Chapter 12 Here We Are #2
“We think you should put a Willow’s Good Stuff sign in the other window, the one I don’t draw on, and you run it out of SC.
We’ll become The Surf Club and Willow’s Good Stuff.
You use the kitchen to do your shit, nix the delivery thing since they can come here and get it, and augment what you offer for SC.
Like, éclairs and danishes, and I don’t know, cream puffs and shit. ”
My heart was hammering in my chest so hard, I was sure I was experiencing a heart attack, to say nothing of the fact I was blinking rapidly.
Tex didn’t seem to notice.
“Maybe throw on some desserts for the dining room menu. Leave some dough or whatever so the weekend staff can just shove it in the oven and we’re not spending money to toss crap in the garbage.
We know it’d be a hit on your tips, so we’ll bump you up to an average pastry chef’s salary and we’ll negotiate a percentage of Willow’s Good Stuff to cover the cost of you runnin’ it out of the kitchen. ”
He rammed a hand in his jeans pocket, came out with a crinkled piece of paper, and shoved it my way.
I took it, uncrinkled it, and saw, in Tex’s antagonistic handwriting, a figure that I assumed would be my base pay, and it was fifteen thousand dollars more than I made now at SC.
Tex confirmed my assumption.
“Salary, same benefits.”
Holy…
Fuck.
My mind flashed through this offer.
The money was freaking awesome.
I’d take a percentage hit on Willow’s Good Stuff, but I wouldn’t have to deliver (it wasn’t good to give my home address to clients).
I could add my ingredients on SC’s food orders and get them for less.
I could do my work in a shiny, happy, big kitchen.
I didn’t have to run my business out of my own place, essentially driving back and forth to two workplaces.
I’d be doing more baking, but I wouldn’t be serving (and again, not offering deliveries), so it was without a doubt I would shave off a good four or five work hours a day, so I wouldn’t be working twelve-to-fourteen-hour days, but something akin to what normal people worked.
“You can think about it,” Tex said. “You like the way it is…” He shrugged. “Your body too run down. Though, think it’d be good for you and us.”
“Thanks,” I choked.
Otis, who helped Tex in the coffee cubby, came in whistling.
He smiled at me and said, “Hey, Willow,” then looked to Tex. “You ready to face the under-caffeinated mob, big man?”
Tex answered by lumbering behind the coffee cubby.
I raced to the staff room, hearing Raye (who I’d already greeted with a happy hug and gushed over her ring) call, “You okay, Will?”
I ignored her, hit the staff room, yanked my phone out of my server apron and called Gabe.
“What’s up, babe?” he answered on the second ring.
“I-I-I…” I stammered again. Then in a rush, I told him what Tex just offered me.
“Fuck, that’s awesome,” Gabe said when I quit blathering.
I didn’t reply.
“Isn’t it awesome?” he asked.
It was so awesome, it redefined the meaning of awesome.
That was why I burst into tears.
Within seconds, I was in Raye’s arms and Luna had slid my phone out of my hand.
I heard her murmuring to Gabe. Raye led me to the bench in front of the lockers and sat me down. Lucia brought me a glass of water.
And when I recovered from the earth-shattering blitzkrieg of emotions caused by realizing…
No, understanding—truly, deeply, to my soul understanding that it was over.
Shit would happen but it was over.
I could deal with my dad because he wasn’t really in my life.
From what I could tell, he didn’t have any friends.
He didn’t have a woman. Two of his three daughters fleeced him for everything they could.
But he was a wallet they could dip into, not a man they treated with love and respect.
I barely saw him, often didn’t take his calls because I was busy or not in the mood and having him in my life at all was a combination of duty and pity, and I had a feeling he knew it.
After years of fighting and scratching, for her and for me, my mom was in the perfect place.
She had a part-time job she loved, a friend posse as cool as mine and a husband who thought the world of her.
Their life was quiet and laid-back. They didn’t need for a thing, they didn’t want for much, and they weren’t only happy, they were content.
Kevin was long gone, and even if he came back, he’d never be back.
I’d loved him, and he’d played me.
But even Glorious Gabriel Stark had someone play him.
It happened.
It was part of the process of finding the one.
And I’d found the one.
He was rough and ready, like Robbie, and as easygoing and easy to be with too. He was into me. He was sure of that. He was protective. He was smart. He had a great job.
And straight up, even if I sucked in bed and he had to train me, I’d be down with that.
Or vice versa (though, I already knew that wasn’t going to be the case on Gabe’s side of things).
I felt safe with him.
I knew who I was with him.
I was that girl in the cute tee and baggy jeans and sneaks, and that was all I needed to be because I didn’t have to find my style, I already had it. That was me. I bought clothes I liked and felt comfortable in. The end.
And Gabe wanted me.
I had the bestest best bestie in the world and a friend crew that couldn’t be beat.
And now, when I said yes to Tex and Tito, I was going to have my dream job.
I never doubted it, honey, Dreamer cooed in my ear. It was always just going to take hard work and a little time. You gave it that, and here we are.
Yeah.
Here we were.
So, when I recovered from understanding all of that, wiped my eyes and came back into the room, I saw Luna, Tex, Tito, Otis and Lucia all staring down at me, and I was still being held in Raye’s arms.
Here we are, My Heart chimed in.
“I accept,” I said Tex and Tito’s way.
Tito’s bushy Santa Claus beard tipped up in a smile.
Tex grunted, “No shit?” and trudged out.
Raye’s arms tightened around me.
Luna handed me my phone. “Gabe’s still on the line. I think you need to talk to him. He’s not at one with hearing you sobbing.”
Oh yeah.
Here we are.
I took my phone and put it to my ear as everyone wandered out.
“Hey, sorry about that,” I said.
“I take it that was big shit,” he replied.
“Yeah. It was big shit. I’ve always wanted to set up my own shop, or be a pastry chef at a good restaurant, and Tex and Tito just gave me both.”
“Right.”
“And of course, that raise.”
“Yep, didn’t miss you saying that.”
“Life never quite worked out for me and Mom in ways like that,” I explained my crying jag. “I was overwhelmed.”
“Get used to it, cupcake.”
Here we are.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“You good?” he asked.
I was back to blurting when I said, “I told you first.”
“Say again?”
“I told you first. Raced right by Raye, Lucia, and probably Luna somewhere, and told you first.”
His voice was a rumble of sexy and tender that was mind-boggling beauty when he whispered, “Baby.”
Okay, it was just after seven in the morning, I needed to protect my reserves.
For now, I was done.
That was all I had in me.
“So, um…see you tonight.”
“You bet your ass.”
I experienced a lovely quiver.
Gabe disconnected.
* * *
The cakes I was going to decorate tomorrow were baked, crumb coated and wrapped safe to be ready and still fresh for decorating.
I learned more that day that Tex and Tito were going to give Joey, Gemma and Dream (who had all asked for them) additional shifts during the week to cover me. But they all needed to deal with other stuff first, so I couldn’t switch to my new role until the next week.
I was in Gabe’s black, long-sleeved tee. I had my own black sweater, and it was early October, so I’d be okay wearing it as the heat was off the Valley, especially when the sun went down, but I was wearing Gabe’s shirt.
For luck.
I had the Maglite at the ready, also the gloves, and my Taser was charged.
I had half an hour before I had to be up at Raye and Cap’s to sort out the particulars of the mission before we rolled out.
So I called my mom.
She answered on ring two, just like Gabe.
“Get out of my brain!” she cried. “I was just going to call you. Robbie and me have been missing our girl. We were thinking you needed to come up, and if you don’t have the time, we were gonna come down.”
Robbie was so far from a city boy, they didn’t often come down.
It wasn’t like he was incapable of dealing with the faster pace and abundant people, it was that he thought people in the city felt too comfortable acting like assholes, so he avoided them.
And he preferred wide-open spaces.
But I loved their cabin.
They called their extra bedroom “Willow’s Room” (and Robbie had burned those letters into a beautiful slice of wood, stained it, finished it and hung it on the wall in the room, so I guessed it was official).
In fact, even though I didn’t grow up there, I called their cabin “home,” just like I would’ve if I had.
Because it felt like home.
Because Mom was there.
Because Robbie was there (in fact, sometimes I referred to Robbie as “Dad” to save the energy of that second syllable, but then again, he was way more my dad than my bio dad so that worked too).
I guessed home for some people was a place.
However, for me it was Mom (and Robbie).
Not to mention, I didn’t have an extra room in my apartment, so when they were down, we always got in a fight about them taking my bedroom and me taking my couch.
I won, but only because, once, I flung myself face-first on the couch and hugged one of the seat cushions to me so when Robbie pulled me out of it, I took that cushion with me, refused to let it go, and as such, finally was able to communicate the vastly limited amount of shit I gave that they took my bed.
They still felt bad about putting me out of my bed, but I refused to let them stay at a hotel.
Therefore, I usually headed up there.
“I don’t have the time, Mom, but only for a few weeks. I decided to take a breather and—”