See? This was why it was a problem for her to be involved with Cam. She’d get distracted in the middle of explaining that the Cinnamon Curls were their lowest selling cakes so that machine could possibly be used part-time for the new bars, but that because the new bars were chocolate and the Cinnamon Curls were not it would be a bigger transition than using a machine that already used chocolate.
She blew out a breath. She was not going to think about Cam and her breakfast bar and that he probably really hated what she was wearing today. It was all gray.
“Right. As I was saying…”
She explained how adding this new product would affect their production line. It could mean decreased production of other cakes, that they needed a plan to transition existing machinery, that it might mean increased shifts for workers and the need to hire additional employees, that they might need new equipment entirely, and even an addition to the factory. No matter what or how they did it, it would mean more man-power and money.
Grant was nodding as she finished, and Aiden sat forward in his chair.
“That all makes sense to me,” Aiden said.
“Do you think we can draw up some projections?” Grant asked.
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Great,” Aiden said. “Just let us know where we should start.”
Whitney lifted her brows. He was just going with it? She felt a moment of panic. They were just going to trust her completely? They didn’t have any questions? No concerns? No alternatives to offer?
“Unless I’m missing something,” she said.
She wasn’t. She’d sat in on meetings about production dozens of times. They’d never launched a new snack cake but they’d upped production on most of the cakes in their product line. They’d expanded to new markets and needed to meet that increased demand.
She’d always found the meetings pretty boring and wouldn’t have believed that she’d absorbed much knowledge from them, but it had all made sense. If you needed more cakes, for whatever reason, you needed to be sure you had the machines for it and the people to run those machines.
“I don’t think you’re missing anything,” Aiden told her. “We need a machine to produce the new cakes and we need more people. Seems easiest to use what we already have until we see what the demand is like.”
She nodded. It did. It was pretty straightforward.
“And I don’t think hiring will be a problem,” she said, not sure why she felt the need to throw that out there. “Everyone here is talking about the great changes you’ve already made to benefits and work shifts and such. We’ve had more applications coming in than usual.”
The men all smiled at that and she realized why she’d said it. It really mattered to these guys that their employees were happy and that they had a reputation as good guys to work for. She liked that about them so much.
Dax looked especially pleased. “Awesome.”
She also liked how much it mattered to him even though he was no longer one of their bosses. He’d been a huge part of the changes they’d made for their employees from benefits to work environment.
“We should offer a couple dollars more an hour for the later shift, of course. We can have a job fair. But—” Then she hesitated.
These were big decisions. She did not want to get too far ahead or in too deep in case things didn’t work.
“But?” Aiden prompted.
Whitney took a breath. She’d known Aiden for a long time. He was Cam’s best friend. He’d been one of the few people who had known about her and Cam in high school. He’d kept their secret for a very long time. He had Cam’s back whether he agreed with every decision or not. He was a great friend.
She wanted him to be her friend.
The thought seemed to come from out of the blue. It seemed misplaced in the midst of a business meeting. But these meetings always showcased how these people fit together. They each had strengths and weaknesses and they balanced each other almost perfectly. They’d found each other and together had created not just a wildly successful business partnership but an enviable friendship.
And she wanted to be a part of it. She wanted to fit somewhere the way they all did.
Aiden had come back to Appleby for Zoe. He’d bought Hot Cakes as part of his new life. And the rest of them had come with him. To help him. To support him. To back him up. But also because they probably couldn’t imagine being in Chicago without him.
She didn’t have anyone following her. She didn’t have anyone staying for her. Hell, her family—the people she’d given her dedication to—had left to go to Dallas, leaving her here.
She supposed she could have gone with them. But they hadn’t asked her to.
“But what, Whit?” Aiden asked.
She did not want to screw this up. They were trusting her to know how they should move forward with this new product. What she knew came from listening in and observing. She’d never actually done it. She’d never really done anything. She’d led a few meetings, met with a few accounts, gone to a few conferences, but she hadn’t really led anything important. Certainly not launching an entirely new product including everything from the recipe to the labor needed.
This whole new-snack-cake thing had been her idea.
And they’d ended up with alpacas at the taste-testing event.
She swallowed. “I just think we should start small,” she said. “Maybe we can transition one of the machines for a night shift three nights a week. We’ll offer overtime and hire a small crew and let them know it’s temporary work for now. I don’t want them to think they’re coming on full time if it doesn’t take off the way we’d like.”
Aiden watched her for several seconds. Then he nodded. “Whatever you think.”
She felt her gut tighten. That might have been the worst thing he could have said.
Grant glanced from Aiden to Whitney then back before he nodded. “We’ll follow your lead, Whitney.”
Her gut tightened even further and she felt a little sick.
Whitney forced herself to take a deep breath. She needed to relax. This was how a new product launched. Probably. They had to actually launch the product to see how it went. It couldn’t be successful if they didn’t put it out there.
She never should have pitched the idea of a new snack cake to the guys. Or she should have gotten all of this together before she did. Why hadn’t they asked about all of this before they put together a big event to choose what kind of snack cake they’d be adding? Obviously they needed machines to make whatever it was. And packaging. And a name for it.
She felt her heart racing.
They hadn’t asked because they didn’t know how to do this. They’d been trusting her to do it. They’d been following her lead. She was the one who should have known the proper steps to take and what all they needed to do.
Fuck.
“Cam!” A voice called on the computer. A voice Whitney knew very well. “I need the food processor!”
Cam met Whitney’s eyes through the computer screen. “She does not need the food processor.”
Whitney felt a little tension leave her shoulders as she smiled. “No, no she does not.”
“I can’t make guacamole without it!” Didi called.
“You most certainly can!” he called back. “Hand mashed guac is the way to go. As we discussed this morning.”
“So you hid the food processor from me? In my own house?” Didi demanded.
“Yes. But I’m not sure I needed to,” he told her, “since you’re looking for it in the bathroom!”
“Are you making fun of me having memory problems?” Didi asked.
He grinned. “Of course not.” He turned back to the group. “I need to go.” He disconnected without waiting for anyone to say anything.
Whitney wasn’t sure if she should laugh, or hide under the table, or head straight home.
The guys all laughed as Aiden closed his laptop.
“I so fucking love that he’s being kept on his
toes all day and that it’s a seventy-something-year-old woman doing it,” Dax said, shaking his head.
“Cam and Didi Lancaster,” Aiden said. “I did not see that one coming.” His gaze landed on Whitney. “This is… an interesting development.”
“Talk about grand gestures,” Dax agreed.
Whitney suddenly found herself ready to tell everyone what was going on. That was weird. She recognized it was very unlike her—or anyone in her family—to tell personal details, especially to work acquaintances. But she still heard herself saying, “My grandmother is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. She needs someone with her for all but very short periods. She didn’t like the woman I hired, so during their dessert date she talked Cam into being her companion until she moves into Sunny Orchard.”
They all took a moment to process that.
Aiden was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, Whit.”
“Thanks. It’s been hard,” she admitted. “But I know it’s going to get worse. I’m grateful she’s excited about Sunny Orchard,” she said to Dax. “That will be better for her. But we’re just in this in-between stage right now since my family went to Dallas.” She frowned. It wasn’t as if her family had been a ton of help when they’d been here, honestly. A lot of it had still fallen to Whitney and she and Didi had both preferred it that way. But Whitney had been left out of so much at Hot Cakes that she never felt that she was missing anything at the office by not being there.
“You’re okay with Cam being there?” Aiden asked.
She glanced up, refocusing on the men around the table. She wasn’t missing out now. In fact, they were all looking to her to lead them through this next stage.
She should have kept her mouth shut about a new product until Didi was settled at Sunny Orchard. She’d just gotten caught up in excitement and things had snowballed with the brainstorming with Ollie and… she hadn’t expected them to listen to her, honestly. She’d tossed it out there the way she had a dozen other ideas over the years with her family, but she was so used to those ideas barely making a blip on anyone’s radar that she hadn’t been prepared for anyone to actually say, “Let’s do it!”
“What do you mean?” she asked Aiden. Now that she was really looking at him, she saw there was something in his expression that looked almost like concern.
“Cam can be damned pushy and stubborn as fuck,” Aiden said bluntly, sitting forward.
Whitney straightened.
“If you don’t want him there, we’ll get him out,” Aiden told her. He looked at Grant.
Grant nodded. “Just say the word. We can deal with him.”
Whitney’s eyes widened. She felt a strange surge of an emotion that was hard to name. They were… protecting her? Coming to her defense? Willing to “deal with” one of their best friends for her? That felt good in a weird way. She really didn’t have people taking care of her. Other than Didi. And even then there had been a lot of “pick your battles” advice from her grandmother. The idea that these guys would be on her side rather than Cam’s was surprising and really nice.
But there were no sides here. That was the truth. She just did not want these men to get into a conflict with Cam. There was no need. She wasn’t upset with Cam. Now.
“No. It’s… okay.”
Aiden shook his head. “I’m not sure it is.”
Whitney felt her head shaking as well. “No. Honestly it is.”
Even before the kiss, it had gotten okay. But since the kiss… well, she wanted him to stick around. It hadn’t even been a kiss. She wanted a kiss now. Which was really stupid and a pretty great way to ensure that she made a really big mistake—an even bigger mistake than kissing him in the first place. But she was sure of one thing…she didn’t want him to leave.
“When he first told me about helping with Didi, I thought he was crazy, I’ll admit. But you should hear him explain it.” She gave them a grin.
Aiden didn’t smile back. “Cam can convince most people of most things. It makes him an amazing attorney.”
She lifted a brow. “You think he somehow tricked me into this?”
“When Cam wants something, he gets it,” Dax said. He said it in a very matter-of-fact way.
“So he wants to help my grandmother out,” Whitney said.
Dax gave her a look. “I don’t think that’s all he wants.”
“Oh, Cam will be great with Didi.” Piper swept back into the room. She proceeded to set cold bottles of water in front of each of them.
None of them had asked for water, but three of the four men reached for the bottles right away. Whitney smiled, amazed by the dynamic. Either Piper could sense when the guys were thirsty even from fifty feet away, or the guys just assumed they were thirsty if Piper was giving them water.
“You think so?” Ollie asked. “Cam doesn’t seem like the… nurturing type.”
Piper shrugged. “Exactly.”
“What do you mean?” Ollie asked.
“I’m guessing a woman who started her own company and helped grow it into a multimillion dollar company isn’t the type to want nurturing,” Piper said. “If she’s in the early stages, then she’s probably aware of the fact that she’s forgetting things or that usual tasks are more difficult now. The last thing she’ll want is to be taken care of. She’ll understand that she needs to be safe and she needs some help. So why not choose a hot guy who’s funny and who can be sweet, but who won’t coddle her, to spend time with if she has the chance?”
“Cam can be sweet?” Ollie asked. “I haven’t really noticed that.”
“He can be very sweet,” Piper confirmed.
“Give me three examples.”
“He sent a plant to Conner Daniels when his father passed away.”
Ollie looked surprised. “He did? Or you did?”
“He did. He asked me for a florist but he even made the call.”
“Isn’t Conner the lawyer who sued us over the use of the name Vandragon Dungeons?” Dax asked.
Whitney could have kissed Dax. On the cheek of course. But she was so glad he’d clarified who Conner was so she wouldn’t ask. She knew she should not be, or act, interested in Cam and details like who he was sending plants to, but dammit, she was.
“Tried to,” Grant said with a nod. “Cam won. Of course. But yeah, he and Conner were absolutely not friends.”
“See?” Piper said to Ollie. “That was sweet. They were on opposite sides in business and Cam kicked his ass, but he still sent his condolences over a personal issue.”
Ollie narrowed his eyes. “Fine. Two more.”
“The donations he makes to Appleby.”
“You mean the donations he makes that get his name in big block letters on the side of things?” Aiden asked with a smile.
Okay, Whitney knew about those. He’d donated money to build the youth sports complex, and that did, indeed, have his name—his last name anyway—on the side of it. He’d also donated to various projects around town when the community needed something but had trouble coming up with the funds.
“Those,” Piper said. “But also the scholarships, the medical bills, the service dog training.”
Whitney glanced around the table and saw that Cam’s friends looked as surprised as she felt.
“The what?” Aiden finally asked.
Piper nodded. “He has a foundation where people can apply for funds for all kinds of things. Help paying medical bills or help buying a handicapped accessible van or anything like that.” She looked smug. “He never makes a big deal about that.”
Clearly. Whitney had never heard about any of that.
“He knows that the people needing the funds don’t want to make their needs public and he’s fine just helping out behind the scenes. Believe it or not,” she added with a little smile.
“Huh,” Ollie finally said.
“Sweet, right?” Piper asked. Her eyes met Whitney’s.
Dammit, that was sweet.
“Fine,” Ollie conceded. “One more.”
“You think he gets stupid drunk after seeing Whitney every time he comes home because he’s emotionless and cold-hearted?” Piper asked.
Whitney felt her chest tighten.
“Only a guy who’s sweet, down deep anyway, would still have get-drunk feelings for a girl ten years later,” Piper said.
Now Whitney’s throat tightened too.
She didn’t get drunk after she’d seen him, but she knew exactly how he felt.
“Fine,” Ollie said. “I guess maybe he has a sweet side.” He rolled his eyes.
Piper laughed. “He does. But he’ll be good with Didi. He won’t baby her and he won’t let her get away with anything that’s not safe.”
Ollie laughed. “Yeah, Cam is not the type to baby someone.”
Piper nodded. “He’ll make her behave.”
“How will she take that?” Dax asked Whitney.
“Well.” Whitney shrugged. “My grandpa was pretty domineering.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. But…” Whitney started actually thinking about the question. “Grandma kind of did whatever the hell she wanted anyway, honestly.”
“That sounds like Letty,” Aiden said with a small smile.
Whitney returned the smile. Aiden hadn’t been Letty’s grandson by blood, but he’d still been her grandson in the ways that counted. His mom and Cam’s had been best friends and the boys had grown up together. After Aiden’s mom had passed away when he was fourteen, he’d more or less moved in with the McCafferys. He’d spent as much time at the bakery and with Letty as Cam had, truly.
Whitney nodded. “Her motto was always it’s easier to get forgiven than get permission. She embezzled money from the company forever.”
All the eyebrows in the room went up. “What?” Grant asked. “How? It was her company.”
“Okay, it wasn’t really embezzlement,” Whitney said. “But she took money from the company that my grandfather and father never knew about. My grandfather took the business over early on, figuring he was better at the ‘money stuff’ than she was. He let her be in charge of the recipes and overseeing the bakers and production lines for the most part, but he was in charge of all the money and marketing. But she had employee loyalty and the company accountant paid money into a private account that was Didi’s alone, that my grandfather never knew about.”
Semi-Sweet On You (a Second Chance Small Town Rom Com) (Hot Cakes Book 5) Page 16
