Page 4 of Leo

He had just stood there like a buffoon watching in fascination at the sparks shooting from the chocolate brown eyes and did not say a word. Afterwards, she had marched off across the street and entered the bank.

But he had seen the logo on her shirt and knew she worked at the pastry place only a few feet away.

The next morning, he had presented himself there and sat in a corner booth, enjoying coffee and her delicious raspberry and cream pie.

He had then sat there and watched as she moved from one table to the other and then back around the kitchen. Her energy left him breathless, and he had fallen then and there. When she came over to his table, he had seen the ring on her finger and felt his heart sinking.

He had persevered and became her friend instead and hired her shop for when they had meetings at the corporate headquarters or even when they were having functions at the office, he would use her. He had thrown her so much business that she confessed that he had singlehandedly boosted the business.

When her fiancé was killed and he found out that the bastard was also cheating on her, he offered his shoulder as a friend, all the while wishing that he could be something more. When she made it plain that she was not in the running for a relationship, he had reluctantly backed down and waited for his opening.

Laughing shakily, he pushed the start button and hoped this was it.

*****

“It was pretty rough today.” Ingrid sat next to her and gave her a sympathetic look as she slipped off her tennis shoes and wriggled her toes.

“Mondays always are. I am not going to complain.” Sherrian leaned back and closed her eyes wearily. The shop was empty at this time of night, with the last customer leaving with a box cream puffs, freshly baked.

“Honey, I hate to bring this up.”

Sherrian turned to face the older woman and knew what was coming. “You want to know what my plans are.”

Ingrid nodded, a sheepish expression on her lined face. “Ben is making noises about leaving without me.

You know we plan to take a two-month long cruise before we both officially retire.” Ingrid was nearing her sixty-fifth birthday and her husband, who was a seasoned fire fighter, was just days away from his own retirement. The couple wanted to go on a cruise and settle on a farm in Texas.

Sherrian was grateful to the woman who had hired her straight out of culinary school and taught her so much. Ingrid had takenher on as a partner three years ago and over the last year had offered her the opportunity of owning the shop outright.

“As you should be,” she slid her feet back into her tennis shoes. She should be hearing from Leo soon and wanted to get ready. “I will have an answer for you by the end of the week.”

Ingrid stared at the vivacious beauty quizzically.

“That aunt of yours still giving you a hard time?”

“Aunt Gloria is set in her ways.”

“We could always work out a payment plan.”

Sherrian shook her head. “No. You put everything into the business, and I don’t want to be the one to hold things up for you.” Reaching over, she patted the worn hand. “I will figure something out.”

“Honey, don’t let her rope you into doing something you don’t want to do.”

“I will do anything to take over the business. Go home and stop worrying about me. I am a survivor.”

“I just have one more thing to say.”

“Go on.”

“That asshole Greg was an idiot.”

“I completely agree with you.” Sherrian told her with a laugh. “It is funny. When it happened, I was so broken that I could not function.

But now, looking back, I should have seen the signs. I blamed myself for being so wrapped up in growing the business.” She shook her head. “When he took the broken dates and the latenights I would spend here so easily, I figured I was the luckiest woman in the world.”

“And all the while he was screwing around with your best friend,” Ingrid sniffed. “I never liked that Jasmine person. She was always smiling and too nice.”

“She was my best friend since high school. I never got the chance to ask her why she did it. That pissed me off. Losing Greg was one thing, but I also lost the person I considered to be my best friend.

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