Free Picking Up the Pieces by Denise Grover Swank Page B

doing anything like that again.”
    “And I’m telling you that you might have every intention of saying no, but you better have a plan in place for how to handle the situation when you say yes.”
    She released a frustrated sigh. “No sense borrowing trouble, Bruce Wayne. I’ll cross that road when I come to it.”
    “You can’t—”
    “There’s nothing I can do about it now, right?”
    I hated to admit that she was right.
    “Besides, there’s plenty of other things we need to talk about. About the business.”
    My heart pounded in my chest. Had she changed her mind about making me a partner after all? It stung like a hornet in the ass, but I could hardly blame her. I decided to beat her to it. “I’ve been thinking.” I looked down at the floor. “I’m not really the business owner type, you know? Maybe you shouldn’t make me a partner, Miss Rose.”
    She was silent for several seconds, so I glanced up to look at her.
    A fire lit behind her eyes before they narrowed on me. “What in tarnation are you talking about? We made a deal, Bruce Wayne Decker. Do I strike you as a reneger? Because I never considered you one.”
    I tried to keep from smiling. “No, ma’am. To both.”
    “And what’s with this Miss Rose crap?”
    I couldn’t hold back my grin.
    Her anger faded. “Bruce Wayne, as long as I own a nursery, you’re gonna be a partner. Are we clear on that?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    She sighed. “But I guess there’s another partner in the mix.”
    I almost gasped in surprise. “ What? Who?”
    Her gaze leveled on me. “Joe.”
    Before I even thought about what I was doing, I groaned and stood. “You asked him to bail you out?”
    “No!” she protested as she stood too. She moved behind the chair and gripped the back of it as though she needed help anchoring herself. “Violet convinced him to help us and neither one of them told me until after the fact.” She paused. “He not only caught us up; he paid off the loan. Over one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, Bruce Wayne. I can’t pay that back, not for a long time.”
    “You know he hates me, Rose. He’s never gonna put up with me being a partner. But it’s okay if you don’t—”
    Her eyes narrowed again. “I thought we just agreed to put that nonsense behind us.”
    “If he’s a partner, he’s never gonna agree.”
    “You let me worry about Joe Simmons. I still own the vast majority of the business. Right now, I’m trying to work through the logistics of it all. I want to let Joe and Violet have the storefront while you and me have the landscaping business. I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to make it work, and I think we’ll need our own office. The less I deal with Violet, the better.”
    “Our own office?” I couldn’t help smiling. “Does that mean I get a desk?” I teased.
    “Do you want one?” She was serious.
    I snorted. “What would I do with a desk?”
    She shrugged. “Draw up landscaping plans. File all the paperwork for your clients. Use it as a place to keep your computer with landscaping software on it.” Her eyebrows lifted. “Do you want me to go on?”
    “You’re serious?”
    “Why wouldn’t I be? I’m dreamin’ big, Bruce Wayne. I need you to dream big with me.” Her smile widened. “Can you do that?”
    I nodded. I’d never dreamed big before, but I was willing to give it a try.

Chapter Seven
    Rose
     
    I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Mason that evening. Not because I’d changed my mind about him. It was far more likely that he’d change his mind about me when he heard all the details I hadn’t told him about the last two days.
    It was nearly five when I finally went home. The smell of something delicious hit my nose as soon as I walked in the front door. I found Maeve peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink with Muffy lying at her feet.
    “You didn’t have to cook dinner, Maeve,” I said as I walked over to the counter to check out the contents of the crockpot.