Sweet Surprise: Romance Collection

by Wanda E. Brunstetter, Kristin Billerbeck, Kristy Dykes, Aisha Ford, Birdie L. Etchison, Pamela Griffin, Joyce Livingston, Tamela Hancock Murray

  “And how are you supposed to do that?”

  “I’m totally capable of finding someone. Remember the National Restaurateurs’ Convention I went to last summer? I made some good contacts there and got to know some local restaurateurs better. I’m sure I can find someone local who’ll be willing to agree to this deal.”

  “I don’t like the sound of it, but I trust you. Do what you can do. If not, we’ll do fine without the job.”

  “Thanks for understanding, Dad. Any other time I might have turned the offer down flat, but for some reason I couldn’t say no.”

  “Humph. Three days is a ridiculous deadline, so you’d better get on the phone and start calling folks now.”

  “I will do my best just as soon as I get home from the gym.”

  “The gym? You’re not even at work?”

  “Actually, I’m on my way to the gym now, but I’ll call you later with an update about how the search is going.”

  “Monica, I know you’re in charge of the company, but maybe this is something you should have discussed with me first. After all, if it doesn’t work out, then you’re putting the company name on the line.”

  Monica could see his point, but part of being in charge was making mistakes, wasn’t it? And what about taking risks? Didn’t all the entrepreneurs who prospered take big risks at one time or another? She could tell this conversation was not going to end well or soon, if her dad had his way. The best course of action for now would be to get off the phone.

  “Okay, Dad, I promise we can talk about this later. But right now isn’t the best time. It’s really windy outside, and I’m having a hard time steering the car, so I probably shouldn’t be talking on the phone.”

  Bob grunted in reply, but Monica knew he wouldn’t protest further. One of his pet peeves was driving near people who seemed to be distracted because they were talking on the phone. Both of her parents constantly lectured her about her habit of driving and chatting. Their remedy for the situation had been to buy her an earpiece for the phone, but Monica usually forgot to put it in the car.

  “All right. Get off the phone and call me later. Even though I wonder if going to the gym when you’ve got so much to do is a good use of your time.”

  “Love you, Dad.” Monica hung up quickly, before her dad could give her a speech on the virtue of diligence at work.

  How could a man who never took a day off from work in over forty years possibly understand her need to blow off steam by doing something other than standing over a stove, concocting new recipes?

  Just over a year ago, when her mother had finally convinced him to retire, Monica and her mom were both at their wits’ end, because her father found a way to come into the office nearly every day.

  Over the past few months, she’d managed to convince him that the place was in good hands, but the last thing she needed was for this deal with Adella to fail. If that happened, she might as well move right out of her office, because her dad would be back at work quicker than Adella could click over to the other line.

  Pulling into an empty parking space, Monica decided now was a good time for a quick prayer.

  “Lord, looking back, it feels like maybe I did the wrong thing to say yes to the deal with Adella. If it was a mistake, please show me a graceful way to bow out before I get in over my head. But if this is something that will be good for business, then I’m asking You to help me with all of the details—and please keep my dad calm in the process.”

  A loud, forceful bang on the passenger-side door of the car interrupted her thoughts. Monica quickly glanced over to see what was going on.

  The man parked next to her had opened his door and rammed his door into hers. With an apologetic look on his face, he mouthed, “Sorry,” and bent down to examine the damage.

  “Great, just what I need. Instead of getting my cardio in, I get to sit here and haggle with this guy over insurance information.”

  She yanked her gym bag out of the backseat and steeled herself to get down to business. Tall and handsome, with an air of confidence, he looked like the type of guy who would try to convince her that any damage wasn’t his fault, and then brag to his friends about how he’d put one over on some naive woman at the gym. He almost reminded her of Gil, but underneath that borderline arrogant exterior, Gil was truly a nice guy. At least, he had seemed nice—he and his backstabbing family.

  “Well, no one’s going to walk all over me today,” Monica muttered, stepping out of the car and hefting the bag over her shoulder. “I already messed up with Adella, but this pushover is reformed as of right now.”

  Feeling mildly disgusted that she had thought about Gil twice today, when she’d gone years without even saying his name, Monica had a feeling her dad was right. She should have stayed at work and skipped the workout today, but since she found herself in this situation, she was determined to get a satisfactory resolution, no matter what antics this guy tried to pull.

  As Monica walked to the other side of the car, the man stood up and grinned. “Amazingly, it looks fine to me.”

  “Are you kidding? It sounded like you hit the door with a sledgehammer.” Don’t back down, she told herself.

  He shook his head and motioned to the door. “Nope, not even a scratch. And, for the record, I didn’t hit it on purpose. It’s this January weather,” he said, gesturing midair. “Right when I got out of the car, the wind picked up and took the door with it.”

  As Monica reached the door, he stepped back so she could examine it for herself. Bending over, she saw no sign of scratches or dents.

  Embarrassed for being so nitpicky, she stood up, feeling a sheepish grin spread over her face. “I guess you’re right. So no harm done.”

  “Right…right,” he said, speaking slowly and staring at her so intently that she grew uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

  Her first impulse was to jump in the car and drive away, but she recognized something distantly familiar about this stranger.

  Forgetting her manners, Monica stared back, straining to get a better look at him, despite the dim light outside.

  “Monica?” he said.

  Was it really? No way.

  “Monica!” he said again, this time, more assured.

  “Gil?” Monica wondered if the long day at work had stressed her to the point where she was merely imagining him. What if other people in the parking lot were watching her converse with nothing but air. Or maybe she had simply fallen asleep at her desk.

  Before she could ponder more possibilities, the man presumed to be Gil took a step forward and enveloped her in a hug.

  It was Gil. This was not a dream.

  Chapter 2

  I t really has been a long time, hasn’t it?”

  Monica nodded, sipping her banana-berry yogurt smoothie. “Part of me can’t even believe we’re sitting here together.” She quickly considered how that might have sounded and tried to think of a way to clarify her thoughts. “Not…together, together. Just, together…here…you and me, you know?”

  The corner of Gil’s mouth twitched, but if he found her statement uncomfortable, he hid it well.

  “I know. I mean, it almost feels like I’m meeting you for the first time.”

  Except for the hug. Nobody would hug a stranger like that. Monica pushed the memory of his cologne aside and tried to concentrate on her smoothie instead.

  “So tell me everything that’s been going on with you,” he said.

  Monica chuckled. “How much time do you have? Because recapping ten years is going to take more than a few minutes.

  “I’ve got time,” he said, a glint of laughter in his eyes.

  “No, you don’t,” she protested. “Besides, that would leave no time for you to talk. What have you been up to?”

  He shrugged. “This, that, and everything. I went away to college while I was getting my business management degree, and I came back and worked at the restaurant during the summer. By way of an interesting turn of events, I discovered I was just
as good at managing talent as I was at managing in the food business, so I moved away for good, became a talent manager for gospel musicians, and then came back a year ago to pick up where I left off. It seems that my dad heard your dad was retiring and decided to play copycat.”

  The mention of their fathers gave Monica pause. Suddenly, her smoothie wasn’t as appetizing. What would her dad say if he knew she was sitting in the café at the gym, sipping a banana-berry smoothie across from the son of the man who had almost ruined all that he had worked to build?

  As she glanced around to see if she saw any familiar faces, Monica felt like a criminal.

  She pushed her smoothie aside and stood up. “Well, it was nice seeing you again.”

  Gil stood, too. “Wait, that’s not fair. You didn’t tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  Monica lifted her gym bag and took a step away from the table.

  “Hey, I know what happened with our parents wasn’t…ideal. But I think we can at least make the decision to be friends with each other, can’t we?”

  Monica took a step back toward the table but kept her keys in her hand, ready to escape at a moment’s notice. Yes, she wanted to befriend Gil again, but she didn’t want to disappoint her family. There was a fine line here; she didn’t want to cross it. Especially not now. The last thing she needed on her already-full plate was an old family feud.

  “You know what? I think my dad was wrong.” Gil stood and took a step closer. “And honestly, ever since then, business hasn’t been the same.”

  “And you connect that to what happened between our dads?”

  Gil shrugged. “I can’t say for sure, but I know things have been tough. Right now I don’t know how much longer we…My dad begged me to come back and see if there’s a way to keep from shutting the place down.”

  “Oh, Gil, I’m sorry.” Ashamed at her own selfish thoughts, Monica sat back down. “I…I didn’t know. Really, I didn’t. My dad doesn’t even like to talk about your family.”

  Gil sat down across from her. “I really didn’t want this conversation to be the Butler-family sob story. That’s why I asked what was going on with you.”

  Monica hesitated, wanting to be honest but not seem as if she were bragging.

  “It was tough in the beginning, right after our parents split the company. But my dad was determined to make a dessert café succeed. It’s been hard work, but we’re finally getting to a place where things are starting to look up. We’re actually shooting a commercial in a few weeks, and we have a spot scheduled on a local TV show soon.”

  “That’s great. You guys deserve it.”

  “We’ve worked hard for it.”

  A long silence passed between them, and finally Monica broke it.

  “So what are your plans for your dad’s business?”

  Gil shook his head. “My honest opinion is that we should close it before we lose too much more, but he’s got it in his head that we can hold on until we can get some kind of breakthrough. I don’t have the heart to tell him it’s not that probable. The big chains are just chipping away at our profits, day by day.” He looked down at the table and was quiet.

  Monica put her hand over his. “I’m so sorry. I know what it feels like to keep advertising and hoping word of mouth will spread and seeing nothing happen.”

  “Brainstorming for hours on end, looking for the one elusive idea that might change the course of things—and not finding it and feeling helpless,” Gil spoke up, finishing her thoughts.

  All at once, she remembered her situation with Adella and realized that she could solve her problem and extend an olive branch to Gil and his family in their time of need.

  Quickly, she explained the terms of the deal and asked if he might be interested in partnering together to fulfill the terms of the contract.

  “I still can’t believe you’re even asking me, I mean, after everything.”

  “Maybe this opportunity will give our families the boost in business we need and provide us all with the chance to heal,” she answered.

  “Are you sure? Really? Catering Adella Parker’s engagement party with you?”

  “Do you think you can do it?”

  “At this point, I’m willing to try anything to make my dad happy,” said Gil.

  “Then that’s it. We’ll work at it together and hopefully…” Monica paused, not knowing exactly how to finish her thoughts.

  “Hopefully,” Gil said, breaking the silence, “our families will be friends again.”

  Chapter 3

  G il went straight to his family’s restaurant, Amos’s Smokehouse, as soon as he left the gym and spent the next several hours in the office poring over his parents’ old recipes, hoping to find some dishes that would work for Adella’s party.

  He couldn’t wait to tell his family about this exciting venture, but he dreaded the look on his father’s face when he found out that partnering with Bob Ryan’s company was part of the deal.

  Gil slumped over the desk, resting his hands in his forehead. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  Should I call Monica and tell her this isn’t the good fit I thought it would be?

  Gil picked up his phone but couldn’t bring himself to dial her number. If he had to cancel the deal, he should at least do it in person, right?

  And then what would she think of him? After he’d failed her in their relationship so long ago, how could he go back on his word now?

  There was also the undeniable fact that she was still just as beautiful as she had ever been, if not more. Following through on this deal would also give him the chance to reconnect with her and maybe rekindle the romance that had just budded when the spilt happened.

  Most people who had known the Butler and Ryan families for many years always speculated that one day he and Monica would get married and expand the family business.

  He and Monica had grown up as best friends by circumstance, spending most of their free time at the restaurant, simply because their parents were there. As they grew older and entered the phase where they began noticing the opposite sex, they both dated other people but remained close friends.

  Then, the summer before the last year of high school, after their parents decided to open a second location, things changed. It was as if all of a sudden, a curtain was lifted, and they saw each other in a different light.

  Their families were elated that the two of them were finally dating, and deep down inside, Gil felt he had found the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He never told Monica how serious he felt, partially because it would have been awkward at their young ages, and partially because just after Christmas, their parents had the big disagreement.

  At first, he and Monica had continued to date, because their fathers often disagreed on how to run the business. Despite their many arguments, Amos and Bob always came to some kind of compromise. But this time had been different.

  First, the problems increased when Gil’s father issued the ultimatum—either sell the struggling second location or part ways. Monica’s father had refused, because he felt that they hadn’t given the second restaurant a chance to build a clientele.

  Gil’s father saw dwindling dollar signs and worried that the place was losing too much too fast, and wanted out immediately.

  Suddenly, they no longer ate family dinners together, their fathers stopped speaking to each other at work unless it was absolutely necessary, and then Monica’s father did the unthinkable—he quit.

  Gil didn’t blame Monica’s dad for his gumption. While he loved his own father, Amos Butler had a tendency to run his household and his business like a bully—his way or no way. Most of the time it worked, but it seemed that now his heavy-handed tactics had backfired.

  After Amos realized Bob was serious, he decided to make sure Bob knew he was making a big mistake by legally and permanently severing ties with him.

  Lawyers were called in to organize the deal, and it was agreed that the Butlers would keep the orig
inal restaurant location, the original recipes, and the well-recognized name, while Bob Ryan decided he would assume ownership of the not-so-successful location, taking only the sweet potato pie recipe.

  Amos had openly mocked Bob for not putting up more of a fight and demanding more. Bob refused to argue any longer and moved across town to be closer to his business.

  Gil and Monica continued to date, but the situation grew increasingly awkward as Gil’s father looked for a way to wield more control over Bob Ryan.

  Out of sheer frustration that he had been unable to get Bob to change his mind, Amos Butler forbade his family to have contact with any of the Ryans—and for Gil, that meant no more dating Monica.

  He remembered the day he had gone over to her house to explain the situation. He promised her it was temporary, and soon enough, things would be back to normal.

  But soon enough never came. They saw each other at school and different social events but didn’t really talk. After a couple of months with no change in the atmosphere, Gil had an argument with his father and decided he didn’t care about the rule any longer. In a huff, he drove to Monica’s house, only to have her father answer the door and inform him that now Monica was forbidden to talk to him.

  By that time, graduation was coming up and when Gil heard Monica was going to the prom with one of their mutual friends, he gave up on the relationship.

  Instead, he spent his last few months of high school with an eye to the future, hoping to move as far away from St. Louis as possible.

  But now that he had the authority to make decisions like this for the company, along with the chance to see where this relationship might go, there was no way he was going to let his dad talk him out if it.

  Monica paced the floor of her living room late that night, wondering how in the world she would explain this new turn of events to her parents.

  At least half a dozen times since her chance encounter with Gil, she had picked up her phone to call them but always lost her nerve before she could fully dial the number.