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Not only was the potential sale a business decision, but I was pretty certain it would also be a make-or-break moment for whatever the future might hold between Joanne and me.
“I’m going to need some time,” I said, finally. “I can’t decide this right now. I need to think.”
“Of course,” Mike said, nodding. “I know this was probably unexpected for you. How about if I give you, say… forty-eight hours? I can come back, and we can talk more then.”
Two days didn’t exactly sound like much, but it was better than being put on the spot for an answer right that minute. It would at least give me a chance to clear my head a little, to weigh the pros and cons. Tothink.
“Okay,” I said. “Forty-eight hours, and we can talk some more.”
“Think hard about it, Brady. You have the opportunity of a lifetime here, and I know we can make a deal that will be very beneficial for both of us. For the whole community.”
I nodded and tried to muster a little smile as a show of confidence as Mike left, but the best I could come up with was a slight grimace as I replayed the words in my head.
You have the opportunity of a lifetime.
Think hard.
I snorted. As if I could do anything else. It would be, without a doubt, the most important decision I’d ever made.
My happiness, my finances, my potential future with Joanne all hung in the balance. If I said no to the deal, I had no doubt that Mike and his New York bosses would do their best to put Patty’s Petals out of business. It would ruin me financially and Joanne and Naomi would be out of a job, too. If I said yes to the deal, I’d be able to pay off my father’s debts with no problem. But that would mean leaving everything behind.
LeavingJoanne.
I walked back into the office and slumped down into the creaky chair. The words I’d heard from my dad countless times as a teenager immediately sprang to mind:
Think, Brady. Pay attention.
But even louder than the memory of my father’s voice was the voice of my heart. Not something I had a lot of experience paying attention to… but in this case, also not something I was sure I’d be able to ignore:
Don’t fuck it up.
Chapter Thirty-Four - Joanne
I drummed my fingers against the counter as I glanced over my shoulder at the office door.
Still quiet. Still closed.
Neither I nor Brady normally worked with the door closed, but today he had said he was going to have a “busy morning,” whatever that meant. I had wanted to ask, but he had disappeared and closed the door behind him without another word.
That had been within five minutes of opening the shop, and I had been sitting—waiting, watching,wondering—for two hours since then.
Two hours that had felt likeyears.
It was actually the first time in weeks—the first time since I’d met Brady—that I hadn’t felt like life was moving at the speed of light. And especially since our first date, with one day bleeding into the next and me feeling as if I was floating on a cloud.
Between working together all day and sleeping together most nights, it had started to feel as though we were inseparable, as if our lives were already sort of blending together, even though we hadn’t specifically discussed anything more permanent than our blissfully-happy-dating status.
I had been tempted to bring up potential plans for the future plenty of times, but the thought couldn’t cross my mind without bringing up theothersubject that had been brushed aside: The flower shop.
Ifeltlike Brady was coming around, like he was really enjoying the work and had maybe reconsidered selling—he hadn’t spoken about selling it again, after all. But that was just it—neitherof us had spoken about it, so I couldn’t be sure.
And if Bradywasstill planning on selling?
My stomach cramped at the thought. Yeah, it was almost better not to know.
So even though I was intensely curious about what my boss could possibly be doing that required him to be secluded in the office for hours, I was trying not to read too much into it. Definitely trying not to take it personally.
Brady wasn’t normally very talkative even on a good day, but this morning he’d been even more quiet than usual. He’d still seemed happy to see me, but his smile when we’d greeted each other that morning hadn’t quite reached his eyes.
