“Welcome, mijo,” Constance said, walking over to Remi and embracing him like his own mother did.
“Oh! Thank you,” Remi said, hugging her back.
“Glad to have you with us,” Moe said, reaching his hand out to shake Remi’s.
Remi put his hand in Moe’s and tried not to smile as Moe just about sprained his own wrist he shook hands so vigorously.
“Thank you, I appreciate it. That’s some shake you got there,” Remi said.
Moe grinned and lifted his shoulders in a half-shrug. “Sorry. It comes from being around all these extraordinary people. I guess I try to over compensate… Panthers, Bears, Gorillas…”
“Dragons,” Richie added.
Moe’s mouth fell open as he looked wide-eyed at Remi.
Remi grinned at him and raised an eyebrow.
Moe placed his hand near his forehead and made an explosion sound with his mouth. “Mind blown,” he confessed.
Remi and Richie both laughed.
“Are you hungry, mijo? We’ll have breakfast in a second. It was all prepped last night so all Richie has to do is get it finished and we can feed you,” Constance said.
“Oh, no. That’s not necessary, I’m okay. Can I do anything to help you guys get the store open?”
“You know how to cook?” Richie asked, as he set two filled coffee decanters on warming pads and placed two more beneath the coffee makers.
“Grew up cooking with my mother. I’m not exactly a chef, but I’m sure I can hold my own with the basics,” Remi said.
“Good. Come with me,” Richie said, leading the way back through the bathroom and the booth areas, before leaving the store and following the walkway to the restaurant.
Remi kept up with him step for step, just right on his heels.
Richie flipped on lights as he went, unlocking the front exterior doors, then turning off the alarm before unlocking the interior doors to grant them entry to the main dining room of the restaurant. “There’s a small kitchen in the back of the store, but we do all the cooking in the kitchen here, then take it over to the store to place in the baskets under the warming lights for anyone who stops in for a quick breakfast to-go. We change the food out with lunch items like burgers and sandwiches, sausage dogs, burritos, sometimes pizza pockets and such, then freshen them up later in the evening. If anybody wants anything else they are welcome to come on over to the restaurant and we’ll happily make them something to eat — it’s running all the time anyway. We get locals that want a good meal in a nice but casual restaurant, as well as people traveling the highway and stopping in for a bite when they stop for gas. And we keep the gas prices as low as we possibly can so a lot of locals come here to fill up despite us being a few miles out of the town itself. The store’s kitchen is more of a kitchenette, it’s used for washing utensils and making coffee and such, and any employees that might wantto nuke a quick meal they brought from home or something on their break. And Moe makes his famous caramel frappe there, then pours it into the daiquiri machine to get it to freeze. There are a few booths in the back as I’m sure you noticed, if anybody wants to sit and eat before getting back on the road, but doesn’t feel like doing the whole restaurant thing.”
“Sounds like a busy place.”
“It is. And that’s a good thing. It’s steady income for the Pride. Between that, and the construction company, investing in Colter Animal Hospital, we’re doing quite well.”
“I kind of remember hearing a little about it from Cristie, but it was a while ago,” Remi said.
“It’s actually Alex’s. She’s Lazarus’ mate. Laz took Riley’s last name before he married Alex because he refused to be associated with the people he came from, which is another whole story in itself. But when she moved her veterinary practice from where it was in town to out here, she gave it her new last name — Colter Animal Hospital. The Pride invested in her practice by building the hospital for her. Alex pays a mortgage toward owning the building eventually, and we get a small percentage that goes to the Pride.”
“Y’all got it together. I like the way everybody supports each other.”
“Riley said he learned it from Kaid. We’re just tweaking the concept to fit our own needs.”
“Thank goodness for Kaid, or who knows where any of us would be,” Remi said.
“True. Now, you drink coffee or you want one of those frappes?”
“Plain black coffee for me,” Remi said.
“Grab yourself a cup in there,” Richie gestured toward the doors at the opposite side of the dining room that led to a kitchen, “and lets get this started.”
Remi followed Richie into the kitchen, looking over the decor as he went. “Man, I like those windows showing what’s going on in the kitchen.”
“Me, too. It was one thing I insisted on when we built this place. Let the customers see their food being prepared.”
