Catherine Lanigan - Heart's Desire

The smell of garlic, onion, beef, chicken and shrimp were laced with the smoky, woodsy aroma of the open-pit grill where trout and other seafood were mesquite grilled.

Alex and Maddie sat opposite each other in the booth. After the waiter took their drink and appetizer orders, Alex said, “I didn’t mean to rush you out of the office, but I worked till after ten last night, didn’t have any supper except for a stale half a bagel someone left in the break room, and I am starving.”

“I can understand why,” she replied.

“Besides, I had those two calls coming in and they could wind up taking all our lunch hour. And I really didn’t want that to happen. So,” he said, searching her face with his blue eyes. “Gosh, you look great.”

Maddie smiled, tilted her head and then peered at him from the corner of her eye. “You’re flattering me a lot, Alex. Is this because I’m about to be rich?”

Alex laughed, then covered his mouth with his napkin. “I hate to burst your bubble, but this is just the beginning of a long trip.”

“Rich is a relative term, is it not?” she asked.

“True. But do you know what the best part is?”

“What?”

“We’ll be making the journey together. I’ll be there every step of the way. At least for most of them.”

“I need a professional to guide me,” she said.

“I, er...was hoping for a bit more than that.” Alex stared at his silverware, then lifted his head and shot her a purposeful look.

Responding to the intensity in his eyes, she asked, “What do you want, Alex?”

“A date.”

“This could be a date,” she observed, noting the chic businesswomen and -men in the booths near them.

“This? Nah. This is steak and business. I was thinking more like escargots, truffles and champagne in a really nice joint.”

Maddie was surprised, though she shouldn’t have been. Alex wasn’t just flirting with her, and wasn’t just interested in her as a client. He wanted a romance. But did she? The idea instantly filled her with trepidation.

Alex glanced at her hand, which was trembling. “Okay. Forget the escargots. Let’s stick to business for the time being.”

Maddie exhaled. She couldn’t imagine what was wrong with her. Here was a perfectly formed dreamboat—every girl’s ideal—and she was refusing his offer. She must have lost her mind. Maddie had to move her hands to her lap and clamp them together to keep from shaking.

What is the matter with me?

Just then, the waiter brought the chips and spinach dip Alex had asked for. Maddie smiled at the waiter. Alex kept his eyes on Maddie, observing her every move.

“Let me see these drawings you have,” he said. He took huge gulps of iced tea and wolfed down the first few chips as if he truly hadn’t eaten much in days.

Maddie reached into the briefcase and withdrew the bound folder. “Do you often work such long hours? No dinner and all that?”

“Absolutely. Especially when I’m obsessed with hitting my project out of the park. In this case, that would be you,” he said, glancing at her seductively.

Maddie only blinked.

He dropped his eyes and wiped his hands on his napkin. He took the folder from Maddie. “It’s my bet you’re no stranger to long hours.”

“A lot of nights it’s midnight or later by the time I get home. Business has been picking up.”

“Looks like it. Or maybe you just haven’t done the necessary hiring,” he said critically, but then softened his face with a sincere smile.

“It’s hard to find good people,” Maddie retorted. She watched him slowly go through the drawings. He stayed silent and didn’t look at her. Maddie realized that Alex was truly unnerved by her rejection. Despite the fact that he’d sent her flowers, she hadn’t been prepared for a personal discussion about “them” today. She certainly hadn’t thought about a relationship, either. Maddie didn’t have time for love...or so she’d told herself for the eleven years since Nate Barzonni abandoned her for no reason at all. She invested her energy and emotion into her business.

She wanted to achieve her dream. All of it. For years she’d told her herself that all she needed in life was to reach her goal of franchising her business. Romance was for other women. Maybe she’d find love one day, but Maddie couldn’t allow it to get in the way of her success.

“It’s a matter of trust, Maddie,” Alex said, his stern voice piercing the Kevlar vest of excuses Maddie wore around her heart.

“Trust?”

“The real reason you haven’t hired someone to do the night work is because then they would know your recipes. You don’t want anyone to steal them because in the recipes lies one of the secrets to your business.”

Maddie stopped midmotion as she took a sip of her tea. “That is the reason I haven’t hired anyone but Chloe, and she just works days. At the counter, selling.”

“My point.”

“How would you know that?”

“I know business, and I know your business—what you’re doing and not doing.”

Alex polished off the last of the chips, wiped his hands and sat back, putting an arm on the top of the banquette. “From what I can tell, you’ve always seen your business as a small-town, small-time operation. It makes enough to cover your overhead and pay for you to live. Deep down, you’re scared someone will steal your recipes. So, you trademarked them along with your iced-on-the-spot concept, and you don’t let anyone have access to the recipes themselves. That’s good. But not good enough. Once you franchise, all your ‘partners,’ we’ll call them, will sign nondisclosures. The employees they hire will sign iron-clad nondisclosures as well. If they leave and steal a recipe, we sue. We can garnishee their wages, put a lien on their house or car.”

“You can do that?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s done all the time, and has been done for a hundred years, especially in R & D departments in big corporations. You own your idea. No one has come up with this one in quite the way you have. I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

“There are others?” She urged him on.

“Quinton Marsh thinks so, and he runs the company. You saw the excitement from my staff. They love your cupcakes.”

“So, it’s the cupcakes that are different.”

“And the way you sell them...made to order. Brilliant.”

Maddie noticed that he grew more excited with every breath he took and every word he spoke. He gestured when making a point and his face beamed with enthusiasm. Maddie realized that Alex cared for her business as if it were his own.

“Just remember, Becky Field made chocolate chip cookies,” he continued. “Nothing special about that. Except her megamillions.”

She smiled back at him. “You flatter me.”

His smiled dropped. “I’m not conning you,” he said defensively.

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. It’s just that where I live, where I come from, no one has talked to me the way you do. No one has ever given me—”

“Respect?” he interjected.

“Exactly.” Sadness filled her as she thought about her mother and all the complaining and harping she’d done over the years as Maddie had struggled to make her little café a success. Babs had hounded her to get a “safe” job in the bread factory, just as Babs had done. Babs told Maddie constantly that no one was going to pay four dollars for a fancy coffee and over three dollars for a cupcake. She ridiculed everything that Maddie said or did.

As Maddie gazed at Alex’s handsome, confident face, she realized that her mother had not wanted her own daughter to succeed. Suddenly, realizations about her own past were flying at her like the myriad of stars that pass by a spaceship as it zooms through space. “Yes. Respect. It’s been a tremendous amount of hard work.”