I wake in the morning to the alarm on my phone going off. I’ve been trying to join the 5 a.m. club…and I’ve decided it’s horrible. But here we are. I slap my hand around, looking for my phone to turn it off. It’s not on my dresser where I usually put it.
I sit up and realize I’m still wearing my clothes from yesterday.
Oh, right. Nash carried me to bed last night. How embarrassing. And sweet. And why oh why does he have to occupy so much of my thoughts? There’s no way I can walk away from this fake engagement without some feelings for him.
It’d be easier if he were an awful person. Instead, he’s exactly the kind of person that I would want to be with. The only issue is, I’m not even remotely interesting enough to hold his attention.
Yes, he’s kind and polite, and fun to be with…but he’s going to be someone who wants to marry a woman as ambitious as he is.
I stumble out to the living room and stop short when I see Piper sitting on the couch, holding a cup of coffee.
“What are you doing up so early?” I yawn as I sit down beside her.
“I never went to bed,” she admits. She has her laptop open on her knees and is staring at the screen as she takes another long sip of coffee. “I need to ask you something.”
“Uh, this sounds serious. Let me get coffee first.” I head into the kitchen and fill a mug with half cream and half coffee, then make my way back to sit next to her. “What is it?”
“We’ve been approved for a business operating loan.”
I blow on the hot mug of coffee as I let her words sink in. “We have? How?”
“I sent in an updated business plan and balance sheet. They approved us this time.”
“You didn’t tell me that!”
“I didn’t want you to be stressed about it. It was rightwhen you got fired,” Piper says with a grimace. “I figured I’d let things ride out and see what happened.”
“And something good happened.”
“Yeah, well, you might not think that when I’m done explaining,” Piper grimaces.
I’m scared, but I do my best to keep a calm look on my face as I sip my coffee and wait for Piper to talk.
“I made a few tweaks to the business plan to increase our profitability.”
“That’s not a bad thing…”
“Well it is when I made changes that would rely on you.”
“What did you do?” I ask quietly.
Piper mumbles something that I can’t hear.
I shake my head and wait for her to say it again.
“I added a bakery. To the brewery.”
“A bakery?!”
“Yes, I know. It’s weird. A brewery-bakery. It’s ridiculous. If we designed our space to have a separate front for the bakery…That could increase the revenue, especially while we’re getting the first rounds of brewing done.”
A bakery. My heart does a little flutter. “And I would run the bakery?”
Piper nods. “You know I can mess up cold cereal. And I know this puts a lot of pressure on you. But if you don’t want to do it, just say the word. Don’t feel like you have to be backed into a corner here. In fact, I wouldn’t blame you if you just wanted to get out of business with me after all of this.” She groans and tilts her head back to stare at the suspicious brown stain on our ceiling.
“Piper, I’m not mad at you. You know I love baking. And goodness knows I’ve joked about opening a bakerybefore. I think I’m more excited about the bakery part than I am about the brewery part.”
Piper’s head snaps forward, and her eyes light up. “Really?”
