They dig into testing the coffee machines while I head back to spread out on a table and bury myself in researching everything I need to know about converting a café into a kombucha brewery and bar.
When I told them I was considering buying a mountain café to destroy it for personal satisfaction, they smirked, asked the address, and did some digging. Three days later, they presented me with a full marketing plan for changing the café into something that would likely thrive here.
No competition in this niche market. The demographics fit, especially with the tourism that comes in due to nearby ski resorts. And Zen’s watched me make my own kombucha at home for years.
They knew what they were doing with giving me something good to try on top of getting revenge.
And now here we are.
And all is well—including meeting the normal morning crew who show up around five-thirty—until Sabrina returns.
She doesn’t say anything to me when she gets back to start her shift, but there’s a new stubborn sheen in her eyes while she ties on her apron that I recognize all too well.
I’ve seen it on myself often enough when I’ve encountered test results in my research lab that didn’t make sense, but that I was determined to figure out.
And I like it.
And I don’t like that I like it.
When Zen calls me to the kitchen to look at water leaking out from the fridge, Sabrina reports she called the local repairman already, but he’s demanding prepayment for the fix since Chandler apparently has some outstanding bills and the café’s reputation has taken a hit.
She also leaps in, poker-faced, to introduce me to the food truck driver and the coffee supply rep, along with the health department inspector who’s in not for an inspection, but a cup of coffee.
And every time she introduces me to someone, she says something nice about me.
He saved the café.
He’s so dedicated, he was here even before me this morning.
He’s very good at math, so I know we’re in good hands.
I recognize this.
This is good deed Monday.
And that pisses me off too.
She doesn’t get to use me as her good deeds anymore.
Not when she’s on my sus list.
“Where’s Sabrina?” someone asks at the counter mid-morning while I’m tapping my foot at a side table and rubbing my hands together to keep them warm, impatiently waiting for a late contractor who’s supposed to be here to talk about the renovations I want done in both the dining room and the kitchen.
My shoulders bunch at her name.
I wish the answer was she quit and is packing to move to Siberia, but alas, it is not.
“She gave herself kitchen duty,” Willa, the normal kitchen duty person on the crew, whispers in a hushed voice. Willa’s a round-cheeked, brown-skinned, middle-aged lady with cat pins all over her Bean & Nugget apron and blue streaks in her brown hair.
She hugged me for saving the café from being turned over to the IRS when she introduced herself.
I pretended I didn’t buy Chandler Sullivan’s family business so that I can watch him watch me destroy it piece by piece in the process of building something even better in its place.
Not that he’s stopped by this morning.
Nor have I invited him.
Wouldn’t break my heart to not see the bastard until the new signage is put in, even if I’m paranoid about when he might randomly drop in and catch me unprepared.
“Again?” the customer asks.
“Again,” Willa confirms.
“Poor thing. I saw her grandpa this morning, and he just looked so sad. I hope the new—”
Willa clears her throat. “Did you want a cinnamon latte today? Since Sabrina’s in the kitchen? Not every day you get a Sabrina Cinnamon Special.”
I need to focus on what I’m doing and quit listening in on this conversation, but as I’m turning my attention back to my research on kombucha brewery suppliers, something tickles my nose.
Something sweet.
Hot.
Fresh.
Is that lemon? Do I smell lemon?
My mouth waters.
Profusely.
Like I need to surreptitiously wipe away the drool threatening to slip out of my mouth.
I glance around the dining room. The moms and their little ones at the picnic table across the way don’t notice. The older couple at one of the three tables in the picture window are staring out at the snowcapped mountains, or maybe at the lake below the town that you can see clearly from this side of the café. The dude wearing headphones and staring at his computer in front of the fire is smirking.
But none of them are sitting up and sniffing like the whole entire dining room smells like freaking heaven.
Except Zen, who’s at the other end of the counter, watching everything.
I can’t see their nose quivering, but I’d bet it is.
“Is she making Elsie’s lemon scones?” the customer asks reverently.
So it’s not just me and Zen.
Someone else smells it too.
Also, who’s Elsie?
“Oh. Yes. That too,” Willa confirms.
“I want the Sabrina Cinnamon Special and one of Elsie’s scones.”
“You got it, Ms. Isabella.”
“Sabrina!” the customer at the counter shrieks.
I look back.
Can’t help it. Everyone looks up at that.
And there she is, Duchess Sabrina with the absolute audacity to be bright and cheery and gorgeous as she pauses on her way past the doorway in the kitchen, a silver tray held aloft in one oven-mitted hand.
She looks like she belongs here.
Was born here.
Grew up here.
Is comfortable here.
This is her happy place, and I can’t help wondering how much of the grief in her eyes in Hawaii was from knowing that it wasn’t hers anymore.
I shake my head.
Not my problem.
What I’m doing with this café has nothing to do with her, and she doesn’t get to be in the soft spots of my heart anymore.
“Hey, Isabella,” she says cheerfully. “Be just a minute on your latte, okay?”
“Oh my god, you poor thing, how are you?” the customer, Isabella apparently, replies.
My shoulders bunch higher. I grunt, turn back around, and distract myself with a sip of my tea, which is cold now.
The chill makes a shiver slink through my body, but the tea itself?
Still delicious.
Dammit.
Everything I’ve had here this morning has been good, and Zen’s made a point to tell me that they haven’t used any of my tea stash that we travel with.
That all of this is what they sell here at Bean & Nugget.
“I’m doing great,” Sabrina calls back.
“How’s Emma?”
“Still solo honeymooning.”
“When I think about all of the things Chandler did… Did you know he once double-charged me for breakfast, and I thought it was just that I forgot to pay the first time, but he was actually a shithead who double-charged all of us sometimes?”
“That’s awful. I’m so sorry. You should mention that to the new boss and see if he’ll give you a coupon for a free meal. He’s over at the corner table by the windows. Be right out with your drink. I need to set these down.”
Off gossip.
Sure, she is.
I snort softly to myself.
Concentrate. Kombucha. Equipment. Suppliers. Contractors. Change.
Ignore the scent of heaven coming from the kitchen.
Ignore the little violin playing a sad song deep in my gut with lyrics to match, suggesting that Chandler betrayed her as much as Vince betrayed me.
“Excuse me, are you the new owner?” Isabella asks.
Can’t ignore that.
I look up and nod.
She’s maybe thirty or thirty-five, an average white lady with brown hair and eyes, in a puffy vest over a long-sleeve shirt, hiking pants, and boots.
And that nod is all the permission she needs, apparently, to crush me in a hug with my cheek smushed to her breast.
“Oh my god, thank you. I don’t know if you know how much this place means to all of us here in the Tooth, but we would’ve just died if it went away. This is such an institution here, and to think Chandler would’ve let the government auction it off to pay for the taxes…”
“My pleasure,” I choke out.
I should be doing my work in the kitchen, but Sabrina’s there, and I thought I could be left in peace out here in the dining room.
Wrong.