AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He didn’t say anything for a while, and she wondered if maybe he was angry at her and trying to figure out how to tell her that her apology wasn’t enough.
But he couldn’t be angry. He hadn’t been anyway.
“I guess I never thought that you were taking advantage of me. I just wanted to help you. I... I enjoy working with you, enjoy the challenge of trying to make the diner profitable. I love challenges. And this was a good one.”
She didn’t see the diner as a challenge. She saw it as work. A stepping stone to get what she wanted.
“The diner serves people, gives them smiles, it provides a place in the Strawberry Sands community for people to gather, to eat good food, and to fellowship with each other. I don’t think you understand the place the diner has in the community. It’s fun to be a part of that. It’s fun to try to make it grow.”
That was the most insight she had into Griff’s character and why he had done what he had done.
It sounded like it was all about service to him. About serving others and making them happy. About making the diner successful for her, yes, but also about providing value to the community.
He had a real heart for people. One that she admired and respected. One that she could learn from. Because her heart had been very selfish.
“You make me feel really bad about myself.”
“How so?” he said, sounding surprised.
“I feel selfish. For me, this has been all about me, and what it can do for me, and how I can benefit from it. I didn’t hesitate to shut it down when I thought I found something better. For you, you see the diner as a way to help others. That’s...such a great way to look at it.”
“That’s not all I saw it as.” He sounded like he was confessing. And it made her curious.
“What else?”
Chapter 12
Griff sat by the fire, the heat from the stove making him drowsy. Well, at least he had been drowsy before he started talking to Chi. He’d confessed that he was attracted to her, but she hadn’t returned the sentiment. He supposed he knew she wasn’t going to, but it had made him feel bad. Discouraged. Like there wasn’t any hope for them. All she was ever going to see him as was as an employee. Maybe her best employee, but also her only one.
Maybe that was why he told her that he had been a lawyer. That he had worked hard and had been successful. He wanted her to see him as someone worthwhile. Even as he told her that he had quit being a lawyer because he didn’t want people to see him that way.
Talk about irony.
And now she wanted to know why else he was working at the diner. He told her the altruistic reasons, and they were true. The diner was a blessing to the people in Strawberry Sands, and he was a part of that on a daily basis. He brought tourists in, just with his strawberry dishes, and with their signature dishes, they’d enticed people as well. This summer, they’d had more repeat visitors than they had the summer before. People who would come back saying they thought of the food of the diner all year and couldn’t wait to return to Strawberry Sands to vacation, yes, but also to visit the diner.
That had been his goal. To expand their customer base and have repeat customers.
