Billionaire Unloved

I folded my arms across my chest and gave him a skeptical stare. “You’re not setting this up to help me make a small fortune?”

“Absolutely not. The idea came up when I was talking to Shirley about how bad the bakery items are. Even I couldn’t eat the donuts. They were stale.”

I cracked a smile. “Okay. Since you never meet something sweet that you don’t love, then maybe you really do need something different.”

“My staff needs something better,” he corrected.

“I think it’s pretty nice that you actually offer the service to your staff. Most companies don’t.”

“It’s mostly selfish,” he answered. “We get more work out of them if they aren’t thinking about lunch because they didn’t have time to get anything in the morning.”

I laughed. “You know that’s not why you do it.”

He shrugged. “Maybe not the only reason, but studies show that it ups productivity.”

“I’ll do some stuff tomorrow.”

I ran some ideas by him for items he might want, but I could see that he was distracted.

Finally, I said, “You never did tell me what you fought about with Carter?”

“Like I said, it was an old score.”

“What?” I pressed.

“He slept with my ex-fiancé,” Jett said flatly.

I was speechless, unable to ask all of the questions I had that were screaming through my brain as I saw the grim expression on Jett’s handsome face.

Ruby

“I already know I want you to sign on to make me stuff permanently as soon as possible,” Lia said as she stood behind the empty glass case at Indulgent that had been full of pastries earlier that morning.

“I second that wholeheartedly,” Zeke said from a table where he was finishing off the selection of sweets she’d saved for him when I’d laid them out earlier.

With Jett seated across from Zeke, helping him devour everything, I knew it wouldn’t be long before all the pastries were gone.

The two men had never met before today, but I was pretty sure they were male bonding over brownies.

“My offices come first,” Jett insisted. “My employees would revolt if Ruby doesn’t bake for us anymore.”

I smiled because I knew what he said was probably true. I’d had the chance to chat with some of the people who worked for him, and heard the horror stories about what the bakery had been bringing their way. To me, it seemed almost ridiculous to lose the business of one of the biggest corporations in the world, but the bakery itself was growing, so they’d lost their personal touch. Their profit had obviously become more important than customer satisfaction, which I knew could eventually be their downfall.

“Once Stuart and I are married, I’m expanding and opening another store,” Lia explained. “I want to start off with your products at the other store from the day we open.”

“If I take on Jett’s whole company, I’m going to need to get a kitchen and some employees. I’m going to have to have more ovens and space,” I told her.

“Just don’t open a store,” Lia said. “Well, unless you want to open a bakery. That was kind of selfish because I’d love to have customers wanting your pastries so they come to my shop. I kind of like you exclusive.”

I smiled at her. “I’m not looking in that direction right now. And please don’t tell me that you won’t have people pouring through the door for your coffee regardless of whether or not you carry my stuff.”

It was late and the shop was closed, but it had been a madhouse just an hour earlier when it was open.

“When are you opening your other store?” I asked.

“As soon as I get my grandmother’s inheritance,” she explained. “She put in a weird requirement that I have to be married by the age of twenty-eight before I could inherit. I think she was worried about me becoming an old maid because there weren’t any prospects in sight when she passed away.”

“They can actually do that?” I said, astonished that somebody could dictate Lia’s life for money.

She sighed. “Apparently, yes, she could. My attorney says I could contest it, but chances are I could lose since my grandma specified alternate places to put the money should I not meet her terms. But it’s simple, right? I just make sure to get the deed done before my birthday.”