Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Shabina owned the Sunrise Café. It was her pride and joy. She had worked hard to get the café off the ground, designing every aspect of it from the building to the dishes to the daily menus. She served breakfast and lunch only. The specials changed depending on her mood. It had always been her dream to open her own little café. She hadn’t wanted a big restaurant. She wanted a small boutique diner where she created the menu and could interact with her customers. In the beginning, her business had mostly been a deli, with take-out sandwiches and a few special orders, but it had quickly grown and now was a full restaurant with seating outside on the patio and inside the large newly renovated building.
Her parents had paid for her education, but she had worked hard to earn the money for her business. She did have a silent partner. It had been impossible to swing the amount of money she needed on her own, and she didn’t want to take any more from her parents. Their loan would have come with conditions she didn’t want to meet. Thankfully, her silent partner remained very silent and gave her no input whatsoever. Just start-up money.
It was Stella Harrison, the glue that held all the women together, who had truly been the miracle worker to make the Sunrise Café such a success. “I have to remember she’s Stella Harrison-Rossi now, boys,” Shabina murmured aloud. “She’s married to Sam. I keep forgetting that little detail. It seems like Sam’s always been around and nothing has changed, so it’s hard to remember they actually got married.”
Shabina, like most of the other business owners in the town of Knightly, attributed her success to Stella’s brilliant business plan. Stella had turned two failing resorts into an extremely successful multimillion-dollar business. She’d done it by including the smaller, faltering businesses of Knightly.
Knightly was a small town made famous for the boulders that climbers came from all over the world to ascend. Stella had gone to many of the smaller places in town, such as the Brewery, a small pub owned by Bruce Akins, a great bear of a man who brewed fantastic beer. She’d talked him into giving tours of his brewery to the high-end clientele at her resort. They’d marketed his beer as being extremely rare and difficult to get. Consequently, he’d been able to secure lucrative contracts with private clubs in Los Angeles, making his beer even more sought after.
Stella had approached Alek Donovan, owner of the local Grill, a floundering restaurant at the time, and talked him into including music at night and changing his entire menu. Shabina had helped with the menu, and Alek had added recipes from his mother’s side of the family. Raine had created brochures, and overnight the Grill had become a local hot spot and success with tourists and resort people.
Most important, Stella had made the Sunrise Café a huge destination for anyone coming to visit in Knightly. She’d practically campaigned to put the café on the map. Shabina was grateful for her friendship as well as the fact that Stella had so generously aided her in making the café such a success from the very start.
The dogs ate their food with relish. She gave them hearty meals, making certain what they ate was nutritious. Shabina showed love with food. Each of her friends had their own dog—or in Vienna Mortenson’s case, a Persian cat very aptly named Princess. The cat ruled Vienna’s household. Vienna was head of Search and Rescue, a brilliant surgical nurse, gorgeous and practical, but she was a complete pushover for her cat. Despite the ominous feeling she couldn’t shake, just the thought of Vienna and her cat made Shabina smile.
Vienna had been certain her cat would become friends with the dogs. None of the dogs were opposed to the friendship. They didn’t chase cats. They didn’t look at them with great disdain, but Princess not only snubbed dogs, she attacked viciously if they came anywhere near her, using teeth and claws in a feral manner. The dogs could have torn her to pieces, but instead they ran away and refused to go anywhere near the cat.
Sharif lifted his head and gave a short bark. The alarm went off, and then the green light on her watch signaled the gate code had been put in. Shabina’s heart accelerated. She forced herself to breathe normally. She was expecting company, and only her friends knew the gate code. Her friends and Rainier—her savior and the bane of her life.
She looked up at the security screen and recognized Harlow Frye and her beagle, Misha. Harlow was the daughter of a senator. She worked as a nurse at the hospital, but her true calling was art. Her landscape photos were gaining fame and many hung in galleries all over the world. She’d made quite a name for herself. She also did pottery, but it wasn’t her first love, although Shabina thought her work was amazing. Harlow had grown up in political circles and was graceful, knowing exactly how to respond to any situation. She was one of the strongest climbers but did prefer trad climbing to bouldering.