Her eyebrows rose, as if she was silently asking him what the hell that had to do with anything.
He squirmed uncomfortably. “The thing is, last night as I thought about your situation…”
“You can’t help me. I have to handle my dad alone.”
“I’m not talking about your dad. I’m talking about your business.”
“And I thought we’d already been over this, too. I don’t want your money.”
“I’m not offering you money. I solve business problems all the time. And sitting there last night, I realized that if I’m such a hotshot, I should be able to solve yours, too.”
She laughed. That hadn’t occurred to her, but it was true. If he was such a hotshot he should be able to muddle through her measly little expansion problem. “Without offering me money.”
“Right. We took that off the table the first week I was here.”
“So. Now you’re going to think about my problem?”
He picked up the saltshaker, turned it over in his hands as if studying it. “Actually, I solved it.”
She snorted a laugh. “Right.”
He finally caught her gaze. “I did. I don’t know if you’re going to be happy with the answer, but I took all the variables I knew into consideration, and realized that if I were in your position, I’d use the house as collateral for a line of credit.”
She gasped. “Use my house?”
“I woke up my chief financial officer last night and had him run some numbers.”
Wyatt pulled a paper from his back pocket. “He checked the value of your house against comps in the area, and estimates your house’s value here.” Wyatt pointed at the top number. “Which means you could easily get a hundred thousand dollar line of credit with the house as collateral.”
She raised her gaze to his slowly. “But then I’d have a payment every month.”
“You’d also have a van and an assistant, and you could take more weddings.”
The truth of that hit her with a happy lift of her spirits. Though part of her struggled against it, her mind shifted into planning mode. “And maybe birthday cakes.”
“And birthday cakes.” He smiled sheepishly. “I ate that whole damned cake.”
“Wyatt! That much sugar’s not good for you.”
“I know, but I’m out of food except for cereal, and I couldn’t go to the diner.”
Her face heated. “You can go wherever you want.”
“I’ll be damned if I’ll give money to a guy who beat his family.”
Owen came barreling into the kitchen. “Ready to pway?”
Wyatt pointed at the door. “You get everything set up outside. I’ll be there in a minute.” Owen raced out the door as Claire and Lainie appeared with their dolls.
“Are you going outside?”
They nodded.
Missy straightened the collar of Claire’s shirt. “Okay. You know the rules. Stay in the yard.”
They left and Wyatt caught her hand. “So? What do you think? Could you be okay with a line of credit?”
The warmth of his hand holding hers rendered her speechless for a few seconds, but she reminded herself he wasn’t interested in her romantically, unless it was for an affair. What he was doing now was making up for talking about her to her dad.
Of course, that was sort of nice, too. If he didn’t think of her as a friend, he’d blow off what he’d done. Instead, he was making it up to her. As a friend would.
She relaxed a bit. It wasn’t wrong to take advice from a friend. Especially a friend who had business expertise. “It’s a big step. I don’t want to lose this house.”
“Hey, who yelled at me for not having faith in you?”
“I did.”
“Then have some faith in yourself. And diversify. I have a couple of people on staff who could look into markets for your cakes. Or you could just go to the grocery stores and restaurants in neighboring towns and offer them a cake or two. Make the first week’s free. When they see the reaction to them, they’ll order.”
Warmth spread through her. A feeling of normalcy returned. “You think I can do this?”
“Hell, yeah.” Wyatt rose. “But it’s more important that you know you can do it.”
AT LUNCHTIME SHE FED the kids, wondering what Wyatt was eating. Then she saw him leave on his bike. She wouldn’t let herself consider that he might be going to the diner. He’d said he wouldn’t, but in her life people said a lot of things, then did the opposite. She just hoped he’d respect her enough not to say anything to her dad, not to warn him away or yell at him.
Twenty minutes later, when he returned with a bag from the grocery store, she relaxed. From the size of the bag, she knew he hadn’t had enough time to shop as well as visit her dad. Maybe he really was a guy true to his word?
Falling into her normal daily routine, she straightened up the house while the kids napped. She picked up toys and vacuumed the living room and playroom floors. When she walked into the kitchen, she saw Wyatt at the door.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to know you’re a thorough vacuumer.”
She laughed and opened the screen door. “Did you get lunch?”
“I stopped at the store for bread and deli meat. Do you know they don’t have an in-house bakery anymore? They could use some homemade cakes in their baked goods section.”
“You can stop spying for me. Once I get an assistant I’ll investigate every store in the area.”
“So you’ve decided to get the line of credit?”
“Yes. Using the house as collateral.”
He walked to the table. “Can we sit?”
“Why? Are you going to help me call the bank?”
He pulled some papers from his back pocket. “Actually, I’d like to be the bank.”
She gasped. “I told you I don’t want your money.”
“And I told you that I feel responsible for the mess with your dad yesterday. This is my way of making that up to you.” He caught her gaze. “Besides, I’m going to give you a point And a half below the current interest rate at the bank, and my people have worked out a very flexible repayment schedule. No matter what happens with your business, you will not lose this house.”
Her heart tripped over itself in her chest. She wouldn’t lose her house? She didn’t know a bank that promised that. And Wyatt hadn’t gone to the diner. He’d bought deli meat. Even though she knew he was growing tired of not eating well, he’d been true to his word.
“And it’s a loan?”
He handed the papers to her. “Read the agreement. Though I promise not to take the house if you default, a new payment schedule will be created. But if you sell the house, you have to pay me the balance of the loan with the proceeds. No matter what happens, you have to pay back the hundred grand.” He pointed to a paragraph at the bottom of page one. “And you have to take out a life insurance policy