AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you have a quote?” he asked.
“I don’t at this time . . . ,” she said, still trying to procure any kind of clue as to what bark dust went for these days.
“Well, we need it by next week. Do you have an opening?”
She ran back to the scheduling clipboard and saw some free time next week. An hour here, another hour there. Wait . . . how long did bark dust take to drop off? Probably depended on how much he needed.
“Um, we may have something open, but can you tell me how much you need?”
“Three cubic yards should do it.”
Great, now Laura felt really stupid, because she’d asked a question and had no idea how to quantify it. What the hell was a cubic yard and how long would that take?
“Miss?” the guy said again.
Laura didn’t know what to do or what to say. She didn’t even know what it took to order such things or if they were stocked or how many crewmen this would take.
“Can I have someone call you back?” she asked.
The man huffed, clearly irritated. “Will they call me back with answers?” he asked.
“Yes,” she assured him.
“Isn’t this Walt and Jacob’s place?” he asked.
She wanted to say no. Then yes. Then she realized that the reputation of Baughman Home Goods hinged not only on her father, but on Jake as well. And she was screwing it up.
“I can have Jacob call you himself first thing tomorrow,” she said.
“You do that. Or I’ll just go to Home Depot in Lincoln City.”
The line disconnected, and Laura once again felt like she was losing control of something she had no idea about in the first place. And it wasn’t just the business suffering, it was Jacob, her father, and possibly the crew if she kept trying to fit herself in where she clearly didn’t belong. The truth was clear. She was struggling. Trying wasn’t good enough anymore, and honestly, maybe she wasn’t trying that hard with the warehouse. She was with the flowers. But maybe Jake was right. What if she was running this place slowly into the ground? What would her father say? He’d be brokenhearted if anything happened to the company, and Jake would be, too. She knew that to be true.
Maybe California was really where she belonged.
She needed to have an honest conversation with Jacob. It didn’t matter if her pride or her future was at stake. She had to do what was best. What her mother would have wanted. Maybe she was clinging to something she should be letting go of.
After cleaning up and heading home, Laura didn’t go to her camper; instead she went straight to Jacob’s door and knocked.
“Hey,” he said, opening the door. “Come on in.”
She did and kept her head down. Until she noticed a pop of color that caught her eye. The centerpiece she’d brought him last week was proudly displayed on his kitchen table. And it looked to be holding up well.
“Everything all right?” he asked her.
She faced him an
d looked him in the eye. She wanted to be a businesswoman? She had to do what was best and have hard conversations. But when she focused on his face, she realized that there was something plaguing him, too.
“Are you all right?” she asked back.
“Yeah,” he said a little too quickly and ran a hand through his hair. Crap, this was getting weird between them. Maybe he was rethinking this whole situation. They were sleeping together, after all, and then working together, kind of. Maybe he needed space?
Why did that idea make her lungs hurt?
She couldn’t be thinking of emotions now. She had to think of the business.
“Clearly things aren’t all right for either of us,” she said. “So I’m going to start talking and you’re going to jump in here in a second and we’re going to be honest, okay?”
