Chapter 7
Nathan closed his umbrella in the entry to Bridgeview Bakery and Bistro and glanced around the inviting interior, his gaze snagging on Jasmine. Why was she everywhere he went? This was crazy.
Sitting with her back to the door, she chatted with the red-haired co-owner. Kass hadn’t seemed to be as flirty as her cousin the other time Nathan had been here, but he still hadn’t been back since.
Kass’s gaze slipped past Jasmine and lighted on Nathan. “Hey, there! Come on in. You’re right on time.”
Jasmine turned, and a mask fell over her face. “Hi, Nathan.”
He put on his professional smile and shifted his umbrella to his left hand, which also carried his briefcase. “Hi, Jasmine. Hi, Kass.”
Kass turned back to Jasmine. “Hailey and I are hiring Nathan to get some business-boosting ideas.” She smiled at him, her brown eyes warm. “Grab a seat wherever you like. I’ll lock up behind Jasmine and call Hailey from the back.”
“I’ll catch you tomorrow.” Jasmine gave her friend a pointed look and skirted Nathan as though afraid to catch the plague. She crossed the tile floor and pulled the hood of her raincoat up as she exited.
Nathan tried to pull his gaze into the building rather than watch her through the windows as she rounded the corner.
She hunched against the blowing rain and marched up the side street as though on a mission.
No doubt she’d be drenched before she got home — wherever that was — but no one could convince her of anything against her will.
Like driving instead of walking when conditions were this blustery.
He sucked in a deep breath, blinked hard, and turned to the gorgeous redhead who’d greeted him upon arrival. Now she stood watching him, eyebrows raised and a small smile in place as Hailey bustled into view, touching her short blond hair as she rounded the counter.
“Nathan!” Hailey billowed in for a hug.
He shifted slightly to keep his briefcase between them and patted her on the back. “Hi, Hailey. I think I’d have recognized you anywhere. Been a long time, though.”
“It sure has.” She beamed at him, her blue eyes gleaming. “Welcome back to Spokane. I was thrilled when Basil mentioned you were returning with extensive experience in marketing. Kass and I — you’ve met my cousin, Kass, right? — need a little help kicking our business to the next level.”
“Thanks. Yes, I’ve had some success. I appreciate you inviting me here to toss around ideas.”
“I’ll pour us each a coffee, and we can get started. Just grab a seat anywhere.”
So far, so good. Nathan set his briefcase on a turquoise chair, draped his coat over the back of it, and sat in the one next to it while Kass flipped the sign to closed and locked the door before setting down a plate and taking the seat across from him.
What had Kass seen between him and Jasmine the other day?
Or had Jasmine dumped all his failures on her friend’s lap?
Maybe this pair of cousins wouldn’t hire him, after all.
Maybe that would be a good thing, the way Hailey brushed against him as she set his coffee down.
“Cream or sugar?” she said in a low voice.
Nathan shifted away. “Black is good, thanks.”
“Please have a cookie.” Kass nudged the plate closer. “Chewy peppermint chocolate. They’re one of our most popular.”
“Thanks. Don’t mind if I do. Why don’t you tell me how you’ve been advertising the business thus far? Is most of your clientele from Bridgeview, or are you getting traffic from downtown as well?” He pulled a steno pad and pen from his briefcase then helped himself to a cookie.
Hailey leaned across the table, her eyes intent on his. “We’ll be celebrating our third business birthday in August, and we’d like to do it up right with a party. So many businesses go under that we want to celebrate the milestone.”
Had she even heard his questions? He nodded, swallowing the morsel that practically melted in his mouth. Man, he was right to come if this treat was indicative of the food they served. “This is a good time to start planning that sort of event. That’s only a few months away.”
“We have a Facebook page,” offered Kass. “We advertise our specials there and try to interact with our customers. Same with Instagram. We have a lot of followers there as well.”
At least they weren’t allergic to having an internet presence. Good start. “What about broad media, like the Spokesman-Review?”
Kass grimaced. “We’ve tried some newspaper ads, but they’re expensive and not well-targeted. We’re not open evenings, so there’s little reason for folks from Southgate or Rockwood or North Hill to come down this way.”
She had a point. Nathan tapped his pen against his notebook.
“What’s your unique angle?” He looked around the interior with its whitewashed plank walls, wooden tables, and cheery yellow, white, and turquoise chairs.
The display cases carried splashes of the yellow and turquoise.
Just enough, it seemed, to be clean, bright, and welcoming.
The cousins looked at each other. “I don’t know that we’re all that different from half a dozen other bakeries,” Kass started.
Hailey elbowed her. “Except our food is better.”
Kass giggled. “Well, yes, of course.”
If that cookie was any indication, Nathan believed them. “So you’re open Tuesday through Saturday, from seven to five? Long day.”
“It is long,” Kass agreed. “We catch the early crowd who wants coffee on their way to work, and maybe a cinnamon roll, muffin, or croissant with it. Or they might grab a sandwich to take to the office for lunch. We’re a bit far from the downtown core for folks to walk in, though we do get some.
And then we’re generally busy again in the late afternoon as people pick up baked goods to take home.
In between, it’s generally steady enough with friends and colleagues meeting for coffee. ”
“And the old-timers sit here for two hours every morning talking about the good old days.” Hailey grimaced. “They go through a lot of coffee.”
“And cinnamon rolls. ”
His mouth watered as he remembered the ones Jasmine had brought to their work day. “Are those one of your specialties?”
Hailey nodded. “Definitely.”
Nathan couldn’t help glancing toward the glass-fronted display case but couldn’t spot any.
“We’re all sold out.” Hailey’s eyelashes fluttered. “Come in in the morning and try one on the house.”
The one he’d sampled the other day had been amazing. “I might do that.” At least, if he could without garnering too much of Hailey’s attention.
“Anyway, we’re doing all right,” Kass put in. “Business is steady if not remarkable. We have two full-time employees and one part-time. It’s just, we think we could do more, you know?”
Nathan nodded. “Three years is worth celebrating. Have you thought about extending your hours? Being open Sunday and Monday? Or maybe over the supper hour?”
The cousins glanced at each other, and Kass twirled her coffee cup. “Not Sundays. We truly need the day off to worship and relax, but we’ve talked about Mondays. We’d need to hire another employee, though, and I’m not sure it would pay off.”
“As for staying open through the evening, that would require an entirely different menu as well as more staff again.” Hailey shook her head. “The breakfast and lunch menu relies heavily on our baked goods, but dinners would be a whole new situation. It’s not really part of our vision.”
“Fair enough. So long as you’ve made a conscious decision not to pursue that avenue.” The bright decor definitely shouted daytimes. And it did it well.
“Right.” Kass took a sip. “Mondays are a possibility but, honestly, we really like our hours. We appreciate everyone, including ourselves, being able to have two days off together.”
“It’s a great ideal.” Nathan tapped his pen against his notebook. “I remember this building from when your grandparents ran the bakery years ago. You’ve done wonders with the renovation.”
“Thanks.” Kass beamed. “I’ll take the credit for that.”
Hailey rolled her eyes as she elbowed her cousin. “Like I had no good suggestions.”
“One thing we’ve started doing...” Kass looked at Nathan as she sucked in her lower lip for a moment. “Some people have asked for weekly pickups of a standing order. Jasmine was our first customer of that kind, actually. Her and her roommate, Linnea Ranta.”
How did Jasmine’s name keep coming up?
“We could do more to promote that, maybe? It would help provide stability.”
Nathan blinked the thought of Jasmine away. “Man, that’s a great idea. Do you have a formal plan? Brochures to hand out? Specific talking points?”
She shook her head. “No, but we probably should. So far it’s just been word of mouth.”
“We can take that angle and run, for sure. Anything else?”
Hailey looked thoughtful. “We try to source as many of our ingredients locally as we can. If the Santoros get Bridgeview Backyards viable at a larger scale, that will be a huge help to us.”
Kass nodded, her eyes lighting up. “We can’t seem to get everything organic or local, but we are constantly looking for committed suppliers. ”
Nathan glanced around the café. “Do your customers know that?”
“Some of them do.” Hailey shrugged.
“Definitely a point to play up as you seek to expand, don’t you think?”
“I agree.” Kass glanced at her cousin and turned back to Nathan. “It’s a challenging ideology. We either need to make a big deal of it or quietly let the concept drift away.”
Nathan shook his head. “I think playing it up will help you stand out. Anything else? Do you do any catering, for instance?”
“We do.” Hailey grimaced. “We took on an event for next weekend that we really shouldn’t have, though.”
“Oh?” He allowed his eyebrows to rise. “Why is it a bad thing?”
“It’s Eden Andrusek’s wedding,” said Kass with a sigh.
“And Hailey and I are both in the wedding party. We’d hoped to get Linnea to oversee the catering when we first agreed to cater, but then she went and got engaged to the best man and would rather attend as a guest. So that leaves Shay, and she doesn’t have much experience.
We need to hire a couple of people to serve, and that scares us both, frankly. ”
“In a community like Bridgeview, I imagine nearly everyone you know is invited to the wedding.” He vaguely remembered Eden from high school.
Word of the accident that had claimed the lives of her parents and both sisters had reached him in California.
No doubt the community rallied around her then and were doing so for her wedding now.
Hailey shook her head. “You’ve got it in one. Every person we’ve tentatively asked was invited to the wedding. Our next step is to advertise through the newspaper, and that just doesn’t sit well with either of us. It’s our business reputation on the line, but we don’t have much choice anymore.”
“I used to wait tables through college.”
Nathan’s words hung in the air. Why on earth had he said that? Sounded like he was volunteering to help out. But why not? He’d lost touch with Eden years ago and never met her fiancé, a newcomer to Bridgeview. He had no skin in this wedding.
“You worked at Morley’s.” Hailey looked thoughtful.
He nodded. “And in a couple of places in L.A. before I got my marketing internship. I have experience.” He took a deep breath. He was in for it now. “I could help out.”
Kass’s face lit up. “You could?”
“I bet you’d clean up real nice.” Hailey smirked. “Black pants, black shirt?”
“I have both. What day is the wedding?”
“Easter Saturday, if you can imagine.” Hailey shook her head. “If your offer is serious, we’d love to have you on board.”
“Sure, why not?” At the very least, he’d be visible to many Bridgeview residents. Helping out would be good for his reputation and be an ice-breaker when he met business owners.
Nathan couldn’t help but wonder what Jasmine looked like all dolled up. Was that the real reason he’d volunteered?
The two cousins rapid-fired questions and replies at each other before turning back to him with the details, including the pay.
Strangely, those didn’t really matter. He’d do a good turn for the neighborhood and see Jasmine in a pretty dress. What more did he need out of a Saturday?