signed as if reading his mind. “I figured I would try the superstore since they’re open twenty-four hours. I should be back before it’s time to open. I’ll grab us some coffees on the way back.”
He chewed on his lip. “What’s going on?”
Gabriel’s entire body heaved with his sigh. “You’re going to think I’m being careful with you and you’re going to get pissed.”
He couldn’t have fought the rising chuckle if he tried. “Tell me anyways.”
Gabriel watched him carefully, almost as if gauging his temperament before revealing anything. “I want to get a light for the back area. It’s too dark outside this early in the morning. And I want to put up a security mirror so you can actually see behind you while you’re unlocking the door so someone can’t sneak up on you. I’m pissed Nat hasn’t done something about rigging the front door of the shop so you have a light flash back here when someone comes into the store. She can hear that fucking little bell, but you can’t.”
Ben walked up to Gabriel, held his face, and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before taking a step back to sign. “You want to make sure I’m safe. Why would that piss me off?”
Thick arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him close. He took a deep breath and sighed, enjoying the warmth and safety he always found in Gabriel’s embrace. Resigned, he planted his hands on Gabriel’s chest and pushed, knowing he needed to get to work.
“You’ve got work to do,” Gabriel signed while frowning. “I’ll be back soon. Lock the door behind me.”
For the next two hours, Ben lost himself in prep work. Thankfully, Natalie had texted him, letting him know there were a few batches of pastries in the coolers she had prepared the night before, hoping to get ahead of schedule before his arrival that morning. With a small inventory of her pastries available, he was a little more at ease with his own cake dessert prep, but the pastries on hand weren’t enough for the usual crowd of customers. The lunch rush had become accustomed to the single-serve cake slices, but he wanted to mix things up. Small cupcakes, pound cake, cake balls and pops, were his usual additions with only slight variations to their flavor mix. Hoping to bump up the shop’s offerings to offset Nat’s usual stock, he decided to add in the cake cookies and biscotti he had Natalie taste test this last week. He shot off a quick text to her while he prepped each station. When she responded with a suggested price for each item, his confidence and determination rose.
By the time Gabriel had returned, Ben barely had ten minutes left before the shop opened.
After dumping the bags of supplies in the office and washing his hands, Gabriel quickly tied an apron on. “How can I help?”
He had been fine…sort of. But as he glanced up at the wall clock, reality came crashing in. His hands started shaking. The exhaustion from being out all day in the sun yesterday compounded the tension in every muscle.
A firm grip on his shoulder pulled him back to the moment.
“You’ve got this. You know Nat wouldn’t give you the option to open the shop if she didn’t trust you could do it. You’re officially the boss today, and I know how you love being the one in charge.”
The laugh bubbled to the surface and the smile lingered. Leave it to Gabriel to brighten his spirit. After a quick kiss, he directed Gabriel to take the trays out to the front and prepare the display cases for the new items.
“Yes, boss,” Gabriel said, biting into his bottom lip to hide a smile.
If they had this much faith in his ability to do this, then he needed to get his head in the right space and his ass in gear to make it happen.
He might have learned the power of the word no, but he still couldn’t shake the need to avoid disappointing others.
But most of all, he refused to disappoint himself.
Later that week
“You worked your ass off this week,” Gabriel signed. “You proved you could run the shop on your own.”
He shrugged. Nat had stayed away all week. At first, Ben had thought it had been her way of throwing him into the deep end of the pool to see if he could swim on his own. But after Gabriel had stopped by for a surprise visit, instead of a brotherly