Scrumptious: A Friends to Lovers Romantic Comedy (Camos and Cupcakes Book 3)

by Melissa Schroeder

  “You have no authority.”

  “I have all the authority. I own twenty-five percent of the company.”

  She dismisses me and looks at her sons again. “I don’t know what kind of stories she’s spewed, but she’s lying.”

  A sound of disgust falls from Diego’s lips, but I hold up my hand.

  “I didn’t go to them. They came to me.”

  “Lies!” she screams the word and no one even flinches. We’re so accustomed to her behavior. That includes my father, who is watching us. He’s always been her silent partner, willingly going along with her schemes.

  “No,” I say, picking up the thumb drive and tossing it on the table. “They did come to me. You’ve been screwing with the money. So, with their shares and mine, we are close to having a majority. Together we’re at forty-five percent. Add in a few uncles, aunts, and cousins, and we will control the entire thing…all but your thirty percent.”

  “You think my brothers, sister, and their families would turn against me?” The disbelief in my father’s voice is sad. He actually thinks his family would support this.

  “I don’t know,” Diego muses. “I mean, it would be interesting to show them that you’ve been taking funds, claiming that your trips and your extravagant lifestyle are expenses.”

  “Yeah, you’ve cut into their profits,” Dallas says.

  “Aunt Gina would probably slash your tires if she found out,” Lou offers.

  I smile because he’s right about that. My father’s youngest sibling is kind of scary.

  “So, this is what’s going to happen. You both are going to put out a statement telling the world at large that you are stepping back. You will have to live on the thirty percent proceeds.”

  “What?” my mother practically screams.

  “You’ll figure it out,” I say. “Next, you will name Austin as the new CEO.”

  I feel my brother’s surprised glance, but I don’t look at him.

  “Never,” my mother says, anger dripping from the word.

  “You will. Or I will drag all this shit out into the open.”

  “You might want to be careful of what you want dragged into the public.” The threat is clear.

  I smile, but I know I probably look like a velociraptor, and I love it. Power surges through me as I look from her, to my father, back to her. “They know.”

  She blinks and looks at all of my brothers. I don’t have to look at them to know that they all back me up.

  “So, again, you will step down and name Austin as the CEO. After that, you’ll get your profits, but not for the next six months.”

  “How the hell are we going to be able to live?” my father demands.

  “I know that you have what? Seven cars? Sell them. Or one. Or maybe, just cut back on your spending, as I know you have a little bit in the bank account.”

  “Absolutely not,” my mother says.

  “Okay. Then, I will go public and let everyone know that you are thieving bastards who almost bankrupted the business.”

  “You still don’t know if the family will back you up,” my father says. So, he’s going to stand by her. I figured as much, but it is still disappointing. I had hoped I wouldn’t have to play this final card, but I knew it was something they would probably force me to do.

  “I don’t mean just the family. I will give an all access pass to any reporter who wants it. I will tell them how you lied to me for twenty-eight years, pretending to be my parents. Then I will show them the proof of your deception. You will be shunned from the society you love so much. No invites. No luncheons. Nothing. Add in the possible embezzlement charges, you’re lives will really suck.”

  “I will ruin you,” she snarls.

  I laugh. “How?”

  “I can get your shares taken away from you.”

  At that, Austin laughs. “Yeah, sure, that’s what will ruin her. She doesn’t need the money. You know her net worth is well over half a billion.”

  Dammit. Okay, so I hadn’t been completely truthful with Fritz. I can sense him still beside me, but he didn’t move away from me. Instead, he slides his hand along my knee, then squeezes.

  My mother had heard enough. “I will not sit here and take this.”

  “You don’t have to. But you do have to take this. Our lawyer drew it up. It explains everything. All you have to do is sign,” Austin says.

  Our mother looks down, her gaze zeroing in on the papers as though it’s the plague. My father reaches across to take it.

  “Leave it,” she orders.

  “You’re going to want to take it,” Austin says. “If you don’t sign and return it by nine tomorrow morning, we will call a family meeting and include everyone this time. They will be given proof of what you did.”

  My father grabs it up and stands, waiting for my mother. They leave without another word. Once the door shuts behind them, it’s like the entire room lets loose a breath all at once.

  “Damn, that was tense,” Dallas says.

  Fritz snorts.

  “What?” Dallas says. He notices where Fritz’s hand is. “Wanna keep that hand?”

  “He’ll just make you cry,” Austin says. Out of all my brothers, he is the only one who really knew Fritz before yesterday. He looks at me. “So, I’m being named CEO?”

  I nod. “We all know Diego doesn’t want it. He wants to go play with grapes.”

  “True,” Diego says.

  Austin opens his mouth to talk about this more, but Fritz apparently has waited long enough.

  “Listen, y’all can keep talking, but Savannah and I have things that need to be taken care of.”

  “And what would that be?” Lou asks laughing.

  “He’s going to grovel some more,” I say.

  He doesn’t argue with me. He just keeps pulling me toward the exit, grabbing his helmet off the bar as he continues on.

  Once we make it out into the sunlight, I raise my face to the sun and sigh with relief. So glad that’s over with.

  “So, you forgive me?”

  “No. I still expect some groveling, remember?”

  He nods, then leans in for a kiss. The soft touch has me purring. He sighs, need threading the sound.

  “Let’s go or I might talk you into making out in the car.”

  “No, I think we need to get this out in the open.”

  “What?”

  “I was mad that you thought I would go back to them.”

  He snorts. “Yeah, I got that.”

  “But,” I say catching his attention, “I would have if they needed me.”

  “What?” I can see the disappointment in his expression and hear it in his voice.

  “Temporarily. And I know you think that’s a bad thing, but I can’t just walk away from them. They are my family. Not just the blood family. You know I’ve known Mario my former sous chef for over a decade? Hell, there are people in management I’ve known my entire life. I couldn’t let them down. Tito would want me to do at least that.”

  He sighs. “I get that, but I was worried more about your health, physically and mentally. You’re happier now.”

  He’s right. We both know it. “Agreed, but it wouldn’t be the schedule I had before. Now, at least, I don’t need to worry about that.”

  He opens his mouth to say something, but my phone vibrates in my back pocket. I slip it out and frown.

  Syd Fillmore calling.

  I click it on. “Hello?”

  “Savannah, hey, it’s Syd.”

  Damn. She’s texted me a few times saying she wanted to talk to me about something, but with everything that’s been going on these last couple of days, I hadn’t answered.

  “Yeah, is there something you need?”

  “I’m calling you to talk to you about meeting Grady, my boss.”

  I frown. “Grady Hawthorne? Is there a reason?”

  Fritz gives me a nasty look when he hears Grady’s name.

  “He told me he met you the night of the bachelorette
party and gave you his card.”

  “Yeah, I lost it somewhere along the way.”

  “I have a feeling EJ’s Gran has it now. She’s been texting him inappropriate jokes for the last few days.”

  Oh my god. That woman.

  “I heard through the grapevine that you aren’t working for your family anymore.”

  “I take it the grapevine is a tall, rather loud redhead?”

  She chuckles. “Yeah.”

  “I wouldn’t mind meeting, but I have no interest in running a restaurant.”

  “We want to talk to you about a different kind of opportunity. So, what do you say? I can make him take you to lunch.”

  I chuckle. “Is that payback for making you call me on a Sunday?”

  “Ha. Kind of. Anyway, how about eleven tomorrow morning? I can text you the address.”

  It’s not like I’m doing anything tomorrow. “Sure. Sounds good.”

  “We’ll see you then.”

  The phone clicks off. Fritz is frowning at me still.

  “What was that about?”

  “She wants me to come in to meet with Grady Hawthorne about an opportunity.”

  “You can’t work in a restaurant here. Do they know that?”

  I shrug. “Truth is, she said it was something a little different than working in a kitchen. She said I would be meeting with both of them for lunch.”

  “Cool.”

  I let one eyebrow rise up. “Yeah? Because a second ago you were frowning at me.”

  “I thought she was calling you to set up…you know?”

  “No. I don’t.” I totally do.

  He sighs. “It’s stupid but I thought she would be calling you to see if you would go out with him. And yes, it sounds even dumber now that I hear myself say that.”

  I smile and lean forward, placing my hands on his shoulders. “I think one man is about all I can handle.”

  “Nope, don’t touch me,” he says laughing. “Let’s go home.”

  Home. Together. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen after today, but I am pretty sure we’ll be doing it together, and I am pretty damned pleased with that.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Fritz

  “Now, explain to me again why you thought you should lie to me?” Allison asks, her green gaze narrowing as she continues her interrogation. We’ve been at this for hours—alright, only about twenty minutes—and to say that Allison is upset is not doing her justice.

  “I refused to let my issues take center stage during your wedding week.”

  If Allison is an interrogator, Savannah is the defiant criminal, completely at peace with the crime she committed. And, of course, I find that so fucking sexy. Also, she’s cooking, so it makes her even sexier. We decided to have everyone over for dinner to celebrate Ed and Allison returning. Savannah said it would be easier to tell them all the news at once, like ripping off a band-aid.

  “You still should have told us,” EJ says.

  The timer pings and Savannah grabs a couple of oven mitts. Opening the oven, she tugs out the two pans of enchiladas, one cheese and one beef. She said she would feed the masses so they wouldn’t be as angry. From the way Allison’s gaze barely registers the food, I think Savannah might have misjudged the appeal of her enchiladas.

  “Listen, I know you’re both upset I didn’t tell you. If I could go back and change what I did, I wouldn’t. I wanted to spend the week celebrating you and Ed. And you worrying about me on your honeymoon wouldn’t have fixed anything.” She looks at me. “I had someone here to help me. That’s all I needed.” She looks back at her friends. EJ softens just a bit, but Allison is still mad. Or she’s pretending to be. Hard to tell with Allison. Harry’s little sister always seems sweet until she gets angry.

  Allison opens her mouth to say something, but Savannah stops her. “Listen, you can continue questioning me, but let’s dig in before the food gets cold. Hey, Fritz, can you get the guacamole out of the fridge?”

  I nod and do her biding. The guys have all stayed out of the discussion, because, hey, we aren’t dumb. This is all about them and their relationship. Nothing to do with us. Plus, we know anything we can add will just get us in trouble. Again, we aren’t stupid.

  Once we fill our plates, we head out to the back patio to eat. It’s a gorgeous evening, probably one of the last we’ll have for a while. One of the things I will never get used to are the evenings where San Antonio stays above eighty degrees at night. But tonight, it’s cool, the humidity is low, and the garden is blooming around us. It was too good to pass up.

  As we dig into the food, we talk of Ed and Allison’s honeymoon. Ed talks of the pastries, and about three more flavor ideas he has for cupcakes. Allison talks of Paris at night, the romance of it all. There was an incident neither of them will talk about, but it makes Allison blush, so I am pretty sure it has something to do with sex.

  “So, what are you going to do now?” Harry asks. “Are you thinking of opening a restaurant?”

  Savannah shakes her head. “I can’t.”

  “It’s not allowed as per her contract,” I say. That gains even more looks from our friends. From the moment they showed up, they have been watching us like hawks, trying to figure out what is going on. I’m pretty sure EJ and Allison have some kind of idea, but they don’t know all the details. “She can’t work for anyone, or herself, in Texas.”

  “And I don’t want to run a restaurant anymore. It’s not as fun as I thought it would be.”

  “Really?” EJ asks. “You’re so good at it.”

  Was she trying to convince the woman I love to leave me high and dry? Because, news alert to my friends who are also my business partners, I will ditch them in a heartbeat. Yeah, not that good of a friend or business partner, but I know I will follow Savannah anywhere.

  “Yeah. I like the back end. Like I would probably be happy as a sous chef, but no one would hire me. They’d worry I was out for their jobs.”

  “What will you do?” Harry asks.

  “Well, I have a few options.”

  “Especially since you don’t have to work,” Allison says.

  “She has bills, right?” Ed asks. “Fritz can’t pay them all.”

  Allison snorts, and I notice that Harry looks as if he knows why that would be a joke. Of course, he does. He probably does Savannah’s taxes.

  “She doesn’t have to work, Ed. She’s a billionaire.”

  “I am not.” She frowns at me. “I’m comfortable.”

  Harry chuckles. “No. You’re rich, although not quite a billionaire, mainly because you make sure of it.”

  Now she’s turned her frown on Harry. “Isn’t there some kind of thing about not revealing your client’s info?”

  He shrugs and just smiles at her.

  “What is he talking about?” I ask.

  She sighs. “I give away enough money, so I don’t have the billionaire status. And it isn’t about me being a great person or humble.”

  “Uh, what kind of giveaways do you do?”

  “Some scholarships for cooking schools.”

  I nod because that makes perfect sense. She would want to help other people who have the dream she had.

  “You were saying you had some kind of plan?” Allison asks. She’s the mom of the group, keeping us on track.

  “Well, one is Russo Winery. They need someone to come up with tasting menus to go with their wines. Just four or five times a year. I wouldn’t actually be doing the cooking. I’d work with Bree to develop the menus. I’ve done it for her before, but she’s been after me to do it again. Also, she wants to have the option of having me work up special event menus for weddings at the winery.”

  “That sounds fantastic,” EJ says.

  “You don’t get free wine out of it.”

  EJ frowns.

  “And the other ideas?” Harry asks, looking at me.

  “I think you meant to ask Savannah and not me. ‘Cause, you know, she’s a grown woman who can an
swer for herself.”

  Harry flips me off.

  “I had a meeting yesterday morning with Grady Hawthorne. They’re going to expand the At Home network. An offshoot that will feature travel, but different than just tour guides. They are going to have an adrenaline junkie with his own show, then they said one was going to feature environmentally friendly travel. Things like that. They want me to have a show.”

  There is a beat of silence and I want to smile. They all didn’t expect that. And I didn’t either until Savannah told me about her old blog, and then I read the entries. She has a way of making locations come alive through descriptions of not only the landscape, but the people, food, and culture. She’s a natural.

  “Oh, something like you did for that blog?” Allison asks. “That’s brilliant.”

  “I haven’t said I would do it.”

  But I know she wants to. When she told me about it, I heard the excitement in her voice. It was the first time I had heard that kind of happiness when she talked about work.

  “You would be fantastic. Plus, I would be happy to be your personal assistant for any and all trips.”

  She smiles at me and our friends fade away. She’s the only person who matters right now, the woman I know I want to spend the rest of my life with.

  “Well, isn’t this cozy?”

  I blink and force my attention away from Savannah. Her brothers have come into the backyard, probably because we didn’t answer the door, or they heard the tinkling of music and voices.

  “What are you doing here?” Savannah asks.

  The other three look at Austin and that makes sense. He’s the oldest, so he would be the one who is the spokesperson. “We thought you would want to know that Mom and Dad signed the agreement.”

  That went easier than I thought.

  Savannah snorts. “They’ll try something else.”

  “Can we talk to you, alone?” Austin asks.

  “They know.” Those two words from Savannah has the brothers sharing glances.

  “Are they trustworthy?”

  “Trustworthy? Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll happily tell anyone that I’m not related to that bitch.”

  Dallas flinches but the others say nothing. None of them are at fault for what their parents did.