Read Online Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

savings account was on the verge of
flatlining.
    “So, have you come up with any ideas for how to get the money
we need?” asked Cecily.
    The elephants sitting on Samantha’s shoulders settled in for a
nice, long stay. “Other than robbing the bank, no.”
    “I still think I should take out a loan,” Cecily said. “Maybe I
could get a home equity loan on my condo.”
    “Nice try, but I told you, no loans,” Samantha insisted. “This
family isn’t going any deeper into debt.” Mom being upside down on her house was
bad enough. They didn’t need to put her sister in the same position.
    Cecily gave a fatalistic shrug. “You know, I always thought I
was pretty good at thinking outside the box, but I’ve got to admit that so far
I’m at a loss. Other than matching you up with a rich man,” she teased
Samantha.
    “Meeting a nice man, there’s an idea,” Mom said, perfectly
happy to take her seriously. “Maybe someone who’d be willing to make you a
personal loan.”
    “No problem,” Samantha said irritably. “Let’s run down to the
rich-guy mart and pick up a sucker.”
    “We wouldn’t have any luck, anyway,” Cecily said. “Your boobs
aren’t big enough.”
    Now Mom was looking thoughtful. “What’s the new bank manager
like?”
    “He’s no Arnie,” Samantha said bitterly. An image of Blake
Preston with his broad shoulders and superhero chin came running into her mind,
all dressed up in his football regalia. Samantha benched it.
    “Still, surely he could be of some help,” Mom said.
    Samantha shook her head. “I’ve met him. He’s useless.”
    “Maybe you didn’t get off on the right foot,” Mom
persisted.
    If snatching back the bribe she’d brought him counted, no, they
hadn’t. Samantha shot her sister a look that warned bodily harm if Cecily ratted
her out to Mom and said, “Trust me, he won’t be any help. A man can’t always fix
things,” she couldn’t keep from adding.
    Her mother heaved a sigh. “I wish your father was alive. He’d
know what to do.”
    “If Dad was alive we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first
place,” Samantha said, and then wanted to bite off her tongue. Just shoot me now, she thought, watching her mother’s
shoulders stiffen. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” she muttered.
Except she had and they both knew it.
    “It’s okay,” her mother said even though they both knew it
wasn’t.
    Now Samantha could hear Bailey’s voice in the background. A
moment later her youngest sister appeared on the screen, plopping onto the love
seat next to Cecily and pulling off a red leather jacket, probably a consignment
store find. Ever since the company’s profits had evaporated they’d all been
shopping secondhand. Or, in Samantha’s case, not shopping at all.
    “So what have you guys come up with?” she asked.
    “Nothing,” Samantha said. This was going to be a big waste of
time.
    “Well, I was thinking about something on the way over,” Bailey
told them. “What about some kind of fundraiser? You know, with a big thermometer
so people could see how much money we’ve raised.”
    “No,” Samantha said. “Perception is important in business and
the last thing we want is to announce to the whole world that we’re going
under.”
    “But we are going under,” Bailey pointed out.
    “No thermometers,” Samantha said sternly.
    Bailey frowned and fell back against the couch cushions,
deflated.
    “Speaking of perception,” Cecily said, “does anybody know how
to contact Mimi LeGrande? If she featured Sweet Dreams on a show, we’d be
golden.”
    Why hadn’t she thought of that?
Mimi LeGrande hosted the Food Network’s brand-new hit show All Things Chocolate. There wasn’t a bakery or chocolatier in the
country who didn’t dream of getting included in one of her shows. If she were to
give them a nod, orders would pour in from foodies and chocoholics, and their
future would be secure.
    “I heard she lives here. I could ask