true thought. They baked for their neighbors and friends, and they did it with a mind to tradition and the occasions that their treats would be a part of.
“You don’t want to be financially secure?”
Ah, well, of course that’s what this was about. “That is a lot of money.”
“It is. And it’s guaranteed. You can use your talents to make yourself financially independent.”
She crossed her arms. “Strange coincidence that the guy who is obsessed with me being financially independent also co-owns the company offering me this contract.”
He shrugged. “It wouldn’t work if we weren’t already looking for a new product and you weren’t already a talented baker.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It was Cam’s idea,” he said.
“Really.” She didn’t believe that.
Grant nodded. “We were going to have a contest for people to enter recipes and a big town taste testing and… a whole event. But when I talked to Cam and Whitney, Cam suggested we just hire you.”
Josie felt herself frown. That sounded a little easier to believe. “You’re still setting this up for me.”
“Every time I do a seminar, I set things up for women,” he said. “I advise them on good investments, help them get those started, help them with how to expand what they’re already doing if that applies. This is no different.”
This is no different.
Right. That was the thing she had to remember. She was just another woman who had needed his help financially. This was Grant’s passion. This was what gave him purpose and happiness. There had been sex—and a wedding—involved in this particular circumstance, where he didn’t usually sleep with, or marry, the women he counseled, but truly, at the end of the day, she was just another woman who had gotten into trouble financially, and he’d stepped in to bail out.
He’d gotten in over his head, sure, but that other set of papers would get him out of that.
She pulled in a breath. “Well, I appreciate the option, but I’m not comfortable with it.”
“You’re not comfortable making ten thousand dollars and then a percentage of sales of your snack cake every month?” he asked.
She wanted to ask how much he thought that would be, she couldn’t deny. But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t doing this. She wasn’t a charity case. She hated that all he really saw was another woman who needed his help.
“I guess you still don’t believe that I’m really very happy with how things are,” she said. That was true. The health insurance thing aside, she was happy. “I don’t need millions of dollars. Yes, I loved the private plane and the fancy restaurant and the amazing hotel suite, but I don’t need them.” She pressed her hands against her stomach willing it to stop flipping. “I loved the popcorn on the couch, sitting with you reading while you worked, learning about spreadsheets just as much.” She swallowed hard. “The best part of the dinner at the restaurant was talking to you and hearing your stories. The best part of the hotel suite was sleeping in your arms. I don’t need the city lights or expensive wine or high thread-count sheets. And I was hoping that you would realize that and… maybe feel the same way.”
“Jocelyn, I do want you to be happy. I just want you to stop hiding your talent and taking less than you deserve.” His voice was gruff, and he looked surprised and pained at the same time. “You hide your side-baking. You stay in the kitchen at the bakery. Even though everyone knows you do all the major decorating, Zoe still keeps the majority of the profits, and the recognition all goes to the bakery. She needs you more than you need her, yet you keep working there, making her business a success, while she can’t even provide you with health insurance.”
Josie felt a jab of protectiveness in the middle of her chest. “Zoe is my best friend, Grant. She gives me so much more than money. We’re family. She’s someone I can laugh with and cry with. Someone who will always be honest with me. Who wants me to be happy. Who…” She trailed off as that hit her.
She’d been keeping secrets—big secrets—from someone who had always loved her no matter what. Zoe was someone who would decorate her living room to look like Rome and figure out how to make—or cater in—Italian food and desserts, and find Italian music and watch Josie’s favorite Rome-set films with her even if she couldn’t take Josie to Rome for her birthday.