She waved her hand. “Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. He was still sleepin’ around on her.”
“While he might have been meetin’ the sheep at three a.m., I suspect they weren’t sleepin’.”
She made a face. “For someone who has the world by the tail, you seem mighty contradictory.” Her lips turned up into a smug grin. “As punishment, I might not tell you who I saw at the doctor’s office.”
I knew I should ignore her dangled carrot. I had no doubt she was trying to torment me. Still, I couldn’t help myself. “Who?”
She waggled her eyebrows in an exaggerated manner. “Maybe you should have a vision and find out.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Neely Kate.”
Neely Kate unbuttoned her coat and pivoted to take in the small space. “You and Bruce Wayne sure have been busy. This place was a disaster when you got the keys last week.”
I gave her a smug grin. “Mason helped too.”
“Mason?”
I knew why she was surprised. Mason was clueless when it came to anything DIY. “He painted.”
“You got your computers, I see.”
I waved my hand toward Bruce Wayne’s desk. “But they don’t work too well without electricity.”
Neely Kate scowled. “I warned you about Old Man Darby.”
“Well, if he doesn’t send an electrician to fix it by tomorrow afternoon, Mason’s gonna give him a call. I need electricity by then to get the phone and Wi-Fi installed.”
“What’s the hurry? You’re not even opening for another month.”
“You know I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothing. And Bruce Wayne says if he’s getting paid, he might as well be working.” I shrugged. “So here we are.”
I sat in one the chairs by the window, and she sat in the brown chair beside me, tucking her feet underneath her. “You’re sure making it nice. How much time are you planning on spending in here?”
“I dunno yet. Since we don’t have any jobs to work on right now, I splurged and got us professional landscaping software. Bruce Wayne and I can spend our time learning how to use it.” I shifted in my chair, getting antsy. “So, are you gonna tell me who you saw at the doctor’s office or not?”
Her eyes lit up. “Lucky for you, I don’t hold a grudge.”
I could have argued that point, but wisely held my tongue.
“Hilary.”
“Joe’s Hilary?”
“Do we know any other?” she asked, incredulous.
“What was she doing there? She has a doctor in Little Rock. In fact, what’s she doin’ in Henryetta period?”
“She’s moved here.”
I bolted upright like someone had held a lit candle to my butt. “What?”
“I heard she rented one of those restored older homes off the square.”
“Why?”
She scrunched her nose. “You know why. She needs to be close to Joe to get him back. Have you talked to him?”
I shook my head. “Not since we had the argument over him going behind my back and hiring a company to clean up the nursery after it was vandalized.” It had been more than a week, now that I stopped to think about it.
“Are you still planning to make him an official partner?”
Joe had bailed out the nursery after my sister Violet overextended us financially. She’d missed multiple loan payments, putting us in danger of a foreclosure. It didn’t help that a bunch of cash had been stolen from me in the lobby of the Henryetta Bank before I could make a deposit. In any case, we’d been in trouble up to our eyeballs. Violet had gone behind my back to ask Joe—whose family was probably rich enough to own half the state of Arkansas—to loan us the missing payments. Instead, he’d paid off the entire loan. All one hundred thirty-six thousand dollars of it. Everyone kept reminding me that I hadn’t entered into any type of legal agreement with him, which meant essentially his money was a gift. But what he really wanted was to be a partner. He’d put so much work into the nursery since the very beginning, I couldn’t help but think that getting me back wasn’t his only motivation.
“Yes.”
Neely Kate groaned, then leaned her head back on the seat. “Rose.”
The disappointment in her voice hurt more than I cared to admit. “Mason’s fine with it,” I said. “Why can’t you be?”
She gripped the arms of the chair and leaned forward. “If you think Mason is fine with this, then you’re even more deluded than I thought you were.” She stood, putting her hands on her hips. “Mason’s toleratin’ it because he loves you and doesn’t want to make waves.” She pointed her finger in my face. “You better think long and hard before you give that man any legal rights to the business, Rose Gardner. You can’t go undoin’ it once it’s done. You’ll be stuck with him indefinitely.”
I paused. “I know.”
She shook her head once for emphasis, then gave me a soft smile. “You have a good heart, Rose. But sooner or later, it’s gonna bite you in the behind.”
I grinned. “Then let’s hope it bites me later.”