The Billionaire Hot Shot: The Billionaires Club

Chapter Four

Maggie watched as some of the leftover desserts from the night came back to the serving station for the suites in the arena, thankful that she had this chance to show off her bakery”s skills.

It was a little questionable about whether the bakery would get this far after her presentation two weeks ago, but she powered through and it seemed to pay off.

She still was a little bitter about her black cherry chocolate cake being destroyed even if it was destroyed by the team”s owner. Sure, he was remorseful, and yes, he was hot. But she wondered if that was why they were making her bakery do a test run first instead of just giving them the contract. Perhaps they wanted to make sure she could put a cake in the middle of a box instead of getting all of them crushed on the way to the suites.

Luckily, the cakes made it this time and there were very few pieces coming back from the suites.

The oatmeal raisin cookies, however, were another story. Grocery store shoppers loved them but sports fans apparently weren”t impressed.

”Hey, Maggie. How”s it going?” She turned to see Joann, who was in charge of catering for the suites, come over to check on the leftovers. ”Oh, bummer about the oatmeal raisin.”

”How bad is it really?”

”They tasted great to me,” Joann said. ”But Detroit is a big rival so I think there were more rowdy fans who wanted chocolate chip than the executive types who get free tickets and eat the oatmeal raisin.”

Maggie looked down at the pile of leftover cookies. ”Do I need to think about changing the menu up based on who the Otters are playing?”

”Only for a few teams.”

Joann started directing some of the workers to pack up the leftovers for Maggie to take in her truck. Her bakery had a deal with a local homeless shelter to donate leftovers rather than throw them out so she made sure to include that in the tryout contract. Maggie was grateful to watch the food get packed up so she would have something to donate and also happy that there wasn”t that much. Maybe it was a good sign that the night was successful.

”We”ll leave that waiting for you by the back gate,” Joann said. ”You can pick them up after you see Charlie.”

Maggie”s head whipped around. ”After I what?”

”Charlie wanted to see you. He”s just down the hall in the owner”s suite.” Joann leaned in a little closer and gave Maggie”s arm a gentle squeeze. ”I think you had a great showing tonight.”

”Thanks,” she replied with a smile.

Joann went back to directing the catering team on what to do with extra dinner items and plates and silverware, practically forgetting that Maggie was still standing there. It made sense though. Maggie”s job was pretty much done for the night while Joann still had plenty of work to do.

Maggie had other things to do anyway like meet the owner. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Was he going to tell her he was giving the job to her bakery?

Was he going to apologize?

To give him credit, Charlie did say he was sorry to her the day he shoved his hand in her cake and he did seem remorseful. She was still holding a bit of a grudge though and she was pretty sure he deserved it.

Maggie took a deep breath and started heading to the owner”s suite. She would have to face him eventually as he was the owner and the one who would be the deciding factor on whether they would get the contract for the arena.

The hallway curved around following the curve of the arena and she kept checking the numbers on the doors until she got to one that didn”t have a number, only a name.

Westmore.

She figured she was in the right place, but was she supposed to knock or just walk in? It was a suite, not an office, so she wasn”t really sure about the etiquette. But she was determined to be strong and assertive, prove that her business deserved this opportunity. So walk right in was the decision.

The suite was different than the other ones with a few more televisions along one wall and different pieces of furniture that looked more comfy and less corporate suite. Right in the middle of it was Charlie, casually leaning on the high-top table in the center of the room as he stared down at his phone in front of him with a plate just to his right.

She recognized the dessert on the plate. Black cherry chocolate cake. Two slices.

She watched as he took a fork to one of them, breaking off a big bite and stuffing it in his mouth with a few crumbs falling on the table in front of him. He didn”t seem to notice them.

”Hey, question for you,” he said without looking up. ”Do you think I”m hot?”

”What?”

She said that too loud, and she knew she said it too loud and in that incredulous voice that her dad always told her not to use in front of clients.

Except she just used it in front of a client.

Charlie was frozen and probably too stunned to reply to her shocked response. Yeah, she was definitely going to lose this contract now. How hard was it to just kiss the owner”s ass and tell him he was hot?

He slowly turned, his mouth still filled with her cake, and his eyes widened as he took her in.

”You”re not Noah.”

More crumbs went flying onto the table top and this time, Charlie noticed, looking sheepish as he tried to brush them off.

”I can leave if you...” Her hand waved aimlessly in the air as she tried to motion to the door.

”No, no. I just uh....” Charlie swallowed hard and looked up at her again with an embarrassed grin before taking a deep breath. ”It”s good to see you again, Maggie.”

”Yeah, uh, you too.”

He motioned for her to walk closer. ”Do you want a seat? Grab a slice of cake before you sit down. It”s delicious.” His face scrunched up a little. ”I mean, you know it”s delicious since you made it, but I didn”t crush this one.”

”Little victories,” she said with a nervous laugh.

Charlie gave her a small smile and wordlessly walked over to the counter with the extra food still on it, adding a slice to a plate along with a fork and bringing it back to the table. He set it down in front of a chair across from him and motioned for her to sit down.

Maggie politely took the invite, wanting to be agreeable enough to Charlie for however long it took to get the contract confirmed. She hoped to secure the contract tonight so she could prove to her family that this was a good idea and there was an actual plan for the arena.

She watched as Charlie took his place on the other side of the table while still insisting on standing. He was tall and lanky but still had enough of a build that she could maybe see the construction supervisor work that he used to do or the muscles he may have used for it on occasion.

Tonight though he was wearing a pair of black tailored pants that fit him perfectly and a button-down white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. Any woman would find him attractive like this, even one who still held a bit of a grudge after he smashed her cake.

He looked up at her with brown eyes that were dark in this suite”s lighting. ”So how do you think tonight went?”

It was amazing! Stupendous! The best night ever for the bakery!

She wasn”t sure if that was true or not, but she wanted it to be and she needed to sell it to the owner to get the contract, right? Just maybe in a more professional way.

”Well, it turned out--”

The door burst open and they both turned to see Noah Caraden standing in the doorway, his eyes darting from Charlie to Maggie and back again. ”Hey, am I interrupting?”

”Uh, no?”

”Nope.” Charlie”s reply was much more serious than hers as if he was determined to make sure Noah didn”t suspect something else was going on between them.

”Oooook.”

Noah took an uncomfortable few steps into the suite, and Maggie tried to give him a reassuring smile to let him know that he really hadn”t interrupted whatever he thought he had between his boss and the baker.

”Have you met Maggie Overland?”

Noah turned and smiled at her. ”Yes, I have. It”s good to see you again by the way.”

”You too,” she replied with a smile before turning to Charlie. ”I know Noah through Icing.”

”Oh, right. Georgia”s boyfriend.”

Noah gave his boss a huge grin. ”Yes, I am. But Georgia makes small batches and told me to tell you that no one does big-batch baking like Overland Bakery and you need to hire them.”

”That was very specific,” Charlie said with a little laugh. ”I will make a note of it.”

There was something about the way Charlie said it that made Maggie hopeful. Was he really making a note of it or had he already made the decision to take them on? She really hoped it was the second one.

”Anyway, ticket sales for tonight,” Noah said before placing his papers in front of Charlie. ”Remember they”re preliminary. Anything else?”

Maggie couldn”t help the teasing smile on her lips and Noah noticed it too.

”Oh no.” Noah rolled his eyes. ”Did you want to ask me about the poll?”

”Why is Jack Foster beating me?” Charlie asked incredulously.

”Who is beating you at what?”

Noah sighed. ”There”s a poll on The Hockey Herald website for hottest team owner. Some of us in the office are calling it the Billionaire Hot Shot poll. Anyway, Charlie is still second.”

”Only second?” Maggie asked teasingly.

”I should be first,” Charlie muttered.

”You should definitely be first,” Noah said sarcastically. ”But don”t worry. Second place won”t hurt our ticket sales or marketing.”

”First place could help though, right? Like with team stuff?”

”Your uncle wasn”t even an option on that poll and we were doing just fine,” Noah said. ”Besides, we have other things to worry about.”

Charlie looked out the windows of his suite to the arena beyond. ”I know,” he said thoughtfully. ”I would rather worry about the dumb poll though.”

Maggie wondered what else was going on that made Charlie get so worked up about something as trivial as a poll.

But she needed him to focus on something else. Forget the poll or whatever other issues the team was dealing with. The cake was good. Cookies were delicious. Just make a decision on that already.

”Ticket sales were good tonight,” Noah said. ”We”ll deal with the rest later.”

Charlie nodded and turned back, giving Noah a fake smile. ”We like good ticket sales.”

”We like cake too. Can I have that?”

Noah”s eyes were staring at the slice of cake on Maggie”s plate and she was more than happy to share. ”Take it and make sure you tell Charlie how great it is.”

Noah snatched the plate off the table, declaring, ”The cake is great!” before walking out the door.

Charlie smiled and shook his head before walking over to the counter, sliding another slice off the tray, and bringing it to her with a new fork.

”Sorry about the cake thief,” he said. ”You seem to have made quite the impression on the staff.”

”Like the impression you made on my cake?”

She didn”t mean for it to sound snarky, but it did sound a little snarky. What was Charlie doing to her? Maggie didn”t act this way around other clients. She was nice and professional and did a great job selling her bakery”s products no matter how much they would push back on her.

But there was just something about Charlie. The fact that he ruined her cake. The fact that he hadn”t told her he was the owner of the team when they met. The whole being rich and having everything handed to him while she was fighting for this contract.

The fact that he looked damn sexy right now.

She had to admit that she didn”t know who this Jack Foster person was, but it was obvious that Charlie was probably the hottest team owner in the league with his tailored pants that made his ass look amazing and the button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Maggie had a thing for forearms. So what?

Now he was standing there in front of her looking genuinely remorseful after she got snarky with him, which just made things worse.

But then Charlie smiled and took another bite of his cake with a look of ecstasy on his face. ”You make a delicious cake no matter what it looks like,” he finally said. ”I hope hiring you makes up for smashing your cake before your presentation.”

Makes up for it? What did that mean?

”So are you going to hire the bakery just because you feel bad for smashing my cake?”

Again with the snarkiness. What the hell was wrong with her tonight? But Charlie didn”t seem taken aback by it. Instead, his smile grew bigger.

”We”re going to hire your bakery because it”s amazing,” he said. ”I just wanted you to know that I really do feel bad about the whole cake thing.”

”Oh.””I mean, look at that cake over there.” She turned in the direction that Charlie was pointing. ”There are two pieces left even though I was the only one in the suite tonight.”

Maggie saw the almost empty cake plate and turned back around to give Charlie a tight smile. Yeah, she was feeling some remorse now herself. He wasn”t lying that there was barely any left and he really did like it.

”Well, um...”

Her voice trailed off, wondering how she was supposed to handle all of this now. Maybe instead of eating a slice of cake, she should be eating some humble pie.

But again, Charlie seemed to take it in stride and stood back from the high-top table, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his gorgeous tailored pants.

”So, would you like the contract for hockey games?”

She put on a big smile, a genuine one this time. ”We”re looking forward to working with you.”

”Good.”

His phone rang on the table and she saw the word ”Lawyer” flash up on the screen. She looked up at Charlie to see him staring at the phone, his demeanor completely changed. Gone was the businessman closing a contract for cake and the whole suite suddenly seemed darker.

Charlie crushed the button on the side of his phone a little harder than she expected to silence it and he stared at the blank screen for several moments as if he had forgotten she was even there before he finally looked up at her.

”I”m looking forward to working with your bakery,” he said with a tight smile. ”I”ll talk to Noah about the contract tomorrow and we”ll get something to you soon.”

”That sounds great.”

She plastered on her fake smile again and stood up. It just felt like that call, whatever it was about, had changed the entire suite and it was obvious when she wasn”t wanted there anymore.

Maggie held her hand out and Charlie took it with a professional grasp to shake.

”Thank you for considering us, and I”m really looking forward to working with you.”

”Likewise,” he replied with that polite smile. ”Have a good night and we”ll be in touch.”

His hand slipped out of hers and Maggie”s eyes flickered to his exposed forearm for just a moment. She really needed to get a grip on whatever she was feeling about Charlie”s arms.

So she plastered on a smile and nodded before heading towards the door.

Just before it closed behind her, she glanced back to the suite. Charlie was leaning on the table, brooding, as he stared down at the phone in front of him. Then the door clicked shut and Maggie had no choice but to head down the hall.

She had secured the deal and was going to prove that taking on a new contract would be a great thing for the company. It was going to work out, she knew it.

But there was also something still nagging her about her conversation with Charlie that she couldn”t quite describe, and she couldn”t explain why she even cared.

In the two times Maggie had met him, it seemed like the people Charlie worked with liked him and Riley had told her that the players were happy he was in charge of the team. And aside from her disdain for him smashing her cake, he had been friendly to her and remorseful about the whole incident. In fact, the sudden coldness in the way he said goodbye to her seemed out of character for him.

Charlie just felt like a good person to be around who could have had plenty of people in his suite to enjoy the game.

So why did the billionaire owner tell her he watched the game alone?