His Secret Baby

by Ashlee Price

  “Why would you give them freebies because of the way they were acting?”

  “Because it was just an honest mistake and sometimes it’s better to diffuse a situation than to make it worse. There wasn’t much I was going to do that wasn’t going to make it worse. Just seemed easier to get them calmed down and send them on their way.”

  She kind of shook her head and warned me that I was going to start a precedent that I didn’t want.

  “This isn’t the law we’re talking about, Melissa, it’s just a couple cups of coffee.”

  “Okay, Jesse, but remember that I told you it was going to be this way. You’ll see. You know that I like to see the best in people, and even I know that giving out free drinks if they cause a ruckus isn’t going to be good.”

  I agreed a little, but that was mostly because I didn’t know what to say. Was it really that bad to let it go just that once to make everyone happy?

  ***

  As the week wore on and the lines got longer, Melissa was proven right. It was becoming a problem. I still didn’t know why in the world the place had gotten so popular, but I didn’t really have time to think about. It seemed like I spent half my day trying to corral and calm the people down. I had to figure something out, because we couldn’t make as much coffee as was needed and serving them in time was almost impossible.

  “Are you ready for today?”

  I looked up to Melissa and asked if the new girl had showed up. I knew that it was just her second day, but I was afraid the day before had been too much for her. It wasn’t every day that there was a fist fight in a bistro line over a cup of coffee, but it had happened yesterday.

  “I haven’t seen her. She isn’t supposed to be here for a little while. Who knows, maybe she’s just running late?”

  I looked about as dubious as I felt. I didn’t think that Amanda was coming back, and I didn’t blame her. The Ground Bean was getting out of hand, and it wasn’t the first time that I wished my dad was still around. He would know what to do about all of this.

  “Well, I guess you can call that temp agency in a little while when they open. See if they will send me another couple of candidates over here. It isn’t going to get any better until we get some more help in here.”

  “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks, Melissa, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  “You would be very busy, I suppose.”

  I kind of laughed and went back to the paperwork that I was supposed to send to the accountant. The numbers didn’t add up, and though the man was magical, there wasn’t going to be any denying that the money just wasn’t there. While the bistro was doing well, it would seem that my father had had a lot of debt, and I was now strapped with it. Even with all of the business we were doing, it didn’t feel like it was ever going to be enough.

  Chapter 2 – Cade Scott

  “I’m just trying to figure out what it is that I’m supposed to be going there for?”

  My assistant wrinkled her nose up and I could feel my eyes darkening. I wasn’t in the mood, never really was, but this day above all others was worse. This was the anniversary of the day long ago that had changed my life forever, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get through it without snapping at everyone. I couldn’t help it and I’d long since given up trying. Kindness was overrated and a surefire way to get run over. I wasn’t worried about that happening anymore.

  “It was something that your father insisted on, remember?”

  I sighed and sat back down at the desk I’d inherited from the same man who now breathed down my neck from his position on the board. When he had given me Scott Tech, I’d thought that it was his way of making things right. Little did I know that it was really just his way of getting his hooks even deeper into me than before. It wasn’t a way for us to be closer, but for me to do all of the work and for him to still have the final say. Everyone on the board would go with what he wanted. He was still my boss, and although my father was retired, he was still there every single day to watch over me, dictating my every move.

  “I don’t care who insisted that I go. I’m the CEO. I want to know why.”

  Caroline just shrugged. I watched her dark brown eyes look anywhere else but where I was looking. I was making her nervous, and though I didn’t feel any guilt, I knew somewhere inside that it was wrong to make her want to squirm like that.

  “I can call Samuel if you would like me to. I don’t know if I can get a hold of him right now, but I’ll do my best to track him down and patch you through to him. If I knew, I would tell you, but I really have no real idea what is going on.”

  I believed her, kind of. She wouldn’t lie to me. But I didn’t quite believe everything that she was saying. If she didn’t know why, she wouldn’t be looking at me as if she did. I felt sure she was feigning ignorance, and after I pressed her for a time, I finally got some sort of an answer.

  “The company is very small, but they have a viral coffee brew that your father would like to capitalize on.”

  I didn’t get it. What did coffee have to do with new technologies? I asked Caroline the same question, but that was where she really did run out of information. Her blank look told me that she actually didn’t know the answer to all of my questions. The idea of it bothered me, though. I tried not to let it, but it was impossible.

  “I’m not sure what you want to know, sir. I’ve told you everything that I know. I’ll put a call in to your father and send it through when I get a hold of him. He can tell you more than I can.”

  She was like a robot in her loyalty to my father. I knew that she wasn’t going to tell me anything she wasn’t authorized to. In the end it was a waste of time, and I told her not to worry about calling him. I was going to call him myself and see what he wanted.

  When I dialed his cell phone, it took him several minutes to call me back and when he did he was out of breath. I didn’t want to think about what he was doing with a woman who was more than likely half his age. The only solace I got was to think that he would keel over one day and that would be the end of that. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about him pulling the strings from the board. I knew, though, that if there was any way he could pull the strings from the grave he would find it and send some shyster lawyer to enforce it.

  “Scott, I thought you would be over at that bistro. I want you to check it out and see if there’s an angle that we can get into.”

  “Why do we need an angle?”

  “I’m thinking about buying that girl’s recipe. The co-owner was her father, and now that he’s dead there’s a good chance I can get it rather cheap. I hear there’s a bit of a money problem with the business, so it’s time to pounce.”

  “And what does that have to do with the tech company?”

  “It doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s just a good opportunity to make some money. You don’t think I made all my money with a few patents, do you? How do you think I bankrolled the first couple of years? That’s why I stay on the board. You have a lot to learn, Scott.”

  I wanted to yell at him, but I knew that it would do no good. It would just pull the strings tighter.

  “I’ll go down there if you want me to.” I wanted to tell him that I’d been doing every stupid thing that he wanted me to do for some time. Ever since I’d taken the job of CEO of the company, I’d done nothing but compromise to make things run smoother for him.

  “Good. You’ll have to make it quick. I hear they had a line most of the day and it closes early in the afternoon. I don’t want you to put it off another day.”

  “What is it that you want me to find out that you can’t find out yourself?”

  “I want you to see if it’s a good investment. Get a vibe for the place, the customers and the person who’s running it. It’s a young girl, about twenty-four, and I want to know how easily I can bamboozle her with a crappy deal.”

  The worst part wasn’t even the words he used; it was that he was preying on a girl�
�s dead father to make him some money. That was the side of my father that no one really saw. He was good at hiding it, but I knew that he was the metaphorical snake in the grass, and I was going to be his minion.

  “I’ll go down there, but if it’s such a small bistro, I don’t see why it’s worth that much to you.”

  “Just go down there and see what’s going on. There’s a line there every day. It’s there for a reason, and I want to know why. But more than that, you need to use that charm of yours and seal the deal.”

  I hated the way he said it, but before I could say anything else, my father was off the phone and I was left looking at it like he had lost his mind. I was sure that he had every intention of doing exactly what he planned. Now I was going to help him destroy a woman who’d just lost her father.

  I should have felt worse, and I should have refused, but that was what I was. I just had to go get it done and see if she was a good mark.

  Chapter 3 – Scott

  When I got to the bistro, I had to admit that I was surprised. The ‘line’ that my father had talked about was actually almost a block long, and since there was only another hour that the place was open, I wondered how fast the line was moving. It wasn’t moving fast enough for my liking. I had things to do, after all, so I tried to cut my way into the place.

  I was met with some resistance from the people I was cutting in front of, but it wasn’t until I got into the building that I realized that these people were serious about their coffee. What could be so good that I was getting confrontational looks and comments? I was not used to that, to say the least, and when I finally got to the front, I was met with even more attitude.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to go to the back of the line and wait like everyone else.”

  I stared at the blonde for a moment and then kind of waved her off. The name tag said that her name was Melissa. What was wrong with her? Didn’t she know who I was?

  “I don’t see any harm. No one seems to mind, and I’m really busy. There is an opportunity for the owner if I could just see what all of this excitement is about.” I waved my hand towards all of the people behind me. They were obviously watching me to see what was going to happen next.

  “Sir, go to the back of the line.”

  “I would like to speak to the owner.” I tried to sound like I was irked, and in fact I was. Why couldn’t they see that I had places to go? If I was there for a coffee, I should get it and not have to wait all of this time.

  “I’ll bring her out here, but I’m telling you now that if you’re going to argue with her, you’re out of luck.”

  The woman in front of me was so sure that a seed of uncertainty filled me. I don’t know why I was all of a sudden nervous to meet a girl who I’d been told was young and distraught, but I was. It was something that I wouldn’t even admit to myself, but the fact wasn’t changed.

  I stood my ground, not knowing what else to do, waiting for the owner who was going to become my father’s next victim. When the cashier emerged with a grim smile on her face, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel about everything. I knew that I wasn’t ready for the tall, willowy woman who came out, though. That was something that I knew for sure.

  She was young, but there was an agelessness to the green eyes that looked back at me. They were the color of dark emeralds and held years of hardship in them. I knew that my own eyes showed more depth than most could muster. It wasn’t just her eyes that caught my attention, but the way her lips looked when she pressed them together. It took a minute for me to realize that she was talking to me. I was thinking more about the way the woman’s apron accentuated her curves than the words that were coming out of her mouth.

  “Is there a problem, sir?”

  I didn’t like her calling me ‘sir.’ I wanted her to call me by my given name, and so help me I wanted to know hers. There was something achingly mysterious about her, but when I finally paid attention to the look on her face, it was clear that she wasn’t as happy to see me as I was to see her. She was giving me a look like I was the lowest scum on the planet.

  “Yes, I was just trying to get one of the coffees that I’ve heard so much about, but your cashier wouldn’t sell to me.”

  “Did you cut the line?”

  Of course I had, and everyone in there had seen me, but I didn’t want to tell her that. I didn’t have to, though: someone behind me was kind enough to do it for me. The owner smiled at me. “Well, there you have it, sir. You have to wait in line like everyone else. I don’t care how much your shoes cost; in here everyone is the same and has to wait the same. If you really want some coffee, you’ll wait like everyone else does.”

  Speechless, I watched her turn around and stalk off to the back. I hadn’t gotten to talk to her or get a feeling for how easy it was going to be to take advantage of her. It seemed like the meek, delicate woman who was heartbroken over her father dying was nowhere to be found. She was not meek and mild by any stretch of the imagination. That woman was fiery, and although I felt embarrassed to no end, I wasn’t really upset with her. I was more shocked than anything else. I couldn’t remember the last time where I’d been talked to in such a way.

  The person behind me came up and ordered. All of the grumbling and murmuring that had been roaring in my ears was gone. She had made her peace, and once everyone knew that things were going to be handled fairly, it hadn’t been an issue anymore. I had to admire her for such a decision. It had to be hard for someone like her to do. She didn’t seem like the ball-busting type, but I had to admit that my jewels were feeling a little tender all of a sudden.

  Looking back one more time, trying to see her through the small window in the swinging door, I didn’t see the blazing red hair that framed her face and went down her back. I particularly wanted to see those sparkling green eyes again – although I would rather have seen what they looked like filled with lust instead of anger.

  I called my assistant, and since she had given me so much trouble about that coffee and dealing with my father, I told her to go stand in line to get me a cup. I wanted to see what kind of drink was responsible for all of this nonsense, but I still wasn’t sure it was worth my time to stand in line. I would let Caroline do it, since she was the one who was so worried about making my father mad. The next time I went to the bistro, I knew that I’d have to have a better angle than the one I had now. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with her, but I knew that I would have to think of something.

  Chapter 4 – Jesse

  “Can you believe the nerve of him?”

  I just kind of shrugged. Considering that I’d had to tell off a couple of rich business guys like him every day recently, I certainly could believe it. I knew men like the one who’d been in earlier in the day, too well. He was dressed in a suit that would pay the rent on the restaurant for six months and he walked around like he was infallible. Men like him drove me crazy, and the one who’d been in today was worse than most. The only difference was that he had been handsome and my body had been drawn to him.

  That very fact had been the main reason I hadn’t even tried to hear his side of it. I didn’t want him standing there looking at me with his dark blue eyes that I was sure I could have fallen into. A man like him was dangerous.

  “You know how they are. They think that they run the world. I don’t know. I just know that we need to get some more help in here or we’re just going to get more of them. Maybe if we could find a few people to work here, we could have them do deliveries or something. Then guys like him could stay in their ivory towers and wouldn’t have to come down here with the rest of us lemmings.”

  Melissa laughed and pulled another chair up while she swept the front. I was getting everything in the cases bagged up to be given to the homeless shelter down the road. There were a lot of baked goods left; although it had been a busy day, we’d sold mostly coffee. I hated to throw anything away, and this had become one of the many things t
hat I did out of habit. My father had started the practice years ago, and it was one of the partnerships that I wanted to make sure kept going. I was very worried about keeping his memory alive, and I knew that this was a good way to do it.

  “He was cute, though.”

  I looked at her as if she might be a traitor who was working for the other side. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about how cute he was. He was hot. The man had been smoking hot, and it had bothered me a little more than I wanted to admit to myself. I was sure that it was because I hadn’t been on a date in a while. I knew that was the only reason I would look at a man like him with anything more than contempt. He was the very thing that I hated about men like him. Men with money acted like the whole world owed them something, and though he was cute as all get-out, that didn’t change that one big character flaw of perceived perfection.

  “Yeah, guys like him are always a little too good looking. I could never be with a man like that. I bet he would have to do it in front of a mirror so he could watch himself.”

  Melissa just giggled a little and shook her head. “You’re never going to get married if you’re going to be so picky. That man is perfect.”

  I kind of sighed at her. She sounded like my aunt, who was always telling me the very same thing. I tried to tell her that if I was to find someone, he would be who I wanted. I didn’t see the point of being with someone I didn’t really want to be with. It didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t that unhappy being alone.

  “That may be so, but I would rather be alone than with a guy like that.”

  Melissa didn’t seem so sure, but I could tell that she wasn’t going to say anything else. We had had the same conversation too many times to count, and she knew where I stood, just like I knew where she stood on the situation. Melissa was always looking, and I just – wasn’t. I truly believed that if it were meant to be, it would be happen naturally.