Page 30 of The One You Want

“Who’s a good boy?” Grant murmured, rubbing him behind the ears. If I tried that I would most definitely lose a finger, at least. Ernie started to rub his furry face against Grant’s cheek. “Who’s a little cuddle monster?” he asked thecat.

“You got the monster partright.”

Grant laughed and stepped further into the room, letting out a low whistle. “Wow, bro,” he said to the cat in his arms. “This is a pretty sweet kitty pad.” He looked around at the evidence of my efforts to placate the furry demons. “Seriously, how much did this all cost? It’s like a cat wonderland in here.” Grant sounded a littleawed.

“Yeah,” I said flatly. “You’d think they might appreciate it, but no. They continue to terrorizeme.”

Grant adjusted Ernie in his arms, pressing their cheeks together so they were both looking at me with wide, innocent eyes. “Look at him, Jenny. He’s a love bug. He’s a sweet little catman.”

It struck me as really funny, those endearments dripping off Grant’s tongue in his usual grumbly, low voice, but I managed to keep a straight face. “Thatlove bugknocked all the photo albums off my bookshelf last night when I didn’t refill his water dish fastenough.”

“Sounds like my man has excellent communication skills,” Grant argued, and I did laughthen.

“Can you stop spoiling my cats so we can leave?” Iasked.

He sighed. “I suppose.” He set Ernie down on the kitty condo, giving him a final ear scratch. He leaned in close to the cat’s face. “Now you be sweet to my friend Jenny when she gets home, okay? She’s being very bravetonight.”

Something warm seemed to expand in my chest as I stood there watching them—until Lady sunk her claws deep into my ankle, snapping me right out ofit.

“Now I need to get the treats,” I muttered. “Or I’ll never get them back in there. Corralling these guys into one space is pretty much impossible…” I trailed off, watching as Grant picked up Mittens, setting him next to Ernie, both of them staying exactly where he’d placed them. Lady tore herself away from my ankles and pranced right into the room, rubbing her face against his leg when shepassed.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered. Grant handed out a few more head pats and then nudged me out of the room, shutting the door behind us. None of them tried to make a run for it. None of them attacked him to create a diversion for the others to escape. They all just…stayedput.

“If the flower shop doesn’t work out, I will totally pay you to wrangle my cats on a dailybasis.”

He laughed, picking up the box he’d abandoned. “Come on, let’s get over there so you can setup.”

Shaking my head at the closed door—through which zero cat screeching could be heard—I picked up my own box and followed himdownstairs.

With Grant’s help, it only took two trips to bring all my supplies downstairs. He got the boxes arranged in his flower cart and we set off down the street. “Has this been hard to get used to?” I asked, gesturing at thecart.

“What, you mean the fact that I can’t just load up my truck to get my flowers to where they need to be?” He grinned at me. “Yeah, it’s been an adjustment. But it’s nice, too. I used to spend hours stuck in the car when I was living in Traverse City and making deliveries. That got pretty damntedious.”

I would imagine for a guy like him, a guy who pretty much wanted to be outdoors all day, sitting in a truck would have been worse thantedious.

“You think you’ll stay past theautumn?”

“I hope I can. Sales at the shop have been decent this summer and I’m not seeing much drop off now that the season is changing, which gives me some hope that my customers aren’t all tourists.” He paused. “Winter will be tough,though.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. Winter was tough for everyone who stayed on Lilac Bay. There was no bridge connecting us to the mainland. When the bay started to freeze over, the boats couldn’t get through and we were pretty much stranded for months onend.

“I should be able to keep the store itself pretty well stocked from my greenhouse,” he said. “But I usually do some weddings in the winter to make up for the lost income from the markets, and that will be tricky. I mean, just getting to the mainland will be difficult,right?”

“Right.” Eventually, if the temps got low enough, an ice bridge would form and we could cross the bay on jet skis, but it was never guaranteed. Some years the bridge formed really late, some years it only lasted a week, and some years it never formed at all. It was a crapshoot and we had no power over MotherNature.

There was a company that ran small prop planes back and forth every day, but it was too expensive for most islanders to do more than a few times aseason.

My stomach sank at the thought, wondering how he could possibly stay here year round if he needed to be on the mainland throughout thewinter.

“I have a couple things always scheduled for December and January,” he went on. “Return customers, all events I worked in the past. A holiday party, a charity gala, stuff like that. The plan is to ship in the stock from wholesalers down south and then I’ll fly over to do the arrangements.” He shrugged. “We’ll see how it goes. If that set-up works, I could start adding weddings in the sameway.”

I sent up a little prayer to the universe, hoping it would work for him. I knew that even if Grant had to move back to the mainland, I would still see him most weeks in the summer and fall at the markets. But it was really nice having another friend right here on the island with me. Especially when the winter months hit, and everything would feel just a little more dreary. Cabin fever usually set in right around New Year and I hated that feeling of beingtrapped.

Maybe, with Grant around, I would get out of the house more often. A girl couldhope.

“You’re quiet,” he pointed out. “Younervous?”

His words startled me a little. I honestly hadn’t even been thinking about the meeting, too caught up in the idea of him leaving, but as soon as he said the words, anxiety came flooding backin.