Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts

of his in a way that dared her to accuse him of being
biased.
    She’d take that dare. He was.
    “I dunno,” Todd said with a shrug. “It doesn’t do much for me.
I don’t sell chocolate at my place.”
    “But I sell wine,” Ed reminded him, “and it goes pretty damn
good with chocolate. We should put our heads together and see what we can come
up with,” he said to Samantha.
    “I think it’s a smart idea,” Heinrich put in. “And if it brings
people here, it’s good for all of us. Why not capitalize on the fact that our
town has a chocolate factory?”
    “I like the idea, too,” Annemarie said.
    “God knows we need to do something after the dead winter we’ve
had,” Olivia added. “And I’d rather offer some special packages and have my
place full than sit around and do nothing until the bank takes it.” Her cheeks
turned red and she cast an apologetic glance at Blake. “No offense.”
    “None taken,” he assured her. “Cascade Mutual wants to be part
of this community, and working together is in all our best interests.”
    What a hypocrite, thought
Samantha.
    Discussion continued for another ten minutes, with Hildy
raising every kind of imaginable objection. Finally Todd shrugged and said, “Do
what you want. It won’t affect my business either way.”
    “That’s for sure,” Charley muttered in disgust. “As long as
there are losers and beer in the world, he’ll be fine.”
    “We’ll take a vote,” Ed announced. “Do I have a motion?”
    The vote was almost unanimous, with Todd abstaining and Hildy
casting a resounding no.
    “This is a waste of money,” she informed Ed as she left, but
several people lingered to congratulate Samantha on her great idea.
    “I’ll be happy to help with the planning,” Olivia
volunteered.
    “Me, too,” Cass said.
    “I’m already thinking about the menu for your chocolate
dinner,” said Charley. “How does chocolate pasta with French cheese and
artichokes sound for one of the courses?”
    “Heavenly,” Samantha murmured. And expensive. “Remember, we
need to turn a profit.”
    “Trust me, we will.”
    “I think this will be wonderful, ”
Heinrich gushed. “We could become the perfect Northwest destination for lovers.
Annemarie,” he called, hurrying after her. “We should work together on a
romantic package.”
    “Don’t forget to include chocolates in it,” Samantha called
after him, and he grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.
    They were on their way. She beamed as people walked past,
promising to help.
    “I think you’d better set up an email loop,” Jonathan Templar
suggested. He was her computer tech expert and owner of Geek Gods Computer
Services. “So you can all keep one another up-to-date.”
    “Gee, I wonder who we can get to do that,” she teased.
“Hopefully, someone who works cheap.”
    “Since it’s for the town, I’ll offer my services for free,” he
said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “And I’ll build you a special website. I
can have it up and running in a couple of days.”
    “You’re my hero,” she said, and kissed him on the cheek, making
his whole face turn russet.
    From the corner of her eye she caught sight of Blake, old Mr.
Community Spirit, talking with Ed while watching her. He gave her what he must
have considered an encouraging smile, which made her seethe. Oh, yeah, the bank
wanted to do what it could to help the community, all right. Unless a business
was really in trouble. Then they could forget it.
    She turned her back on him and said to Charley, “Let’s go. I’ve
got a lot of work to do.” Like saving a company.

Chapter Eight
    If you can’t manage your family, what hope do you have of
managing a business?
    —Muriel Sterling, When Family
Matters
    I t was going on two in the afternoon and
Muriel had done about all she wanted to for one day. She’d gotten dressed. Now
she was on the couch, looking through one of her photo albums.
    The cordless phone rang and she picked it up from the