Page 11 of Building Romance
Roxy turns to Kasen who is sitting at the bar with Hutch and Bray. “Can’t you, like, do some high-tech cyber thing and ruin the store?”
“No,” Kasen grunts.
“Oh, come on,” she urges and elbows Piper, Kasen’s girlfriend. “He can, right?”
Piper shrugs. “Beats me.”
“That would be illegal,” Kasen says as he raises an eyebrow in my direction. He’s the strong and silent type, but I’m pretty sure he could kill me with his bare hands if he was so inclined.
“Right,” I mumble.
“How about the winter festival? It’s coming up soon. We could have a huge marketing campaign here in the neighborhood. I mean, Al knows everyone, right, Al?” Margie suggests and Cornelia nods in agreement. The grandmothers of our building have spoken. And it’s not a terrible plan, but how is one strong showing at a booth at a festival going to change anything. Everyone here already knows about the café. I need new customers.
“She’ll be there, but she needs to find new customers,” Drew speaks my exact thoughts. Drew is a graphic designer. He works for a small company that makes websites for companies. They made mine a few months ago.
I nod. “He’s right. I do.”
“My friend owns a marketing company. They mostly do clothing stuff, but I could ask them,” Hutch offers.
I pat his back. “Thanks. That might help.”
“Too bad it’s so hard to get into that City Bake-Off competition. I heard they are televising it this year,” Carly says as she makes an “x” on the tic-tac-toe board that Bray drew on a napkin. Ava claps and draws an “o.”
“I won,” she says with a big grin. “Can I go get the bubbles now?”
“Come on, squirt. Let’s go grab them,” Bray says as he sets her on the chair and turns. She gets on his back, piggyback-style, and they head downstairs.
The rooftop becomes quiet. Everyone seems to be trying to come up with an idea.
“You could try to see if you could get a sponsor for it. They pair smaller bakeries with big ones, right?” Gray asks. Roxy sits on his lap. They both look at me. Damn, I love these people. I feel so lucky to have them all on my team.
Al clears his throat and I look over at him. He looks…worried.
“What?” I ask.
“Cam,” Al starts and pauses as if he isn’t sure what to say and that’s not like him at all.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, setting my glass down as I step toward him.
“I have to tell you something,” he says and I can hear the hesitation in his voice.
I wait, not saying a word, partly out of curiosity and partly out of respect for a man who I’ve come to love as much as my own grandfather.
“I know Edward McDowell Senior,” he says, letting out a long breath and putting his hands up in a shrug.
It’s as if his exhale prevents me from inhaling. I had to have heard that wrong. There’s no way Al knows the son of the founder of the company that is trying to take down my café. Their website, which I may or may not have stalked, tells the history of John McDowell starting a bakery in the early nineteen hundreds. His son, Edward, took the company national and then global. Edward’s son, Edward Jr., then continued the expansion and now is training his three sons to run it. Fletcher would be the youngest of the three.
“What?” I manage as my brain tries to reject what my ears have heard.
He gives another sheepish shrug and one corner of his mouth lifts a little. “Ed played poker with me years ago. I’ve known Fletch since he was a baby.”
I blink because how is this possible. Then I groan because of course Al knows them. Fucking hell. Al knows everyone. He’s like the mayor of the smallest town in one of the biggest cities.
“Al!” I groan, followed by a chorus of groans from everyone else.
He throws his hands up in the air. “Sorry. I…wasn’t sure how to tell you.” He pauses as I continue to wrap my head around Al knowing my rivals.
“I tried to talk some sense into him. I did. But Fletch is, well, he’s very stubborn,” Al concedes.
