First Time in Forever (Puffin Island 1)

By the time she’d finished talking, he’d been relieved he wasn’t a woman.

As he waited for the pain in his shoulder to die down, she lifted her head from the laptop and flashed him a smile.

“Hi, Ryan.” She was keying numbers into a spreadsheet, her fingers swift. An untouched glass of wine sat by her elbow.

“So—” dragging his gaze from her hair, he eyed the papers spread across the table “—you’re finding ways to attract tourists and put me out of business?”

“Competition is healthy, Ryan.” Emily hit Save. “It will be good for you.”

He was fairly sure that what would be good for him was a few hours with her naked in an oversize bed, but he kept that thought to himself. “I had no idea you had such a ruthless streak.”

Lisa handed him a glass of wine. “She’s amazing. We’ve been looking at ways to reduce costs. Emily thinks I should talk to Doug Mitchell about the rent on this place.”

Ryan thought about Doug, who never gave anyone anything for free if he could charge for it. “Doug isn’t known for his financial generosity or his gentle heart. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“He’s a businessman.” Emily printed out a document. “He’s charging almost twice what he should, and if Summer Scoop closes, he won’t be getting any rent at all.”

“Unless he finds another dreamer like me.” Lisa topped up her own wineglass.

“You’re going to speak to him tomorrow.” Emily rescued the pages from the printer, clipped them together and slipped them into a file. “Show him these numbers.”

“Can I do it on the phone with a script?”

“It’s harder to say no to someone face-to-face. We can rehearse it, if it would make you feel better.”

Lisa looked gloomily at Ryan. “I had no idea she could be this scary.”

He didn’t answer. There was plenty about Emily he found scary, the biggest thing being just how much he wanted to drag her back to his place. “If it persuades Doug to reduce the rent, it will be worth it.”

“If he does, then there might be some hope for me. Look at all these ideas.” Perking up, Lisa picked up a sheaf of papers. “Scoop of the Day. Every day we pick a different flavor and promote it. Happy Hour—half price ice cream between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. every day. Name an ice cream—every time you buy an ice cream, you enter into a competition to have an ice cream named after you.”

Ryan wondered if anyone would buy an ice cream called “Hot and Desperate.”

To distract himself, he glanced over Emily’s shoulder at the spreadsheet, and immediately her scent wrapped itself around him. “How will discounting increase profits?”

“Because we’re going to drive more traffic toward the store.” Emily pushed a piece of paper toward him. “We’re going to ask the town council for permission to put a sign up next to the place where the ferry docks. Also to put some pretty tables and chairs outside, so that people can sit for a while and watch the boats.”

Ryan refrained from pointing out that they could sit and watch the boats from the deck of the Ocean Club. “And when the fog rolls in and folks are trapped indoors?”

“They can be trapped indoors here.” Visibly excited, Lisa started sketching out ideas using the twins’ art materials. “We’re going to paint the place and put tables and chairs inside. We’re going to have things for the kids to do, like coloring and jewelry making.”

“Won’t that have a significant cost implication?”

“It shouldn’t.” Emily made a note to herself. “Skylar knows plenty of suppliers.”

“I thought her work was high end.”

“It is now, but before she started designing jewelry for the rich and famous, she used to do the occasional children’s party. She’s very creative.”

Lisa snapped the top off a blue pen. “And Emily’s biggest idea? A stand on the waterfront just beyond the harbor and near the beach.”

Emily pushed a sketch toward him. “If they won’t come to the ice cream, then we’ll take the ice cream to them. What do you think?”

It was so obvious Ryan wondered why no one had thought of it before. “You’ll need a food truck license.”

The anxiety was back on Lisa’s face. “Will that be hard? Would they refuse me?”

“I don’t see why, when everyone is so keen to see Summer Scoop work. And they gave a license to Chas when he wanted to serve gourmet burgers. Seems to me that gourmet ice cream right next door would make perfect sense. He might even be prepared to lease you the stand next to his. He owns both of them.” Ryan caught Emily’s eye. “Let me speak to a few people. Assuming there is no problem with the license and Chas is willing to help, who would run it? You don’t have the budget to employ anyone, do you?”