Chapter Forty-Two

Brandy

May first meant we were exactly one month from Jesse and Charlotte’s wedding. They had originally wanted to do it in May but had delayed to June, mostly because Charlotte was being admittedly picky about her dress. I’d been a big part of the choosing of that dress, as had Amber, Tamara, and Basil. All of us had grown very tight, and I looked forward to the wedding as a moment where I participated in a major event of the family, and thus became a part of it officially.

Not that anyone made me feel less than family. The brothers were all very kind, and Charlotte and Amber treated me as if I was one of them, which I was very grateful for. Charlotte was so successful and ambitious, and I admired her a lot. She had been a big cheerleader for me as well, and over the last few weeks, we’d concocted a lot of plans that I was beginning to really believe in.

I had been hesitant to tell Collin about them, not because I thought he would think they were too much, but because I knew he would be all about them. He would want to pay for it all and make it happen as fast as possible for me, and I wanted to take my time and see if I could make the money for it out of the increased business.

Charlotte had sprung the idea of starting a bakery business to go on the side of the shop. One where I could leave the sandwich shop’s duties to others while Basil and I went back to doing what we did best. I had offered to make Charlotte’s cake and cater her wedding, and while she took me up on the wedding cake, she wanted me to be a part of the wedding and not catering the whole time. Which meant I needed to hire some people.

Already, there were three new people working there, including Tamara, who found that she loved it and showed decent management potential. I was often there, supervising and testing baking ideas in the back. Basil and I were plotting, and if all went well, things could blow up.

The new hotel was going to be a big deal in Foley and would likely open in the fall. Construction on it had already begun, and Foley was getting interest from big cities all around Texas and Arizona because of it with our place as a convenient halfway point between major cities. Charlotte wanted to have a few vendors in the bottom floor, people who could provide a touch of class and amenities to the hotel, and her first thought was me.

As it stood, the plan was to put a second location of Madie’s inside the hotel, exclusively making to-go lunches and only operating for four hours a day. Then, beside it, would be a bakery. Brandy’s.

The name had been Basil’s idea, saying that her grandmother created a legacy and that I should too. If it was going to be my vision, it should be my name on top, and I went with it. The idea of having my own shop with my own name on it was reminding me of the hope I’d felt back in New York. Only now, I knew that it wasn’t situational. I wasn’t being obtuse and thinking too highly of myself, or worse, not at all about reality.

Collin wasn’t my ex. He wasn’t going anywhere. We were madly, deeply in love and usually unable to keep our hands off each other. And frankly, there was no competition in Foley or nearby. It wasn’t like I was going to get run out of business because a major franchise was able to block me out.

As for Madie’s, the controversy of the lawsuit and everything that happened with the producer had created some buzz that we otherwise might not have had, and as the news kept covering it, the more people came. Eventually, the production company had their lawyers contact me and offer a settlement. I hadn’t taken it yet, but I was holding off to see if they upped their amount, on advice from both my lawyer and Collin.

Even if I took the settlement as it was, it was going to add another digit at the front of the account that I shared with Collin. Having tens of millions to work with would make sure Madie’s and Brandy’s would be shored up for decades, even if the business fell off, which it showed no signs of. People were happy to have Madie’s back, and the regulated days where Madie herself joined us was the most popular times of the week.

Grandma was doing great, and while she still had hard days, they were much fewer than before. The caregiver was working wonders as well, and for the first time since I moved back, I didn’t have that stress on me all the time.

I was sitting in the office of Madie’s, taking a break from making a dozen or so cakes that were options for Charlotte to pick from when my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Brandy? This is Vince Turner, the CEO of Reality Pictures. We recently acquired the production company that was handling your reality show.”

“Ahh, I heard that was happening,” I said. “I didn’t think it was going to go through anytime soon, though.”

“Yes, it surprised us that it moved so quickly as well,” he said. “But we are very pleased with the outcome. I wanted to call you directly because I had an idea that I wanted to run by you.”

“Sure,” I said. “Should I get my lawyer on the line for this?”

“If you would like, absolutely, but we won’t finalize anything on this call, so it’s not necessary. I just want to get your ideas and your opinion and see if its something we should involve the legal team on.”

“All right, that was a decent enough disclaimer. What’s on your mind?”

“I was thinking, if you wanted to ever make a movie out of what happened to you, specifically the story of Phil and how that all went to hell, our production company would love to work up a script with you and go into production while the iron is hot. There is a lot of public interest in the story, and if we were able to work something out with you and the parent company of the now liquidated production studio, we might be able to get over the hump of the settlement.”

“That is a very interesting idea,” I said. “I would like to talk it over with some people, though.”

“Of course, of course. By the way, your lawyer should be contacting you within the hour with a new settlement amount. When I took control of the company and inherited the lawsuit, I instructed our team to double the offer. I want to make sure you are taken care of, and I’m going to write this all off as a loss anyway. So you get back to me, and we will work this out. I am confident we can find a common ground.”

“Wow, that’s very nice. Thank you. I will talk to you soon then,” I said.

Dumbfounded, I hung up and stared at the wall for a moment. Double the settlement amount. Plus a movie deal.

Holy shit.

A knock at the door brought me out of my daze, and I called for them to come in.

It was Collin.

I jumped up to wrap my arms around him and we kissed.

“You’re not going to believe what just happened,” I said. I described the call and what the new CEO said, and Collin’s jaw dropped.

“So you are going to take that, right?” he asked.

“I think so,” I said. “I just… If they are going to make a movie about it, then you are going to be part of that. I don’t know how you feel about that.”

He smiled. “There’s already a movie being made about me without my permission,” he said. “Why don’t we just give these people the right to do it and we can do this together?”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Your story will come out. Everyone will know.”

“Everyone around here knows now anyway,” he said. “It spread like wildfire. Might as well let the whole dang world know, especially if it helps you.”

“You are the best man in the entire world, you know that?”

“I’m all right for a cowboy,” he laughed. “But I sure got lucky to have you.”

“Pfft,” I said. “I’m just a baker from Foley, Texas.”

We kissed sweetly, and he pulled away.

“Speaking of baking,” he said. “Any news on the hotel?”

“October,” I said. “That’s the earliest.”

“Fantastic,” he said. “October sounds fantastic.”

I smiled.

“Any time sounds fantastic if it means I get my dream and you,” I said. “Are you still going to come help me bake once in a while?”

“You bet,” he said. “I’m going to be the best assistant you’ve ever had, minus just about every assistant you’ve ever had, especially Basil.”

I laughed. “I love you, Collin Galloway.”

“I love you, Brandy Shaw.”

One day, I hoped that sentence might be a little different. But I wasn’t going to push it. I was just fine taking one day at a time.