Savage in a Stetson (Crossroads #4) - Em Petrova Page 0,11
touches, and she’d allowed him to slide a hand underneath her top and feel her breasts.
He put on the brakes there, and he was glad he did. If he’d taken her to bed, it would have looked so much worse when he ended things. He never, ever wanted Jada to feel he had used her for a cheap thrill.
Theo leaped into the back of the truck, and Dom used the ramp. Maneuvering the heavy prep station took some doing, but once they got the power of their thigh muscles behind the work, they quickly removed the long, stainless steel unit from the truck and carried it inside.
A glance across the street revealed that Jada had stopped working to watch. He experienced a pang at the thought that she was working with all the decades-old equipment Mortimer owned, while he’d ordered brand new. But she had the advantage with loyal customers who’d run inside as soon as she opened her doors.
When would that be? She must be ready to open, and he’d take another week at least.
“You really think Crossroads is big enough to support two restaurants that are so similar?” Theo seemed to voice the big question in Dom’s head.
He nodded. “Yeah, I do.” When Theo didn’t speak again or look again, Dom said, “What? Don’t you?”
“Sure, man. Lots of business for everyone.”
He raised his head. The distance between businesses seemed bigger than a couple hundred steps. As Jada met his gaze, the rift felt like a canyon.
“It’ll be good for both our businesses. What I don’t have here, customers can buy from her, and the opposite.”
“Sounds like you got it all worked out, Dom. Savage’s Barbecue’s bound to be a huge hit.” They carried the station inside. After they emerged, he saw Jada’s doors closed up tight, no sign of her anywhere, and even her truck was gone.
Chapter Three
Jada tapped her pen against her teeth as she stared down at the marketing plan she was creating.
Several scribbles covered the page, and she’d scribbled a few notes in the upper corner to use in another week. But overall, she felt pretty satisfied with her ideas.
Carolee, an older employee who’d stayed on after the business changed hands, dropped into the seat across the table from her. “What’d you come up with, hon?” Her drawl and bleach-blonde hair said Georgia like nothing else could.
Jada glanced over the page and then slid it across the shiny clean surface of the table to her employee. “I’d appreciate your feedback. You’ve been here long enough to know what works and what doesn’t.”
Beaming, Carolee accepted the paper and hunched over the table to read it while Jada sat back, hovering over pins and needles to see if her first marketing plan would resonate with locals.
“Ohhh, Friday night date night!” Carolee sang out.
“Yes. Everyone comes out for the special anyway, but with a buy one get one free special, I thought we might drum up double the business.”
Carolee smiled. “It’s a great idea. Over the years, Mortimer ran similar specials. Buy one whole rotisserie chicken, get one free. We sold out of chicken two weeks running, until he figured out how much to increase our shipment.”
“You don’t think it’s giving away too much?”
Carolee slid her gaze to the window beside where they sat. She didn’t need to guess what the woman was looking at—Carolee’s attention fixed on Savage’s Barbecue. The building, newly painted in a bright blue to match his dumb sign, had so many cars slowing to gawk at the newest business in town that more than once Jada had experienced a sinking in her stomach.
“I think you gotta hit hard with your opening so people know you’re serious about giving customers what Mortimer did for years.”
“But I’m giving more than Mortimer with my expanded menu.”
“Yes, and your brisket could make the angels sing.”
She glared out at Savage’s. “I’d like to know what his brisket tastes like.”
Carolee gave her the side-eye. “I’ve been thinking about that too, and I hope you aren’t against this idea, because I think it’s a good one.”
“Oooh, tell me.”
“Well”—she placed her palms on the table—“I asked my husband if he might be willing to go over and buy some and then bring it back here for us all to sample.”
“And what did he say?”
“He said being a spy’s a tough job, but he was more than willing to sacrifice his taste buds for our cause.”
She giggled and then shot another look at Savage’s and groaned. “I don’t understand why he’s doing