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Lou and I worked in comfortable silence. After a while, I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket and hated that a little spark of excitement bubbled up inside of me at the thought that it might be Beck, despite the fact he’d certainly made it known last night how he felt about me.
Friends. That was all he was interested in being.
Reaching into my pocket, I expected to see a text from Emily saying she was running late, but my heart tripped over itself when I saw his name.
Beck: Good morning, Avery. I hope you have a good chat with Emily today.
Frowning, I stared at the text. How did he know I was meeting with her? I hadn’t said anything about it last night.
Me: Good morning. How did you know I had a meeting with Emily?
I saw the three dots jumping on the screen and hated to admit that it caused my heartbeat to pick up. The fact that Beck was thinking about me this morning did something strange to my insides.
Beck: You mentioned you had a meeting with her when we were on the plane the other day.
My mouth fell open. How had he remembered that when I didn’t?
Me: Oh, that’s right. Thank you. I hope you have a good day as well.
Chewing on my lip, I let my fingers and thumbs hover over the phone as I thought about what else I wanted to say. In the end, I decided that was good enough. It would be what any friend would say. I hit send and slid my cell back into my pocket. Ignoring the need to hope he texted back, I got back to work.
Three minutes later, my phone went off. I nearly broke my hand trying to pull it back out.
Beck: Thank you. Will you be free for lunch today? I want to make it up to you about last night.
A cold, icy feeling washed over my body, and I felt my jaw tightening.
Me: Sorry. I have plans. Maybe another time.
I hit send a little harder than I should have and regretted it instantly.
Beck replied almost instantly, as if he’d been waiting for my response to his stupid question.
Beck: No problem at all. Have a good one.
“Have a good one. I’ll show you have a good one.”
“I’m sorry?” Lou asked.
Jerking my head up, I smiled. “Just talking to myself. It’s nothing important.”
Right at that moment, Emily burst into the greenhouse. “Shit, I thought it was cold in New York! It is freezing outside!”
I stared at her in shock for a moment before I put the shears down and made my way over to her. “Emily! What in the world are you doing here?”
A wide smile erupted on her face as she unwrapped what looked to be two scarves from around her neck. When I reached her, I held out my hand for the scarves.
She gave them to me, followed by her gloves. “I’d hug you, but I’m covered in snow.”
Laughing, I motioned for her to take off the coat. “Let me have your coat, and I’ll get this all hung up in Lou’s office. When did you get here? You didn’t tell me you were coming!”
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull it off. Doug insisted I come so we could do all of this together, and I agreed!”
“I’m so glad you’re here!” I said, hugging her again. “Do you want any coffee or tea?”
“Coffee sounds amazing,” Emily replied as she followed me. “Hi, Lou!”
Lou waved. “Hi, Emily. Welcome back to Montana!”
“Thanks,” Emily called back.
Once we were inside Lou’s office, I hung up Emily’s things and poured her and myself a cup of coffee.
“Want anything in it?” I asked.
“Just black, thanks.”
Handing her the coffee, I added a bit of milk to mine, then looked up to see Emily holding the coffee in her hands as if it were her own personal space heater.
“Is it just me, or is it really colder here than in New York?”
I shook my head. “I think it’s just you. How long can you stay?”
She smiled. “Well, Doug thought it would be best if I came ahead so I could start looking for a house.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
She giggled. “I know. So much is happening and so quickly, I feel like my head is spinning. But he trusts me with that, and I love him for it.”
Emily sat down in a chair, and I followed suit. “Where do we even start?” she asked.
I blew out a breath. “I suggest we work on a business plan first. We need to come up with a name and decide if we want to do an LLC or an S-corp.”
“I’m glad one of us knows what to do.” Emily grinned and took a sip of coffee. “I did do some market research for the area to analyze our competition. As of right now, no one is doing anything like this in the Hamilton area, or fifty miles from downtown Hamilton. So that’s a positive. I found a local flower farm up near Whitefish. They have a summer subscription plan starting in July that will run for seven weeks. They only deliver within a five-mile radius.”
