Page 14 of Keepsakes and Kismet

“No problem. Just hope no one spots me and tells Carter I walked into the big chain gym.”

Kevin winks. “Eh, technically you’re just here for work. And Waterton’s too far to poach members, anyway.” His sneakers squeak as he pivots toward me. “We can chat while he completes his inspection. Go ahead, Cal.”

Callum moves at a snail’s pace behind the counter, like it’s taking everything in him not to plop down right next to me for a casual seven hour interrogation. He gives an exasperated sigh before pushing the kitchen door open, leaving me and Kevin alone.

Kevin sits down in the chair across from me and leans forward, his body language telling me that he might shake my hand. I pick up my stylus and poise it over the tablet I brought with me before he can reach out. Reading the signs of impending touch from men has become a superpower of mine over the past three years.

“The shop looks great, Kevin. Tell me more about how Healthtopia came to be.”

Kevin walks me through the smoothie shop’s origin story in about ten minutes, starting with the orchard his family owns in Michigan. He gets some of the fruit directly from his parents’ backyard.

“I love the personal connection you have to the business. How can I help you reach your sales targets?”

Kevin releases a long exhale. “Well, I accidentally purchased twelve hundred gross of peanuts.”

I tilt my head. “Twelve hundred gross?”

His neck reddens. “One gross is a dozen dozens. So twelve hundred is⁠—”

“Twelve hundred dozen dozens,” I whisper.

Kevin nods grimly.

My eyes widen. “Wait. That means…”

“I have around ten thousand pounds of peanuts to use. Before they go rancid.”

I set down my tablet and lean back in my chair. “Damn.”

“Damn, indeed. Decimal error. Working out those new business owner kinks, I guess.” He shrugs. “I don’t have the freezer space to extend the nuts’ shelf life. By my estimation, I’ll go through about three hundred jars of peanut butter a year. Now, I have to plan for ten times that amount. So, we’re solving for the excess peanuts with our new line of homemade nut butters, and I’d love for that to be your focus when you come back for opening day. Any probing questions would be welcome, as they’d give me a chance to talk about the butters more naturally. Our Nutty Nana smoothie will be the centerpiece for the conversation. It has housemade organic peanut butter, bananas, gut-healthy yogurt, and two scoops of vanilla whey protein powder.”

I send up a silent prayer of thanks that I’m marketing a food I actually enjoy. In my early days, I didn’t have the luxury of being choosy about what I was being asked to influence. A shudder runs through me when I remember the number of slimy, sulfury oysters I slurped down for my second-ever job.

Dark days. Dark, dark days.

“I love peanut butter, so this is right up my alley. And I’ve already prepared some questions in advance that are easily adaptable to the butters. First one being⁠—”

The kitchen door swings open, and Callum appears with a tiny gray smudge on his white polo. When he takes off the plastic baseball cap he wears to inspect, a bead of sweat drips down his temple.

“Ah, Cal! How’d it go back there?”

Callum dusts himself off and walks toward our table. “The quick sweep went well. Initially, I thought you had a leak behind one of the refrigerators, but it was just a cup of water that spilled. I’ll need to come back once the front bar is set up, but the kitchen looks great. So you’re all set for today.”

Kevin nods. “Stay for a smoothie before you go. It’s the least I can do after stealing part of your day. I need to make a drink for Peyton, anyway.”

Callum brushes his thumb against the soft skin at the edge of his lip. “Need to?”

I flash him a toothy smile, eating up his wary observation of me. “I’m just dying to try the Nutty Nana!”

Kevin beams as he stands up. “That’s perfect, Peyton. Exactly like that on opening day.”

“Exactly like what?” Callum asks, eyes darting between Kevin and me.

Kevin walks past Callum toward the kitchen before pivoting to face me. “Before I head back there to make the smoothies, what was your question, Peyton?”

“Oh, I was just going to ask where you source your organic nuts from.”

“Fantastic question. We get our peanuts directly from a family-owned farm in Georgia. The whey protein powder and gut-healthy yogurt are sourced from a local creamery. Grass-fed cows only.”