Second Time Sweeter by Ros Baxter

Author:Ros Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd

Chapter Seven

Down to business

‘Well,’ the young guy who seemed to be made of gold said. ‘We like what we see.’ He smiled, treating them to perfectly white, even teeth which, while beautiful, did not look as though they had been bought from a cosmetic dentist. They looked like they had always been at home in that sweet, wide mouth. ‘And taste,’ he added, licking his sample spoon for good measure. ‘This is the best kind of story—a community that’s all on board, a town in transition from the old farming ways to better ones.’ He grinned again. ‘Organic is the future, and we’d love Sweet Pocket to be part of that.’ He stopped smiling to underline the gravity of his next point. ‘Certification all going well, of course.’

Gen stared at the golden boy. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-four or twenty-five, and he was long, lean, and brown all over, and sported a full head of the neatest, cleanest-looking dreadlocks Gen had ever seen. Not that Gen had seen that many dreadlocks in real life, she had to admit. Anyway, the point was, this boy spoke for the whole organic industry in Australia. Amazing. And she didn’t think it was a bad thing. In the last two hours he had shown them just how much he knew.

She tried to think of something intelligent to say. In the beginning she had fired him with questions, trying hard to understand the criteria, the process, the potential pitfalls. But for the last fifteen minutes she had become increasingly mesmerised watching him speak. Clearly, he loved what he did. ‘Of course,’ she echoed weakly. But what if it didn’t? Go well. What if something went wrong? Wasn’t it always the way, that when something you wanted so badly you could almost taste it was so close, that things went wrong?

That had certainly been Gen’s experience.

What would it be this time? What horror would rise up to snatch this dream from her? Would certification go wrong, somehow? Would the Spring Fair end in disaster if no one came, or, worse, if all the farmers ran back to the Big Cow, where they felt safe, if unloved?

Brodie made the first move, standing up and scraping his chair back, startling Gen out of her daze.

‘Thank you so much for your time, Mr Williams,’ she said, trying to recover her composure and reaching across to take the golden boy’s hand.

‘Call me Matt,’ he enthused, almost blinding her with his vegan good health and brilliant white teeth.

‘Okay, Matt,’ she agreed, watching as Matt shook hands with Brodie too.

Gen hadn’t failed to notice the way Matt had warmed to Brodie as Matt had shown them around the offices, Brodie asking all kinds of knowledgeable questions, making approving noises at the wall of amateur nature photographs Matt had admitted were his, and talking crops and cattle and farm practices. Right now, shaking his hand goodbye, Matt looked like he wanted to take Brodie home with him, adopt a new big brother.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.