“I can do the doughnuts, but right now there’s too much on my plate for dating,” she said as she filled one box and started on a second one. “I appreciate the invitation, though.”
“How about lunch in my office just to talk?” he pressed.
“Why, and talk about what?” She set the boxes on the counter and rang up the sale.
He handed her several bills. Another spark passed between them when she laid the change in the palm of his hand—just like the one that he’d felt when he saw her the last time.
“Even if you won’t sell me this shop, I’m still thinking of putting in a mass-production pastry shop, and I’d like to pick your brain,” he answered.
The whole place had gone so quiet that the whir of the ceiling fans sounded as loud as helicopter blades.
“I could do that,Mr. Butler, but I don’t know what I can help you with,” she told him.
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll pick you up at one o’clock, then, on Friday, and we’ll discuss it then, if that’s all right?”
“This is not a date,” she assured him. “I’ll drive myself to your office, if you’ll just give me the address. My family, as you know, was almost betrayed. We came back stronger. But right now, I need to be here for them.”
Travis fished a card from his pocket and laid it on the counter. He was disappointed, but he appreciated Grace for standing up for her family. “I understand, and I’ll be expecting you. Do you like pizza?”
“I love it, and I’ll bring a dozen doughnuts for dessert,” she answered and then looked past him at the next customer.
He ate a glazed doughnut and one maple-iced on the way back to the office, then licked his fingers and wiped the sticky steering wheel with a wet wipe he pulled out of a container in the back seat. By the time he made it to the sixth floor with the boxes of doughnuts, the kids from the first floor were all reading through the forms that Calvin had printed up.
Kids?he thought and smiled. Every one of them had a master’s degree, and more than half of them had a doctorate. Some of them had IQs that were off the charts, and they were all grounded in the ability to find new and innovative ways to do business.
Calvin tapped a fork on a coffee cup to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, Travis has an idea...” He went on to tell them about the bakery, then: “We’re going to cut each of the doughnuts that he’s brought back from the bakery into fourths. What we want you to do is taste one of the ones that he brought and then one of the same kind from a bakery or even two here in town, and then give us your opinion on which one you think is best. There’s no passing or failing the taste test. Judge them on the forms you’ve got.”
“I like this kind of test,” one girl said.
“So do I,” Calvin said with a big smile, and then moved over to stand beside Travis while Delores laid each of the Devine Doughnut Shop’s pastries on a disposable plate and cut them into four pieces.“Don’t tell Maggie about this test. She’s got me on a low-carb diet. It’s not my fault that I’ve gotten fat in the last fifteen years. She’s a great cook, but when I went for my checkup last week, the doctor said I needed to lose thirty pounds to bring my A1c and my cholesterol down. Maggie will flip out if she finds out I’ve eaten half a dozen doughnuts.”
Travis sat down in a chair. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were having health issues?”
“Didn’t want you to worry. Too bad I can’t eat like you do and never gain a pound—but then, it’s always been that way, even when we were kids,” Calvin said after a long sigh. “I could look at a candy bar and gain five pounds. You could eat three of those big ones and never tip the scales an inch.”
Travis made a motion like he was zipping his mouth shut. “My lips are sealed, but I’m getting you into a gym with a personal trainer before the week is out.”
Calvin sucked in air and let it out in a whoosh. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you. I hate sweating—and dieting.”
“And I can’t run this company without you,” Travis said. “We’ll both go to the gym. You’ve been fussing at me to get out more.”
“I’d rather go for drinks after work—or even down to that doughnut shopbeforework,” Calvin huffed.
“You’re my best friend, Calvin, and company and work aside, I don’t want to lose you,” Travis told him, and a cold shiver chased down his spine at just the thought of not having Calvin around.
The moment that Travis was outside, the buzz of whispers and conversations sounded like a hive of bees. There was no doubt in Grace’s mind that everyone in the shop had heard Travis ask her out for a date and then to his office to discuss a pastry shop once she’d turned him down.She hoped that they had also heard her tell him that she was not putting the Double D on the market.
Sarah brought the final tray of doughnuts out to the display case and wiped her forehead on a napkin she pulled from a dispenser. “We’ve made twice our normal amount all three days this week and sold out before noon,” she said and then lowered her voice. “We’re going to have to hire more help or else think about—”
“We need to talk,” Grace whispered and led the way back to the kitchen. As soon as the door was closed behind them, she shook her finger at her sister. “Don’t say a word about selling where anyone can hear you.” She paced the floor as she told Sarah and Macy about Travis Butler buying so many doughnuts.
“He must be having a brunch, or else he’s planning to eat a lot of doughnuts,” Sarah said.
“I bet he’s seeing if all the varieties are as good as what he had earlier when he was in here with Claud and the guys. I don’t like the idea of him testing our product—or maybe even giving it over to a bunch of food chemists to try to reverse engineer the recipe.” Macy stuck all the dirty trays in the sink and began to rinse them. “Grace, what doyouthink he’s doing with them?”
“I have no idea, but there’s more,” Grace said. “He asked me for a date.”
The bell on the door let them know that either someone was leaving or arriving. Grace went back out into the shop with Sarah and Macy right behind her.
