Page 13 of Stirring Up Love
She unbuckled the girth and hoisted the saddle off Willow’s back. “I made a bad move today, but it was also a reality check.” Honey and Hickory’s sauce was just one among many. A drop of molasses in the bucket. “Selling at local markets is not going to generate enough income to fund my vision.” Especially not with obstinate competitors in the mix.
She added, “You know that showThe Executives?”
Meg nodded. “You used to torture me and Ali with reruns of that show on Thanksgiving break.”
“Because it’s amazing.” She pulled off the sweaty saddle pad. “Where else can budding entrepreneurs get a chance to pitch their idea to big-time investors?”
“Someone’s been brainwashed by late-night bingeing.”
Simone laughed. “I may have bookmarked the contestant-application webpage years ago in case I ever came up with an idea good enough to land me a spot on the show. And now I have one. With their backing, Honey and Hickory could be on the map.”
“But Honey and Hickory already exists,” Meg said. “Isn’t the show for new ventures?”
“Sometimes. But it’s also for entrepreneurs who want to up their game. Broaden their reach.” Show up smug competitors without resorting to subterfuge ...
“Okay, so why not pitch your new idea?”
Because she hadn’t even approached local vendors yet. She’d planned to build up camaraderie over the summer. Get back to being seen as a local, not someone who’d ditched town for the city.
“No need. If I get the investors to finance my Honey and Hickory overhaul, I can use the profits toward expansion.” And make sure her new venture was all hers. As a woman of color, she’d spent her whole life having her achievements questioned. Put under review. Negated by her gender and race by those with a twisted view of the world.
She wanted to make sure that at the end of the day, no one could pin her success on someone else. Winning an investment would secure the funds to build her dreams while ensuring that the investors remained as partners of Honey and Hickory only, not her future businesses.
A compromise, but a worthy one.
If Finn was going to invade her territory, she’d have to spread a wider net. Where better to start than on a show that broadcast to the whole country, live?
CHAPTER 6
FINN
Energy drink at his elbow, Finn stood at the steel prep table, staring down a daunting stack of plastic clamshell containers. Ten meals prepped, 190 to go.
He’d swapped shifts with another volunteer to go to the Hawksburg market, and what a waste of time that had been. Instead of preparing meals to feed people in his own neighborhood, he’d spent the day battling an entitled jerk for the right to sell his barbecue sauce in a town he’d never even heard of a few days ago.
And the nightmare hadn’t ended when he’d left Hawksburg city limits. Distracted at work, he had dishes sent back to the kitchen all evening—overdone pork chops, raw risotto—beginner mistakes. To make it worse, he’d spent what was left of the night tossing and turning.
If only he could blame his insomnia on a leaky air mattress. But nope, Simone-Not-Simon Blake—whom he’d learned more about from the Yarn Spinners than he’d ever cared to know, from her family tree to the points she’d scored in the regional championship basketball game eight years ago—had stolen more than his spot; she’d robbed him of his hard-won peace of mind. He complained about the long hours, but working until he was bone tired made sleep come easy. Kept him fromspending nights staring at blank walls, conjuring up memories best left in the past.
But one run-in with that self-appointed barbecue queen had hit him like a jolt of unwanted late-night caffeine, and conflicting thoughts had left him restless and jumpy until dawn. Awake and staring at the popcorn ceiling in need of scraping, he’d been torn between wanting to go back to the farmers’ market next week to stand up to that sauce tyrant and wishing he could start over, without the insults.
Not because he was haunted by how the light in her topaz eyes had faded when he’d rattled her. No, he only wanted her on his side because Simone was the kind of territorial maniac no one should have as an enemy. And okay, maybe he felt a little guilty for his part in stirring up trouble.
He sliced open a fresh bag of lettuce and grabbed a handful. Busywork left too much time to overthink. In a few hours he’d be at Bellaire, and the menu there was adventurous enough to demand his attention, as last night’s slew of errors had proved. Until then, no one would fault him for indulging in a few more fantasies about Simone Blake.
Vindictive fantasies, that is.
A tap on his left shoulder made Finn flinch, like he’d been caught out. He glanced over his right shoulder, straight into the mischievous brown eyes of his best friend, not the wicked amber gaze he’d tried unsuccessfully to banish from his brain.
Scowling, he asked, “When have I ever fallen for that trick?”
“Always worth a shot.” Darius snapped the edge of Finn’s hairnet. “This is cute.”
“You’re a dick.”
“What’s up with you? Not enough additives in your system yet?”
Finn’s frown deepened. “Exhausted, is all. Not all of us get by on excessive optimism and a desire for world domination.” It was supremelyunfair that Darius was both a morning person and anticaffeine. “I’ve been working doubles these past few weeks.”
