I lose my grin as the contents of my stomach curdle. “What! But I?—”
Nico lifts one hand in a calming motion. “Not for the reason you think. You’re a great waitress, but I want to go into business with you.”
“What?”
He motions to the empty glass cabinet next to the counter. “I have never had anything I cook or bake be so popular that it flies out of the door. What you put into your pies is magic, and people can’t get enough of it. A waitress is easy to find. What you do is irreplaceable. I think your pies are good enough to be sold in grocery stores everywhere, and I want to help you make that happen.”
“Really?”
He nods. “I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you, so take your time thinking it over. I’d like you to keep making pies for the diner in addition to growing your business, and I’ll keep paying you more for it. And I’d like to invest in your future. You could have your own bakeshop in town if you wanted to.”
Knox said a delivery truck was in my future. I assumed ten years away if I was lucky. Not potentially within the next year. Looks like Missy wasn’t crazy after all to get me thinking about and planning packaging for Maisie’s, the name for my pie business.
“You really think I’m that good?”
“The first time I turned up at the diner one morning, and people were waiting outside, I thought something was wrong. They were here for your pies, and they didn’t care how long they had to wait for them.”
I sit back in my seat, stunned. “Wow.”
He smiles. “Take the time to think about what you want. I’m in no rush for a decision, but you’ll always have a job here regardless of what you want to do.”
“Thanks, Nico.”
He nods and gets to his feet. “Now let's get to work before the lunch rush hits.”
Chapter 25
Hunter
Murphy, an alpha we’ve been working with over the last several months, sets down his bottle of water and wipes the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. “What’s this I hear about you guys starting a construction company?”
I shoot Wyatt, busy chatting with a supervisor, a surprised glance.
He has his arms crossed and his hard hat firmly on his head when he looks my way and raises an eyebrow as if asking me what I want.
I gesture vaguely toward Murphy and raise my eyebrow at him, secretly asking him what I’m supposed to tell him about our new business.
He shrugs and looks away.
Shaking my head, I assume his non-answer means it’s okay for me to tell Murph more than what Wyatt must have already let slip.
“We’re still in the early days. We don’t even have a name yet, but we’re definitely doing it,” I say. All we’re certain about right now is that we’re starting a construction company in Rios, and at least for now, we’re sticking with what we know: condos,apartments, and family homes. “Same stuff we do now. Why, you want in?”
“The idea of staying in Rios appeals,” Murph says. “Are you going to bid for out-of-town work?”
I shake my head. “Nope. We’re keeping this business local.”
We’ve saved a lot over the years, but our future will involve bidding for jobs and hoping our reputation for delivering good work over the last several years is enough to get us in the door. To afford a downtown office, we’ll need to speak with the bank about a loan, and that meeting is unlikely to go well until we have at least one successful bid for a job in our pocket. We could work from home, but that isn’t feasible. There’s no way we can set up shop in a farmhouse thirty minutes out of town, and none of us wants to.
The farmhouse is home for all of us, and if we do eventually take on staff, I’d rather not have guys walking into the kitchen and seeing Maisie bent over in her shorts or sexy thigh-skimming floral dresses. I’m selfish and possessive enough to want to keep that sight all to myself.
When we talked about the business on the couch last Sunday night, none of us had expected Maisie to volunteer to do the admin work. She was a clerk for years, so she has experience, and baking isn’t something she wants to do all day. I don’t know why I didn’t expect her offer. Maisie is as determined to help our business succeed as we are to help hers.
For the longest time, it was a “maybe one day” thing we’d talk about when we had a couple of drinks on a Friday night and none of us were ready to settle. Our maybe one day is here, and it comes with a beautiful mate none of us were expecting and a town none of us wants to leave.
Knox wanders over as I finish filling Murph in on projects we’re interested in and the buildings that might work when we eventually set up a downtown office.
“What are you two whispering sweet nothings about?” Knox asks, bouncing his gaze between Murph and me.
