“Ruthie would be proud of me for letting you row,” he said. “Men are supposed to be willing to give up the reins in a relationship. I guess oars are similar to reins. We’ll pretend they are.”
“Do I have the reins in this relationship, then?”
“Absolutely. Your wish is my command. Command me.”
“Here’s a serious command. I need to figure out what to do with the nursery so I command you to help me.”
“What to do about it?” he asked. “What’s the problem with it? I thought you were going gangbusters.”
“We are. That’s the problem. PNW Garden Supply wants to buy us.”
“For how much?”
“Five?”
“Five hundred thousand?”
“Five million.”
Erick’s eyes went wide, his mouth dropped open. It was the reaction she was hoping for. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, that was what I said. But we’ve been turning big profits the last two years. I invested it all back into the company after putting a chunk in my retirement account. Five million’s a good offer but reasonable for what the nursery’s two locations pull in.”
“Too reasonable? You want them to up their offer?”
“They already upped from four-point-five. The price is good. I’m not going to haggle. What’s hard is figuring out if I want to sell or not at any price.”
“That is a hard decision, but whatever you go with, that’s pretty incredible. I’m so proud of you. I’d high-five you but my palms are bleeding.”
The left oar fell out of Clover’s hand and she nearly dumped the boat over while retrieving it from the lake.
“Crap, sorry,” she said, fishing the oar from the water.
“Hey, you okay there?” Erick asked as he dragged her back into the boat. She’d gotten her sleeves wet but that was the extent of the damage. “Clover? Babe, what’s wrong?”
She swallowed hard and smiled at him, feeling incredibly pitiful and yet happy at the same time.
“Nothing,” she said softly. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“You’re crying. Something is wrong. Are you sad about maybe selling the business? I would be. You put a lot of work into it. It’s kind of your baby except the sort of baby you can legally sell.”
“It’s not that. It isn’t. I can start a new business. It’s just...”
“What?”
“You’re the first person in my life who’s ever said that to me about the nursery.”
“Said what?”
“That you’re proud of me.” Two hot fat tears rolled out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Hastily she wiped them off.
“Clover... I didn’t mean to make you cry. It’s a dad thing, saying, ‘I’m proud of you.’ Can’t help it.”
“It is a dad thing. But Dad never said that to me. You said it to me. The guy I’ve been dating for three days said it to me, but my own parents who have known me for thirty years haven’t. Not once. Never a single, ‘Wow, you know, Clover, we were disappointed when you quit school but you really proved us wrong. We’re proud of your success. Great job.’ It just meant a lot to hear that from you.”
“I am proud of you. You started this business only five years ago and you’re already getting a multimillion-dollar buyout offer from a competitor? That’s something to be proud of.”
“It is. It really is. I just wish they would...you know, give a damn about something other than my personal life. It’s like nothing I do matters if I’m not married and breeding. And if I’m not married and breeding, at least I could be doing something respectable like teaching. Something that doesn’t involve dirt, worms and blisters.”