Pit Stop: Baby! (Crescent Cove 4)

“I’ll text him. I’m feeling a little like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

“God, yes.”

I laughed and we started the closing process for the café. It felt good to be a productive part of a team. I didn’t even know how much I’d missed it until I got it back. The chattering girls, Macy pretending to be grouchy, even Vee’s incessant baby questions had my mood brightening.

I texted Gage about hanging out with Macy and received three follow-up texts from him to get me to ask Macy about my ideas. He was relentless, but the little bubble of warmth was spreading.

Finally, me and Macy collapsed onto the couch with a bowl of popcorn—a n

ew Cajun concoction with a toffee base. Honestly, the girl was going to make me weigh five-hundred pounds by the end of this pregnancy.

I groaned as I took another handful. “You know, you really need to sell this. I bet it would fly off the shelves as fast as the coffee. Hell, it would probably get people buying more drinks.”

Macy gave me one of her half-grins and took her own handful. “Is this one of your ideas?”

I choked and reached for my water. When I stopped coughing, I gave her a weak smile. “What? No.” Maybe. Yes. So much yes.

“Mmm-hmm.”

I sighed. “Gage is such a big mouth.”

“He means well. Mostly. He’s definitely the pushier of the Kramer brothers. Then again, Kelsey ended up moved in with Dare before she could even blink, so maybe not.”

“They are very pushy and bossy.”

And yummy, though I wouldn’t say that aloud. Probably. Though Gage was far yummier.

“Good thing they’re hot. And evidently, they wield their dumbstick with a powerful breeding sense.” She shuddered and inched down into a comfortable position.

I laughed and relaxed. “Truth.”

“So, tell me your ideas, girl.”

I nibbled on my lip. “I don’t want to overstep.”

“Like I have trouble telling you when you are?”

“That is very true.” I angled myself toward her. “I was thinking maybe we should actually have movie nights and set up some couches and recliners, maybe? Sell your crazy-delicious popcorn and give people something to do at night. It’s so dead in the Cove after seven o’clock, for God’s sake. It’s an untapped moneymaker.”

When she didn’t shoot down the idea, I rushed on and gave her some details from my research about showing movies. What we could and couldn’t do with trademarking and licensing.

Three hours later, we’d never started the movie, but we did have a plan.

One that I’d mostly come up with. How about that?

Maybe the idea of Rylee Ford being a businesswoman wasn’t so insane after all.

Twenty

I grinned at the texts from Rylee. “Finally.”

Dare rested his beer against his belt. “Finally, what?”

“Ry has been in nightly pow-wow sessions with Macy about her ideas for the café. She’s been so hesitant to share them all. She’s perfect for the damn job. I just wish she believed it.”

Dare’s eyebrows rose.

“What?”