s okay.”
It was okay.
Honestly, I wasn’t too upset with the reviews.
Overall, a lot of people had rallied around us, saying that they were just as happy now as they were when we were doing our earlier thing.
“I know,” I said. “I’m just sad, I guess. I thought that they wouldn’t crucify us.”
“And they didn’t.” Desi shrugged. “Mostly. The ones that did are just assholes. I mean, it’s not like we were meant to be on this planet just to serve them. I think our place got out of hand rather quickly. And eventually, we might decide that’s what we want to do. But for now, we’re both going different directions with our lives.”
She pressed a hand to her belly, and my eyes zeroed in on the action.
“Do you have something to tell me, business partner of mine?” I teased.
Desi flushed.
“I was waiting to tell you when we were a little more sure, but shit. It’s still so surreal. I mean, who the hell knew that being pregnant was so life-changing?” She paused. “I can’t stop touching my stomach, even though I know there’s not really anything there to support. What the hell?”
I clapped.
Then threw my arms around her. “Jesus, that’s great news. I’m so happy for you guys. How are the others? Just as excited?”
Callum came in then, a knowing grin on his face.
“Actually,” Callum said, followed in shortly by Banks. “A
ce is just as happy, but for his own woman who’s also carrying his child. Seems we’re going to have two rug rats running around together just like we had growing up.”
I grinned even wider then.
“Two out of four brothers are having babies,” Banks said, drawing my attention to him. “That’s a pretty cool thing, I guess.”
“You guess?” Callum laughed.
Banks shrugged. “Babies make me want to scratch. Because I get hives just thinking about it.”
I laughed then.
“Oh my God. At least we’re on the same page,” I found myself saying. In all honesty, I really did want kids. The only problem was that kids required care and love and attention. And that scared the shit out of me. “The idea of having a baby right now literally makes me want to jump off the nearest cliff. Can you imagine? I can’t even take care of my donkey. How would I handle a kid? I have so many things that I’m responsible for right now.”
Banks shared a laugh with me and took a look around the large, now almost empty room.
“Wow,” he said. “What happened to all the display cases?”
I looked where he was looking, seeing the now empty spots where they once had been.
“Well,” I said. “They’re not anywhere, really. We just had them moved to storage—y’all’s barn, actually. Darby helped. We’re going to bring in some shelves and get rid of our storage facility. That way all of our coffee and our baked goods can be stored here as well. And so, we’re not paying a shit ton more money for that climate controlled room that’s a giant pain in the ass to get to.”
Callum gathered Desi up into his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Y’all are moving fast now that y’all know what you want,” he observed.
I looked over at Banks. “That’s me, actually. Since we’re leaving tomorrow, making waves in the rodeo world and all, I wanted to make sure she wasn’t stuck with a crap ton of work.”
“And I appreciate her greatly.” Desi wound her arms around Callum’s waist.
I looked away, finding my eyes locked once again on the man who continuously caught my attention.
“Your pops is okay with watching all your animals?” he asked. “And you have the store covered?”
I nodded. “Darby’s girl is holding down the front fort while I’m gone. We moved her into the role of manager, and she’s going to hire someone else with Desi’s help this week to help with closing on the days that she can’t make it. Everyone is honestly thrilled with their new roles.”
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