Page 21 of Love By the Slice

Lacey shook her head. “He offered. He showed me several lab-grown diamonds to figure out what I liked, but they’re so impractical for a professional kitchen.”

Shelly said, “You still could wear one.”

“Sure, I could, but they can harbor bacteria, and they’re hard to keep clean.”

Ezra emerged from the stock room carrying two cans of tomato sauce. “How romantic.Honey, will you marry me? You and forty billion bacteria?”

Lacey fluttered her eyes at him. “Ezra, I love youandyour forty billion bacteria. Yes, I will marry you.”

Greg mock-gagged because these two redheads were simply too saccharine together. Ezra bowed. “I and my filth thank you.”

As he set the cans on the counter for Greg heat up, Ezra said, “Pretty sure I was the only one here when Barrett thought he lost his wedding ring in a meat lover pizzas. I had to remake that. Next, we sorted through all the shredded cheese and hunted everywhere because we didn’t want to give some customer an unwelcome dental surprise. Of course, an hour later, he found it alongside the sink.”

Greg said, “I’m guessing that was the moment you resolved never to wear one.”

Ezra said, “Easily decided at the time, since I had no plans to get married.”

Lacey rubbed her chin. “Think of all the money you’d have saved, having neither a wedding nor a wedding ring!”

Shelly said, “Well...it’s still a shame. You deserve a ring.”

Oh, that was a thought. Since Shelly never touched the food, Greg could get her jewelry for Valentine’s Day. He’d have to gauge how much to spend, of course. Too much, and she’d think him rushing things. Too little, and she’d find him unserious. Maybe he should bring her with him to shop. If she chose it, he couldn’t get it wrong.

As Greg turned on the Hobart mixer to start the dough, Lacey leaned against the counter. “If you two have a minute, Ezra and I have been talking about opening a second location.”

Even Shelly looked surprised. Greg blinked. “Wow. Where?”

Shelly added, “And how far would I have to drive to get to it?”

Ezra made a slow-down motion with his hands. “Easy. We’re not planning to ruin your life.”

Not nice, since that’s what Ezra had accused Greg of doing.

“The new location would be outside our current delivery area so we wouldn’t cannibalize our customer base.” Lacey snickered. “We’ve done more than a few food truck events in Juniper, sowe already have some name recognition. We’d launch with the original ‘Loveless One Hundred,’ and then expand according to what that town prefers.”

Ezra said, “And—”

Lacey sighed. “I’m getting to that.” She turned to Shelly. “For you, it would be the same. You could deliver here the way you usually do, but if it worked better for you to switch to the new location, that would be fine.” She turned to Greg. “You, on the other hand, have more decisions. We’d ask you to pull more hours and take on a few more responsibilities. Things like training another cook and doing more with the inventory.”

Greg thought a moment. “That would mean full time?”

Shelly straightened.

Ezra said, “If you wanted to come onboard full time, then yes, that’s what we’d do. We’d re-title you a floor manager or the like, and we’d work out a raise because you’d be doing more.”

Lacey said, “Or, alternatively, if you’re happy with the way things are, we won’t do that, and you can continue working at this location part time the way you are now.”

Shelly looked pleased. “You wouldn’t be working two part-time jobs anymore. You could have a real career.”

Not something Greg had been looking for, but it made sense they’d see it that way.

Ezra said, “The thing is, you know how business plans work, so we’ll need your answer in the next couple of weeks to write up a business plan and figure out what position we’re hiring for.” He got a wicked gleam in his eye. “And if I’m heading over to Jake’s to poach their current floor manager.”

When Lacey snickered, Ezra shrugged. “Business is business.”

Shelly said to Greg, “But that’s great! You could still help your dad with the machine shop, but you never wanted to stay there to begin with. You could come here and really launch.”

Greg raised his hands. “Slow down. I need to think about this.”

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