Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and it was making me feel equal parts sick and angry.
I knew, no matter what Brady said, that it would absolutely not be the same if some big corporation took over. Everything that made Patty’s Petals special, that made it stand out from places like Simply Flowers across town—the love, the caring, the family atmosphere—would be the first things to go once a bunch of executive types got their hands on the place.
But what was I going to do? What could I do?
Nothing.
“Not a big deal,” I repeated, my voice thankfully empty of most of the emotions that I was feeling. “Right. Sure.”
It felt like my entire world was spinning out of control and had completely come to a stop, all at the same time. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment, wanting nothing more than to run screaming from the room.
Or to ask too many questions that would have been completely out of line.
Questions I probably didn’t want to know the answers to, anyway.
I wanted to do those things, and more, but the fact of the matter was that I wouldn’t. Couldn’t. The decision was out of my hands, and all I could do was help my new boss get up to speed so that he could cash in on the business that his father had spent years building with my help.
So that Brady could take away everything that was beautiful in my life.
Chapter Eleven - Joanne
It had been almost three hours—it was almost lunchtime, thank God—since Brady had dropped the bombshell that he would be selling the flower shop. Even though I had had a little time to let the information sink in, it was still new and shocking enough to rock me—to make me physically shudder—every time I thought about it.
Which had been pretty much constantly during the time that had passed.
The idea of Patty’s Petals becoming just another corporate franchise was impossible for me to wrap my mind around. It didn’t feel like it was something that could actually happen. But no matter how many times I told myself that I misunderstood, or that Brady might change his mind—or even that I was just stuck in a bad dream—I’d take another look at Brady's gorgeous-but-emotionless face and feel that shudder go through my body again, realizing that it was all too real.
To add insult to injury, I'd been stuck in the office within arm’s reach of Brady all morning. While I may have considered that a blessing before I’d heard the news, it had only felt like a curse ever since.
I needed some time alone. Preferably with flowers to arrange, something to keep my hands and my brain occupied enough that I could relax a little. Something that wouldn’t let my mind wander to all of the nightmare scenarios it had come up with in the hours since Brady’s announcement. Like how Patty’s Petals would turn into just another place that sold flowers—no character, no soul. No family. If that was how it would be, the customers who Henry and Naomi and I had spent years getting to know and working hard to please might as well start buying their roses at the grocery store.
To see the place stripped of everything that had made it stand out—had made it special—would almost be worse than seeing it closed down completely. Either way, though, I knew I didn’t want to be a part of that. I wasn’t going to stick around while everything I worked for and everything, I stood for was sold off to the highest bidder.
For now, though, I didn’t have many alternatives.
Brady still had a lot of questions about the business, and I worked for him. I couldn’t just get up and wander off—even if, from my heart’s perspective, it felt totally justified. And better to have Brady there with me, where I knew what was happening and what he was doing, than to leave him to his own devices.
At least Naomi had the day off. I hated the fact that I’d have to break the news to her. Naomi had become like a little sister, and even if the younger woman didn’t have the same passion for the place that I did, I knew that working there was still something she enjoyed, something she could count on.
I never liked seeing Naomi upset, but I definitely wanted to tell her myself rather than let her be blindsided by the news, like I had been. And I needed to do it sooner rather than later.
But… not now.
For now, I had enough on my plate just keeping myself together. Professional. Between worrying and stressing and taking care of everything Brady had asked for, it was just about all I could handle. If I added Naomi to the mix before I got a handle on my own emotions, I might just lose it.