“What’s going on?” He did a double take when he passed Laura Kate bent over the oven. She was covered in a fine white powder and shook her head as she pulled out a cookie sheet and set it on the stainless-steel table.
“W4C,” Ruby said. “We’re running around here like a one-armed paper hanger. Can you man the cash register?” She pushed through the double doors to the front.
He followed her to the register. “Sure, but what’s W4C?” He smiled at the young woman in front of him who blushed when she recognized him.
“I’d like a W4C,” she said with a slight batting of her lashes.
“Ruby.” Sam leaned toward her as she passed by with a pot of coffee in hand. “What’s a W4C?”
“Sweet girl,” she said to the young customer. “The W4C line is over there. A fresh batch will be ready in ten minutes. Sam, take her order and give her a number, yeah, right there from that basket. When she gets her cookie, she pays.”
“Okay, but would someone please tell me what the heck W4C is?”
Every warm body in the bakery shouted, “White Chocolate Cookies and Cream Cookie.”
“Laura Kate was playing around this week with a different sort of cookie and well, that one struck gold,” Ruby said. “Word got out it was the new TCFC and orders started flooding in.”
“Word got out, did it?” Sam gave Ruby the knowing eye.
Ruby fielded his look and raised him a chin as she flitted toward the dining room. “Well, someone had to quell the coming insurrection.”
For the next thirty minutes, he took nothing but W4C orders both in person and on the phone. Which required more concentration than running the RPO—run/pass/option offense. When Laura Kate, covered in even more frosting and flour, brought a fresh batch of W4C to the display case, the customers surged forward. Sam stole one for himself before cashing out everyone’s order. After all, he needed to know what his bakery was selling. One bite and he was in heaven. A light golden brown, coated with miniature chocolate chips and cookie crumbs, still-warm cookie melted in his mouth. “Laura Kate, this is amazing.”
She ducked her head with an “aw, shucks” kick at the floor. “Who doesn’t like white chocolate, cookies and cream candy, and chocolate sandwich cookies? They had to make an amazing cookie.”
“Back in the kitchen, Laura Kate,” Ruby barked like she owned the place. “More cookies. Sam, we can’t bake them fast enough. Trust me, the TCFC was never this popular.”
“Really? Tell me what makes this one so popular.” Sam leaned close, almost invading her personal space.
“Well, I might have, or someone might have, I’m not sure, said that this recipe was devised by one hometown quarterback and it was his most favorite cookie of all time. Maybe. I can’t be sure. I just heard a rumor.”
Sam laughed and roped Ruby into a Titan hug. “Remind me to give you a raise.”
By the time they flipped the door sign to Closed, they’d sold four hundred cookies. Sam felt like he’d been hit by the front seven of a stellar defensive line.
Ruby was cooling herself in the walk-in with the door open. Laura Kate wore so much flour and sugar she needed to be hosed off outside. And Robin flopped into a chair, waving her apron to cool her red face.
“I declare, what are we going to do next week?” Ruby said. “We can’t keep this up. Sam, when does Chloe get home? We need her.”
“Not sure…anyway, I think we’re going to limit how many W4C orders we manage. Isn’t that what Bob and Donna did with the TCFC?” Sam used his I’m-the-boss voice. “When we run out, we run out.”
“You want an insurrection?” Ruby said.
“No, and we won’t have one if you stop spreading stories in the grocery store.”
Ruby harrumphed. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“Here, y’all, I saved four cookies, so we each get one.” Laura Kate passed a plate of cookies around their weary circle. Sam poured everyone a glass of milk and they ate in beautiful, contented silence until Ruby brought up Chloe again.
“So, what was the big surprise in France?”
“A café.” Sam drained the last of his milk, wishing there was one more cookie. He needed comfort food right about now. “Her husband bought it for her as a surprise.”
“But isn’t he dead?” Robin said.
“Yes, and there’s a story behind why she just now found out, something about his parents not knowing and a blonde real estate agent—or whatever they are in France—but either way, Chloe has her dream. A French countryside café.”
“But what about you? She loves you.” Ruby closed the walk-in door and took a chair from the office to sit next to Sam.
