“Okay. I’m helping my dad get his store set up, and he’s doing pretty well.” Mason sensed something in Brad’s tone that made him wary.
“Good. Good. There’s a big trade show on the twenty-eighth, and I just wanted to make sure you’d be good to go by then.”
The twenty-eighth? That was just a few days after Christmas, and Mason had planned to be helping his dad with the post-Christmas inventory and restocking. Brad was well aware that setting up for a trade show took several days, and Mason insisted on overseeing all of that. That meant Mason would have to leave right after Christmas to get things ready.
“I don’t know about that. My dad needs a lot of help here still.”
“Well, I did think you were going to come back after Christmas anyway, and this is a very important show.” Brad sounded a bit annoyed.
“Why? What’s going on?” Mason sensed there was more to it.
“Bursting Blooms is going to be there. As you know, we’ve been losing market share to them, especially when it comes to the rosebush formula. I’m going to need my best man there to attract the customers away from their booth and into ours. And you’re my best man,” Brad said, ever the salesman.
Mason sighed. How could he argue with that? He wasn’t really swayed by Brad’s compliment though; he knew he was the best salesman, and he wanted the company to be successful too.
“I guess I can rearrange my schedule…” Normally, Mason would have been excited at the challenge of besting their competitor in the trade show, but the way Brad was pushing and the fact that he was enjoying his time in Pinecone Falls had him thinking otherwise. Come to think of it, he was starting to resent the way Brad couldn’t care less about his personal life, always expecting him to interrupt it with business.
“I knew I could count on you. Let’s not forget, our booth needs to be more attractive than Bursting Blooms’. I’m trying to get some intel on what their booth might look like ahead of time. We might even be able to use that information to figure out how to make theirs less appealing.” Brad lowered his voice. “If you get my drift.”
Was Brad suggesting Mason do something to the competitor’s booth? Hopefully, he just meant that they would beef up their booth after they saw what the competitors had planned. There was no way Mason would tamper with someone else’s booth.
This conversation wasn’t sitting right with Mason. Suddenly, he realized that his job had changed over the last year. Brad had been asking for things that bordered on unethical.
Mason didn’t want to rush out of town right after Christmas. He’d barely have time to go home to his apartment in the city. Funnily enough, he actually hadn’t missed his apartment or the city, with its honking horns, smog, and hustle and bustle. Pinecone Falls had been a nice, relaxing respite from all of that.
“Anyway, I was hoping you could fly in tomorrow so we could discuss it in person.”
“Tomorrow?” Mason was due to hand in the skating-pond plans the day after that, and he still had a lot of work to do. “I’m not sure about that. I’m kind of busy here. Can’t we just discuss it now over the phone?”
“I’d kind of like to talk face to face. It’s just for a couple of hours. I’ll send the limo to your house for pickup and drop-off. There’s plenty of flights, and you can do it in one day. You’ll hardly even know that you were out of town.”
Mason could tell Brad wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Okay. If it’s that important, I’ll be there.”
“Good man! I knew I could count on you.”
Brad hung up, and Mason stood with the phone in his hand for a few seconds. He could push hard on the skating-pond design and hand it in to Irene early just in case the “afternoon” trip turned into a few days. That way, he wouldn’t risk missing the deadline. But he had to wonder, what did Brad have to say in person that he couldn’t just say over the phone?
If anyone would know what Brad was up to, it would be Ginger. Mason called her.
“Hey, how’s things in Middle-of-Nowhere, Vermont?” she asked.
“Snowy. How are things back at the ranch?”
“You’ll be sorry you asked.”
Mason could hear her chair squeak as she spun around, probably to water one of the many plants she’d overloaded her office with.
“Brad’s up to something, isn’t he?” Mason asked.
“You could say that.” Ginger’s voice was lower, almost a whisper. “Remember how I told you he was getting obsessed with Bursting Blooms the other day? Well, it’s getting worse. He can’t stand that their fertilizer is outselling ours, and of course, it’s all my fault.”
“What? I hope you don’t believe that.” Ginger was about the best agricultural scientist out there. And he wasn’t just saying that because she was his best friend.
“Nah. But you know how he is. I’m working on it, but he’s worried. And you might want to be worried too.”
Apparently, Mason’s instincts had been spot on. Brad was up to something, and Ginger sensed it too. “Why do you say that?”
“He’s getting all worked up about the trade show. I really think he’s going off the deep end. I heard him talking to Stephanie about hanging around outside the Bursting Blooms booth and listening in on what they tell the customers.”
