“What about you?” Carter asked. In all their months together he’d never seen a hint of this Sophie.
“When I was given a choice between a job that could have put me on the ladder to success and going home to my little sister, I took family. And I cut off all contact with Kim and Jecca because I didn’t want them to find out that I wasn’t like them. I’d already lied to them about where I was from.”
“Texas embarrassed you?” Carter was smiling.
“No, Treeborne Foods embarrassed me. I’d learned that people thought it would be great to live in a town owned by one company. I didn’t want to explain that Treeborne is ruled by a man who doesn’t believe in hiring locals for management positions.”
Again, Carter’s face drained of color. “I’ll change that,” he said softly.
“I think you should.”
“So you don’t want to be a sculptor?”
“I don’t want to spend my life making twenty-foot bronzes for rich people to put in their fancy gardens. When I was in school some snooty kid in law school said I should build a cup holder into every one of my sculptures. He said that way they would be useful.”
“Yeow!” Carter said. “Even I know that’s not good. So you want to go with Dr. Reede? Roan said something about Reede setting up a clinic on a boat. You want to raise children on a boat?”
“Why not? Who said that a three-bedroom, two-bath home is what’s best for kids? Couldn’t they—?” She cut off as she sat back down on the couch. “It’s absurd to think about any of this. Reede would never agree to my going with him, even if he got the money from somewhere else. What could I do to help him?”
“Shall we see?” Carter asked.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, my dear friend, that Treeborne Foods will fund it all. The trips, the clinics. Everything that Henry Belleck has offered, Treeborne Foods will match.”
“Carter, you can’t do that. Your father will—”
“Screw him! I’ve been scared of my father all my life. Terrified of him. But when Kelli and I had dinner with him two weeks ago, I realized that I’m all he has. If my father dies, what happens to his precious Tree-borne Foods, which he loves more than any human? It’ll fall apart without someone who cares about it to hold it together. Who will that be? His right-hand man? That guy would sell in a minute. Can my father disinherit me? How will that look in the ads that brag that we’re a family business?”
Sophie was staring at him in silence.
“Look, Sophie, since that horrible day when I pushed you out of my father’s cold, empty mansion because I was afraid of him, I’ve done nothing but think. I now know what I’m going to do. Kelli doesn’t know it yet—or maybe she does—but I’m going to marry her and we’re going to open a line of baked goods that will probably double the size of the company. And it’s all come about because of you, Sophie. If I hadn’t come after you—”
“Because I stole your cookbook.”
“Right.” He smiled at her. “If you hadn’t stolen the cookbook, I wouldn’t have met Kelli, wouldn’t have stood up to my father, and wouldn’t have known that I do like working with food. And I wouldn’t know how much I like living in a town where I’m the crown prince.”
Sophie couldn’t help laughing at the last part.
“Sorry, but that’s my ego. I’ll see to it that Tree-borne Foods funds whatever Dr. Reede wants to do. Besides, I can write off the expense and use the whole thing in publicity.”
“You are a Treeborne.”
“I had no idea I was, but I think maybe I am down to my very toes.” The two of them exchanged smiles and it was the first time he’d felt that maybe Sophie could possibly forgive him. When he’d first become involved with her he hadn’t done it with bad intentions. That things had turned out badly had been due to Carter’s fear of his father. “By the way, Sophie, about that cookbook . . . ”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s just that I was so very angry at you, and—”
“And you had a right to be. But I think I owe you the truth, after all I’ve put you through. The reason the cookbook is written in code and why it’s kept locked up is because great-granny put cocaine on everything.”
“What?”
“It was legal back then and it made you feel good. Coco-Cola was named for its secret ingredient.”
Sophie was looking at him in shock.
“You see now why I was so frantic when I saw that the cookbook was missing? I wasn’t afraid someone would publish our so-called secret recipes on the Internet. I was afraid that if we were found out we’d be laughed out of the industry. We have Granny’s photo on every package.”
“And she doused the food with cocaine?”