Siobhan leaned forward, intrigued despite herself. The café’s catering business was small, but not because of lack of interest. Their foot traffic was the center of their income stream and they used it to build rapport and repeat customers. They had regulars that they knew scheduled weekly meetings, and they managed their inventory down to the last cookie, tracking which days they had a spike in sales and why. Nadia would sometimes deliver baked goods for some of their regulars using her MINI Cooper, but that wasn’t often and didn’t include any lunch orders.
“You want your courier company to take on delivery service for Sugar and Spice?”
“Yes, initially.” He handed her a presentation folder whose cover bore the logo OBS of stylized lettering with the tag line Support at the speed of business in red and navy and the phrase Sugar and Spice Café Delivery Proposal in bold, black lettering. “It’s something we’ve done for other local eateries. We would add Sugar and Spice to our food delivery family and interface our website with yours. The customer would place the order through our website and we pass the order to you after payment. On top of the charges you normally have for your items, Crimson Bay Couriers would add two: One is a delivery fee to help defray any operating costs, including fuel if a motorized vehicle is used. The other is a mandatory tip for our courier. The details of how the payment would be dispersed are included in the proposal I gave you. We also offer other services that have proven beneficial to other local small business in the area.”
Curious, she flipped through the proposal. His bosses had done an impressive job, offering up their client list for references, detailing the projected increase in revenue for the café, what the projected profit-loss calculation would be, and a list of other services including web design and social media marketing.
“You’ve presented an impressive proposal, Mr.—excuse me—Charlie,” she said, closing the proposal and placing it on the table. “I’ll have to discuss it with my partner before I can provide any sort of response.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t expect anything else. My contact information is in the proposal packet. If you have any questions about our services, anything at all, please feel free to call.”
“I will.” She shook his hand again, and it was like lightning striking twice as that same current of awareness snaked up her arms and energized her body.
He turned his wrist, and instead of shaking her hand he held it, his fingers tangled loosely with hers. Strong, callused fingers that denoted a man used to working with his hands, used to hard work. Would she feel the same electric current if those fingers stroked over other parts of her body, like her breasts, the small of her back?
Shocked at the direction of her thoughts, she attempted to pull her hand free of his. He tightened his grip instead. “Charlie?”
“You’re so beautiful,” he said then, his tone dazed and wondering. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman as beautiful as you.”
“How many women have you used that line on?” she asked, but couldn’t muster the heat she wanted to interject into her tone. Not when he looked at her as if she’d just appeared out of a fantasy. His fantasy.
“A couple,” he admitted, “but I didn’t understand what that meant until now. I should have saved it for you.”
She was only human. It was perfectly all right for her to take a little feminine satisfaction in knowing that she’d had an effect on such a handsome man, even if nothing would come of it. Nothing could come of it.
Still, she had to know, so she asked. “Is this how you charm all your clients, with a combination of business smarts and flirting?”
The smile he gave her was at once indulgent and self-deprecating. “But you aren’t my client yet, Siobhan.”
She took a deep breath. He was a stranger. Sure he came in an average of once a week, but they’d hardly said two full sentences to each other before now. He shouldn’t have said her name like that, all soft and sweet as if they’d just awakened from an exhausting bout of lovemaking. As if he knew her, and liked what he knew and wanted to know more. No, he shouldn’t have said it like that, and she shouldn’t have reacted the way she had, melting at the sound and the yearning it evoked in her.
“You think I’m going to be your client?”
“I think you know a good business opportunity when you see it,” he told her, his smile deepening. “I think you’ll at least discuss it with your business partner, do some due diligence. Sugar and Spice Café has successfully been in business for nearly four years, which is a lifetime in restaurant terms. That says a lot about the business and the people who run it.”
His confidence was strangely attractive. On anyone else, that confidence would have been off-putting. But with that open, easy smile and the “just between you and me” tone, his self-assurance drew her like a moth to a flame.
“Be that as it may, don’t you think your overt flirting is offensive?”
“You’re not offended.” He squeezed her hand, reminding her that he still held it. “You’re curious, intrigued even. Wondering if I can back up all the flirting.”
“Can you?” she asked, then immediately wished she could take the words back.
“You should find out for yourself.” He leaned forward, lowered his voice. “Let me take you out on a date.”
Damn the trill of pleasure that swept her bloodstream! It betrayed her resolve, her need to ignore every wish but one, to have her daughter back. “I’m sorry, Charlie. I don’t mix business and pleasure.”
“That’s not true,” he insisted. “You’re surrounded by friends here. Your business partner is your best friend.”
“That’s different.”
“How is it different? Is it different because you don’t look at your friends and imagine yourself kissing them the way you do when you look at me?”
Her nipples tightened. God, when was the last time she’d felt any of this? Anything close to this? She couldn’t remember, but it had to have been years. Years.
“Charlie, this is highly inappropriate. What would your boss say?”
“I don’t think he’d have as big a problem with it as you think he would. As for whether or not it’s inappropriate . . . maybe, but do you think it’s wrong?”
Oh hell yes, it was wrong. It was multiple levels of wrong. Because now, thanks to him, all she could think about was kissing him, touching him, everything him.
She shook her head, trying to distance herself from him, from the things he was resurrecting for her. Things she wasn’t sure she was equipped to handle any longer, if she ever had been.
“Siobhan. Give me one good reason, outside of the potential business relationship, why going out with me would be a bad idea.”
“I can think of one major reason.”
“Which is?”
She sighed inwardly. “I’m older than you.”
“So?”
“So?” she repeated. “What do you mean, so? It’s a big deal!”
He shook his head. “Not to me.”
“Well it is to me!”
“Age ain’t nothing but a number,” he retorted. “How old are you?”
“I’m thirty-five.”
“And I’m thirty,” he told her, shrugging his shoulders. “That’s only a five-year difference. You make it sound like you’re old and decrepit and past your prime.” He gave her a long, slow perusal, teal eyes alight with appreciation. “Which I can tell you, you most certainly are not.”
He’d stolen the words right out of her mouth, leaving her without an argument. “What am I then?” she asked, wanting to know how he saw her. Not that what he thought of her mattered.
“I think you’re retro sexy, like a pinup,” he said, sincerity flooding his tone. “You remind me of cotton candy—fun, indulgent, a sweet treat. But I bet you’re also a habanero hottie on the inside. Yes, sugar and spice, just like your café.”
Flummoxed and flustered, she could only sit and stare at him. Why her, why now? She wasn’t ready for anything like this.
She doubted she’d ever be ready for anything like this. For all her bitching and moaning to Nadia and to Charlie that she was too old for the relationship dance, she was honest enough to admit to herself that she didn’t feel that she deserved anything like this, an opportunity like this, even though she wanted it. Not with Charlie, though. Not really.
She’d made a mess of her life before. She’d ruined her daughter’s childhood, destroyed her marriage to her high school sweetheart. Did she really deserve another shot at relationships, when the ones she’d had were still in tatters?
“Siobhan.” He turned their hands so that he could press a kiss to the back of her hand. As kisses went, it was tame, chaste even, but she felt it all the way to her toes.
He stood. “Whether it’s for business or pleasure or both, I look forward to hearing from you. My contact info is in the proposal.”
He left. She remained seated, stunned, aroused, and very confused. It was a state that continued when she opened the portfolio to retrieve his business card. As she read it, she realized what OBS stood for: O’Halloran Business Solutions. Charlie O’Halloran wasn’t a courier or salesperson for Crimson Bay Couriers.
He was the owner.
THREE
“So, Hottie McHotterson has brains to go with all that brawn,” Nadia joked as she closed the cover on the business proposal. “Your boyfriend sure is full of surprises.”
“I’m not going to rise to your bait.” Siobhan joined her business partner at the small round table tucked into their office. “But thanks for reading the proposal and letting me close the café before you started in with the innuendos.”
“Are you going to take his bait?” Nadia asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “I gotta say, that’s some mighty fine bait.”
“Can we talk about the proposal?” Siobhan asked, wishing she’d selected a stronger tea than the rosehip currently steeping in front of her. “I’d like to know what you think about it.”
Nadia checked the brew strength of her own pot of tea, a mild rooibos. “I’m glad to know that your potential Mr. Right Now was doing more than stalking you. He did a very thorough background on our business.”
Siobhan decided to let the “Mr. Right Now” quip pass without comment. She didn’t need to encourage Nadia more than she already had. “Apparently, Crimson Bay Couriers is just one of the companies under the O’Halloran Business Solutions banner. It looks like they have an answer for anything a small business could need.”
“I think his proposal is sound,” Nadia said. “Definitely something we need to consider.”
“Actually, we have considered it. We just didn’t have the infrastructure and overhead necessary to implement it.”
“True.” Nadia tapped on her tablet, pulling up their business plan. “McHotterson’s proposal would enable us to branch out into delivery and onsite catering without a hardship investment on our part. It’s a way for us to bring in more business without having to resort to extending our hours and potentially destroying the balancing act we have with inventory. If we start planning now, we could be ready to launch it when business picks back up in the fall.”
Summer was their slowest season. Not only was traffic light because attendance at Herscher, the college that anchored the town, went to less than forty percent capacity, but most tourists to their seaside town spent their time on the boardwalk, not the town square. Gatherings on the square, like concerts and movie nights, were usually at hours when the café was normally closed. They ran a skeleton crew and summer hours to offset the light business, opening at eight during the week and operating nine to noon on Saturdays.
While upping their income was always at the forefront of their minds, neither wanted their quality to suffer. Thanks to their stints in rehab, both had become control freaks. Though they both had assistants, neither would turn their kitchen duties over to anyone else in order to expand their service hours, and both had learned the hard way that burnout wasn’t pretty.
“Maybe we could do a trial period with them, and reassess at the end of the contract,” Siobhan mused. “It would be like having a soft opening. We’d tell a few of our business regulars about the delivery option and see how it goes.”
“Good idea. In the meantime, we’ll work on overhauling the website. I did a little tinkering a few weeks back, but it was mostly to keep myself occupied.” Nadia’s tone dimmed, and Siobhan knew she was thinking of the breakup she’d had with Kane before both had come to their senses. “Anyway, McHotterson’s included an upgrade in one of the options package. Seems like his company is a full-service provider, and the client list is impressive. Like I said, your man’s got a good head on those gorgeous shoulders. You should find out if he has a good head beneath those khakis.”
“You’re not going to let it go, are you?” Siobhan said with a long-suffering sigh. She knew Nadia’s heart was in the right place, but she didn’t need her business partner to become a relationship evangelist trying to convert her friends’ lives into sexily-ever-afters, no matter how nice it would be to get it on the regular.
“Just consider me your sex cheerleader,” Nadia answered with an unrepentant smile before launching into a cheer. “Get S-O-M-E—Siobhan is next, just wait and see!”
“Good grief, you’re fucking impossible!” Siobhan exclaimed, laughing despite herself. “You should be completely focused on your sexy professor. Stop worrying about me.”
“I wouldn’t call it worry.” Nadia poured tea into her mug, then added a healthy dollop of local wildflower honey. “I know you have a full life. I know you’re in a good place. That doesn’t mean that I think it’s okay that you’re just treading water.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Emotionally you’re just keeping your head above water, not trying to move forward. I wouldn’t push you if it wasn’t for the fact that you want more.”
Siobhan concentrated on preparing her own mug of tea. She decided to ignore the treading water remark. “What makes you think I want more?”
“Because you have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, outside of my dads. Because you’re at your happiest when you’re caring for someone else.”
“Yeah.” Siobhan snorted. “My track record is just awesome on that.”
“I’m not talking about your daughter or your ex-husband. I’m talking about how you helped me get through rehab. I’m talking about how you helped me stay clean for the last four years. How you had my back when I faltered. How you helped Audie when she tried to push everyone away. How you staged a cookie intervention when I almost ruined things with Kane.”
Nadia reached over, wrapping tea-warmed fingers around Siobhan’s suddenly icy ones. “You have an incredible capacity to care, Siobhan, and I’m grateful you care for me and all our friends. I’m just saying that maybe it’s time to care for someone in a different way—especially someone who can care for you in a way the rest of us can’t.”
Damn. Siobhan tried to force a sip of tea past the lump in her throat. “I’m not ready to fall in love.”
“I didn’t say anything about falling in love,” Nadia said gently. “I don’t think you’re ready for that. But there’s nothing wrong with falling in lust. Particularly when you have a prime young stud apply for the job of fantasy maker.”
“You think he’s too young for me?”
“I don’t care how young he is, as long as he’s legal.” Nadia’s gaze sharpened. “Did he tell you how old he is?”
“He’s thirty.”
“Excellent! That means he’s exactly what you asked for!”
“I didn’t ask for him!”
Nadia cocked her head. “Are you sure? You said most guys interested in you are either fraternity guys or too old for you. Hottie McHotterson is a responsible thirtysomething who owns his own company. He’s also very interested in you. He’s hot, responsible, hot, a business owner, hot, good-looking, charming. Did I mention that he was hot?”
Siobhan fought a smile.
“You might have mentioned it once or twice.”
Nadia cocked her head. “You don’t think he’s attractive? I know he doesn’t look anything like Mike.”
“That’s a good thing, though.” The mention of her ex-husband always caused a shaft of guilt, but at least the pain had lessened over the years. “I’m glad Charlie doesn’t look like Mike. Charlie’s surfer-god gorgeous, with the most amazing lashes I’ve ever seen on a guy. And those eyes! God, Nadia—when he looked at me, I knew I had his complete attention, like I was the best thing he’d ever seen. Like he knew the world’s biggest secret and wanted to let me in on it. It was flattering.”
“Sounds like he made quite an impression on you.”
Blood heated her cheeks. “You won’t believe what he said!”
“What?” Nadia leaned forward with schoolgirl eagerness. “What did he say?”
“He called me retro sexy.”
Nadia laughed. “He nailed you good. Not as good as the naked mambo, but retro sexy fits you. Given your whole burlesque-rockabilly vibe, I’d say retro sexy is a good description of you.”
Siobhan shook her head, still dumbfounded over the most bizarre sales pitch she’d ever participated in. “Do you also say I’m cotton-candy fun covering a habanero-hottie center?”
Nadia’s eyes widened. “He said that to you?”
“He sure did,” Siobhan answered, then blew out a breath. “Right before he kissed the back of my hand.”
“That must have been some kind of hand kiss.”
“I melted,” Siobhan admitted. “I seriously fricking melted because a guy kissed my hand. My hand! How pathetic is that?”
“I don’t think it’s pathetic at all,” her partner said, her voice understanding. A dreamy haze filled her eyes. “When Kane kisses my hand like that, I tend to get all melty too. There’s something to be said about a guy who can be charming like that without it feeling cheesy.”
“I was feeling a lot of things, but cheesy definitely wasn’t one of them!”
Nadia waggled her eyebrows. “Were you thinking about what it would be like to ride his surfboard?”
Sugar Page 2