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“My kids are happy with their jobs and their lives and kids of their own. When I started feeling ready to give this place up, I knew I’d need to find the right hands of someone I could trust. Then, I went grocery shopping at Post Road.”
Her eyes widened.
“There were discounted boxes of pastries by the front door, so I grabbed one, and I haven’t stopped thinking about that— Oh, what was that one with the cinnamon and sugar pearls tied like a knot?”
“Kanelbullar,” she choked.
“Yes, it was exquisite. I saw you’re selling them at the bakery, too.”
“Y-yes.”
Grampy smiled. “A month later I caught wind of you leaving Post Road and found out you were opening up your own spot, so I kept a close eye. I wanted to see how you handled things. Not just the long lines and the grueling early hours, but the negative press and the slower days when everything feels doomed.”
She coughed. “And…what did you think?”
“I think I found my set of hands.”
Jess blew out a shaky breath. “This is insane.”
“Quite the contrary, my dear. I think it’s perfect.”
“You want to hand me your prized bakery and deli, where customers line up down the road every single goddamn day? They’re going to be so upset when they find out who’s running the place. Everyone in the Port will think I’m ruining this town.”
He shook his head. “When we make it clear that I chose to hand it down to you, they’ll be fine. Especially if you keep selling the coffee cake out the back door.”
She stood up and paced the length of his kitchen. “Okay, so explain this…if you’re handing it down to me, then why buy Port Wheels? Those seem like opposing business decisions.”
“You can’t work in two kitchens, now can you?”
“Obviously…?”
“So you move your baking here, and treat the bakery at Port Wheels as an off-shoot of this business. Make it more of a café, a sit-down spot instead of a counter like this place. You could get rid of the back kitchen and expand seating.”
Jess tapped a finger to her lips. “Grampy’s Café at Port Wheels?”
He shrugged. “I’m not attached to the name. You can change it, if you’d like.”
“I can see the torches and pitchforks now.”
“Oh, who cares,” he grunted. “All I want is for my name to remain on the blueberry coffee cake. That’s my legacy. The rest does not matter.”
“It should matter.”
He shrugged. “I’ll leave that up to you.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “So you buy Port Wheels and…then what?”
“I’ll be the owner of both establishments, but I’ll make you my business manager. I’ll step down from the day-to-day and eventually I’ll transition out, but stay on as a silent partner. We can have weekly meetings to work all of this out when the summer season is over. You and the bike boy.”
“He’s going to freak,” she muttered.
“I’m guessing that’s a good thing?”
“A very good thing.”
“Is that a yes?”
Jess blew out a breath and scanned the bakery, a place so iconic, she felt like an imposter even being there. Yet the man before her looked at her like she was the solution, like she was a bright hope for his future.
