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“Wilder,” Shelby called. She waved her hand in the air and smiled wide.
“Are you sure she didn’t elbow a few kids to get to the front of the line?” I chuckled.
Wilder tipped his head to the side. “I mean, I don’t think she would, but she was pretty damn excited about getting a unicorn on her cheek. If she had Missy with her, I would be a little more concerned about elbows being thrown.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. Missy was the wildcard when it came to those two.
“You talked to her yet?” Wilder asked.
I glanced at Wilder. “You know the answer to that.” I hadn’t spoken to or even seen Missy since the night I had told her we needed to cool it.
“I don’t know what you are waiting for, man. If you’re waiting for things to calm down, you’re going to be waiting a long time. The plans I have for Chicken Biscuit have us franchising the business and expanding rapidly.”
I knew all of the plans.
I liked all of the plans.
I wanted Chicken Biscuit to be successful and to expand.
But with that success and expansion came a lot of stress and worry. Dealing with all the stress was something I couldn’t handle while dating Missy. I knew she needed my attention, and I wouldn’t be able to give it to her.
“Chicken Biscuit is my focus right now. It needs to be.”
“Wilder!” Shelby hollered again.
“Are you saying that in order to focus on Chicken Biscuit, you can’t have any distractions?” Wilder asked.
“I, uh, well...” I didn’t think that was what I was saying, but it certainly sounded like it. “Maybe?”
Wilder shook his head. “You sound like me nine years ago when I left Adams to go make something of myself. I left everything behind thinking that it was holding me back, when in reality, if I had taken a chance with Shelby, I wouldn’t have missed out on nine years without her.”
“But would you have been as successful?” I asked.
Wilder smiled wide. “I would have been more successful with her by my side. I am today.”
“Well, you better get your happy ass over to Shelby before she hollers for you again,” I advised.
Wilder meandered over to Shelby, and I couldn’t help but watch them when they were together.
You could see they were made for each other and how much love there was between them.
Shelby reached up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear.
Wilder shook his head and laughed.
She wagged her finger in his face and reached into her back pocket. She unfolded one of the white paper hats the cooks wore and plopped it on his head. “Just one picture,” she shouted. She quickly grabbed her phone and snapped a picture of him.
Wilder snatched the hat from his head and crumpled it.
“Mr. Beck?”
I turned to Margot, who rushed toward me. “It’s Charlie, Margot,” I corrected her. Every time she called me Mr. Beck, I thought she was looking for my dad and not me. “For the one-hundredth time, it is Charlie.”
Margot ducked her head sheepishly, and her cheeks flushed. “Sorry, sir.”
Ugh. That was even worse than Mr. Beck. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“The oven shut off, and we can’t get it to turn back on.”
