“Outside. In my car.”
“I want you to take the morning off and go to the house. Take a shower, then try to get a nap.”
“But Luke is coming in, and we’ve got coffee and bakery vendors scheduled.”
“Which I will handle.” She smiled at him. “You’re good, but you’re not irreplaceable.”
To her relief, Brad smiled back. “Yes I am.” She gave him her key, directions to the house, and sent him out the door.
Greg’s call had thrown her, but walking in on Brad had sent her spinning. Despite the café space being nothing more than a sketchy concept and an ugly seventies kitchen, she’d lined up meetings with a few local food vendors. She was so deep in thought she didn’t hear Luke come in the front door.
He found her staring blankly at her laptop in her office. “You alright?” he asked.
Leah jumped. How she wanted to divulge the blows of the morning, but it was not the time and Luke was not her person. “Just busy and distracted,” she lied.
She followed him to the kitchen, trying to get her head in the game.
“Well, it’s just as ugly as I remembered it,” he said. Looking into his blue eyes she was reminded of the last time they spoke, leaning against the railing at Wequassett. How handsome he looked, how his words had stung. “So, what’s the plan in here?”
He pulled out a pad and it snapped her back to attention. “I want to set up a little café area in the back corner of the store, with a few tables and chairs for customers. Since the kitchen already has a window cutout that looks into the store. I wondered if we could open it up into a doorway?” she asked.
“What are you planning to offer?”
“Coffee, muffins, light café fare.”
“Are you looking to do a commercial kitchen?”
“Goodness, no. We’ll be selling prepared goods sourced elsewhere. I need to keep it simple.”
Luke looked around, calculating what that meant for his involvement. “So, counter space and storage. Refrigerator, but no stove?”
“Exactly.”
He opened and closed a few cabinets, ran his hand along the old Formica counters. “You can replace the counters cheaply if you go with laminate. The floors seem solid, just need a cleaning.” For a few concerning moments, he turned the sink handle on and off and then crawled underneath. “You may want new fixtures for aesthetics, but the plumbing works.”
“Good.”
He stood up. “Keeping the layout?”
“Yes?”
“It’s cheaper and faster.”
“Then yes.”
She waited while he inspected the rest of the room. “Should be easy enough. I’ll open up the window from the kitchen to thestorefront and turn it into a proper door. Other than that, it’s largely cosmetic. Maybe a week?”
“Seriously?” She couldn’t believe it. The kitchen was distressingly dated if operational, but she’d expected something major to crop up. Mold. Water damage. Broken pipes.
Luke’s phone dinged audibly in his pocket, but he ignored it. “What’re you doing about permits?” he asked.
“I’ve applied for a food vendor license. It means an inspection by the health department.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “You get bored easily, don’t you?”
His ribbing was friendly and familiar. It comforted her from that morning’s upsets and allayed some of her worries about their friendship. “Not with everything,” she said.
If he heard he didn’t show it, already focused on the notes he was making. She waited while he took a few measurements before returning to where she stood in the doorway. “I think with some fresh paint, a little shoring up, and some new fittings you should be good to go. You’re in luck,” he added. “There was a water leak at my current site which set it back two weeks. So I happen to be freed up.” Luke shook his head. “Flooded the homeowner’s entire first floor.”
“That’s fantastic!” she blurted. “I mean, the fact that you’re available.”
His eyes crinkled. “I know what you meant.”
Talking to him was so easy; she liked the way they bantered. But there were things nagging at her. She was still dying to know why he’d driven off with Holly on reunion night. If it meantwhat it looked like, and if he’d seen her since. But they were standing in an old kitchen in her commercial rental with a notepad of business ideas between them, and that was all she had a right to. “When can you start?”
Luke’s phone dinged again. This time he pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at it. From the look on his face, Leah knew it wasn’t a work message. The message made him laugh, leaving her with the distinct feeling of being left out of a conversation. “Excuse me for a second.” He stepped aside, his face turning from hers along with his attention. The whoosh of his reply filled the space between them. When he looked up again, she could already see their conversation was over.
“Sorry about that. What were you saying?”
“Nothing,” she said. He’d come when he could. And whenever that was, she’d let him in to work. Because that’s what this was about, she reminded herself. No matter the swell of relief she got in his presence or the way her dark mood had lifted. In the end, it was just business.
