Page 37 of Pitcher Perfect

We walked back to the picnic table. “Sorry about all the shop talk. I haven’t seen Yang since we vacated the pod.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I smiled and hoped he could tell I wasn’t bothered. I enjoyed seeing Caleb in his element despite my dark thoughts.

I moaned at the incredible flavors of the soup dumpling. “Shit. This is amazing.”

Caleb looked pleased with my response. “I love that food trucks are so popular here. It makes it easier for chefs to turn their dreams of cooking into a reality since restaurants cost so damn much money.”

“Totally. If only food trucks were a thing for home brewers.”

Caleb chuckled. “That would be amazing.”

“Do you plan to keep going with the food truck for a while, or do you have other plans?” I didn’t want to imply a food truck wasn’t enough, but I wasn’t sure how else to learn about Caleb’s career aspirations.

Caleb bit his bottom lip. “I’d be happy sticking with the food truck, but I do have another dream.”

My stomach dropped as I waited for him to tell me his life goal of moving to LA or New York to work in some fancy restaurant.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve borrowed a friend’s kitchen in Portland to take on some catering jobs and sock away money to open my own restaurant.”

I pushed the rest of the food around in my container. “Yeah? That’s so cool.”

Caleb let out a long breath. “If Frank Ambrose would lease his space to me, I could actually make that happen.”

My head snapped in his direction. “You want to open a restaurant in Dahlia Springs?”

“Yeah, but Frank is reluctant to rent to me. I called him to request a meeting about it, and he won’t even call me back. He gives my truck such a wide berth it’s like he thinks it’s radioactive. I guess it’s because I’m not a born-and-bred Dahlia Springsian. Springsite? Springser? I can’t think of any other reason.”

His face scrunched adorably.

“I’d love to have a restaurant open half the day then do catering the rest of the time.”

I hoped to hell Caleb didn’t ask me to help with Frank. As Henry’s son, I needed to steer clear of that whole thing other than to cheer Caleb on safely from the sidelines because I didn’t want to mess something up that mattered so much to him.

“That’s a great idea,” I said. “We’re getting more requests to sell kegs for special events in the area. I heard rumblings that the dahlia farm might start doing weddings eventually, and I’m sure they would love to finally have a local caterer to work with.”

Caleb perked up at that. “I’ve gotta admit, I’ve been worried about whether there’s a need for it. Maybe I should give Frank another call.”

I smiled. “You should.”

Caleb might actually stick around.My dad had a restaurant, too, but he didn’t stay in Dahlia Springs.I swallowed the negativity and focused on enjoying the sunny day in Portland with Caleb.

By the time we’d tasted through several food trucks, I was getting full and had a million ideas for pairings but nothing that felt good enough to win the competition.

“Ready for the beer?”

I nodded. I had already mapped out a few places that would take us toward the stationery store.

“Want to share tasters at the places you want to go?”

“Sure. You sure you’re good sharing?” I asked.

“We’ve already swapped spit, so, yeah,” he teased.

My mouth fell open at his boldness. The sparkle in his hazel eyes mesmerized me, and his eyebrow arched ever so slightly. Fuck, I wanted to kiss him again.Let’s see if I can keep my shit together the rest of the day.

CHAPTER13

CALEB

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