I nudge the box. “More pizza?”
“I won’t say no to another slice.”
“I can warm it up, it gets cold quickly,” I offer.
“You’re too good to me.”
Silence falls between us as I heat us up another slice each, then slide the pie onto his awaiting plate.
“So,” I start. “I should give you all the information for Deaton’s soccer game. I’m so sorry to disrupt your day, especially since you already said you’d pick him up from school on Friday. Maybe I can close the bakery early, in fact, I should do tha?—”
He waves a hand at me. “It’s not a disruption. Me and Noah are dropping some fliers around the neighborhood, so he can come with me after school until practice, if that’s okay?”
“Of course, that sounds good. How is Noah? I haven’t seen him in ages.”
He shrugs. “The same wiseass he’s always been, but let’s not talk about him. I wanted to swing something by you.”
I stop in my tracks, chewing on the mouthful of food before I say, “Shoot.”
“Okay, but don’t bite my head off, okay? I know the bakery is a sensitive topic.”
I roll my eyes. “I told you I had a momentary lapse, I’m okay now.”
“Well, I was crunching some numbers, and I came up with a plan, if you’ll hear me out.”
I continue to eat, intrigued by him. Brad always has a million great ideas, but I’m suspicious that he’s getting in over his head with my problems.
“I’m listening.”
“Well, I could be your partner. I mean,businesspartner. I could give you half the money or whatever you needed to buy the building, and then the bank wouldn’t have any choice but to give you the rest because it wouldn’t be as much. You would run things as they are and I would stay out of it… and we’d share things fifty fifty.”
My eyes widen. “Bradley James Lucas, you can’t do that,” I start, but he’s waving a hand at me.
“I can do it. And I want to.”
I shake my head. Under no circumstances am I involving Brad in all of this mess. “That’s awfully sweet of you, but I can?—”
“What? Fight your own battles?”
I frown. “Yes, actually.”
He looks exasperated as he drops his half-eaten slice back down on the plate. “Because ofhim?” He’s talking about my ex. I know it because he always sayshimin the same way when he talks about Ron, and won’t utter his name.
“Why are you bringinghimup in the first place? We agreed to never talk about that rat bastard.” I don’t mean to, but my eyes glaze over. It’s been over five years, hell, Deaton wasn’t even one when he left. Left and never looked back.
“Hey,” Brad says, his tone softer. “I just meant, you always do this when people try to help you. You push them away and act like you have to do everything on your own, and you don’t.”
I open my mouth, then close it again. “This isn’t a small thing,” I eventually say, my voice quieter. “Telling me you’re going to put over six hundred thousand dollars into the bakery, knowing I could never pay you back, isn’t peanuts, Bradley, heck, it may even be more than that.” I shake my head. “I couldn’t do that.”
I know he’s rich, and I know his family are super rich, but that doesn’t mean that wealth extends to me just because Brad feels sorry for me.
“You’re overthinking it. It would be a business investment. That’s all. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but I want to help you stay where you are.”
“The best we can hope for is the new owners will let me stay and I can renew my lease,” I say firmly. “I mean, that can happen. Then I’m worrying all for nothing.”
“You’re also paying rent for a really long time, and the way prices are going in LA, it won’t be getting any cheaper.”
I cock a brow. He’s being sweet, but this is too much. I’m not overthinking this.
