WHISKING IT ALL
CHAPTER FOUR
"Holy cow," Kate breathed as she stepped into the bakery the day before Valentine's Day. The whole front of the store was an explosion of red and pink, with paper hearts and cupids everywhere. Draped across the display cases, hanging from the ceiling, everywhere.
Alexis poked her head out from the back and grinned. "Hi, Kate. How do you like it?"
Kate shook her head as she took it in. "It's certainly, um…" She tried to come up with the right word as she stepped behind the counter. "Festive."
"Theresa would say we weren't in the dessert business, but the holiday business, so she went all in with the decor."
"All in, that's a good way to put it." Kate followed Alexis to the back. The younger woman had apparently been hard at work for most of the morning, with trays of cookies cooling in their racks and the ovens full of cupcakes, with timers counting down at regular intervals. She glanced at one of the trays of cookies as she passed them and, when she realized the shape, doubled back and pointed at the tray. "Um, Alexis?"
"Yeah?" Alexis chuckled when she saw what Kate was looking at. "Oh, we got a special request for a bachelorette party. They asked about it that day last week when you were in court, so I made an executive decision."
Kate shook her head in amusement. "I wouldn't think that penis-shaped cookies would have much of a market here," she admitted. "But you know the area better than I do."
"I don't personally see the appeal of penises, but hey, to each their own." Alexis glanced in the direction of one of the ovens when a timer went off. "Can you check the cupcakes in Rihanna? They should be done."
Kate did as she'd been asked, checking the contents of the oven labeled "Rihanna" - all ovens were named after female pop stars to be able to refer to them easily - and pulling the cupcakes out. She couldn't decorate to save her life, but she could at least work an oven.
Alexis stepped into the small office area, nothing more than a desk and filing cabinet behind a curtain, and retrieved a binder. "Here's that pricing info you asked for. Sorry it isn't digital; I haven't had a chance to convert it."
"I can work with this. Thanks for finding it."
Aside from overpaying for supplies, which Kate was fairly certain she'd fixed, Aunt Theresa had kept the consumer prices steady in recent years. In order to make enough to not only keep the bakery open, but to thrive, Kate knew she'd have to raise the prices. But hopefully, with Lanie's guidance, she could make it a gradual increase.
"By the way, Kate, I have an idea," Alexis said, interrupting her thoughts.
Kate grabbed an apron. "What's up?"
"What if we opened for a couple hours tomorrow? It wouldn't be too hard to make extra cookies and cupcakes," she insisted before Kate could respond. "And it would bring in a little money. I can stay late or come in early, or both."
"I don't know." Kate looked around at the kitchen, already full of pending orders. Everything still needed to be decorated and packaged, and while she liked Alexis's confidence, she worried about taking on too much. "We don't really have time to advertise."
Alexis just blinked at her. "It's a small town, Kate," she reminded her. "People knew you and Rick were sleeping together almost before you actually did. It's easy to get the word out."
Kate felt her face flush with embarrassment. While Rick insisted that he didn't care if everyone knew of their relationship - or whatever label to give an occasional hookup - she still didn't love the idea that a bunch of strangers talked about her personal life like the weather. But Alexis did have a point. They wouldn't need a bunch of fliers or any kind of formal advertising. Word-of-mouth could be just as successful.
"You're sure the extra work wouldn't be too much?"
"Nope. We could open at, say, ten? And stay open until we run out of food." Alexis moved over to the sink and turned on the water to wash her hands. "That way we don't have to worry about making more on demand, and I can be out front with you."
"I'm sorry," Kate interrupted, "with me?"
Alexis just looked at her. "You're the owner, Kate. You'll be here too."
"I'm not a retail person," Kate insisted. "I haven't worked with the general public since high school. No, everyone knows you. I should stay out of the way."
"I won't let you get out of it." Alexis leaned back against the sink and crossed her arms over her chest. "Look, I gotta be honest. Some people still don't like the idea that an out of towner owns the bakery. They feel like you won't care as much as a local would, even though I'm here running the day-to-day. You need to be here to show them that you do actually give a shit."
Kate let out a frustrated sigh. As much as she hated to admit it, Alexis was right. So she finished tying her apron around her back, washed her hands, and went to work.
"Um, Alexis?" Kate called out when she glanced outside about 9:45 the next morning. Her employee was putting the finishing touches on the last few cookies before they opened, and while Kate was thrilled to see an overflowing display case, she was even happier at the crowd that had already congregated outside fifteen minutes early.
Alexis poked her head out from the back and grinned when she looked out the front window. "I told you word would get out," she said, wiping her hands on a towel. "I'll be done with these cookies in like a minute, so we can open early if you want."
Why she was so nervous, Kate wondered as she did a last-minute check of the point-of-sale system, she didn't know. If Alexis was right - which she appeared to be - most everyone would be locals from either Southbridge or the next town over.
And, apparently, people were really excited for late morning cookies.
"Ready?" Alexis asked, joining Kate at the counter, donning a clean apron. "You should do the honors."
Kate took a deep breath and pulled her keys from her pocket. "Here goes nothing." She smiled as she approached the door and spotted familiar faces at the front of the line. "Hi, Tory," she greeted Alexis's girlfriend as she opened the door. She stepped aside and propped the door open, ignoring the chill that came in from outside. "Thanks for coming."
"No prob. I'm here to help out." Tory went immediately behind the counter to join Alexis as a few people entered the shop.
"Great! Oh, Martha, hi," she greeted the next person waiting, grinning, and held out her arm to welcome her into the store.
By the time everything was sold out an hour and a half later, Kate's head was spinning. She lost count of the people she'd met and the hands she'd shaken, and she was grateful for the turnout. She could tell they were part of a tight-knit community, and Alexis's warning about people being wary of an outsider had convinced her that being at the shop had been a good idea. A lot of patrons had seemed surprised, but grateful, and the warmth she'd been met with had filled her with a gratitude she hadn't felt in a long time.
As she helped Alexis and Tory clean up the store, however, she couldn't help but dwell on the fact that she hadn't seen Rick. He was by no means obligated to come, of course, she knew that. But it would have been a nice gesture.
"He probably got busy," Tory said, breaking the silence.
Kate looked up from the tray she was washing and tried to act innocent. "What are you talking about?" she asked, hoping that her face wasn't as red as it felt.
Tory and Alexis shared a glance and a smirk. "Rick," Tory continued. "Something probably came up at the dairy. He seemed excited when we talked to him last night."
Kate shrugged. "It's fine. It was a last minute thing and he has a life." When they shared another smirk, Kate sighed and reached for a towel to dry her hands. "What?"
Alexis shrugged. "Nothing. Like Tory said, Rick said he'd come by, and he's not one to break a promise. Especially considering how excited he was."
"What's your point, Alexis?"
"Just that he likes you, and he's really supportive of the bakery. That's why he gave us such a great deal on our stuff." When Kate opened her mouth to argue, Alexis shook her head and continued. "He did, Kate. We're only paying about half of what he usually charges."
"Okay, so he gave us a deal to help get the bakery back on its feet," Kate insisted. "Like a hometown discount."
Alexis just raised her eyebrows and turned back to the sink. "Sure, whatever you say."
They finished cleaning up in relative silence, and once the display cases were sparkling, Kate sent Alexis and Tory home while she stayed behind to balance the day's receipts. She registered the faint jingle of the bell above the door and was about to check that they locked the door when she heard Alexis's voice ring out.
"Oh, Kate!"
"What?" she yelled back. She looked up when she heard heavy footsteps enter the kitchen.
"Sorry I'm late," Rick said in greeting, a bouquet of flowers in his hand. "I heard you had tons of people show up. I'm sorry I wasn't one of them."
Kate bit back a smile as she shoved back from the desk and stood. "That's okay. These are gorgeous, Rick," she added, reaching for the flowers. "Thank you."
Rick beamed and took her elbow, leaned down to brush a kiss to her cheek. "I meant to come, I promise. We had a minor crisis that I had to take care of."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just an escaped cow."
Kate almost dropped the flowers. "What?"
Rick chuckled. "Tabatha tried to make a run for it. But we tracked her down and she's fine."
Kate sighed, and found a vase behind the front counter for the flowers. "That's good. Well, even if you'd made it here, you may have missed getting any goods. We sold out before I could even meet everyone." She felt Rick behind her before his large hands were on her hips, and her breath hitched when he plastered himself to her back.
God, she'd missed him.
She let herself sag back into him, grinning when a slight wiggle of her hips caused him to groan.
"Speaking of goods," Rick almost growled in her ear, one hand sliding under her apron to toy with the button of her jeans.
Kate stepped out of his arms and shook her head. "Not here," she chided, although she couldn't stop herself from grinning at the dark look in his eyes. "Give me a few minutes and we can go."
She ended up just shoving the day's receipts in her purse before grabbing Rick's hand to lead him out the door.
Kate reached for her phone when it rang twice, indicating an internal call. "Kate Beckett," she said into the phone, her eyes still roaming over the contract she was reviewing for one of her top clients.
"Ms. Beckett, Mr. Walker would like to see you."
She straightened at the voice of his administrative assistant. Michael Walker was one of the managing partners of the firm. While he'd been part of the decision to make her a partner, she hadn't spent any time with him one-on-one in almost a year, with most everything running through her immediate supervisor. So if he was calling her into his office…
Her mind raced with possibilities, none of them good, and she clenched her free hand into a fist to stop it from shaking. "I'll be right there," she told the other woman, closing her laptop. "Thank you."
Kate approached Mr. Walker's closed office door and nodded towards his assistant. "He asked to see me?" she asked, surprised that her voice was steady. She certainly didn't feel that way; it had taken all of her self-control not to completely freak out. She did clear her throat and wipe her sweaty palms on her skirt when she was invited in.
Mr. Walker, a tall, imposing man in his fifties, stood from behind his desk when Kate walked in. "Ms. Beckett," he greeted her, "thank you for seeing me."
"Of course." Kate sat in the chair he gestured to, opposite from his, rested her hands in her lap as he sat down.
"I understand you recently had a family member pass away." When Kate just nodded, he folded his hands in front of him. "First, may I say I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you, sir."
"I also understand that you inherited a small business."
"Yes, I did." Kate felt her heart pound in her chest. When she'd learned of the bakery she'd looked in her partnership agreement whether there would be a conflict of interest, but she hadn't seen anything. Her mind raced as she tried to anticipate what he was going to say.
"Now, we don't have anything forbidding ownership of another business," he continued. Kate let out a relieved sigh, but he ignored it. "However, we've noticed that in the two months since you took over the business, your work here has suffered."
Oh, God.
"I'm sorry, sir, I've been trying to keep up." And she had; she'd been working almost every waking moment during the week to make up for spending her weekends in Southbridge and, although she was always exhausted, she thought she was doing okay. There wasn't anything on her desk that was glaringly overdue; she just couldn't work six or seven days a week for the foreseeable future.
Mr. Walker nodded. "We know you have, but you're still-" His eyebrows flew up when Kate's cell phone rang, interrupting him.
Kate fumbled for her phone, managed to extract it from her blazer, but it fell out of her grasp and dropped to the floor. "Sorry, sir," she stuttered, retrieving it and declining the call. "I thought I silenced that."
"As I was saying-"
Her phone buzzed again, and she swore under her breath. Before she turned it off she glanced at the caller, and made a mental note to call Alexis back as soon as she was done. "I'm so sorry," she apologized again, sliding her phone back into her pocket. "It's off now. You were saying?"
She couldn't help but notice the flush on Mr. Walker's cheeks. He was either annoyed or angry, but she didn't know him well enough to interpret his look.
"Kate," he started again, his voice cool. "You're a brilliant attorney, but you have a choice to make. When we made you a partner, we were confident that you would continue to put your heart and soul into the firm. To work however long was necessary to satisfy the client. We even thought you had the potential to be a managing partner one day," he added.
Kate's shoulders slumped. Having her own firm - either working her way up to managing partner there, or eventually opening one herself - had long been a dream, a step on the path to eventual Supreme Court Justice.
And it sounded like she was about to get her walking papers.
Law firm, or bakery.
Those were her choices.
If she kept Make It Or Bake It, she would be bought out of her partnership. The years of working day and night, all the coffee and crying, would be for nothing. Her dreams would be dashed.
Or she would lose the bakery.
If she could afford it, she'd hire another employee, but it wasn't turning enough of a profit yet. According to Lanie's analysis, even after a wildly successful St. Patrick's Day, the summer season would need to be near record breaking to avoid ending the year in the red.
Kate ran her fingers through her hair and swore. She knew what she had to do, but it felt like the wrong choice.
She had to sell the bakery.
It was the logical choice, the smart choice, especially when it came to finances. So why did it feel so wrong?
A loud pounding on her door pulled her from her thoughts, and she took a long swig of her wine before opening the door. "Lanie, hi," she greeted her friend, taking in how annoyed she looked.
Lanie pushed past her into the apartment. "Katherine Beckett, did your phone get crushed by a taxi? Did you drop it into a vat of chocolate?" she snapped.
Kate furrowed her brows. "What are you talking about? I had calls earlier-oh, shit!" She almost dove for her blazer, which she'd discarded by the door when she'd returned home. She had a vague recollection of turning her phone off, but she'd been so distracted and upset after her meeting that she'd forgotten all about it.
As the screen loaded, though, she saw the several missed calls from Alexis, a few from Tory, and even one from Rick. She had texts from all three of them, too, over a dozen from Alexis, and she gasped when she read the first one.
There's been a fire. Call me.
Kate lifted her gaze to her best friend. "Shit," was all she could say.
Lanie nodded. "'Shit' is right. Good thing Alexis has my number, too, so she could call me."
"I have to call her back."
Alexis picked up on the first ring. "Kate! Where the hell have you been?"
"I know, I'm sorry. I turned off my phone earlier and forgot." Kate ran a hand down her face and glanced at Lanie, who was pouring herself a glass of wine. "What happened?"
Alexis sighed. "The kitchen's almost completely destroyed."
Kate collapsed on the couch and closed her eyes. God, that might be the sign she needed. "Okay. But you're okay? Did you get hurt?"
"No, I wasn't there yet, thank God. I was across the street getting coffee. Apparently the wiring was just an accident waiting to happen," she explained.
"Okay," Kate repeated. She sighed. "Well, I'll come up tomorrow so we can start to deal with it."
"Tomorrow's Tuesday. Don't you have to work?"
"I'm off for the rest of the week. It was a last minute thing," she added when Lanie looked up in surprise. "I'll let you know when I'm on my way." She sighed again. "Thanks, Alexis. I'm sorry I didn't answer earlier."
"See you tomorrow."
Lanie joined Kate on the couch, wine glass in her hand. "What is this about getting the week off?"
Kate leaned back and raked her fingers through her hair. "I basically got fired today," she groaned. "Well, kind of. They gave me an ultimatum. Bakery, or partnership." She looked up. "I got called into Michael Walker's office. As in, the Walker part of Brown, Martin, and Walker."
Lanie let out a sharp exhale. "Damn. So, what are you thinking?" When Kate just looked at her, she shook her head. "No, girl, you can't give up the bakery. It was Aunt Theresa's gift to you. It's her legacy."
"It should be owned by someone who actually knows what they're doing," Kate argued, sitting back up and reaching for her wine. "Ideally, I'd sell it to Alexis. We've talked about that as a long-term goal for her. But she and Tory can't afford it right now. I don't know if I could even find a local owner, and the thought of it being bought by someone from out of town...I don't like it."
Lanie narrowed her eyes in thought. "What about an investor? Maybe a group of them?"
Kate shot her a look. "The town isn't going to pool together their money to save it, Lanie," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Most people are barely hanging on as it is. I can't ask them to do that."
"Rick? You said he's pretty set financially."
"No, definitely not." Kate couldn't pinpoint exactly why she didn't want to ask Rick, or even talk to him about the dilemma. He'd probably offer to help, but he was already giving her such a large discount on his product, that accepting money from him - even if he was part of a group - was something she had a hard time swallowing.
On the other hand...the firm wanted her to give up her last lifeline to her aunt. Even though they hadn't been close, Kate felt a connection when she was at the bakery.
Make It Or Bake It was one of the last physical, tangible links she had to any of her family.
Her hand curled around the rings through her shirt, the ones that had hung on a gold chain every day since the car accident that had taken her parents' lives.
"What if you set up some kind of payment schedule for Alexis to buy it over time? I can work with you guys to set up something."
Kate shook her head. "We talked about that, too, but it's just not feasible now. And with the kitchen out of commission for who knows how long…" She trailed off and stared into her wine glass.
She couldn't keep the bakery.
But she couldn't give it up, either. Not for her aunt, not for the little town in Connecticut that she'd grown to enjoy visiting. It was relaxing there, a warmth and welcome feeling that calmed her, grounded her. The weekends she spent there had begun to feel like a reset, a way to let her breathe when she wasn't surrounded by the chaos of her city life.
"There's another thing to consider," Lanie continued, her voice interrupting Kate's thoughts.
Kate just looked up at her.
Lanie shrugged. "The town's good for you. It's only been a few months, but you've changed. In a good way. You're happier."
"I'm not moving." Kate sighed, then chuckled. "Hey Lanie, you wanna invest in a small town bakery that just had a kitchen fire, and may or may not be able to even reopen?"
Lanie laughed and reached out to nudge Kate's shoulder. "I would if I could. But seriously, Kate, I can loan you a little money if you need it."
Kate's eyes filled with tears, and she swallowed around the lump in her throat at her friend's generosity. "Thanks, Lanie," she managed. "But I'll be okay. You're already helping so much with the accounting side."
"Oh, that's not free," Lanie teased. "You're paying me in wine and gossip. Speaking of gossip," she continued, wiggling her eyebrows, "how's your farmer?"
"He's not my farmer." Kate felt her face flush at the mention of Rick. While they hadn't been able to get together every time she was in town, they did text regularly, and she found herself looking forward to the times she was able to see him.
"Not the point. You like him."
She sighed. "Yeah, I kinda do."