Crossroad to Love (Fab Five Series) - By Anna Kristell Page 0,27
weather I left behind in Iowa yesterday morning, he thought as he donned his stylish sunglasses. He was early, but was anxious to get through this meeting. He had plans to surprise a special brunette later today. He reached his destination and parked the car. As he grabbed his briefcase and tube of blueprints, he was humming to himself. Oh, what a beautiful day it is.
He entered the restaurant, removed his sunglasses, giving his eyes time to adjust after being in the bright Texas sunlight. A tall man walked out from what Michael assumed to be the kitchen area. As the man extended his hand, he introduced himself, “I am Ryan O’Grady, and you must be Michael Gray.”
“Good morning, Mr. O’Grady, it’s good to meet you, finally.”
They were joined by another man and a woman who introduced themselves to Michael as Shane and Chloe O’Grady. Chloe poured large mugs of coffee for the four of them and after setting out a plate of bagels and various flavors of cream cheese, she sat down with the men to look at the blueprints Michael had spread out on the table.
“After speaking with you last, Mr. O’Grady, I came up with some other ideas based on some of the concepts you mentioned, and I would like to discuss them with you.”
“Great. And you can call me Ryan.”
“Okay, Ryan. This is what I think we should do with the stage area. I’ve made a few adjustments from what we previously talked about. The lighting will work better if we place it here, I believe.” He proceeded to tell the group his reasons for the changes and followed that with some other ideas for the overall expansion of the restaurant. When he was satisfied that the owners were happy with those plans, he began to discuss the corporate office. “It was a sound decision to purchase the lots on either side of this building. The stage area will work well over there and the office on the other lot.”
“I want a test kitchen in the office so I can try out recipes. I will mainly be working on menus and overseeing the chefs at all the new restaurants once they’re in operation,” Chloe informed him.
“That’s very workable with the plans I’ve drawn up. How about we put that in the back behind the actual offices and reception area?”
“Perfect.”
“Let me know exactly what you want and I can certainly make it happen.” He smiled at the pretty co-owner.
After another hour of reviewing and exchanging ideas, the group was pleased with the outcome of their work. The plans were taking shape and the O’Grady’s dream of expansion was definitely becoming a reality. And once they got the Dallas renovations completed, they could begin work on developing their chain of restaurants in other cities. Mr. Gray seemed like the perfect choice for the job, based on the work he had done for them so far.
“I think we will work very well together. We also happened across a lovely interior designer yesterday. She had some marvelous ideas for us,” Chloe said, giving Ryan a sideways glance as she spoke of Katy. She knew there was something going on there. She was sure of it.
Ryan ignored his sister-in-law and followed with, “We also started a new campaign to advertise the expansion, so we should be in good shape now. We are finally ready to begin.”
“Is that right? Well, sounds like it’s all systems go now, then.” Michael continued, “I am working on another project as well, so I’ll be splitting my time between two cities for a while, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve done it before. Rest assured, your project will be completed on schedule. You needn’t worry about that.”
“You came highly recommended to us, Mr. Gray. We have no doubt that you will deliver as promised. It has been a pleasure meeting with you today. Your work speaks for itself.”
“I’ll be in touch later in the week before I fly back to the Quad Cities.”
“Oh, look, here is our designer now, and her friend from the ad agency. I see you have brought your other friends with you. How wonderful it is to see y’all again.” Chloe liked these four women. They were good people.
“We are just finishing our meeting with the architect. You girls timed it exactly right,” Shane added with a smile.
Ryan was staring at Katy. How could one woman look so beautiful all of the time? Today she was wearing white bermuda shorts with