Playing With Trouble (Desire Bay 1)

“I don’t think I’ll have time for a book club, but I appreciate the offer,” Laura said with a smile, trying to be polite.

“Oh, of course! You’re going to be so busy with that shop. Your father said you’re setting to improve it! Sell flowers and all. That’s great.”

Her dad was talking about her? That made her smile. It also gave her hope that this next month would go well since her father already seemed to be spouting his faith in her to others. Jake could take note of that. She could make this work. And she would.

Roberta got a ping on her phone and giggled as she read the text message.

“I have to get going—that’s your father now. His ears must have been burning.” She smiled. “And he sure knows how to text sexy and this is a code red.”

Ew! Laura could have lived the rest of her life not knowing that her father was apparently skilled at sexting.

“My shop is just a couple doors down,” Roberta called loudly as she grabbed her leather jacket of the back of a bar stool and waved. “You come see me, we’ll chat more!”

Roberta left and Laura realized her father had a more active sex life than she did. Which gave her the creeps, and now that drink she needed would have to be a double.

She made her way to the counter where, thank heaven, Hannah read her mind. A double vodka cranberry was waiting with a cherry floating on top.

“First time meeting your new stepmom, eh?” Hannah joked.

Laura finally shimmied her way between two older men, both in worn Carhartt jeans being held up by suspenders and smelling of sawdust and salt water. Coastal men through and through.

She smiled at the bald one to her left. He just stared like she was a different life form. So she tried the gentleman on her right. He had to be pushing seventy and sported a gray beard down to his chest. The option of making friends didn’t look promising.

She returned her attention to Hannah. “Yeah, I guess.” She took several hearty swallows of her drink.

“Well, gear up for a homecoming there, Queenie, because everyone is excited to see you.”

“Everyone?” Laura asked. And she missed how her best friend called her Queenie. Hannah had been the emo goth girl, total opposite of Laura, and yet they’d always been best friends.

“Yep. Your daddy’s been talking about you coming home to anyone who will listen.”

“Clearly,” Laura said around another swallow, replaying the ambush she’d just encountered with Roberta.

“And everyone is excited to see how the small-town girl became the big-city woman and is back to take over Baughman.”

Laura laughed at Hannah’s flair for dramatics. It wasn’t as glamorous as that, and yet, Hannah always made Laura feel like she was more than another plain Jane. Sure, she’d been prom queen, but Laura had never felt like more than an average girl riding around on a float made of toilet paper. It was also why she was always chasing big, exciting things, because deep down, she worried she wasn’t exciting. Even her husband had grown tired of her. She’d allowed misery so long. But she was trying. Trying to stay. Trying to start fresh.

“Baughman?” Gandalf the Gray sitting next to her said abrasively and just looked at her, perplexed. “You’re Walt Baughman’s little girl?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Laura replied.

“So you’re running the shop now?” Gandalf asked.

Laura blinked and her mouth went dry. Wasn’t that the question of the day? She wasn’t running it, exactly. But she wasn’t about to spill the details to Gandalf here about how her father had given her a month to get along with Jake and make the flower shop a success before he’d intervene and pick a real boss.

Since she’d just shown up, and with the way everyone seemed to be eyeing her, her status as Walt’s daughter wasn’t a secret. The little flower shop was no longer that, though. It was a big operation with big machinery and big piles of supplies. But it was time for Laura to take what was hers and be proud. Only then could she make a name for herself in the town and sell her flowers. Not rocks and dirt like Jake. She had to set herself apart now if she’d ever be taken seriously and as her own person. Not the business. Not Jacob Lock’s sidekick. Nope, she was in charge of the flower shop. Time she owned it.

“I’m the owner and will be working at the shop as well,” she answered, feeling confident in that. Because she was ready to turn the flower shop around and oversee it. She just had to deal with Jacob Lock and how he’d been working in the warehouse for an eternity. ?

?I’m going to revamp the floral shop,” she finished.

Hannah nodded in support while shaking a martini. But Gandalf just humphed at her.

“I thought that the shop mostly did gravel and lumber or construction-type supplies.”

“It was originally a floral shop,” she said. Granted, it had been turned into a home-and-garden store several years ago, as it turned out. And now, of course, it was a warehouse monstrosity of resources on a large scale. “I’m getting the shop back to its roots.”

“Ha-ha, pun intended?” Hannah said.