I nod. “I think I just need to sit out here by myself for a little bit.”
“Okay.” He stands and drops a kiss on the top of my head. “You know where to find me.”
Once he’s back inside, I wrap my hands around my mug, letting the warmth soothe me from the outside in.
It’s tempting to throw in the towel now. Quit before I really have the chance to fail. Nick would lose all his money, but it’s not like he doesn’t have enough to fall back on.
I stare into my latte for a long time, looking for answers in the swirls of milk.
After several minutes, I look over at the garden beds. It’s midwinter, so everything is dead at the moment, but even without the bloomsof the flowers, I’m proud of the space I created back here, taking an overgrown monstrosity and turning it into something beautiful.
It’s a little sliver of proof that I can do this. I can make something from nothing.
Bridge and Blooms can be just like this garden, only on a larger scale.
I gulp down the now-cold dregs of my latte, gather up the weeds, and toss them in the trash. Back in the house, I plant a kiss on Jack’s cheek before bounding up the stairs to BaBs to get back to work.
Jack carefully unloads his paintings from one of my delivery wagons bright and early Saturday morning, one week before the launch party for Bridge and Blooms, and two days before I officially begin to operate the business from the shop. Each canvas is bubble-wrapped within an inch of its life, which I thought was a little excessive given the whole five-minute walk, but he insisted. He’s generously handing over the three paintings he’s completed of my arrangements to go along with my Christmas painting, which will hang centered behind the cash register.
“I really wish you’d let me pay you for these.” I take each one as he unwraps it, setting them carefully on the long wooden counter where I’ll be doing most of my arranging.
He gives me an eye-roll/push-the-glasses-up-his-nose combo. “Where else would these hang? They were made to go in this space.”
“Yeah, but this is like hours and hours of your work, and I’m just taking it.” I examine the first one he completed, still marveling at the detail he captured.
“You’re not taking it, I’m giving it to you.” He unwraps my Christmas gift, now officially titledBridge and Blooms, as if he were handling theTitanicHeart of the Ocean diamond. “And I wouldn’t even be painting if it weren’t for you. So a couple small canvases is the least I could do.”
I let him lay the canvas on the front counter before wrapping my arms around him. “I still can’t quite believe this is all happening.”
“It’s not simply happening, sweet pea. You made it happen.” He kisses my forehead.
I tilt my head up for a deeper kiss. Between my regular orders, trying to get the store ready, and squeezing in one bar shift a week, there hasn’t been a lot of time for the two of us over the past few weeks. And, Jack being Jack, he never complains, never makes me feel guilty. He’s waiting for me every night when I get home, on the rare nights he doesn’t come to the store with me to walk me back to the brownstone. It’s like I dreamed up this super-perfect boyfriend and he just popped into existence.
“Oh my god, I did not sign up for this.” Gemma’s voice breaks apart our kiss.
I grin at Jack, planting one more kiss on him before stepping out of his embrace. “Yeah yeah.”
She holds up a bag. “I brought doughnuts and everything.”
I wrap her in a tight hug, holding on for way longer than I know she wants. “You’re the best.”
She riffles around in the bag, handing me a maple bar and taking a sprinkled one for herself, before hopping up onto the end of the counter.
Handing Jack an old-fashioned, I lean my butt up against thecounter where Gem sits. “I’m glad you got here early, actually, because I wanted to ask you something.”
“No, I will not participate in a threesome. At least not with you.” She gives me a wink and a grin.
“Good to know, but not what I was going to ask.” I lick a drop of frosting from my doughnut. “How would you feel about catering the launch party? Nothing big, just a couple of passed apps and maybe a charcuterie display?”
She picks a sprinkle off her doughnut but doesn’t say anything.
“I’d pay you, obviously, and I just thought it might be kind of a good test run, you know?” I was confident she’d jump at the chance, but she looks so miserable I can’t stop myself from throwing my arm around her shoulder. “Okay, no worries, I can totally find someone else. I’m sorry I asked, Gem. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She gently removes herself from my embrace. “I’m not upset with you, Sade. I’m mad at myself.”
Jack gives me a worried look and slowly starts to move toward the office in the back, motioning in a very not-subtle way that he’ll give us some space.
Once he’s cleared the room, I move so I’m standing right in front of her. “Why are you mad at yourself?”
