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I’d barely even opened the door before I heard Luca’s familiar voice.
“Jo! The usual?”
With a grin and a nod, I stepped back outside and took a seat at one of the few empty patio tables. I might be losing my job, but at least I still had good friends. Luca and Naomi, and… well, that was about it, actually. But those two were usually more than enough to give me the kind of help and support I needed.
Especially now—and really, ever since Henry had passed away.
Henry had been another person who would’ve fallen into the “good friends” column—and more than that: a mentor, a father figure. I still felt the loss every single day, even if it was slowly getting easier to deal with.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” Luca’s sing-song voice pulled me from my thoughts and made me smile as he handed me my mocha.
It was practically impossible to feel too down when Luca was around—and not just because he was usually carrying that sweet, sweet goodness in a cup that I couldn’t get enough of.
He always had a nice thing to say about… well, everything, really.
“I was hoping you’d stop in today,” Luca said, grinning at me. “I wanted to ask you about your hot new boss—Henry’s son, right?”
I nodded and looked down at my drink to hide the frown that had immediately crossed my face at the mention of Brady. “Yeah, that’s him. He came in here?”
“For coffee the other day.” Luca’s eyes sparkled as he clasped his hands together and wiggled his eyebrows. “Twocoffees, as I recall.”
“Oh, right. Yeah. He’s nice, I guess.”
I looked back up to see Luca staring at me incredulously. “Nice… youguess? This hot guy—do you think Henry was that hot like forty years ago or whatever? —anyway, thisreallyhot guy swoops down out of nowhere and not only do you get to work with him, but he’s already buying you things, and that’s all I get?Nice? Surely you can give me a little more than that. I bet he’s less grumpy than Henry was, for sure.”
“I miss Henry being grumpy,” I said, flatly.
Ididmiss it, and everything else about Henry, too. Not to mention the stability and steadiness that he had provided in my life. No point in dwelling on that now, though.
But damn, could my friends stop crushing on Brady just a little? Them going on and on about him wasn’t really helping my emotional state.
I couldn’ttotallyblame them, of course. Brady was undeniably hot. And nice. And built, and sexy…
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter that he’s nice,” I said, voicing my irritation, even though I hadn’t really meant to. “None of it matters.”
“Why? Don’t be so down, Jo. The glass is always half-full, remember?”
I tried to smile, but it turned into a defeated sigh instead.
Normally, Luca’s optimism was one of the things I loved about the guy, one of the things I liked to think the two of us had in common. But lately it had been harder for me to see the world that way, and there were some things even Luca couldn’t make better with his sunny approach to life.
This was definitely one of those things.
“The glass isn’t half-full today, Luca. Sorry. I just can’t see the good side of Brady trying to sell the place out from under me.”
“Oh my… what? He’s gonna sell?” he sat down across from me, eyes wide. He’d apparently given up on any pretense of actually working, no matter that it was the lunch rush. “I didn’t know.But,” his face lit up with his characteristic smile, “I can still think of how it might end up being a good thing.”
I grinned despite myself—Luca’s good cheer reallywasinfectious—and shook my head. “Really? I can’t. The whole thing is out of my hands now.”
“It doesn’t have to be out of your hands.” He shrugged. “Buy the place yourself.”
Of all the things I’d anticipated Luca might say,thatthought hadn’t even crossed my mind—wasn’t even on my radar, it was so far-fetched.
“Oh, okay,” I said, rolling my eyes even though the impossible idea sent a jolt of excitement through me. “Maybe I can write him a check and just hope he never cashes it. Come on, Luca. I don’t have any savings. I barely have the money for this coffee. How would I buy the flower shop?”
“You think I had tons of money when I opened this place?” Luca jerked his thumb back toward the coffee shop. “Hello, that’s what loans are for.”
I snorted. “Yeah, because I’m a great candidate for a loan. I live with my mom. I have shitty credit. I can just see the bankers lining up to hand me money now.”
