“Thanks for finding my box, Gram.”
“You used to work on that box for hours. You were so little when you started, your grandfather had to help you cut the pictures out of the magazines because you cried if you cut into the pretty dresses.”
She’d had such big dreams. Prince Charming was going to charge into her life with his white horse and his pink shirt and sweep her off her feet. There would be romance and roses and champagne every day, and he’d write poems about his love for her.
Things had definitely changed since then. If and when she finally reached a point where settling down and starting a family was an option, she’d settle for love, reliability and respect over romance and roses.
She was on her second pancake by the time Sean finally appeared, his hair damp from his shower, and he dug in with relish after making a fuss over Gram.
“I’m going to cry when you go back to Florida, and I’m back to instant oatmeal and fast food drive-through windows,” he said.
“Kiss ass,” Emma muttered against the rim of her coffee mug, but he just grinned at her.
Gram plopped another pancake on Sean’s plate. “Mary invited us all to their big Fourth of July bash on Saturday. They have a party and then go watch the fireworks over the lake. I told her we’d be there, of course. She said your family sometimes comes, too, Sean.”
And there went Emma’s appetite. “You didn’t tell me that.”
He shrugged. “Mitch said he’d be there. I haven’t heard from the others yet.”
Banging her head against the table wasn’t an option, so Emma shoved another bite of blueberry pancake into her mouth and chewed slowly to buy herself time to stop screaming on the inside.
Not only were more people getting dragged into the mess she’d made, but his brothers and sister would be even worse because she’d have to pretend they weren’t total strangers. Just thinking about it gave her a headache.
She shoved back from the table and rinsed her plate. “I’ve got a few phone calls to make before we leave. And we’ll be working in the sun all day, Sean, so you might want to take it easy on the breakfast.”
“Are you okay, honey?” Gram asked, her eyes full of concern. “You looked fine before, but now you’re a little pale.”
She forced herself to smile. “Just trying to sort my schedule in my head, Gram. I’m not sure about Saturday. I might need to work.”
“Don’t be silly. Nobody’s backyard is more important than your family. If Sean’s family can make the time, so can you.”
“Okay, Gram. I’ll make it work.” She kissed her grandmother’s cheek and escaped to her office for a few minutes of peace.
Sean hadn’t mentioned the upcoming family bash or the fact his aunt would expect them to be there. Or the fact some of his siblings might show up.
Emma rested her forehead on the cool surface of her desk and sighed. Just what she needed. More Kowalskis.
Sean still didn’t have much of a plan for what he’d do when the month was over, but he was pretty sure of one thing he wouldn’t be doing—landscape design for finicky people with too much damn money.
They were spending the day on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee again, at one of those little summer cottages that were really mansions, adding to landscaping Emma had previously done.
“Is she going to make you take these all out after?” he asked, making sure the mulch he was spreading was level enough to satisfy his boss’s insane control freakishness when it came to her work.
“She might. But she’ll pay for it, so I’ll do it. But these are mostly annuals, anyway, so she can leave them for the rest of the summer without ruining the overall landscaping plan.”
Mrs. Somebody-or-other was hosting a baby shower for her spoiled princess at the cottage the following week and the much-heralded first grandchild was reportedly a girl. Emma’s job—and therefore Sean’s, as well—was to turn the beachfront property into an explosion of pink.
There were tall, skinny pink flowers and short, bushy pink flowers and all different kinds of pink flowers he knew nothing about. There were even some of those gladiolus things she’d been talking about that morning. But he wasn’t likely to learn anything about them since she didn’t trust him to do more than carry over whichever pot she pointed to and then spread mulch when and where she told him to.