Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(40)

She leaned back in her chair like a satisfied cat. “I’m just doing my part since you’ve been working your ass off in the kitchen. By my calculations, you’ve made more chocolate in the last month than you used to make in four months at our old place. Oh, which reminds me—” She picked up a colorful brochure with several photos on it circled. “I think it’s time.”

Luke looked at the brochure, unsure whether to be surprised or stressed. Going into this relocation, he’d promised Quinn she could dictate when it was time to upgrade their equipment. And he’d keep from whining until then. While the scale of their new shop, in terms of both shop size and product output, dictated they get five new display cases specifically made for chocolate refrigeration, they’d been managing to get by with the two secondhand pie cases they’d used in their old shop in Mesa. Even with their smaller output back then, which was a fifth of what they were generating now, the pie cases still hadn’t been ideal for keeping the chocolates at the optimum temperature for very long. Luckily, they always used to sell the chocolates quickly enough that it wasn’t ever really an issue. Now, however, with the volume of daily traffic and the number of distributors they now had, keeping the old equipment wasn’t really an option.

In retrospect, Luke was thankful she’d had her reservations about getting new equipment right off the bat because though Quinn didn’t know to what degree, the costs for renovating and remodeling had far exceeded the loan they’d gotten for start-up costs. To cover the difference, Luke had tapped into his savings…which was why he was now thirty grand poorer.

But now here they were, with the green light from Quinn to do that which she had been so against just months ago. This was huge.

Just one problem.

In attempting to secure a small-business loan for this very day—knowing without a doubt it was coming—he’d already gone to several banks after their current bank had denied his request to add an equipment loan of forty grand to their existing loan. Only four banks had given his application serious consideration, and only one of them had interest rates that didn’t make him feel violated.

But even that was too high for them to afford.

Though they’d never kept things like this from each other before, Luke simply didn’t have the heart to tell her. So instead, he just smiled and tugged on the tail of her blond French braid affectionately. “Sounds like you’re a little pleased with our relocation now.”

Her expression held nothing back. “Much more than a little.”

Luke saw the mist gathering in Quinn’s eyes, and he drew her in for a tight hug. No one deserved financial security as much Quinn did. He still remembered the night she’d shown up at his door after the jackass wanna-be-rocker she’d been dating disappeared without a trace, leaving her alone, scared, and pregnant. From there, the universe had decided to be really cruel and give her newborn son fatal organ complications right at birth. When the hospital bills first began pouring in, Luke had felt helpless; the situation had seemed so impossible. But Quinn had rallied, fought like a bat out of hell. He was so incredibly proud of her, and utterly grateful that the business they’d created finally seemed poised to be able to help her as he’d always hoped.

Plopping a kiss on her forehead, he said honestly, “I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

Quinn was absolutely right. It was time. Their expansion and relocation was quickly proving itself to be a success. They needed that new equipment. Short of stealing it, however, there was just no way he saw that happening. Then his eyes snagged on a town newsletter of some sort on Quinn’s desk. On it, he saw an article about their landlord, Noah, and some multi-million dollar project he was working on. That’s when a faint memory snuck up on him. Dani had once mentioned Noah loaning some money to her friend to help with the start-up of her shop in town.

Maybe he’d consider doing that for Desert Confections as well.

“So are you actually going to make me say you were right?” huffed Quinn, breaking into his thoughts. “Or will you just get the loan and order the damn machines already? I’m pretty sure the bigger one is on its last leg. I swear it’s not staying cool the way it used to.”

Smiling at the woman who’d become closer than a sister to him, he nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to need to hear you say I was right.”

As he blocked Quinn’s assault with a deadly file folder, Luke made a mental note to call Noah first thing in the morning. He was going to get that loan no matter what.



*



“JAMESON.”

“Good morning, Mr. Jameson. This is Luke Bradford. I’m the one leasing—”

“Yes, hello. You’re our resident chocolatier in Cactus Creek,” the voice cut in, no-nonsense and roughly cultured. “I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about your shop lately.” The man expressed a few more pleasantries that were clearly not rehearsed or fed to him. He sounded every bit the high-powered, hard-earned, and directly-connected business man he was reputed to be. The kind that didn’t care one iota about prestige, and worked damn hard for his money. Luke had run into a few men like Noah Jameson during his business school days. A small and formidable few.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Bradford? My secretary said you wanted to schedule a meeting to discuss something regarding the property you’re leasing. I’ll be out of town for a few days; is this something we can discuss on the phone before I leave tomorrow morning?”