Page 91 of The Billionaire's Wife

I admired her ring. “It’s lovely. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I imagine we’ll wait until he finishes school in the spring. I graduated over the summer and he’s still at Mason.” Carrie wet a rag and began wiping down the counter.

“Will you stay in the area?”

“Oh, absolutely. Both our families are here and he’s already got a job lined up with a software company in Arlington. My parents said we could rent their basement until we find something affordable, which is huge. The housing prices around here are nuts and neither of us was excited about adding a huge commute if we could avoid it. He gets along great with my folks, though, so it should be fine.”

She reminded me of me and Tristan. If my life hadn’t been quite so terrible when we got married. And if I’d made smarter choices. I sighed quietly. I’d been overwhelmed with regret about the what-ifs more and more since Tristan had taken me to dinner at Hell’s Kitchen. I didn’t deserve him—never had—and yet, he seemed content. Happy, even.

“Sounds like you’ve got a great plan in place.”

Carrie beamed.

The bell on the door jingled and I turned.

“Hey. I’m not late.” Jenna hustled over to the café space and looked around. “This is amazing. You got this done in what, a month? You’re going to be ready for Black Friday shoppers?”

I nodded. “We’re officially in operation as of today. That gives us—well, Carrie mostly—a week to work out any kinks. But if everything else is as fantastic as this latte, I don’t think there are going to be kinks.”

“Ooh. Can I have one?” Jenna’s eyebrows lifted. “And we’re eating here tonight, right? With the girls? Rather than ordering something else in?”

“I think so. Since Megan found a caterer to provide food offerings every day, it seems like we should take advantage of it. Especially since I think we have to toss everything that isn’t eaten each day.” I frowned. That seemed wasteful. But after some back-and-forth, Megan hadn’t wanted to put in a full kitchen and have someone making food on-site, which meant we also didn’t have a lot of food storage space.

“Not all of it.” Carrie glanced over her shoulder from where she worked on Jenna’s drink. “We have the fridge in the staff area that we plan to use as much as we can. But yeah, that’s why we run the risk of selling out right now. We need to work out quantities. The caterer says she can do mid-afternoon deliveries if needed.”

I nodded. That was good.

It took only another minute for Jenna’s latte to be ready. This time, the foam art looked like an open book.

“Oh, nice.” Jenna picked up the drink and sipped. “Yum.”

“Thanks.” Carrie glanced at me. “I think that’ll be my go-to for drinks when we don’t have something seasonal going on.”

“I like it. I think Megan will, too.”

Jenna looked around. “Where is Megan?”

“She should be here soon, I imagine. She’s been letting me hold down the fort most days on my own. She comes in around now and works until close. I keep trying to get her to alternate or something, but she says Cody enjoys coming by and hanging out after work, so she doesn’t mind.” I shrugged. It wasn’t my place to tell someone they were doing it wrong when it came to their marriage. If it was working for them, then it was probably all good.

“Hm.” Jenna sipped her drink and stepped to the side so she could view the contents of the bakery case better.

I stepped back and looked as well. I’d had a sandwich for lunch. Carrie was coming in right at noon and working until close for now, although I’d made a mental note to talk to Megan about the possibility of tweaking it some. In my mind, it would be better for her to work eleven to two, take a break for a few hours, then come back and work four to seven or so. The chance of someone coming in and wanting a coffee or snack at three or nine was slim. And the snacks could easily be managed by whoever was working the rest of the store. The fancy coffee? Probably not.

Then again, we didn’t have a lot of early customers, so maybe this was the better schedule even with the afternoon lull.

Jenna tapped the case and looked at me. “Have you tried the quinoa salad? It looks good.”

I glanced at it and wrinkled my nose. “I will admit to being a little scared of the word quinoa.”

Jenna snickered. “Don’t be a baby.”

“Hey.”

Jenna just shook her head. “I’ll have that and one of the croissants.”

“I guess you’re hungry?”

“Always.” Jenna shrugged. “And if the rest of the girls are going to take their sweet time getting here, I’m going to eat. You should join me.”

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