Goldie shrugged, knowing Josie was trying to find a silver lining in all this. “You must think I’m such a fool.”
“No, I—”
“Of course you do, because I do. What was I thinking, Josie? I gambled everything on this.”
“You were tired of waiting around for Max and I don’t blame you,” her friend said angrily. “You wanted to shake things up and you did.”
“Oh, I did that,” Goldie said and took a gulp of her wine. “Now I’m not sure I’m ready for whatever comes next.”
“Nothing’s wrong with a change,” Josie said. “Goldie’s was your passion. Maybe there is another passion for you waiting in the wings. Maybe you’ve already found it,” she said with a wink.
Goldie tried to smile, but a sob came out.
“Oh baby,” Josie said and moved down the couch to hug her. “You’re going to be all right.”
“Am I? Seriously, I’m not so sure.”
Josie smiled at her, compassion welling in her eyes. “You thought Max wouldn’t let you sell because he knows how much the café means to you. Maybe it isn’t too late. You’re not signing the papers until tonight at the hotel, right?”
She nodded. Her throat worked, but no words came out. She felt so naïve. So foolish. She was giving up her café for nothing. Nothing but money. Now what was she going to do? “You really think Max will try to stop me?”
“We can only hope,” her friend said and held her tighter.
ARNIEADAMS COULDN’Twait to get his hands on Goldie’s. He had all kinds of plans to make the café his own—starting with taking down the Goldie’s sign and putting up his own. He hadn’t waited until the sale was final to order his sign. The moment the papers were signed, he planned to take ownership, closing the café, soaping over the windows and locking the doors.
All those years in prison, he’d dreamed of having his own diner. But it had only been a dream until he’d gone to work for Malcolm Mandeville. He liked to think that Malcolm had seen something in him and that’s why he was backing the café. He didn’t want to think it might only be about the man’s ulterior motives.
“You can do better than working for me,” Malcolm had said. “I know you want your own place.”
“That’s always been my dream,” Arnie had admitted almost shyly. Truth was, Malcolm intimidated him as he did many other people. But there hadn’t been a lot of people willing to give an ex-con cook a job. “Not that I don’t enjoy working here.” Malcolm always had associates flying in and out of the ranch and they were always hungry.
“Dreams are important,” Malcolm had said, but didn’t mention it again until he’d made Arnie an offer, he suspected he couldn’t refuse even if he had wanted to. Arnie still couldn’t believe that he’d paid a small fortune for Goldie’s, but his wealthy backer hadn’t blinked an eye at the cost.
“Cheap at half the price,” Malcolm had said with a laugh.
Arnie suspected there was more to the deal than the crime boss merely wanting to make his cook’s dream come true. “I’ll pay you back every cent,” he’d promised.
Malcolm had waved that away as he told him what he wanted in return.
Fortunately, Arnie didn’t mind looking the other way for a while. He just had to make sure that everything went as planned, and then the café was all his, free and clear after his big grand opening.
Chapter Eight
Everything was happening too fast. Goldie wanted to push the stop button on her life so she could catch her breath. While she’d always said that she would sell the café once she and Max started a family, she’d never seen herself giving it up. Until now.
If this fake love affair didn’t work, then she’d have no choice but to take the money from the sale and leave town. She’d be lucky if she wasn’t run out by some of the angry residents. All her instincts told her that they weren’t going to like Arnie, and he wasn’t going to like them.
Like everything else, her fake love affair was also moving along too quickly, and no one in town had taken a liking to Donovan. They were all too loyal to Max.
“We need to step things up,” Donovan had whispered to her at lunch at the café. His breath had tickled her ear, making her shiver in a nice way. “Word on the street is that your ex is definitely jealous after that kiss this morning.” His tongue had caressed the edge of her ear as he’d leaned closer. “We can do a whole lot better than that kiss.”
Just the thought had made her both excited—and terrified. She felt as if her body was coming back from months of hibernation, and Donovan was more than ready to help her unleash any pent-up desires that had been in cold storage.
He’d leaned in so close that Goldie had feared he was going to kiss her again—right there in front of even more of her customers.
She had pulled back, shaking her head, even as heat rushed to places in her body, she’d almost forgotten existed. “We can talk about that later.”
Donovan had chuckled as he slid off his stool and stood. “I can’t wait. Tonight. I’ll be waiting for you in my room. I’ll have champagne waiting for you after you sign the papers for the sale.”
