by Alexa Davis
Chapter Five
Justin – Thursday
I stretched widely as I stepped out of the car, breathing in the fresh, Florence air. It had been a long three-hour drive, but it was worth it to get out of Portland for a while.
I never actually realized that I needed a break until I got out, but now it was hitting me hard. Portland was a wonderful city and I loved my life there, but there was something breathtaking about this little town. If I didn’t have my business and my fast-paced lifestyle, this would be the sort of place I wanted to end up in.
I glanced at the piece of paper in my pocket with the address that Roy had given me to meet him at, just to check that I was in the right place before stepping inside the quaint café. Not only was I greeted with the fresh scent of a hot breakfast, which was enough to have my stomach growling angrily, but I also had everyone’s eyes upon me. I was being looked upon like the out-of-town stranger that I was, but rather than making me sink in on myself, it made me stand up straighter, it caused me to push my shoulders back, it made me smile.
“Hey, buddy.” I felt Roy pat me on the back as he joined me inside. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Hey, Roy.” I turned and embraced him wholly, realizing how much I’d missed him. We might have met through business, but he’d quickly become classed as a friend in my eyes. Unfortunately, as life caught up on us, we just didn’t have the time to hang out as much as either of us would like. “How’s it going?”
“Yeah, it’s good. Come on sit down. I can’t be too long because I’ve got my dog Tank with me in the car.”
I joined him at the table and we had our food brought over to us. This was the sort of thing that I used to eat all the time, but since I’d become rich, I’d taken to consuming the finer things in life. This was probably the reason I needed people like Roy in my life – he was richer than me with his feet still firmly planted on the ground. Maybe Garrett had had a worse effect on me than I thought…
“Things are good,” he told me with a smile. “Business is amazing. I had a few hiccups along the way, but things are back on the right track now.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear that.” Roy had built his life up from nothing; if anyone deserved any serious success, it was him. I was happy for him, and not just because he’d been the springboard upon which my own success was built. “I’m glad that things are working out for you.”
“And you?” he asked between mouthfuls. “How’s that brother of yours?”
“Oh, you know, same old,” I sighed sadly. “A pain in my ass. But apparently, he wants to come and work at the business with me now, so we’ll see how that works out.”
“Don’t let him drag you down,” he warned me. “I know he’s your brother, and you love him, but don’t let him come into the company and start being lazy. You’ve worked too hard for that. You are the one who has built this business up from the ground, not him. Don’t let him ride your coattails forever.”
I didn’t want to admit how worried I was about that, if Garrett even bothered to follow through with the plan at all, so I simply nodded. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Garrett had a very short attention span and that the impassioned speech I made might already have been forgotten, but I wanted to give him a chance anyway, just in case.
“Anyway,” I needed a change of subject. “Tell me more about this coffee shop that you’re so desperate for me to invest in. I spoke to the girl…Annie, is it? She seems really switched on and everything, but I have to admit I’m still a little confused.”
“I can’t explain it to you; you’ll just have to see it,” he insisted. “Trust me, this woman has done an amazing job. I know that it might not be the sort of place you’d usually consider, but I think you’ll change your mind when we get inside.”
“Hmmm…” I didn’t think there was anything he could say at that point to convince me, but I didn’t want to totally dismiss him, either. There was something about all of this that had him so convinced, and I had to admit that intrigued me.
“We’ll go over there in a minute. Do you want to call her and change your meeting time, or shall we just go over there?”
“Let’s just go,” I told him quickly, wanting to stick to my original plan. “I want to see the place from the point of view of a customer first. Is that all right?” It suddenly occurred to me that Roy might not like me doing things that way. He might perceive it as sneaky.
“Nah, that’s okay,” he smiled back at me, moving to stand up. “I think that’s a good idea, show you the real Boffees.”
I chuckled at how excited he was, almost bouncing off the walls. “Okay, sure.” I held my hands up in a defeated gesture. “Let’s get going, take me there. Is it within walking distance?”
“Nearly everything in Florence is within walking distance!” he joked. “Leave your car here; it’ll be fine.”
He quickly took me inside the friendliest-looking shop in town, and I had to admit that I was impressed. There was a certain feel to the shop, one that told me it was about so much more than the wonderful-smelling coffee and the endless rows of paperback books. I only had to look at the faces of all the people inside to see how happy the shop made them.
I was really impressed, but it didn’t make me want to invest. It might have been a solid business, but I needed to make money – lots of it, and very quickly.
“Hello there, Roy,” a cheery voice called out. “Your usual?”
As I span around to see the owner of that voice, the person I presumed was Annie Driscoll, my heart stopped dead in my chest. I instantly found myself looking at the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid my eyes upon.
Her wavy, long, light-brown hair swung past her shoulders. She had piercing brown, friendly eyes, plump lips that had me instantly thinking about kissing, and reddened cheeks, like those of an English rose. On top of that, she had curves in all the right places and milky skin that I had the intense desire to run my lips along.
I had seen a lot of beautiful women in my life – I had slept with many – but none of them made me feel like this. Annie was gorgeous, a natural beauty, but she had an intense aura that drew me in, too.
“Yes, please,” Roy grinned at her. “And the same for my friend, too.”
I couldn’t keep looking at her; it was getting much too difficult to keep all of the emotions inside, so instead, I forced my eyes away and started to wander among the bookshelves, just to give me something else to focus on.
Which was how I almost ended up falling over a young girl sitting in a chair. “Oh, I am sorry,” I told her quietly. “I didn’t see you there.”
“I’m being quiet,” she told me proudly. “My mom told me that I need to behave today.”
The more that I looked at her, the more I could see elements of Annie Driscoll in her – the same wavy hair, just with a different color, the same face shape…it had to be her daughter. “Is your mom the owner of this shop?” I asked curiously, just to be sure.
“Yes, and she has a very important man coming to see her…maybe even today. My babysitter is sick, so I have to behave, just in case.”
I couldn’t help but grin to myself at that one. Obviously, I was the important man, and I had told Annie that I would be in Florence from today. It sucked me in a little bit to know that this woman had her daughter to support, but I couldn’t allow myself to invest simply based on that. That wasn’t the way a ruthless businessman, such as myself, made money.
“Well, that’s just great; why don’t you tell me about the book you’re reading?”
As the girl explained the story about a blue dog trying to find his friends, I allowed my eyes to travel around the room and back to Annie. It was like a magnet that I couldn’t stop myself from being attracted to, which confused me inside.
I had come here with the intention of seeing the store, then cancelling the meeting, but now…now I had the strong feeling that I wanted to get to know her more. I wasn’t sure that my intentions were pure, and I was pretty
certain that they had nothing to do with the investment possibility, but still…I wanted to know more.
“Here,” Roy made me jump by standing by my side and handing me my coffee. “So, what do you think? Nice, huh?”
“It’s nice,” I confirmed skeptically. “I don’t know what Harry would say about it, though.”
“Well, I have to go soon,” Roy replied, glancing down at his watch. “Plus, with Tank in the car, I can’t be too long. Are you all right finding your way to the B and B?”
“I’ll be fine,” I confirmed, smiling at him. “Don’t you worry about me, and thanks. It was good to see you again. We’ll have to make sure to do it more often.”
“Of course, sounds great.”
With that, I said goodbye to the young girl and followed Roy outside and back to the car. While we bid each other farewell, I thought of a million and one reasons for why I was about to do what I had already decided upon, so that as soon as he was gone, I could put in the call. I wanted…no, needed to see Annie again, and while I wasn’t sure why, I knew that I was going to do it, anyway.
“Hello?” she sounded a little harassed this time as she picked up the phone. “Can I help you?” Now that I could put a face to her voice, hearing her made me smile to myself. I could just picture her in the store, trying her best to keep everyone happy.
“Hello, it’s Justin Gains. I am in town now and wondered if you might have time to see me today?” The meeting that I was about to put off until the last minute was now utterly essential to me. I didn’t want to put it off for even a second longer.
“Oh, of course, I can.” As she spoke, I realized that I probably should have put this off until her kid’s babysitter was better, but it was too late now. “Erm…can you come after the shop is closed? About 6 p.m.?”
“Sounds great to me.” That would give me time to get settled here for the time being, which was exactly what I needed. “I’ll see you at your store then.”
“Do you need the address?”
“No, don’t worry,” I reassured her. “I did my research, I know where you are.”
Once she hung up, I felt that odd bolt of excitement racing through me again. There was something about this woman that had me feeling like I never had before, and I couldn’t wait for more.
Chapter Six
Justin – Thursday
“Okay, Rae,” I said breathlessly to my daughter. “The shop is closed now, so we need to get everything cleaned up. The important man is coming soon, all right? Do you think you can help Mommy?”
“Yes!” I heard her jump up excitedly from behind me. “I would like to help—” Crash! “Oh no!”
“What happened?” I span around, concern plastered across my expression just to see Rae’s drink had been spilled all over the floor.
“Oh no, Mommy, I’m so sorry,” she cried out with a shaky voice, clearly afraid that she was about to get into trouble. “I didn’t mean to…I wanted to help out, and I knocked it…”
“Don’t worry,” I said gently, grabbing a nearby cloth. “We can just clean it up. It doesn’t matter.”
“But the man is coming. You want it clean…”
“We have plenty of time,” I insisted, pulling her in for a hug. “Please don’t panic.” I certainly didn’t want Rae to be upset over an accident. I know that she didn’t do it on purpose, so I couldn’t be mad, however little time we had. “Come on, let’s get cleaned up.”
As we wiped down the floor together, I eventually managed to get Rae laughing. If I wanted to get through this very important meeting with my head screwed on, then I needed Rae to be okay. I couldn’t talk about a potential investment with my little girl upset. Of course, it wasn’t Nancy’s fault that she’d caught a bug, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I had just been lucky so far that it didn’t seem that Rae had caught it.
“Ooh, that must be him,” I said to Rae as my heart began to pound in my chest at the knock at the door. “Can you just go and read in the children’s corner, or maybe do some coloring? It should take too long.”
I had wanted to make myself look a lot better, but I didn’t really have the time now. The blouse and pants that I’d thrown on this morning, plus my slightly messy hair from a full day of activity, would just have to do. I hadn't even had the chance to fix my make up, but it was much too late now.
“Of course, Mommy. I’ll be quiet, too.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.” My chest swelled with love and pride as she said those words, showing me just how mature she was for her age. “I love you, and we’ll go and get some ice cream afterwards.” It wasn’t every four-year-old who could sit in a shop all day and behave, plus entertain all of the older customers, so I knew how lucky I was.
As I swung the door open to see the man standing behind it, my heart stopped dead in my chest. This was a face I recognized, not one that I knew well, but one that I would know anywhere. It was the man Roy Larkin had brought into the shop earlier, the very handsome one who made my heart skip a beat even then. Of course, my heart stopping was for a different reason now. Now I was afraid and a little confused.
What the hell is going on here?
“Erm, hi, Mr. Gains?” I drawled slowly. “It’s nice to see you…”
“Again,” he half laughed. “Yes, it was me in the shop earlier. I came in with Roy to check the place out from a customer’s point of view.”
“Right, of course.” That felt a little sneaky to me, but I didn’t think it was a good plan to vocalize that. Maybe it was just his way, and hopefully I’d managed to impress him. “Well, please come inside.”
“Hello again,” he turned and spoke to Rae, which had me even more intrigued. Of course my daughter hadn't told me that she’s spoken to a particular guy today because she’d spoken to lots of people, but still, it left me feeling really out of the loop.
“Hi there. I’m just going to do some coloring,” Rae replied quietly, still managing to keep her promise to me.
“Well, you’ll have to show me your pictures afterwards, when you’re finished.”
I allowed them to talk for a moment whilst making Mr. Gains another coffee. He was far too gorgeous for words, the sort of man that I would love to date if I was in the right place in my life for that, which was going to make this very difficult. How the hell was I going to hold a business meeting when this man sending wildly inappropriate thoughts racing through my brain? On top of being cute, he was well-spoken, charming, and very nice to my daughter.
I took in a few deep breaths, trying to steel myself before taking the drinks to the table to conduct what I hoped would be a life-changing meeting – if I could hold it together.
“Thank you for coming to see me, Mr. Gains. I really do appreciate it.”
“Well, I would too if I was talking to one of the most successful investors in the country,” he turned back to me and laughed, as if he thought that was a joke. “I bet that’s quite intense for a small business like this, isn’t it?”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to allow his ego and bad attitude to roll off my back. What the hell is he playing at? Is making me feel small all a part of his plan? Maybe he hoped it would throw me off and confuse me. Well, he was about to meet his match. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.
“I have spoken to many investors in my time,” I told him briskly. “I think I can just about cope with speaking to you.”
“Okay,” he nodded, looking a little bit impressed by my answer. “So, we have spoken a little bit over the phone about your business plan, and now I’ve gotten to see your store, but what makes you think that it can be franchised? I assume that’s the plan, right?”
“Yes, that’s one business model I’ve looked at—” I started, but he jumped in quickly.
“See, I know a lot about franchising, having worked with two of the most famous fast food business in the country and a lot of technology-based companies, and I’m struggling to see how this will work. There are hundreds of bookshops, and thousan
ds of coffee shops—”
“There are also millions of places that sell fast food,” I shot back quickly. “And you put your faith in them.”
I would not be belittled, not by this asshole. His attitude was bad, like he had absolutely no intention of investing in me, which made me very angry. Why bother coming all the way down here if he doesn’t really want to know? Why get up my hopes just to dash them? What the hell is the point of all of this?
“Touché,” he smiled, whilst leaning back in his seat and giving me a look. In that instant, I got a distinct impression of him – one of a playboy douche bag who didn’t actually give a shit about helping people at all. This man wasn’t anything like Roy. He was arrogant and annoying as hell. “And, do you really think that you’re different enough to stand out?”
“Everything about Boffees is different.”
“And, how do you intend to replicate that across the country? If you aren’t there, running every store personally, then how can you be sure that Boffees’ uniqueness will come across?”
“I will hire every manager personally. I will make sure that they understand. I will run meetings constantly—”
“If you’re running a franchising model, you might not always be able to do that. If you simply need to make money, then you might have to give it to the highest bidder.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I shot back fiercely. “I am very proud of Boffees; I wouldn’t sell it away like that.”
“And, that might be the problem,” he mused thoughtfully. “I need to make money, I need to see a profit, and I’m not sure that I do here.”
My heart sank. Of course, I’d known it was going to go that way, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear. I was annoyed at myself for allowing my heart to hope again. I got sucked in by Roy and his genuine niceness, believing his friend might be the same way. That was idiotic of me.
“Okay, well—”