by Norah Wilson
Could that be true? Could she have made up the job?
Dammit, it had the ring of truth. She’d only accepted the job here out of sheer desperation, to avoid having to go to live with her no-good brother. But she wouldn’t have wanted to stay on past Scott’s own departure. At least not when he’d first offered the job and she didn’t know his family.
But even if the position in Ontario was real, wouldn’t it be better for her in the long run to build her own job than go to work for yet another employer who might have a low threshold of tolerance for Sid? If the business took off, she might even decide to stay in the region, which would definitely suit Sid. But if she was still bent on leaving, taking the extra months to build her platform would still be a great investment. She could then port it over to wherever she wanted to go.
Now, all that remained was to make sure she would agree to stay.
He pulled out his cell phone, checked the time. There was a three hour time difference from New Brunswick to Alberta. Yeah. Georgie would still be up.
He descended the steps and walked out to the driveway before punching in the number. No need for anyone else to overhear this.
“Scott! How’s it going, old man?”
“Can’t complain. How about you?”
“Good, good. Hey, Tatiana had her baby yesterday.”
“Yeah?”
“A boy. I’m an uncle, bro.”
Scott smiled at the happiness in his friend’s tone. He knew Georgie had been concerned about his sister, who’d had some issues with her blood pressure. “Awesome. How’s the new mom doing?”
“Great. Her BP is still a little high, but they say it’ll resolve in a few weeks.”
The small talk continued and Scott listened patiently. For a while. The way Georgie was wound up, he could talk all night. So Scott brought the conversation around to work as quickly as he could.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s still a go,” Georgie said. “Everything’s still cued up for January.”
“About that…” Scott dropped the cigarette he’d neglected to smoke and ground it out in the dirt. “I might have to stay a bit longer.”
A pause. “How much longer?”
“I don’t know. Couple of months?”
“Jesus! A couple of months?”
“Or less. I’m not sure. But I could send my share of the money.”
“It’s not just the investment, Scott. I need you here if we’re gonna do this. You know how much day-to-day oversight this project is going to take. So many details and moving parts. I can contribute a lot, but you’ve got the better brain for that part.”
Scott raked a hand through his hair. “Can’t we just defer it for a bit?”
“A little while, maybe. But Christ, we’ve got to move on this. If we don’t do it, someone else will beat us to the punch.”
“You really think our guy will walk over a two-month delay?”
“I don’t know, do I?” The stress in Georgie’s voice made his words clipped. “But even if he hangs in here with us, who’s to stop someone else from beating us to the market with a different design?”
He paced. The project involved the construction of low-cost pod-type housing units that could be pre-assembled and quickly connected to a pre-built infrastructure to facilitate quick, functional housing where it was needed. “If they beat us by that much of a margin, they’re already building them, Georgie. In which case, even our January schedule would be too late.” It was the truth, but the idea of being beaten to the punch made him antsy. “Worst case scenario, if we’re not first, we can still be best, right?”
There was another brief silence, then Georgie sighed. “I guess you’re right. But don’t take too long, bro. My brother-in-law is itching to get in on this. He’s a dick, but he has construction experience. And if Tatiana sees the project is lagging, she’ll be all over me to take Karl on as a partner. Don’t make me do that buddy.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
They talked a few moments longer about what a colossal pain in the ass Karl-the-brother-in-law was. Fortunately, Georgie got another call and said goodbye.
Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Scott headed for the barn. But somehow, he no longer thought he’d be asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Chapter 24
April Dawn’s
There it was in full, gorgeous color above her head. Titus had pulled some strings to get the sign done quickly, and April had expected to pay accordingly. But Titus insisted the bill was just thirty bucks. She doubted that, but he wouldn’t take a penny more.
April smiled as she listened to the current customer discuss his diet. He’d started out strictly Paleo, but was now more focused on just eating real foods. She pointed out which products would fit his diet and which to avoid. He left with some coconut, date, and nut bars.
She’d answered so many questions, she figured she could now do it in her sleep: Yes, I do put rum in the fruitcake, but ninety-five percent of it evaporates during cooking. That’s right, it’s all sweetened naturally. I mainly use coconut sugar, which has a lower glycemic index than cane sugar. Oh, and dates make a great sweetener. Raw honey? Not for baking. Heat tends to kill off the nutrients you’re trying to get from it. Maple syrup’s a better choice. Or molasses. Much more heat tolerant. Gluten free? Yes, I have some excellent options right here...
She’d been there at the market since five-thirty. Now, as she stood chatting with a new customer, she stole a glance at the clock on the wall over Gladys’s Henna Tattoo shop down the way. Gladys, who was experiencing a lull in business, leaned back in her lawn chair, reading. April hadn’t had a lull since seven o’clock. It was now one o’clock in the afternoon. Three hours to go. Scott would arrive at four. He and Sid would help her look after packing up—which really didn’t take that long. Then her daughter was going on yet another sleepover at Danika’s house this Saturday night.
Sidney had put in just as many hours as April had today. Well, almost. April had let her daughter sleep in an extra twenty minutes while she loaded the truck herself. As it turned out, Sidney had been annoyed to no end to be left out of even that small aspect of their venture. She’d been a real trooper all day. At the moment, she was busily rearranging and compressing the remaining stock. April was proud of her and glad to see her so happy.
This business venture was pulling the two of them closer together. The naming of items, the measuring of ingredients, the baking. The way they both liked to good-naturedly tease Scott when they let him help out. And despite her protests that he must have something better to do, that was pretty much every day. Fortunately, he’d learned to confine himself to lifting and carrying stuff, or helping Sidney pack away the end products. Though she didn’t want to pull him away from his duties on the farm, she had to admit it was kind of nice having him around.
Actually, it was nice having the whole clan around. Jace, sweetheart that he was, had shown her how to get her business registered and given her some priceless tips. Titus and Arden had eagerly tested each and every one of her products. Faye had brought over a large double boiler that had been lacking in the Standish kitchen. Ocean had printed the peel-and-stick labels on her color printer. Sidney and Danika had made an afterschool project of labeling all the jars. They look amazingly professional.
April bagged the gluten-free carrot muffins and cranberry apple jelly and handed it to her customer, a senior lady with an amazing mass of salt-and-pepper hair. “You’ll have to let me know how you enjoy this combo.”
“I will. You’ll be here next weekend?”
April smiled. “We will.”
“Then I’ll be back!” She gave April a little wave and set off.
Finally, there was a lull. Not a customer in sight. Sidney stopped fussing with the merchandise and came to stand beside her at the counter.
“We’re out of Almond Butter Dawn and Bootilicious Butterscotch Dawn,” she reported. “I think we should double our product again next week.”
>
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we will.” Bootilicious Butterscotch…that had been Sidney’s idea.
It was their third Saturday at the market. If this kept up, by the time Christmas rolled around, they’d need a much bigger booth.
Sidney was such a quick study, jumping to do whatever April needed her to do, and always with a smile on her face. But it turned out her real gift was in sales and customer service. Her daughter was a natural. A ten-year-old natural.
Sidney reached for the order pad. “Lots of custom orders today, huh?”
“I’ll have to get them into the spreadsheet so I’ll know what to make and when it’s due.” April gestured to the pad. “There’s a German chocolate cheesecake…I think that’s for the 5th. Two Kalua cakes for an office party on the 12th.”
Sidney flipped through the pages. “Wow, Mom, you just started this pad this morning, didn’t you?”
April smiled. “Yup.”
“I don’t remember a bunch of these…you must have taken them while I was on my lunch break.”
“Yeah, there was quite a rush.” And lots of them were repeat customers, like Connie Lemon, who was currently bearing down on their booth.
“Hi, April.”
“Hi, Connie. What can I do for you today?”
“I’ve been thinking about your Cranberry Oatmeal Dawn bars all week. Can I have four of them?”
April turned to Sidney. “How’s our stock?”
Sidney came back with just three bars. “Sorry, this is all we have left.”
“I’ll take them,” Connie said. “Quick, before someone else snatches them up.”
April laughed.
“Actually, can I order a dozen of them for next Saturday? I want to give them out as Christmas gifts to my friends in Spanish class at the community center. I was telling them how tasty they were and now they all want to try them.”
“Then you’ll need sixteen, won’t you?” Sidney said. “Twelve for your friends and four for you?”
Connie laughed. “Good thought, Sid, but I’ve already got it covered. There are only six in the class. The other six are for me.”
“Twelve April’s Cranberry-Oatmeal Dawn bars it is, Connie. I’ll have them bagged and ready for you.”
“Thanks, hon.” Connie started to fish for her wallet.
“Hey, would you like to sample one of our Caramel Dawn squares before you go?” Sidney directed Connie’s attention to the small sample jar on the counter.
“Don’t mind if I do.”
Sid carefully extracted one of the samples with the metal tongs and placed it on a napkin.
Connie picked up the treat and bit into it. “Mmm, this is so good!” She took another bite and chewed it slowly, savoring it. "Can you put six of these on the order for next week too?”
“Spanish class?” Sidney asked.
Connie grinned. “Knitting circle.”
“Can do,” Sidney said, scribbling the order on the pad. “Just give me a minute to do the math. Six caramel, twelve cranberry-oatmeal, ten percent discount for pre-order.” With a glance at her mother, she said, “Let’s knock off another five percent for being such a great customer and spreading the word about our products.”
Connie smiled “Oh, that would be lovely!”
“Okay, so that’s a full fifteen percent off…” Sid looked up at the ceiling as she did the mental math, then announced the total. April had already tallied the bill in her own mind, and the amount Sid arrived at was correct. No surprise there.
“That’s a great price." Connie dug a bright green wallet from her burlap market bag. “And you, young lady, are quite the math whiz.”
Sid was all smiles. “Thanks.”
With a wave, Connie moved across the aisle to talk to Gladys, who happily ditched her book to chat.
April looked down at her daughter. “So fifteen percent, huh?”
“I know we said no more than ten percent for pre-orders, but just hear me out, Mom. If she’s going to be handing our stuff out to her friends, that’s like us giving out free samples, but they didn’t cost us anything. We actually got paid for them! And she’s reaching people who might not ordinarily come to the market and might never have found us, but maybe they’ll come now if they have a good enough—”
“Relax, Ladybug. I was just going to say good job.”
“Oh, good! We'll do that again, then. But I think it really should come from me, whenever possible.”
“Excuse me?”
She bit her lip, a sure sign she was choosing her words diplomatically. “Mom, you are the greatest cook on the planet. And definitely chief cook and bottle washer of this whole operation—”
Chief cook and bottle washer? Which of the Standishs had she gleaned that expression from?
“But when it comes to sales, there’s nothing like an earnest kid to land the deal.”
April laughed. “Oh, Sidney, you’re definitely a natural at this sales thing.”
Sid shot her a sideways look, the kind kids give when they’re trying to figure out if an adult is being condescending or not. “Seriously?”
“No question about it.”
“Thanks.” Sidney grinned. “You know, if this business takes off—I mean, really takes off—we could be all set.”
Whoops. Time for some expectation management. “Nice thought, but we can’t really judge by pre-Christmas sales, Ladybug. The Christmas season tends to bump up sales for all businesses.”
“Duh. I know that, Mom. Nobody’s going to want to buy a Christmas basket full of jellies and jams in July. But that just means we need to work super hard in November and December to offset the slower months. There are ways we could build business in those slower months too.”
“How so?”
Apparently that had been the invitation Sidney had been looking for.
“Take Easter, for instance. We can set out a platter of samples of your Easter egg banana cake in February, so we can get people wanting our breakfast version. We’ll have dozens pre-ordered for Easter. And hey, we can have a different type of fudge each week. It would sell even better than it’s selling now if we made it into shapes—bunnies, and Easter eggs and stuff like that. Carrots, maybe, for the health nuts!”
April snorted. “A fudge carrot for the health conscious?”
“Okay, maybe not,” Sidney allowed. “But the other ideas are great, aren’t they?”
“They sure are.” April had thought about trying a lot of these strategies already, but that didn’t take away from how impressed she was that Sid had thought of them. She didn’t bother mentioning, either, that they’d have to put those strategies to work somewhere else because they’d be long gone by Easter.
“And listen to this, Mom. In August, we could have back-to-school sales. Think about it—individually wrapped breakfast bars sold in twelve- or twenty-four packs. Pre-orders welcome. Hey, maybe we could even approach Principal Makepeace! They have a breakfast club at school. Maybe she’d be interested.”
April’s heart sank. “That’s another great marketing idea.” She looked into her daughter’s eyes. “But Ladybug, you know we’ll be…”
“You promised!” Sidney said, her voice rising, her eyes suspiciously bright. “Just say we’ll see. Okay?”
Oh, Sidney. What had she done, agreeing to let her daughter pretend? Except from the glitter in her daughter’s eyes, it was evident reality wasn’t far away. She knew what was coming.
April forced a smile. “We’ll see.”
“Um, I’d like to buy a Sunny Sesame Dawn. It’s for my Mother.”
April almost didn’t recognize the young man at the counter plunking down a well-folded five dollar bill. Last time she’d seen Roy, he’d been wearing the banner of Grossest Superhero across his torso.
“Hey, Roy,” Sid said.
“Oh, hey, Sidney,” he said. “What a surprise. I’d forgotten you worked here.” Considering how perfectly practiced that sounded, April
doubted it.
Sidney frowned. “I saw you here last week.”
“Oh, that’s right,” he laughed nervously. “Well, I’ve got a lot on my mind this weekend—you know, with football practice and all.”
“Football? That’s the bee’s knees!”
Roy looked blank.
“I think it’s pretty cool too,” April said, to help him figure out whether bee’s knees were good or not.
“Yeah? I mean, yeah. My big brother coaches it and this is my first year. I’m thinking I’ll try out for tackle, but I’ve got a pretty good arm so I could see being put in the quarterback position.”
“Cool.” Sidney packaged up the small order, put it in a bag and handed it over to Roy. “Um, there you go. Hope your mom enjoys it.”
“You forgot to take my money,” Roy said.
“Right!” She picked the five up from the counter and started to make change in the cash box. “Ha ha…I should have brought a calculator.”
Calculator? Playing dumb? About math? Her suddenly red-cheeked girl was just a little bit flustered.
Oh yeah, her daughter was crushing.
April watched the sweet, almost painful exchange.
“Say, Sid,” she said. “We’ve been working so hard, I forgot lunch.” This was true, she’d sent Sidney to grab a soft pretzel around eleven, planning to grab herself something less bready later when she had the chance. She hadn’t had the chance. She opened her wallet, and held out a five. “Would you mind grabbing a couple veggie samosas for me?”
“Sure.” Sidney took the money. “Though I’m not sure where the booth is…”
Well played, Ladybug. Well played.
“I can show you,” Roy said.
“Oh? That’d be great.”
Instead of lifting up the counter divide, Sidney crawled beneath it. She put April’s money down on the counter and started to untie her apron, then thought better of it. Instead, she redid the tie at the back even more tightly. “Free advertising.” She picked up the five dollar bill and tucked it into the apron’s pocket.