Back for Seconds (Lone Star Second Chances Book 1) Page 12
“No good?” she asked.
“No good,” he confirmed. “How many cookies are you going to make? Twenty-four custom and twenty-four regular?” She nodded and again he did the math. “If you charged $3 a cookie, which is reasonable given the individual prices you fetch here, that comes to nearly $150. In other words $25 an hour, which was what I was thinking you should charge anyway.”
“Get out of here,” she scoffed. “No one is going to pay $150 for four dozen cookies.”
He leaned across the cookies. “You’re not selling cookies, Joely. You’re selling memories. You’re selling something that people will be talking about for decades to come. These are special. You are special. Isn’t it time that you get what you’re worth?”
His eyes were so intense as he stared at her that she had to look away. “I still think it’s too much,” she argued.
He sighed. “Fine. We’ll meet in the middle then and hope that the volume makes up for the difference. But going forward I’d like to see you ask for what you’re worth.”
His voice was stern as he stared at her. She shrank back a little against the chair and didn’t move again until her client arrived. It was a friend of Lillian’s, a neighbor from Old Elmwood, whose husband was a CEO at a local bank. Money was not her focus as she browsed the portfolio, increasingly excited to be one of the first in her group to offer personalized party cookies from Joely and Back for Seconds. She was full of ideas that Joely scribbled on a notepad. When they were done, she didn’t even balk at the pricy cost of the cookies. “I honestly expected them to be more,” she said as she wrote her check for the deposit.
After sending her a pointed look, Xander noted it on his notepad computer, along with the date for the event. “What can I say?” he teased the older lady with his most winning smile. “We give you a break on the first order to keep you coming back for more.”
They all shared a laugh about that before Xander walked their customer to the door. He waited until after she left to say anything. He closed the door so that they could have some privacy. “See?” he told her as he went back to his desk. “You undersold yourself. Bad precedence to set, Joely, but I get the feeling that has been a bad habit for you for a very long time.”
He was annoyed at her, which made her annoyed with him. “Thanks,” she said in the snarkiest way possible. He didn’t seem to care.
“You’re welcome.” He pulled a portfolio of his own from the top drawer of his desk. He handed it to her. She was stunned silent as she flipped through the professionally produced pages that included the new name of her company on the front, in a stylish logo, along with the photo he had taken at her mother’s kitchen, where she sat atop the island countertop. The second page was her bio, which talked up her role as a mother and homemaker. “Now on her own, Joely’s passion for cooking has opened a brand new era of her life where she can support the family she loves by doing what has always fulfilled her, heart and soul. Once you taste the love in each and every bite, you too will be coming Back for Seconds.”
The pages that followed featured all of the designs she had produced thus far, complete with descriptions and pricing. Depending on the design, he wanted to charge anywhere from $25 to $50 a dozen. “You’re delusional,” she told him.
“Oh yeah?” he asked as he referred to his desktop computer. He typed something before turning the monitor around to show her. It was an Internet search on the cost of hand-painted cookies, which were priced much like Xander’s portfolio. “This is where I picture you by the end of the year,” he said. “There’s nothing that these people are doing that you haven’t done or couldn’t do. You set the price, Joely. You determine your value. Trust the guy who sees how your wares fly out the door on a daily basis. This is what you’re worth. Your time. Your talent.” His voice softened. “You.”
She didn’t know what to say. He put the portfolio back in his desk. “Have you eaten?”
“What?”
“Lunch,” he clarified. “Have you eaten?” She shook her head and he smiled wide. “I have a brilliant idea,” he told her before he hopped out of his chair and disappeared down the hall.
Within the hour, they carried a bag of takeout from the restaurant through the entrance of the Abilene Zoo, a popular tourist spot for their area. She sent him a puzzled look. “Really?”
“Of course really,” he responded as he led her further into the zoo. They dodged colorful peacocks that roamed free amidst the visitors as they passed the Wetlands exhibit, which included real alligators. She delighted in all the beautiful animals they passed, the majestic lions, the playful monkeys and the quizzical elephants. They walked across the historic, 50-year-old bridge that took them over the giraffes, whose long tongues swiped for any discarded goodies from enchanted guests.
They finally reached the pier that jutted out over Nelson Lake. They sat on the benches and he pulled out a couple of sandwiches that Granny Faye had packed for them, along with the homemade chips that were light and crispy. She was positively ravenous after that nerve-wracking meeting, so she was halfway through the sandwich before she wanted to speak.
“Why the zoo?” she finally asked as she came up for air.
“As one of your hometown’s most popular attractions, the more appropriate question is why not the zoo?” She laughed and he grinned at her. “Honestly, I love it here. I come at least once a month. I bought a membership when I first moved here and it’s always felt like a second home. I love being out in the sunshine, communing with nature, as it were.”
She nodded. She had always loved the zoo as well. “I need to bring the kids out here more often,” she murmured softly. He smiled.
“Let’s. We’ll make a day of it. How about this weekend?”
She shook her head. “Russell has the kids this weekend,” she said. There was raw emotion in her voice, which Xander noted quietly. It was clear that she was lost without her kids. It was like she didn’t have an identity without them.
He tactfully changed the subject. “Truth be told I had another agenda bringing you here.” Her breath caught and held as she waited. “I thought we could do some press photos out and around Abilene, since Lillian’s Place is so ingrained in the city’s history. I’m a big believer in cross promotion, and let’s face it. Abilene is part of who you are.”
After seeing how wrong she’d been about the pricing, she decided not to put up too much of a fight. But she felt even more awkward taking these ridiculous photos out in public than she had in the privacy of her mother’s kitchen. She was stiff and uncomfortable, which showed in the photo. He walked over to the rail where she stood. “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged as she looked away. “I’m just not comfortable in front of a camera.”
“Why not?”
Her eyes met his. It was hard to explain to someone so young and so obviously attractive that after she had kids, she slipped easily into invisibility. Her body had changed, which had displeased Russell and he hardly made a secret of it. After a while she cut herself out of the photos altogether, preferring to focus her attention on more interesting subjects – like her kids. Apparently Russell had gotten so used to her absence in these photos that picking their annual Christmas photo became more and more of a chore year after year. He’d go through a dozen proofs before he found one he liked enough to send to all his peers. Joely knew that was because of her. Looking back it was easy to see that she was the blight on his otherwise perfect life.
Her phobia of having her photos taken only got worse after that.
The longer Xander stared at her, the more exposed she felt. Like he could see right through her, and read her very thoughts. His voice was soft when he spoke. “You’ve been allowing other people to undercut your value for a long, long time, haven’t you Joely?” His hand lifted away her flyaway bangs that caught on the gentle breeze coming off the lake. “No one can mark you down unless you agree. Don’t agree.”
She snickered. “You can’t possibly understand. Lo
ok at you.”
He mulled that over for a long moment. Finally he said, “What are you doing Friday night?”
His question startled her. “What? Why?”
He touched her arm, trailing goosebumps after his gentle fingers. “Let’s meet for drinks at the Ranch.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
She was quickly tiring of his uncomfortable questions. “I’m still married for one,” she snapped.
He grabbed her left hand, lifting it up to inspect her bare third finger. “I don’t see any rings on these fingers.” His potent eyes met hers.
She trembled and cursed the slight curl of his lips that indicated he had felt it. “You’re too young.”
He stepped closer and she very nearly stepped back. Despite the thirteen-year age difference, he was very much a man. “You may have a point,” he said softly as he studied her face. “But maybe there’s a way we could level the playing field.”
She swallowed hard. “How’s that?”
He took her hand in his, brushing his thumb rhythmically against her sensitive palm. She very nearly groaned out loud. “Age is about power, right? The deck is stacked in favor of the older person, who has wisdom and experience to seduce someone young and naïve.” For some reason Joely thought about Jena. Her throat tightened until it felt like she was swallowing rocks.
“So what do you suggest?”
He closed the small gap between them. “You let go of the power.”
Again she shuddered. She had no idea what he meant by that, and was both terrified and exhilarated. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t,” he said in a voice so soft and so smooth that her knees nearly buckled. “But that’s how you build trust, isn’t it? You have to go out on faith.”
Her deep brown eyes were wide as she stared into his handsome face. “How do I do that?”
He grinned as he caressed the side of her face with the back of his other hand. “Meet me at The Ranch ten o’clock Friday night. I’ll send over a dress that I want you to wear, something to show you how sexy you still are.”
It had been so long since any man had said that to her. She desperately wanted to believe that was true. She found herself nodding, though she knew that it was insane to consider dating this man. As rebound guys go, though, he wasn’t half bad.
He even decided to cut her a break on the new photo session. They called it a day and walked toward the exit of the zoo hand in hand.
Chapter Eleven
Knowing that her ‘date’ with Xander loomed at the end of the week left Joely a little more flustered than usual. It even affected her cooking, which was new. She was a bundle of nerves, which made her steady hand waver, resulting in more irregular cookies than normal. This was especially counterproductive given that her biggest sellers were her note/message/card cookies with such intricate designs she literally couldn’t afford to be imprecise. Had it not been for Kari’s steady hand with the lettering, something Joely was more than happy to outsource, entire batches would have been ruined.
It made her rethink the whole thing with Xander on more than one occasion. It was pure insanity to entertain such a ridiculous fantasy. She was a mom, for God’s sake. She was more at home doing laundry, cooking meals, and chauffeuring kids around town. She wasn’t some sex siren out to seduce younger men to feed her ego, feasting on their attention like some hedonistic all-you-can-eat buffet.
Novanna, however, didn’t understand why it was all such a big deal. “Get you some,” had been the extent of her wizened counsel when Joely had called her, near panicked, by Thursday, and Novanna had taken her out to lunch to calm her nerves. “It’s sex, not marriage.”
“I don’t know how to separate the two,” Joely told her.
“Yeah, you do,” Novanna replied. “You just act every bit as single as Russ has acted for the last seven months. Or has it been the last five years?”
Joely gulped back any response.
That Friday afternoon came around way before she was ready. She woke up after barely three hours of sleep and was jumpy and agitated as she prepared the kids for school. “Are you packed?” she asked them as they all piled into the car that morning.
Hannah’s head bobbed with excitement. As well as she had acclimated to living at her Nanna’s and attending her new school, going home to visit her Daddy was a bit like going to the circus. Nash, ever quiet, just nodded his head without meeting her gaze.
It was Kari’s somber mood that worried her most of all. Kari had undergone a subtle but noticeable change over the past week. She was working steadily, four hours a day at the restaurant. She was also eager to help her mother with the cookies, which was the biggest surprise for Joely. Every night without fail, her little crew of worker bees would line up to put the finishing touches on her cookies so they could head off to the restaurant the next day. Kari’s attention to detail, making each cookie as perfect as she could, both touched and surprised Joely.
They had finally found a way to connect. Was this why Kari wasn’t as thrilled to return to Fairway Oaks as the last visit?
Joely was much too afraid to ask. She feared the second she acknowledged this bridge between them Kari would demolish it with another mood swing. So she said nothing as she dropped them off for school.
When she returned to the house, she met a delivery driver at the door, who carried a large white box. “Miss Morgan?” he asked.
She fought the urge to correct him and say, “Mrs. Morgan,” considering, like Xander and Novanna had said, that wasn’t who she was anymore. “Yes,” she said as she approached.
“Package for you,” he said as he handed it off.
She fished a few dollars from her purse to tip the young man before carrying the large parcel into the house and up the stairs. She didn’t stop until she reached the bedroom, where she deposited the box onto her bed. Before she could rip it open, her phone rang.
It was Xander.
“Good morning,” he crooned into her ear.
“I assume you had something to do with this,” she said as she sat on the bed next to her gift.
“Guilty as charged,” he admitted happily. “Open it.”
She put him on speakerphone before she lifted the top of the box away and moved the tissue aside to reveal a silky black and lace dress. “Oh, Xander,” she murmured as she withdrew it, revealing a flowing skirt, snug bodice with a sweetheart neckline that dipped low in front. The wide straps were made of lace and the style was much like the other 50s-inspired clothing he’d selected for her. He clearly preferred retro glamour. “It’s lovely.”
“I’m glad you like it. I can’t wait until tonight so I can see you in it.” She shivered in spite of herself. “There’s just one thing,” he murmured.
“What’s that?”
“You’re not allowed to wear any underwear underneath it,” he said in a voice so low it nearly made Joely groan out loud.
“Allowed?” she echoed.
“That’s right. No panties. No bra. Just you. When I hold you close to me tonight at The Ranch, I want to know that I’m just a fine bit of silk away from fucking you right there on that dance floor. And I want everyone else to know it, too.”
“Xander,” she started, but he wouldn’t allow it.
“Ah, ah,” he said, and she could hear the smirk in his voice. “I’m the one in charge, remember? And you will be a good girl and do as you’re told.”
She could barely breathe. “Okay.”
“That’s not all,” he said. “I want you to drop off the kids wearing this dress.”
Her heart nearly stopped. “Why?”
“I want him to see what he threw away.”
She made a face he couldn’t see. “He won’t care,” she said.
“Yes, he will,” Xander promised. “Because somewhere deep down he’ll know that this weekend you belong to someone new.”
Joely’s nerves were strun
g tight all that afternoon, so much so she had to take the day off from her cookie routine. She couldn’t think of anything but Xander and what their night together might hold. She fetched the kids that afternoon, bringing them home so that they could get ready to head over to their father’s for the weekend.
She took a little extra care herself getting ready. She showered with her favorite soap, patted herself down with a shimmery dusting powder. She slipped into the dress, which felt sensual against her bare skin. She felt naughty and brazen and oddly sensual. She hadn’t felt that way since she was a teen sneaking into a nightclub, using her full curves as collateral to get her inside the forbidden doors.
She added crystal-studded hoops to her ears and a couple of bangle bracelets for each wrist. Xander had provided a pair of sexy strappy high-heeled sandals in his gift box to complete her look. She completed her glamorous transformation with a dramatic smoky-eye makeup that deepened her dark eyes. She barely recognized the woman staring back at her from the mirror. Her children’s faces registered the same kind of surprise.
“Why are you so dressed up?” Kari wanted to know.
“I’m going out with Auntie Novi later,” she lied. She wasn’t ready to admit she was dating, and she certainly wasn’t ready to admit it was Xander. That would just complicate everything more than it already was.
“Oh,” Kari said, satisfied with the answer. “You look nice.”
Joely was stunned by the unexpected compliment. She wasn’t sure why her daughter had been cutting her a break recently, but it was a welcome reprieve from the attitude she normally threw her way. “Thank you,” she said with a genuine smile.
The closer they got to Russell’s house, the quieter the older kids got in the back seat. Hannah was the only one who showed any real excitement once they pulled into the familiar drive. Even Joely herself didn’t want to get out of the car. She juggled the duality of the new Joely, who baked cookies for a living and dated a younger man, and the old Joely, who was the proper and undemanding wife of a prominent doctor. It was like every mile she drove was a mile in reverse, going backwards instead of forwards, and it hurt quite a bit more than she would have thought it would, like the old Joely was a pair of shoes that no longer fit.