Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)

Not a question, she thought. A statement. But then, guessing that was hardly a challenge. Aidan knew her.

“There’s so much that could be done there. Ways to expand the business. But Amber’s the one with all the experience. Maybe there’s a really good reason she didn’t do all this before. Maybe my ideas are stupid and if I implement them, the business will completely fail.”

His dark eyes were gentle. “Do you really believe that?”

“Sometimes. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to do. I’m excited and scared and confused, all at the same time.”

“Let’s look at this another way,” he said. “What don’t you want?”

Talk about the right question at the right time. She drew in a breath. “I don’t want to be stuck.” She smiled at him. “Which I believe I get from you. I don’t want to be stuck somewhere that makes me unhappy. I’m not saying I don’t want to work for someone else. That might be okay, depending on who it was. I don’t know. I love my job, but sometimes I feel too contained. I have all these ideas and maybe some of them are crazy, but some of them are really good. I want the chance to experiment, to try new things. I want a fleet of food carts at every festival and my cookies shipped across the country. I want to be synonymous with happy good times. Okay, not me. The business.”

“Breathe,” he told her. “You can’t make any of it happen if you don’t breathe.”

She did as he suggested, then took another sip of water. “What are you thinking?”

She had to ask, because she couldn’t tell just by looking at him. But she knew whatever he was thinking, it was kind and supportive. She wasn’t afraid of what he would say. Even if he told her he thought buying the business was a mistake, she would know he meant well. That he only wanted the best for her.

She would have to remember this feeling. When their six months were over and she went looking for a man to fall in love with, she wanted to feel just like this when she was with him. Safe and cared for. And she wanted to make him feel the same way.

“I think you should buy the business.”

That was a lot more blunt than she’d been expecting. “How can you say that? What do I know about running a business? What if I do everything wrong? What if everyone quits and no one ever buys another cookie from me again? I’ll die broke and alone and humiliated.”

“That’s the positive spirit we all admire.”

She glared at him. “Is this you being funny? This isn’t funny. This is very serious.”

Aidan didn’t look the least bit impressed by her outburst. He stretched out his legs in front of him and smiled. “Did I mention breathing? That’s rule number one. After that, everything else is easy.”

“What do you know about breathing? You have a successful business. It’s easy for you to say what I should and shouldn’t do. You’re not the one who’s going to fail.”

“Neither are you. You want this, Shelby. You’ve wanted it for a long time. You talk about being stuck. Well, you were stuck with Amber. You wanted to fly and she never wanted to get off the ground. I’m not saying you were right and she was wrong. We won’t know that for a while. But this is your chance. Run with that. Not that many people get the opportunity to go for their dream. This is your moment. Grab it with both hands.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. What was she supposed to say to that? If this was her dream, then she was a fool to let the chance get away from her.

“I’m scared,” she admitted. “Really scared.”

“All the more reason to go for it.”

Was he right? Or maybe that wasn’t the correct question. Maybe the real question was, how would she feel if she never even tried?





CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SHELBY HAD NEVER considered herself an overly emotional person. She’d been through a lot in her life and she’d had to deal with some horrible situations. Because of that, she’d spent time in therapy. She was pretty confident that she understood how her psyche worked. She watched people, tried to understand them and respond appropriately. She almost never sat in a business meeting fighting the urge to cry.

Yet here she was blinking rapidly, hoping she didn’t look as upset as she felt. No, not upset. Touched. Grateful. She’d come to Fool’s Gold with nothing. She’d been accepted, taken in and welcomed in every way possible. Even if she tried to forget, she was reminded over and over again.

“Business valuation is both simple and complicated,” Sam Ridge was saying. “There are the tangibles. The value of the equipment, the value of the inventory. As this is the bakery, I’m assuming most of your inventory is disposable.” The former NFL Super Bowl–winning kicker smiled. “I’m thinking brownies rather than cars.”