Page 10 of Manhattan Bossholes

The woman frowned, confused by my sudden interest. “I said we bought the farm because of the flowers.” She glanced at her husband. “They’re my favorite.”

“Heliotrope,” I repeated, locked onto her.

Was it possible my luck was turning around?

The older man leaned in protectively. “That’s what she said. Is there a problem?”

My pulse quickened. I was on the hunt and getting closer. “I don’t know, you tell me. Are your blooms healthy?”

“What’s this about?” the man frowned at me.

“Do they have blight?” I sighed. How were they not understanding what I meant? Blight was a gigantic issue for heliotrope blooms this season—they had to have heard about it.

I could feel Piper glaring holes in the side of my head.

“You mean that disease? No, blight didn’t make the jump to the islands. We have one of the few remaining healthy farms in the country.”

“And how many acres did you say you own?” I asked.

I realized too late that perhaps my tone was a touch brusque.

Piper jumped out of her chair and grabbed my arm. “Honey, Paul is calling for us, we should go see him.”

I glanced over at the main table and saw Paul engrossed in conversation with Trent. “What are you talking about? He’s not even looking⁠—”

She wrenched my arm in a surprisingly strong grip. “We’ll be right back, folks.”

I got up and allowed her to slide her arm against mine. She led us out of the private dining room and into the restaurant’s main dining space, in a nook close to the host stand. I craned my neck to see if Maya was in view and spotted her ebony bun across the room. Hopefully she wouldn’t glance our way.

“What the hell?” Piper hissed at me. “Why are you interrogating those nice people?”

“I wasn’t interrogating them. I was asking questions,” I insisted, trying to hold on to my temper. Did she have any idea how important this was? Their heliotrope crop could be a game-changer for me, and like hell was I going to just walk away from that.

“Do you work for border patrol or something? For fuck’s sake, Vincent, you were so rude to them.” She looked so genuinely exasperated with me that I was taken aback for a second. Was it…possible that she had a point?

I mentally replayed how the conversation had gone and had to fight back a wince. Okay, from an outsider’s perspective, I supposed I could see how my excitement might have been misconstrued as rudeness.

Shit. Did that mean that I wouldn’t be able to close this deal after all?

“I’m in desperate need of heliotrope, and they’re the key,” I explained.

She screwed up her face like I was speaking another language. “Huh?”

I sighed. How was that not clear? “They have something I need, and I’m going to get it.”

She gave me a deeply unimpressed glare. “Yeah, that’s not going to cut it. I’ll need more of an explanation before I let you interrogate them again.”

Part of me wanted to ask who the hell she was to tell me what I could and couldn’t do—but then I remembered the glare the man had given me as Piper and I had gotten up from the table. A glare aimed just at me and not at all at her. If I came back to the table without her, there was a very real chance the couple wouldn’t bother to give me the time of day.

“I’m the CEO of Summit Fragrances, and I need the flower growing on their farm in order to create my next fragrance.”

Piper laughed in my face. “You really think they want to give you anything? Jean looked like she was about to cry, and Joe looked like he was going to use his cane to crack you over the head. Good luck convincing them to give you the time of day.”

Damn it. She was right.

“Can you just keep quiet and let the rest of us have a nice evening?”

“But I need⁠—”