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The emotions crossing her family’s faces ranged from elation on her mom’s and Macie’s, to interest on Nicole’s and Oliver’s, to wariness and concern on her dad’s and Zach’s, to hurt on Everett’s.
“We know you might be worried about this arrangement,” Marcus said, “but trust me: you should be more worried about usnotteaming up. You’ve all tried my ice cream and know it’s good, right?”
They all nodded, and Everett said, through emotions he was obviously trying to control, “It’s the real deal.”
“Well, making it and welcoming customers is all I’m good at. Beyond that, I don’t know the first thing about running a business.” He nodded at Joselyn’s parents. “Your daughter,” then he nodded at the others, “your sister, is brilliant. She has poured so much into this business that she deserves to be at the helm, leading it past opening day. It will be a success because of her.”
Joselyn smiled and looked down, not wanting to let her family know just how much his words affected her.
“Then you have our support,” her dad said, leaning forward to shake Marcus’s hand. “One hundred percent.” He shook Joselyn’s hand, too, and then everyone was coming forward to congratulate them.
Her dad and the rest of her family would do just what he said and support them one hundred percent. That was what Zimmermans did. But that didn’t make their reservations go away. She could still see the worry on their faces. She wanted to reach out and grab Marcus’s hand and tell them all that they were dating now, too, but she worried that telling them about that and the business would be too much to process, and the business part was the most time-sensitive.
So, instead, she said, “What are we all standing around for? We have a trailer to unpack!”
A few trips out to the trailer later, Joselyn carried a box labeled “Bedroom” into Macie’s room and found her sitting on the floor, putting two sides of a metal bed frame together.
“Help me?” Macie begged. “They’re about to bring up my box spring and mattress, and I’d rather they put it right where it goes.”
“Sure.” Joselyn put the box against the wall and sat down at the other end of the metal frame and started sliding two pieces together.
Macie glanced at the doorway. “I see you chickened out on telling everyone that you and Marcus are dating.”
Joselyn shrugged. “Baby steps.”
“How is everything going with you two?”
Joselyn also glanced toward the door, even though she already knew that the stairs were creaky enough that they’d have no trouble knowing when someone was coming. She thought of the way Marcus looked at her, especially when they saw each other for the first time that day. And the way he kissed her and wrapped his arms around her and laughed his big, booming laugh at all her jokes, listened to all her stories, and looked at her in awe whenever she started talking business.
She knew that between her blush at the thoughts and whatever expression she wore on her face that she had given pretty much everything away, especially when Macie laughed softly. “I take it things are going well.”
“They really are.” She slid the latch into place so the side she was working on wouldn’t close up and moved to the corner. “Except,” she said, pausing with one rail in each hand, “we’ve kind of been disagreeing a lot.”
Macie raised an eyebrow in question, waiting for her to continue.
“Things were going great when I was just his consultant. As soon as we started dating, though, we started having very different opinions on everything. They’re not end-of-the-world things, of course, but I don’t know. It still kind of worries me.”
“That sounds normal,” Macie said as she used her fist as a hammer to coax the two sides together.
“It does?”
“Well, yeah. Before, all of the decisions were up to only Marcus. I’m sure there were plenty of decisions that had to be made before you decided to be partners, right? Did you agree with every single choice he made?”
Joselyn thought for a moment. “No.”
“Now, though, you’re partners in the business. You didn’t have a vested interest in the details before, but you do now. Two people are making the decisions, not just one. You’re not going to agree on everything, because no two people do. That’s just not the way it works, as a business partnership or as a couple in a relationship.”
“True.” It did make sense. Perfect sense. Logical sense. Add-to-her-spreadsheet sense. But that didn’t stop the nagging feeling inside that it wasn’t just because they were business partners or just because they were a couple in a relationship. But the last time that they broke up over disagreements, before they even got a chance to work things out, Marcus had disappeared for two months.
“And it’s the fear talking,” Macie said right as Everett and Marcus started up the stairs with the box springs.
“What?” Joselyn protested. She was just shoving the last two pieces together and pinched the thin skin between her thumb and forefinger. She yelped and pulled her hand back, immediately putting the hurt hand to her mouth.
“The fear of having your own business.”
Joselyn wanted to tell her sister how wrong she was. She was the older sister of the two of them, after all. If either of them should be teasing the other of being afraid, it should be her teasing Macie. But Marcus and Everett walked in the room right then, and if she was afraid— which she wasn’t— she didn’t want either of them tothinkthat she was.
After taking more trips out to the trailer and bringing several boxes into the kitchen, Joselyn was making her way back out as Oliver brought in a stack of two boxes. “I think there’s only one more out there.”
