Page 84 of The One You Want

Chapter 20

Iwalked through town square the next afternoon, feeling like my feet were hardly touching the ground. I called out hellos to everyone I passed. I got a few confused glances of the who-the-heck-is-that variety, but most people seemed to find my smile infectious and wavedback.

I couldn’t ever remember feeling like this. For the first time in my entire life, I knew exactly what I wanted. And it wasn’t just a pipe dream—I had a plan. A realistic plan, and plenty of people to help me executeit.

I couldn’t wait to tell Grant about the reaction from the Libbies last night. Not just that they had seemed impressed by my pieces—though that was certainly gratifying. No, the thing I couldn’t seem to get over was how eager so many of them had been to help me. Those girlsbelievedinme.

I tried to make myself wait until Potter’s Blooms closed, so I wouldn’t distract him at work, but I was literally bouncing off the walls. I wanted to get started immediately. I had spent a few hours researching online and from what I gathered, I was going to need a business plan before I did anything else. Who better to help me figure that out than a guy who was successfully running his ownbusiness?

I compromised for my earliness by stopping in at the Lilac Cafe on my way and picking up a few sandwiches. I wasn’t totally throwing off his day if I brought him lunch,right?

Kia was at the register but jerked her chin towards the back when she saw me. I waved and headed down the hall to see myguy.

He was standing at the worktable, his back to me, hands full of cut flowers. I paused for a moment to take him in. The broad expanse of his back, flannel—blue today—pulled tight over thick muscle. His head was bowed so I couldn’t see his beard, but I had a good view of his head of thick dark hair. He was sobeautiful.

I waited for the familiar flutter in my belly, but the butterflies remained still. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something seemed off.That’s silly,I told myself.You can’t even see hisface.

“Grant?”

He stilled for a second before turning and it was then that I realized what felt strange—he’d been working in silence. There was no music playing and he wasn’t talking to hisflowers.

When he turned to face me, my stomach plummeted. He looked…flat. Shut down. His usually expressive face, those dark eyes I loved so much, were closed off to me. I had no idea what he was thinking or feeling and for some reason, that really freaked meout.

“Are youokay?”

He smiled, but it looked forced. “I’m fine.” Then he turned back to his flowers without another word. Biting my lip and trying to ignore the growing feeling of dread in my stomach, I approachedhim.

“How’d the meeting go last night?” he asked without looking up from theroses.

“It went really well.” In spite of the strange worry lodged in my gut, I couldn’t help the burst of optimism that came with my words. “I told the girls I wanted to try to make a career of my jewelry business and they wereamazing.”

He looked up at me and I finally saw that hint of warmth in his eyes. “Yeah?”

I nodded, feeling much better for the softened expression on his face. “I ended up bringing them back to the condo to see mystuff—”

“A drunk girl field trip, eh?” he asked,chuckling.

I rolled my eyes. “They were every bit as loud and obnoxious on the walk over as you wouldguess.”

“But you showed them yourpieces?”

I jumped up onto one of the work stools. “I did. They were so excited. Like, they really liked them, I could tell. A bunch of them even ordered pieces rightthere.”

“Of course they liked them,” he said, smilingsoftly.

I spun the stool seat a little, back and forth, too excited to keep still. “Then they all started talking about ways they could help. Jill said she’d talk to the guy who runs the enrichment program over at the community college. She thinks they might let me teach a few classes to make some money while I get itstarted.”

“That’s a greatidea.”

“And it would give me good practice, you know? Because I’m thinking once I open up my own shop it would be a good idea to offer classesthere—”

His eyebrows went up. “You want to open your ownshop?”

I nodded, practically bursting with excitement. “To start, I’m looking into some stores to sell my stuff on commission. I’m going to work on a website, too, and maybe try to get on Etsy.” I took a deep breath. “But I think the ultimate goal is definitely to someday open my ownplace.”

“That’s…wow. That sounds reallyambitious.”

Hmm. That wasn’t the exact reaction I was expecting from him. “I know it’s not something that would be easy. I was hoping you might know something about business plans, actually, because I’m going to need one of those.” I took another breath. “I think I’m going to talk to my grandfather, too. I might be able to convince him to open up some of my trust to invest in thebusiness.”