“Grab my laptop. Be right back.”
Micah shrugged and returned his attention to his phone.
Malachi took the stairs two at a time. In his room, he detached his laptop from the dock that tied in his monitor, keyboard, and mouse when he was at his desk. He didn’t have a full proposal worked up yet. But it wasn’t as if his brothers cared about having a slide show with charts. He had enough information to show the usefulness, and it wasn’t likely to be a hard sell anyway. All three—four, really—Baxters wanted to do whatever they had to in order to make the CSB a success.
Back in the living room, he frowned. Jonah had snagged the other recliner, leaving him with a spot on the couch. Whoever had bought that couch clearly hadn’t sat on it before buying it. Oh well. It’d be hard to show things on his laptop from the recliner anyway.
Ruth smiled from the other end of the couch. “There you are. I don’t have a lot of time, Corban’s keeping an eye on the B&B. We’re full up and there are always folks who need a pot of tea, some cookies, or directions in the evening.”
“Can’t Corban handle that?” Jonah frowned.
Malachi snickered. That had been his thought as well. If anyone could give directions, it was probably going to be the man who’d lived in the area basically his whole life. But whatever. His sister was protective—determined to make a success of the place on her own. Letting someone help...he didn’t have grounds to say anything. He wasn’t exactly the poster child for admitting he needed it, either.
“Oh hush. Both of you. And you, too.” She pinned Micah with her gaze.
He held up his hands. “What’d I do?”
“You thought too loud. I heard it. And yes, I realize I’m over protective and that Corban can handle things. Can we just get on with it, please?” She smiled sweetly and fluttered her eyelashes.
“That hasn’t worked on any of us for years. But yeah, let’s get started.” Jonah cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about the idea of expanding our offerings a little.”
Malachi pursed his lips.
“Really? What happened to not competing with the other place in town?” Micah raised the foot on the recliner where he sat. “Arcadia Valley isn’t that big. Two bakeries?”
“That’s the thing. They don’t have some of the things that we could offer. Bread, for example, wasn’t something they had. Then you throw in cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and maybe donuts. Bagels? We stick close to the bread idea, but expand a bit. I’m not interested in becoming a pastry chef or a cake decorator. I mean, I can, but that’s not what I love. I suspect we might even find customers want the subscription model for some of those items, too.” Jonah leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, expression earnest.
“Hmm.” Ruth tapped her lower lip. “The grocery store has all of those things.”
“True. But not locally sourced. And if we look for a good, fair trade supplier for chocolate, we can do more than oatmeal cookies. Or at least add chocolate chips to them.” Jonah’s glance moved between each of his siblings.
Malachi considered. It was reasonable. They had the storefront already. They weren’t doing a booming walk-in business, except for folks coming by to pick up their shares each week. Having impulse items like cookies and muffins available wasn’t a bad idea. If you were there for two loaves of bread, it was unlikely you’d randomly decide to buy a third. But a dozen cookies? “I like it.”
“Really?” Ruth looked surprised. “Of all of us, I thought you’d be the least likely to see this as a good idea. It’s a risk, financially. Isn’t it?”
Malachi shook his head. “Not really. The only added cost is more ingredients. So we should move slowly, small batches until we see how they sell. But the overhead stays the same. Basically. We’ll have to check with Ben at Corinna’s Cupboard to make sure he’s okay if we end up adding more donations to the current box of day olds we give him. But I can’t really see him having a problem with that. He said it’s only because they were completely privately funded that he was able to accept food that didn’t come in a sealed container with an expiration stamped on it. But since he can, what’s the problem with a little more—or a little extra variety?”
“You’re sure?” Micah eyed Malachi. “’Cause if you are, I’m for it. We’ve had a couple people ask about different items and I’ve always said we could do special order, but when they hear that, I think they just hear a cash register in their head.”
Ruth laughed. “Probably. All right. If you three think it’s a good idea, then go for it. And I’ll be on my way.”
“Hold up.” Malachi opened up his laptop and leaned forward. “Since we’re all here, I have something we need to discuss, too.”
Ruth sat back down.
“Uh-oh.” Jonah eyed the computer. “It’s never good when he breaks that thing out.”
“We need to consider delivering to Twin Falls.”
Micah shook his head. “We talked about that when we started. Between the farmers market and the store, people know where to come.”
“If we’re billing ourselves as local and eco-friendly, then it doesn’t make a ton of sense to be driving all over creation.” Jonah tented his fingers. “Why do you bring it up?”
“Because we’re getting more enrollments from folks in the city every day. If that’s the number of people who are willing to drive, you have to figure there are at least a few more who want to do it but can’t work it into their schedule. And if we raise the fee slightly to cover gas, some might still choose to pick up, but I kind of doubt it.” Malachi opened the document he’d been working on comparing the prices and delivery structure for community supported bakeries in similar-sized areas. “Here.”
Micah took the laptop and looked it over, a slight frown creasing his forehead. “This is current?”
Malachi nodded.
Micah passed the computer to Jonah who smiled as he read it. “You’re always so thorough. You really think we need this now? Not some unforeseen point in the future?”
“I do. We want to grow. It’s going to be easier to do that if we’re flexible and available everywhere. If we want to talk about expanding into some of the communities to the north and west, those can probably wait. But we’re close enough to Twin Falls that I think it’s better to let them know we want to serve them and will work to make it convenient. Plus, if we’re talking about a lower environmental impact, one person going down to Twin Falls is better than eight making the round trip.” Malachi signed rapidly while he spoke, then dropped his hands into his lap. “Ruth?”
She nodded. “It doesn’t hurt to try. We can always stop if in, say, six months, it’s not an appreciable increase. How will you work in the new menu items with delivery?”
That was an interesting question. It wasn’t one he’d considered since that hadn’t been on the table when he tackled the problem this afternoon. But...he’d been planning to have a little extra with him on deliveries. “I’ll just take some along. I’ve been thinking we need to do a weekly newsletter for our subscribers anyway. So I can let them know ahead of time—if you let me know—what flavors we’re looking at. They can either send in an additional order or bank on having a small supply available.”
“Newsletter? Dude. Who’s doing that?” Jonah crossed his arms.
“Me. Chill. All you have to do is tell me what you’ve got in terms of flavors. If they’re not going to change weekly or seasonally then you only need to do that once. But I was thinking...”
Micah shook his head. “That’s never good.”
“Hush. Both of you.” Ruth reached over and set the laptop next to Malachi. “Go on.”
He took a deep breath. He did more than keep the books. Did his brothers not understand that he had ideas, too? “All right. What do we sell most of?”
“The sandwich loaf. Followed probably by the asiago.” Jonah chewed his lip. “Maybe the olive. Why?”
“Those are staples, right? But if we do seasonal loaves—or muffins, whatever. Like
right now, Corban’s talking about how he’s being overrun by zucchini, and so is everyone else, so his stall at the farmers market isn’t selling them as fast as he’d like. What if we bought it and did zucchini bread and muffins through August?”
Ruth frowned. “If they’re all overrun with their own, why would they buy our bread?”
“Because they don’t have to make it.” Malachi sighed. “Do you remember Mom stopped planting it because she couldn’t use it fresh fast enough but she was too busy to do the processing and make bread to freeze?”
“That’s true, she did.” Micah rubbed his nose. “And pumpkin in the fall.”
“Right.” Malachi gave a half-smile. “But what if we expanded that idea further. Jonah, you want to experiment with other flavors, right?”
Jonah nodded.
“So you can do that on a small-scale basis. We advertise it as a limited time thing to get people to add it to their orders and because we’re not necessarily going to make it permanent, if people don’t love it after the first buy, it’s not as big a deal.” Malachi watched the thoughts flit across his brothers’ faces. They were hesitant. Jonah clearly liked the idea. It gave him the chance to experiment some. He’d been missing that. But Micah was struggling.
“I like the idea. Especially since you’re picking up the extra work.” Jonah grinned.
“All right. If you’re sure.” Micah shrugged. “I’m not going to stand in the way.”
“It’s not like we have to do it forever.” Ruth looked at Malachi. “Right? If it doesn’t work, we reevaluate.”
He nodded. That was always the case, no matter what the idea.
“Okay. Do it. The newsletter thing—when do you want to start that?” Jonah rubbed the back of his neck.
“Monday? Get me your menu for the week by Sunday night? That gives us four days—the rest of this week—to soft-launch the new items in the store. And delivery, plus new items, will go into the first newsletter next week.” Malachi held his breath. It was fast. Faster than either of his brothers usually moved. Except this whole CSB had been one quick decision after another, and so far, they were working. He knew he did a lot of praying about their venture. His brothers and sister probably did too. But they’d made that first step out in faith. It only made sense to keep walking.
“Done. Go play with your imaginary girlfriend. I know we’re keeping you from her. Although...does she know you’re stepping out on her? With a real, live woman?” Jonah smiled.
“You’re just jealous.” Malachi ignored the tiny barb in Jonah’s words. His friends weren’t imaginary. Just because he didn’t know any of them in person—well, now he knew one, but she didn’t know that—didn’t mean they weren’t real people. Or real friends. “And it’s hard to step out on someone if you’re not dating in the first place.”
“Oh please.” Micah shook his head. “You spend practically every night together. How is that not dating?”
“It’s called friendship.” Malachi frowned.
“That’s right. And it’s what you have with Ursula, too. Or you’re working on it. Leave him be, guys.” Ruth stood. “I’ve got to get back.”
Jonah craned his neck, his gaze following Ruth as she left. He turned back to Malachi. “I’m still with Micah. You’re totally dating the red flame girl. If she’s even a girl.”
Micah laughed and slapped his knee. “Wouldn’t that be something? Mal falling in love with a guy online. Maybe it’s good you have a policy against meeting online friends in real life.”
“Scarlet Flame, and I can guarantee you, she’s a woman.”
“Yeah? How?” Jonah raised his eyebrows.
“Because I’ve met her. And so have you.” Malachi took a deep breath, relaxing some as his brothers’ faces showed confusion. “I’m pretty sure it’s Ursula.”
Jonah’s mouth dropped open into a little “O.”
“No way.” Micah shook his head. “She seems entirely too normal to be a gamer. Why would you think that?”
“Too many little coincidences.” Malachi grabbed his laptop and stood. “’Night.”
“No way. Sit back down and explain yourself.” Jonah pointed to the couch. “This is huge. Is that why you didn’t want to talk after lunch?”
Malachi lifted a shoulder and perched on the arm of the couch. He filled his brothers in about the little connections that had made it clear, at least in his mind, that Scarlet Fire and Ursula were one and the same.
“Wow.” Micah rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s... Seriously, what are the odds?”
Jonah shook his head. “I can’t fault your logic, but like Micah said, those are some long odds. You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
Malachi frowned at Jonah. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on. I know we tease you, but you can’t deny you’re at least half in love with Scarlet Fire. Which means you’re half in love with Ursula. Who you are now in a position to date.” Jonah leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees. “So...?”
“So I’m going to get to know the real her and see where that takes us.”
“But you’re going to tell her? You have to.” Micah glanced at Jonah. “He has to, right?”
Jonah shrugged.
Did he? Probably. But what on earth would that conversation look like? “I guess.”
“Bro.” Jonah pointed his finger at Malachi. “Do it sooner than later. Nothing good ever comes from trying to hide something in a relationship. Take it from me.”
Malachi nodded, though it hadn’t been Jonah who’d been hiding something. Still, the advice was sound. But...the question still remained: how did he bring it up? And what happened if he was wrong?
8
Bleary-eyed, Ursula poured another steaming mug of coffee, added a generous splash of half-and-half, and stirred in a packet of sweetener. She’d stayed up entirely too late last night playing Orion’s Quest. But MalRen had been determined to finish the Zerillanskan mission, and some of the bonuses had been too good to pass up. She was going to pay for it today. Thankfully, she had very little maintenance work to do, so she could devote the bulk of the day to the bakery website. She’d like to have it done by the end of next week. They didn’t want anything that was particularly challenging, so there was very little reason for her to be taking as long as she was. Was she just trying to drag out the association with Malachi?
She wiggled her mouse to wake her computer and, with one leg tucked under her, opened her email. Triton hopped up on the desk and settled into the cat bed she had for him where most people would put an in box. She rubbed the cat’s head before smiling. Speaking of Malachi, what did his email have to say? Her eyebrows rose as she read over the needed changes and additions. Still nothing major, but this took it to the next level. It was nice to see that they were going to have more than a basic information dump as their website. And muffins? Her mouth watered. Maybe she’d wander over that way today after all.
What was she going to do when their website was finished and she didn’t have an excuse to stop by? Not that grabbing a loaf of bread wasn’t an excuse, but she didn’t need to do that every day. Even with their expanded menu, she wouldn’t need to go that way very often. Her heart twanged and her thoughts drifted back to their hug. Was it possible there could be more?
Her cell chirped with an incoming text. Maybe he was thinking of her.
“R U busy tonight?”
She tapped back a negative.
“Want 2 be?”
“Sure. What do u have in mind?”
“Dinner?”
“What time?”
“5:30 – I’ll pick u up.”
“Sounds good.”
Ursula spun in her chair, grinning. A date. There was no other word for it. She grabbed her cell and tapped her mom’s number.
“Hi, sweetie. You’re calling early. Everything okay?”
She pressed a hand to her jumping
stomach. “Yep. I just got asked out on a date.”
“Malachi?”
“Yes. Not just bumping into each other at a church thing. He texted.”
There was a pause. “He asked you out via text? He couldn’t just pick up the phone?”
Ursula drew her lower lip between her teeth. “I’m not sure how that would work. I...guess I forgot to mention that he’s deaf?”
“Oh. Well. There’s that typing thing for phones, right? And I’m pretty sure there are programs in place—relays or something—so you can still talk to someone who has one without having to have one yourself. But...in this case, I’ll forgive the text. Do you need me to ship your ASL books out? I think I know where they are.”
Ursula chuckled. Her mom always rolled with the punches. They had their differences like every mother and daughter, but whenever she heard other people talking about their nightmare parents, she was always grateful God had given her the set she had. “You know what, that’s not a bad idea. I’ve been brushing up a little online, but the books are probably more convenient. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. It’ll give me a reason to get your father off the computer and out of the house. He says he’s close to defeating the Vogons or something and doesn’t want to stop until he does.”
“Ashkors?”
“I don’t know. Sure. That makes as much sense as what I said. What is wrong with the two of you? Maybe having an actual date will get you offline a little.”
She chuckled. Given that she’d gotten two glimpses now of Malachi shrinking a game, that wasn’t as likely as her mom thought. But it might change what game she was playing. No need to disabuse her of that notion though. Not yet. “We’ll see. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for pushing me to try a local church.”
“I’m just glad you finally did it. Although, from what you said, starting much sooner wouldn’t have let you meet this young man anyway. He’s new to the area?”
“Right.” That was a good point. And it eased the fingers of guilt that had been trying to worm their way in. “But I’m still glad you pushed.”
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