She really hoped he would see that.
Parker strode through the door and into the diner with Ava on his heels.
“What are you guys—” But he didn’t finish his sentence as he turned slightly to his left.
Ava stopped short too, seeing it all for the first time in person.
She’d wanted to knock the entire wall down between the diner and the pie shop, but Cori had suggested this as a unique, fun design instead. And it was really…unique.
Where there had been a solid wall between the two restaurants, there was now a wide doorway that led from the diner into the pie shop. On either side of the door was a window, and above the door it read Blissfully Baked in the same script font used on the front of the shop. Where the rest of the diner’s interior was painted white, the wall around the doorway was the exact shade of light green as the outside of the shop. The door and windows were bordered in white, complete with pink shutters, and there was even a pink and green striped awning over the door, making the whole thing a miniature version of the actual front of the pie shop.
“We need to see the other side too.” She started for the doorway. Evan handed her the papers he’d drawn up as she passed. Then she realized Parker wasn’t following her. She went back to grab Parker’s hand and pull him into the pie shop with her.
On the pie shop side, the doorway mimicked the front of the diner, including the bright blue color of the siding and the yellow trim and CAFÉ stenciled in block letters in the window on the right.
Wow, this was amazing. She turned to look up at Parker with a huge grin.
That died almost immediately.
He didn’t just look surprised. He looked like someone had just slapped him across the face.
Evan stepped forward. Seeming cautious. “Hey, buddy?”
Parker said nothing.
Noah joined Evan on the other side of the doorway from Parker. “Deep breath, man. It’s all good, right? Big surprise, but kinda cool.”
It sounded like he was trying to convince Parker. Ava frowned and stepped in front of him. “Hey.” She waited until Parker looked at her. “What’s going on? Say something.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. He focused on her fully, his gaze intense. “What the fuck did you do?”
18
Ava felt her eyes widen, but she took a deep breath and gave him a smile. It was all just sinking in for him. It would be fine. “This is my way of making sure you have everything you want,” she told him.
He took a deep breath. He swallowed. He clenched his jaw. Then he scowled. “When did I ever give you the impression that I wanted a hole in my wall?”
Okay, so that wasn’t exactly the reaction she’d expected, but this was a big surprise. He just needed a little time to get used to it.
“You’re going to be a partner in the pie shop. This way you can be in two places at once,” she said. “It will be so much easier to go back and forth and take care of things on both sides.”
“So basically,” he said, crossing his arms. “You’ve now doubled my work, rearranged my diner, and made it impossible for me to say no because it’s already done.”
She blinked at him. “Well…no.” None of that was what she’d intended.
“The pie shop is now connected to the diner, Ava,” he said, his exasperation clear. “That means people will be expecting pie. The pie that I’ve adamantly refused to serve in the diner. And there is now more space to clean. More supplies to buy. More tables which means more people at once. That all means more work.”
She felt her own frown start. He didn’t have to do all the work by himself. That was also part of her plan. As she and Hank and Roger and Cori and Evan and Brynn and Noah had all proved over the last few weeks, other people could pitch in and help him out.
“You don’t have to do it all.”
“But I want to,” he said. He blew out a breath and dropped his arms. “This is my diner. I run it the way I want to, by myself, the way it’s always been. The way I like it.”
She counted to ten before she responded. “But you were excited about being a partner in the pie shop. How did you think you were going to do that exactly?” she asked.
“By letting Cori take the lead in the kitchen and helping her however I could on the side.”
“But you have ideas for the pie shop too,” Ava insisted. “Why not do both?”
“Because I’m already doing what I want to do!” He looked completely frustrated as he shoved a hand through his hair. “That diner has been the way it is for fifteen years. And I like it that way. I…need it to be that way.”
Her heart was pounding and she was trying like hell to understand. But frankly, people didn’t say no to her when she was trying to give them things. Honestly, more often than not, the meetings she had were with people wanting her to give them things. “Here.” She shoved the papers she held at him. Maybe this would help show him what she’d intended.
“What’s this?”
“The deed to the building. I assumed the loan from the bank and, thanks to Evan, those documents turn the whole thing over to you. You now own every part of the diner, just like we’d discussed, and you own the pie shop too.”
He looked at the cover page but didn’t bother to flip through the pages.
“Cori is completely fine with it,” Ava added, glancing at her sister. Cori gave her a wide-eyed look. Ava just shrugged. “You’ll still be partners in the business itself but you’re the owner of the physical building.”
“You weren’t supposed to use your personal funds for the pie shop,” he said, scowling at the page.
“I didn’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I reinvested the pie shop’s profit into this.”
He turned his scowl on her. “You what?”
She frowned back at him. “I did what any smart business person does. I took our profits and reinvested them in an idea that will make us even more money.”
“You have to have that profit to fulfill the stipulations of the will!” Parker exclaimed. “You just got back to a positive balance.”
“Yes, because everyone heard that you were getting involved,” she said. “And using it now, when we still have six months left, to make this very positive change, was a smart decision.”
He pulled a deep breath in through his nose. “So you really did put a hole in the wall of my diner and turned the building I own into one big restaurant without asking me about it first.”
Ava put a hand on her hip, frustration and disappointment and yes, hurt, welling up. “Actually, I turned the building I own into two restaurants that are now connected,” she said coolly. “And now I’m giving it to you.”
Now he did look up. “Well, I don’t want this.”
“You don’t want it to be even easier to manage both businesses and to make even more food for more people?” she asked.
He handed the papers back to her. “No.” He turned and started for the kitchen.
Ava simply stared, perplexed, watching him go. Then realized what he was about to walk into. “Parker! Hey, we need to talk about this!” She ran after him, but he hit the door to the diner’s kitchen before she could get to him.
He stopped so suddenly on the other side, she nearly plowed into him. She took a deep breath and slipped around him, holding her hands up.
“Okay, just, hang on,” she told him before he could speak. “Don’t freak out.”
But he wasn’t saying anything even though his mouth was hanging open.
Shit, shit, shit. “Parker, I—”
“Dammit, Ava!” He finally erupted. He looked down at her, his eyes stormy.
So, in spite of the brand new, shiny silver industrial oven that could bake multiple pies at once, and the additional prep space and the new bigger fridge, he wasn’t thrilled with the hole in the wall between their kitchens either.
Yes, this was a big hole. Bigger than the one in the front. In fact, this one had more or less made the back rooms of the two businesses into o
ne big kitchen. But it was a very nice big kitchen. And if he opened the new fridge, he’d see it was fully stocked with butter and eggs. Because she’d thought that would be kind of funny and sentimental and sweet. She’d taken down her egg-throwing wall to put all of this in, because she didn’t need that egg-throwing wall anymore. She wasn’t frustrated with her lack of ability in the kitchen anymore. And she now had access to a wood pile and chainsaw for when she did need to work off some steam.
But it didn’t look like Parker would find that quite as meaningful as she’d intended it at the moment.
Still, she had to try to make him understand what she’d done. Or rather, why she’d done what she’d done.
“I want to combine our lives, Parker,” she said, keeping her voice calm. “That’s what I’m trying to show you here.”
“There is no way you had enough profit to afford all of this,” he said, his voice dangerously low.
“Okay, I might have gone to the bank for a small loan.”
“Dammit, Ava!” he exploded. “You had just gotten Rudy’s loan paid off and started making money! Now you’re right back where you started!”
“I believe in this, Parker,” she insisted. “I know what I’m doing. And not only is this a good business decision, it’s good for us. Personally. I want to spend most of my time in Bliss and I want to be a part of your world and I want you to be a part of mine. All of it. All the time.”
“You want to be a part of my world when it’s the way you think it should be.”
Whoa. She frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You want to be a part of my world if it’s bigger and better and under your influence. You couldn’t be happy with just my simple diner that’s always the same.” He was scowling at the new oven. “I don’t know why I ever thought you could maybe be satisfied with burgers. It’s always going to have to be chicken salad with you.”
“What? No.” Did she want to encourage him and give him opportunities and support him? Yes. But the way he said “influence” it sounded like he thought she wanted to take over.
“You do realize that I call you Boss sarcastically, right?” he asked, focusing on her directly again.
She felt her mouth fall open and her eyes started to sting. She blinked and drew herself up tall. “Actually, I thought you called me Boss affectionately.” She was glad her voice didn’t wobble. Her throat definitely felt tight.
“Well, you’re not the CEO of this diner,” he said, his scowl deep. “This wasn’t your decision to make.”
Ouch.
Okay, so, she wasn’t used to asking for, or waiting for, permission. She was not usually the one pitching ideas and getting approval. She was the one giving the thumbs-up or down. So no, she hadn’t thought to run this past him. The idea had come to her and she’d made a phone call. Putting things into motion was easy for her, and she never really gave much thought to the fact that wasn’t true for everyone. But she had contacts and connections everywhere for just about everything. If she didn’t know someone directly, she definitely knew someone who knew someone. She’d come up with an idea, something she thought was really creative and meaningful, and then she’d just…done it.
“I’m not trying to be the CEO of the diner,” she told him. “I don’t want to change it. I just want you to be happy. To have everything you want.”
“But you did change the diner! My dad’s diner. I messed up his life in Chicago, Ava. I was the reason he came to Bliss. And I’ve been determined to not mess things up here.”
She sucked in a breath. This was not going even remotely the way she’d intended it to go. She didn’t want him to see this as a mess. “Parker, I know what it’s like to try to follow your dad in his business. But I’ve also realized that what he really gave me was not a business, but an opportunity. A chance to find my own way rather than just following his path. That’s what you have here from your dad too.”
“I like my path. I have exactly the life I’ve always wanted to have,” he said, suddenly sounding tired. “And yes, I wanted you to be a part of that. But I was hoping that what I already had was enough for you.”
“So you’re fine having me in your world, in your greenhouse, in your chicken coop, in your bed, as long as I’m the only thing changing,” she said, tears pricking the backs of her eyes again.
“I thought you were happy about the changes you’ve made.”
“I am. But I thought…we would make changes together,” she said. She blew out a frustrated breath. “You’re so talented and you love food and you love creating new things. You don’t want other people to love it as much as you do?”
“I thought you loved it as much as I do,” he said flatly.
She frowned. “I do.”
“That’s enough for me.”
“Cooking for me is enough for you?” she asked, disbelievingly.
“Cooking for you. Picking strawberries with you. Cleaning up the diner with you. Gathering eggs with you. Making love to you. That’s enough for me. And I thought you were starting to feel the same way. I thought you were starting to feel at home. To feel something for Bliss that you couldn’t get in New York.”
She swallowed hard. “I do feel something for Bliss I can’t get in New York.”
“But it’s not enough.”
Ava felt her breath catch in her chest. It was enough. It was.
Wasn’t it? She thought about the cooking and the strawberries and the kitchen and waking up next to him. Was that enough? Then she looked around. This, this new stuff, the new pie ideas, the possibilities, were all amazing too. “I know this is bigger than you’ve ever imagined. But you still have everything you’ve always had. Nothing’s gone away.”
He took a deep breath. “The one thing you knew, the most important thing, was that I didn’t want the diner to change.” His voice was low, but not sexy low. It was super-pissed low. “And you knew why.”
“But I—”
“The other thing you knew, was that I believed our trip to New York was about us. Personally. Our relationship. The next step.”
“It was, I—”
“But the entire time we were gone, you were thinking about business and orchestrating all of this. Behind my back.”
His voice was rising, and Ava felt her defenses growing.
“As a surprise! Because I wanted to do something appropriately big and wonderful for this next step. Because New York was about us! It was what convinced me that I can be in two places, doing all the things I need, and want, to do. And it was what made me realize you can do the same. This is practical, but it’s also symbolic, dammit!”
He actually rolled his eyes at that, and Ava drew her spine ramrod straight. He was rolling his eyes about her? About her symbolic, sweet, I-want-to-share-everything gesture? “This is the next step, Parker. Sharing our lives. I have never done something like this for someone other than my mom and sisters. I did this because you’re important to me!” She was almost shouting now too.
“You should have fucking asked me.”
“Then it wouldn’t have been a fucking grand gesture!”
He just stared at her. She wasn’t sure where that had come from either. She didn’t make grand gestures. Even with her mom and sisters. She usually just put money into their accounts. That was as grand as it got. But Parker had her thinking about…more. How much she wanted to do something that would make him happy. It had been fun thinking up ways to demonstrate to him how she felt about him. No, she hadn’t literally knocked down the walls herself, but she had put thought and a personal touch on all of this. That’s why there were denim aprons with ruffles and apple pie shots on the center island of Parker’s kitchen. Strangely, it was those little details that were also pretty grand in her book. It had all taken a lot more thought and heart than she really ever gave to anything else.
“I don’t need grand gestures, Ava,” Parker finally said, sounding tired. “I need to come to work, like I’ve always done, and live my life…
like I’ve always done.”
Her throat was tight and she had to clear it before she asked, “And where am I in that plan?”
He sighed. “An hour ago? I would have said in bed next to me and in the kitchen next door to me. Now…”
He didn’t know. He didn’t say it out loud, but she knew that’s what he was thinking.
Ava felt a chill sweep over her. “Life changes when you have a relationship, Parker,” she said, her voice softer now. “At least a real one where you want that person involved in the things you care about.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess it does.”
Ava felt tears welling up. “Especially when it’s with someone really different from you. Who has different ideas and wants to be a part of things—even the things you’ve always had to yourself.”
He nodded again. “I guess so.”
She waited for him to say more. Then hoped he wouldn’t if it was something like “I can’t do this. You’ve messed up my kitchen, my diner, my life.”
She could pay to have everything put back the way it had been. Maybe she even should. But other than that, she didn’t know what to do here. And she knew, somehow, that wouldn’t actually fix this.
Because he wasn’t really mad about the hole in his wall. Okay, he definitely was. But it was more because she was insinuating herself into his life, and he was losing a bit of his control of the life that he’d so carefully constructed and protected. He was fine with having her at the farm when she was picking up chickens and having sex with him in his greenhouse. But he had really liked when her phone had been out in his truck and not in her hand. He hadn’t even wanted her to pick his spinach and strawberries for salads. And now she’d opened up the wall between the pie shop and the diner when he’d been very comfortable with that wall being there. That wall between his domain and the place she and her sisters were changing and expanding.
Feeling her frustration building and her reasonableness decreasing, she took a deep breath. She didn’t yell in business meetings. She didn’t get her feelings hurt. She was always in control. And she was absolutely going to treat this like a business meeting.
High Heels and Haystacks: Billionaires in Blue Jeans, book two Page 27
