Sugarcoated

by Erin Nicholas

  “I’m good at PR,” Ollie protested.

  “Standing on a stage at Comic-Con and throwing t-shirts out to the crowd isn’t really PR,” Aiden said.

  “Public relations,” Ollie said. “Our relationship with our public is great.”

  “But we’re talking about relationships with our employees,” Aiden said. “That's different. They want us to be serious. And knowledgeable. And reasonable.”

  “Maybe we should make t-shirts and take them to our next employee meeting,” Dax said. Aiden shot him a look. He put his hands up. “Just kidding.”

  He had maybe been half kidding.

  “They want benefits and time off and fair overtime pay,” Aiden said. “Not t-shirts and cappuccino machines in the break room.” Yes, Dax had suggested that as well. “These aren’t kids blowing off steam by chopping troll heads off and earning purple diamonds. These are real people with real issues that they’re counting on us to solve.”

  What had he gotten into? Aiden wondered for the forty-seventh time over the past two days. What the hell was he doing buying and trying to run Hot Cakes?

  “By the way, we’re promoting Whitney,” he said firmly. “To VP.”

  “She’s already a VP. What’s she going to be VP of, now?” Cam asked.

  “Everything,” Aiden told him with a scowl. “VP of Every.Fucking.Thing. We need her. She’s the only one with a clue about how that place runs.”

  “Yeah, sounds like her family did a hell of a job,” Cam said dryly.

  “She wants to do things different. She’s on board with what Ollie and I have discussed with her.”

  “You’ve met Whitney?” Cam asked Ollie. Then looked like he regretted letting that slip.

  Ollie nodded, giving Cam a grin. “Now I see why you date the girls you do.”

  Dax looked from Ollie to Cam and back. “What’s that mean? From what I can tell, Whitney is nothing like the girls Cam dates.”

  “Exactly,” Ollie said. “You like them a little more… submissive now, don’t you, Cam?”

  “Fuck off, Ollie.”

  Which was you’ve got me all figured out in Cam language.

  This was getting so complicated. Aiden scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d just given Jane a pep talk and advice about confronting her new bosses. Including him. She’d told him about Heather, who had the perfect work hours to allow her to pursue her paralegal degree. She’d told him about Albert, who was seventy and had a bad knee but still had to work to afford to support his wife and their developmentally disabled adult son who lived with them. She’d told him about Mathias, whose wife was a nurse who picked up all holiday shifts so she could get extra holiday pay. That meant Mathias needed to be off on those holidays to take care of their two kids.

  None of them loved Hot Cakes, but they had worked out their schedules and the jobs they could each do so they could be there for their families and work on improving their lives.

  Apparently, Whitney had been the go-between for the workers and management so her father was never aware there were jobs Albert couldn’t do because of his knee or that Mathias and three other men often traded shifts without formally being approved.

  They were all worried about the idea of changes. They were all in precarious positions, balancing their work and their lives, and fearful their new bosses wouldn’t be as understanding and flexible.

  Aiden rubbed the center of his forehead where a headache was definitely brewing. He’d left the guys alone for a few hours, and already things were more complicated than they had been that afternoon.

  “Full steam ahead,” Cam said. “There’s no reason to mess around. Let’s just do this. Let’s get in there and do things and not talk it to death.”

  Full steam ahead should be fine. There was no reason to be taking this easy or rolling this out slowly. Hot Cakes needed overhauling. They all needed something to do, and hell, Aiden was all in. He was madly in love with Zoe and was moving his life back to Appleby. Might as well jump into his new business venture with both feet.

  Too bad he hadn’t told her about it before he’d fucked her on her worktable, had the most amazing sex of his life, and basically convinced her she was in love with him and ready to say I do. He hadn’t proposed, but she’d said she was all in. She’d said he was the one.

  Fuck, she thought he was the one.

  He knew she was the one, and he wanted to be the one for her.

  But the one didn’t go behind her back to rejuvenate the company she thought was standing in her way of being more successful.

  Even if it wasn’t true.

  “Fuck.” He pushed himself up from the chair in Dax’s suite and paced to the sliding door that led to the balcony.

  “We have to talk about it,” Dax said.

  “We do,” Ollie agreed. “I wasn’t ready for that today. That’s on me. But these people are worried.”

  “Of course they’re worried,” Aiden said. “They’ve never worked for anyone else. Whether they love or hate the Lancasters, that’s who they know and who they’re used to. I doubt anything in that factory has changed in ten years. The employees may not like it, but at least they know what to expect. People, by nature, don’t like change. If they’ve had a hard time getting management to listen to them, then they’re not going to trust us when we say not to worry and that it’s all going to be all right.”

  “Then you think a town hall is the right thing to do?” Ollie asked.

  Damn. A town hall. Inviting everyone who wanted to come to see them. Meet them. Talk to them. Pummel them with questions.

  “We have to be open with them.” This came from Grant. “They’re not going to trust us if we keep things hidden or make it all a big secret.”

  Aiden winced. Exactly. Hiding things and keeping secrets was a really bad idea.

  “Then we just go in and prove it will be different. We make the changes and show them it’s better,” Cam said. “They’ll balk at the start, but once it’s all in place, they’ll see it’s fine.”

  “What if they quit? Or picket or something?” Dax asked.

  “They’re not going to quit,” Cam said. “Where would they go? There aren’t that many jobs around here. They’ll stay. They’ll bitch, but they’ll stay.”

  “You really think bulldozing them is the way to go?” Ollie asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to talk and listen and negotiate? Long term, that will build trust. We ask what they want. We tell them what we can do—and we’re honest about what we can’t—and then we deliver. That will build trust. And loyalty.”

  “It will also take forever,” Cam said. “People can adjust. The faster we get it done, the sooner they’ll see it’s better, and the sooner the complaining will stop.”

  “That will be cheaper too,” Grant said. “Drawing it out, doing focus groups and town halls and whatever will take time and money. If you just go in, implement things, and hang on for a few months, it will be more efficient.”

  Aiden took a second to appreciate how even this meeting highlighted how each of his partners was different and how their varying perspectives worked to make the bigger picture more complete.

  Ollie shook his head. “This is a small town. This is Iowa. Honesty and integrity are really important if we want to get anywhere. If we want to be here long term—and I assume that’s our goal here—then we need to do this well.”

  Yeah, yeah. Okay, Aiden thought. He got it. Honesty and integrity mattered for long-term relationship building. Aiden looked skyward. If the universe or God or whatever was trying to drive home that point, it-slash-He was doing a great job.

  “Fine.” Cam shrugged again. “I think it’s going to be a bigger pain in the ass that way, but whatever.”

  “And you’re going to come back to Chicago with me and Grant and observe all this from afar, right?” Dax asked, eyebrows up. “You sure? Because you sure seemed interested in the reports and articles you were reading earlier.”

  “Only to the extent that I want to see the Lan
caster empire taken completely apart and everyone saying what we’re doing is four million percent better than anything they ever did,” Cam said. Without a single ounce of humor.

  “Four million percent?” Grant echoed, though his tone was dry. “In year one or by year five, or what are we talking here?”

  “The sooner the better,” Cam said, again without even a curl to his lip.

  Ollie gave Aiden a wide-eyed look. Yeah, it was really better that Cam stay in Chicago as they took over Hot Cakes from the Lancasters. And worked with their new VP of Everything, Whitney Lancaster.

  Grant sighed from the computer screen. “Which means, as usual, I’m the only one considering cost? Because it sounds like, as long as whatever you do is four million times better, Cam isn’t going to blink at spending money.”

  “Oh, we’re spending money,” Cam said. “Benefits, gutting the plant, new technology, fucking new name tags, if needed. Whatever it takes to make Hot Cakes bigger and better and the best place anyone has ever worked and the product the best fucking thing anyone has ever eaten.”

  Everyone seemed taken aback by how adamant he suddenly was.

  He looked around. “Reading everything over the last few days shows me there are a ton of improvements that can be made. There are a lot of holes. Things they’ve half-assed. Because they were the only game in town. In the area really. But they haven’t expanded their products in years. They haven’t gone after any new markets. They haven’t done any upgrades in almost a decade. There’s a lot of potential.”

  “And you want to make these improvements because…” Ollie prompted.

  “Because I want everyone to know that the second a McCaffery got involved, things got better. That a McCaffery will do things the Lancasters never did. That a McCaffery is the one who gives a shit.”

  Ollie nodded. “Got it. But we’re the ones who are going to be here dealing with it all in person while you’re in Chicago?”

  Cam shrugged. “I might hang out in Appleby more than I thought.”

  Oh. Shit.

  Aiden stared at his friend. “Really?”

  “If we’re having a town hall and having the entire town show up to see what we’ve got planned and who’s involved, I’m going to be there,” Cam said.

  Aiden blew out a breath. He needed to talk to Zoe. She had to hear this from him. Before there was a fucking town hall.

  “I need twenty-four hours.” God, he was going to need more than that, he had a feeling. “No announcements of any kind for at least that long,” he told his partners.

  “Whitney thought Thursday next week would be good,” Ollie said. “And she thought having it at the plant would be perfect. Plenty of room. She said we can bring in chairs and refreshments. We open it up to everyone, even people who don’t work there. They meet us. We present our plan. We take questions. Then everyone is talking about it over the weekend.”

  “You want them talking about it?” Grant asked.

  “Of course. Because we’re going to wow them,” Ollie said, clearly fully on board.

  Aiden’s stomach was in a knot. He cast a glance at Camden. This was it. Soon everyone would know. They’d see them as heroes. Or villains. Depending on who was looking at the situation.

  “You worried about your family’s reaction?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Cam said. “They’re totally stubborn and unreasonable. But we’re in too deep now.”

  “You don’t believe Hot Cakes is a competitor of Buttered Up, do you?” Aiden asked.

  “No.”

  “You think you can convince your mom and sister of that?”

  Cam snorted. “No.”

  Aiden sighed.

  “But hey, now that you’re sleeping with Zoe, they can’t stay pissed at us forever, right?”

  Fuck. He hoped that was true.

  But that sounded horrible. That wasn’t why he’d slept with her.

  Was it? The knot tightened further. It wasn’t. Of course. He’d wanted her long before he’d thought about taking on Hot Cakes. He’d decided to buy Hot Cakes because it was a way for him to come home and be with her. She was the reason he was home. Hot Cakes was secondary to that.

  But he’d definitely slept with her before confessing about the business. That could have easily been his subconscious trying to hedge his bets.

  Dammit.

  He had to tell her. Tonight. Right now.

  “You better sit down,” Grant told Aiden. “We need to hash out this town hall.”

  Well… shit.

  This was going to be bad.

  17

  “I can’t believe you never told me sex was that good,” Zoe said. For the fifth time.

  Jane laughed and leaned over to fill Zoe’s wineglass again.

  They met at Maggie’s for dinner at least once a week, but it was nice to hang out at Jane’s and Josie’s sometimes instead because they could drink without Mom's looks. And they could talk about sex.

  “I really feel like we were quite honest about sex being good,” Jane said, setting the bottle on the coffee table.

  Josie was in the armchair and had her feet tucked up under her butt. She nodded. “We really were. Though in my defense, I haven’t had that much, and I don’t think I’ve ever had sex I couldn’t shut up about.” She grinned at Zoe. “But I’m very happy for you.”

  Jane nodded. “I haven’t had like a million experiences, and none were this gushworthy, but yeah, it’s pretty great. I can’t believe you waited this long.”

  Zoe gave what was surely a swoony sigh. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been swoony before. She was pretty sure she’d never swoony-sighed. But that’s how it felt when she thought of Aiden. “Well, it was so good.”

  “Yeah, yeah, cupcakes and cream filling and all that,” Jane said taking a swig of wine. “I’m totally jealous.”

  “And now you’re getting married or what?” Josie asked. “I mean… it’s Aiden, so you are, right?”

  Zoe felt her stomach flip. “Yeah. I guess we probably are.” That didn’t feel as weird to say out loud as it maybe should have.

  Josie laughed. “That’s great. He’s an amazing guy.”

  “He’s got some business thing going, and he’s definitely moving back. He’s been pretty clear about that. And I told him I’m all in. That he’s the one.” Zoe sat back in her chair feeling warm and happy. “My mom knows and is thrilled. My dad surely knows by now too and I’m sure he’s happy. Everything is perfect.” She thought about that then gave a little laugh. “Wow. I mean this has all happened so fast, but it feels so good.”

  “It hasn’t been all that fast,” Josie said. “You’ve known him forever. You’re a friends-to-lovers story. Those are the best.” She gave a swoony sigh too. “I love romances like this.”

  Jane snorted. Josie was definitely the romantic of the three of them.

  “What? You don’t think friends becoming lovers and then falling in love is romantic?” Josie asked.

  “It is,” Jane said. “It makes total sense, actually. I’m just thinking of the guys I’ve known my whole life and… well, I’ve kissed a few of them but can’t imagine spending the rest of my life with any of them.”

  “Well, a handsome stranger coming to town and sweeping you off your feet is a possibility too,” Josie said with a grin.

  Jane frowned.

  “What?” Zoe asked.

  “There are strangers coming to town all right. And two of our new bosses were in today.”

  Zoe leaned in. “Really? They’ve already come to town?”

  “Yep. I was on my way home after talking to Aiden, but I got a call from Danny. He said I needed to get my ass back down there. The new guy was in the office. Just waltzed in like he was big shit.” She was frowning. “He was, of course, meeting with Whitney. God knows what she’s going to tell him. If they keep running things as they have been, it’s really going to suck.”

  “But what if they change a bunch of stuff and that sucks worse?” Josie asked.


  Jane nodded. “I have a ton of really worried people.”

  “Is this the guy who agreed to meet with you?” Zoe asked.

  “I don’t think so. He didn’t seem to recognize my name.” Jane grimaced. “I’m not sure I made a very good first impression though. Instead of waiting for that meeting, I stomped in there today. I was riled up after meeting with Aiden.”

  “Oh… no,” Zoe said.

  “No.” Jane shook her head. “Aiden gave me the confidence to go in there. That was good. I just might have gotten a little loud.”

  “How did the new guy respond? Are you in trouble now?”

  “No.” Jane chewed on her bottom lip for a second then said, “He seemed surprised. Which makes me nervous. He didn’t seem to know there were any problems.”

  “Well, the Lancasters probably wouldn’t admit that, right?” Josie asked. “They’re not going to tell the new buyers they’re inheriting a bunch of trouble.”

  “It’s more that the Lancasters didn’t care there were problems,” Jane said.

  Zoe frowned. She hated seeing her friend worried like this.

  On one level she’d definitely hoped that Hot Cakes would bite the dust. But she knew that was selfish. Aiden had made her face that. He’d seemed almost frustrated with her when she’d refused to admit they weren’t her competition.

  But they were. She’d been taught that from birth.

  So why did Aiden have her doubting things?

  They made different products. Their products were for different purposes.

  Hot Cakes might have started with Letty’s recipe but even the Butter Sticks, their original cake, was different now than when Didi had started out. Nothing else they made even came close to resembling Zoe’s cakes and pies and cookies.

  If the new owners made Hot Cakes a miserable place to work—or an amazing place to work, for that matter—how did that affect Zoe and Buttered Up?