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“I love my babies,” Dylan said around a yawn.
“Sure you do. You got baby puke on your shirt, FYI,” Jake McBride said.
“Buster, you got a minute?” Ted said.
“Sure. What’s up?”
Ted motioned for the man to follow him outside. He then headed up the street to Timms’s Bookstore.
“Mandy wants to take over the lease on this place. They’d add more tables and cabinets, and turn that area into a reading nook, story-telling.” He pointed at the glass.
Buster pressed his face to the window. The shop had lights on, so he could see enough.
“She’s moving in upstairs, which has nothing to do with this, so I’m not sure why I’m telling you that,” Ted added.
“Because you care about her, so it’s natural you’ll worry too.”
“Sure, we all do.” Ted ran a finger around the collar of his shirt. Not sure why it was suddenly so tight when the top button was open.
“Right,” Buster drawled, looking back through the window. “Could work. But it would need someone to really think through the space and what should go where. I was talking to her about Tea Total, and she said she was keen to change things up. I hadn’t realized she’d decided on this place, though.”
“She talked to you about that?” Ted wasn’t sure why it pissed him off that Mandy had spoken to Buster.
“Sure, I’m an easy guy to talk to.”
To Ted, he looked like someone who’d made his career in the boxing ring, not the kitchens. Not as tall as the others, he had big shoulders and short-cropped hair. He was quiet, like Mandy, and a watcher too.
“Sure, chat chat chat, that’s you all right,” Ted said, looking in the window beside him.
“Mandy should run with this. It would be good for her. You going to help her do that, Ted?”
“Me? No.” He shook his head.
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because according to Jake McBride, you’re the person who knows about this kind of stuff. You have more than one cafe and are successful.”
“Right. And setting up a lodge and what you’ve done in your past doesn’t count, right? Plus there’s Joe, who set up that bar we were just drinking in.”
“Something like that. You ready for a beer?”
“Born ready, Teddy, born ready. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You flick me your email, and I’ll send you through some ideas that I think could work. I’ll take a walk through this place before I leave tomorrow.”
“Thanks, that’d be great, and I’ll pass them on to Mandy.”
“Sounds good. Can I offer you one more piece of advice, bud?”
“Shoot.”
“Don’t waste time. If you want her, then make sure she knows it.”
“What? No way? Mandy? We’re just friends.” The words toppled out one on top of the other. “Different people entirely.”
“Okay, I must have got the wrong read on that then.”
