The Sweetheart Deal. Syndi Powell
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deserve anything I did to you. Or your friend.”
She paused and eyed him again. “If we work together on this loan, I want a couple of ground rules.”
That didn’t sound good. “Okay. Like what?”
She held up one finger. “No talking about the past. Especially about Kenny.” Two fingers. “Nothing to be done or offered out of pity or trying to redeem yourself because of said past.” Three fingers. “And we keep this on a purely professional level.”
“I can agree to those terms. Should we shake on it?” He held his hand out to her.
She stared at it, but kept her hand to herself. “And no touching.”
“You have a lot of rules.” He gave her a smile, hoping to lighten the mood. But the scowl on her face remained, so he put his hand back on the desk. “Fine. No touching.”
She looked back at the document list. “I have some of these items with me. Jack thought I should be prepared for anything.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a thick binder. “I’m glad I listened to him.”
Was this Jack her boyfriend? He tried to recall anyone with that name in their graduating class but couldn’t come up with a face. And why did the thought of Megan with a boyfriend make his heart sink? Not that she shouldn’t have one, as pretty and as sweet as she was. But the idea didn’t settle well with him.
She flipped through the binder and unsnapped the rings so that she could remove several pages. She handed them across the desk to him, and he stood. “I’ll go make some copies of this for your file. Can I get you anything while I’m out? Coffee? Water?”
“Hot tea, if you have it.” She flipped through the binder some more, then pulled out two more pages. “You may need these, as well.”
So civil. So polite. Adam nodded and took the pages as well as the cookies to the break room with him. He found Eva having her lunch, and held out the container. “Megan Sweet brought treats for the entire staff.”
She chose one and bit into it, closing her eyes as she chewed. “That girl is truly talented.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Lord knows I loved Addy, but her granddaughter is even better at making the bakery run than she was.”
Adam leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “You think the Sweetheart would be a good risk?”
Eva finished swallowing her bite and smiled. “Don’t you?”
“I’ve got to make copies.” He held up the pages and walked out of the break room. Why was he already second-guessing Megs’s request for a loan? It wasn’t as if he was using his position to repay her for the past by green-lighting the request. Besides, she probably still had that same backbone that had helped her stand up to him and would use it again to rebuild the business and make it thrive.
He got his copies and returned to his office, handing Megs the originals. She spent several minutes reorganizing the pages back into her binder, and placed it in her bag. She studied the lone piece of paper left in front of her. “I noticed that the document list asks for a business plan.”
He sat behind his desk and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. “Did you come prepared for that, as well?”
“You want it in writing? Rather than me telling you that I sell bread and cookies to the town?” She shook her head. “Because that’s my plan for the business. Not that difficult to figure out.”
He frowned at her. “No, I want a written description of your business, your target consumer as well as a forecast for any future growth. How many employees you have and your labor costs. A budget. I want hard numbers based on the information you gave me here.” He lifted the pages from his desk and waved them in her direction. “A concrete business plan for the Sweetheart.” When she continued to stare at him, he longed to groan. Instead, he put the papers back down. “You do have one, right?”
She stared at her hands. “Only in my head.”
“That’s a great start, Megan.” He watched her until she raised her head to meet his eyes. “If you’d like, I can help you formulate one to go along with your application.”
She stood and grabbed her coat and bag. “No, I think I can figure it out on my own. I don’t need you to do anything but put in the application.” She nodded at him then turned to leave.
He rose to his feet and walked behind her out of the office. “I’ll expect your application soon, then.”
She didn’t say anything but waved at his tellers before leaving the bank.
Well, that didn’t go too badly.
* * *
MEGS WALKED TO her car and opened the back door to put her tote bag in before letting herself into the driver’s seat. Don’t cry. Not here. Leave the parking lot and then you can lose it. She started the car and paused for a moment before putting it in gear.
Once out of the parking lot, she let the tears that had been threatening since walking into Adam’s office fall down her cheeks and drip off her chin unhindered. The fact that she’d had to go to him of all people with hat in hand to ask for money. Then for him to make her feel smaller than an ant because she didn’t have a written business plan. And if she didn’t have Jack for an accountant, she wouldn’t know the first thing about his list of required documents.
She felt like a fool in more than one way.
A fool to assume she had the business sense to run the bakery. If anything, she learned that she still had more to find out. And she felt foolish to imagine she could face him again without feeling like a fifteen-year-old afraid of the big bully. Without remembering Kenny and what it had cost him.
Her cell phone buzzed, and she answered it through the speaker phone on her car.
“How did it go?” Kelly, of course.
“I’m not sure exactly. He needs a written business plan, and I don’t know the first thing about writing one.”
“So we’ll Google it and put one together.”
“And the application is like twenty pages long.” She sniffed. “And it’s Adam Hawkins. I don’t exactly have the best history with him.”
“A lot can change in twelve years.”
She was probably right. Megs was glad she’d made that rule about not bringing up the past. Why rehash it?
Then, why hang on to it?
Okay, her conscience had a good point. Adam seemed to have gotten past all of that, and she needed to, as well. Just bury those memories away. Let it go. Move on. And every other cliché she could think of. “Yup. It’s for the best. Time to forget and—”
Her sister chuckled. “I didn’t say forget. I mean, he was a bully who hurt a lot of people. But he seems to have changed, so that’s all over with.” There was a pause. “Right?”
It was over, all right. Because there was no way that Megs was going to let him humiliate and hurt her or anyone she loved ever again. “Right, Kel.” Her phone buzzed, and she checked the caller ID on her car’s console. “That’s Mom. I’ll be home in about ten minutes.”
She switched the call using the buttons on her steering wheel and took several deep breaths. Talking to her mother was easier now that they had established a relationship as adults, but she couldn’t forget the abandonment. “Hi, Mom. Where are you today?”
Her mom chuckled. “Megs, I’m not exactly a globe trotter. Still in Florida, though Stan is talking about moving on to Arizona where it’s drier. Better for his asthma.”
Megs frowned. “Stan? I thought you were with Michael.”
“His kids didn’t like me much, so there you are.” Her mom was suddenly silent on the other end. “Listen,