Page 22 of Billionaire's Accidental Marriage
I saluted her. “Yes, ma’am!”
She giggled and shook her head, which only made me smile more. I honestly couldn’t believe how well this had all turned out. It actually looked like someone had dropped Stars’ Hollow into the middle of the desert.
What? Can’t a guy have his guilty pleasures?
Anyway, I jogged over to where Alice was standing, and she looked relieved to see me. Alice Deckard was the general manager of the first restaurant I had turned into a Mom and Pop shop. Kind of like a mixture between eating good food and shopping for good merchandise. Like Cracker Barrel but toned down a bit and more homey feeling. And Alice looked lost as hell.
“I hear someone over here needs help,” I said.
Alice looked up and sighed. “Thank God you’re already here. Mark and Gladys were behind me, but I lost them at the stoplight a couple of miles back.”
I helped her unload a table from the back of her truck. “Should I go and search for them?”
She shook her head. “Not just yet. If they don’t show up in ten minutes, maybe. But I sent them a text and—oh! There they are now!”
I peered over my shoulder, and I saw the rest of the cavalry coming up the road. Trucks lined themselves up on either side of Alice, and one by one, I helped get all of my shops unloaded and into their temporary positions. A couple of them were posted inside these quaint-looking homes, while the rest of them were posted inside the doors of little shops that had come to life out of absolutely nowhere. And the more we got set up, the more this place felt like an actual city on the map.
“Mike!”
I turned at the sound of Maggie’s voice. “What’s up?”
She smiled as she walked up to my side. “So, I sort of came up with some last-minute things for the town hall you’ve got set up in the middle of this place.”
“Oh? Can I help with anything?”
She giggled. “No, that Alice of yours was a wonderful help. She’s making one last run into town for some supplies, but I thought since the town hall is the only building that actually has an inside that’s been filled out, it might be a good place for kids to do crafts and get snacks. You know, things that an actual small-town town hall might host.”
I shook my head. “You’re brilliant, you know that?”
She blushed. “Just creative, that’s all.”
I squeezed her shoulder while resisting the urge to pull her into my arms. “Same difference.”
We waited around until lunchtime when we advertised that we would be open, but things didn’t happen as quickly as I thought they would. A few people trickled in and out, but nothing like I wanted to see. There should’ve been more people, especially for an event like this that was slated to carry into Sunday’s lunch hour before everything was broken down.
This place should be flooded.
And yet, it wasn’t.
“Give it time,” Maggie said.
I sighed. “Is it that obvious?”
“Let’s just say the wrinkle in your forehead could hold enough water to flood the Grand Canyon.”
I snickered before I started laughing. “Thanks for that.”
She nudged me. “Hey, gotcha smiling.”
“That, it did.”
“But seriously, just give it time. This is Vegas, after all. This place is open twenty-four-seven, which means people have to work those hours, too. We’ll probably see a massive flood of people this evening. You know, around six or so.”
I nodded. “Thank you for your perspective.”
She took my hand and squeezed it softly, which stilled my beating heart. “You’re more than welcome.”
And just like Maggie said, the second the workday was over, cars started lining up around the block. In fact, there were so many cars that I had to call back a contractor to level land with a bulldozer just so we could open up more parking. Thank fuck, I had enough sense to purchase this land instead of simply renting it out. That made tweaking it to my favor a hell of a lot easier.
