Bloom of Love (Long Valley #10) - Erin Wright Page 0,11

friend think through all of the different angles.

“All right, let’s talk turkey, then,” she finally said. “You got a piece of paper? I think we oughta write all of this down, and then have a meeting with Jennifer and Bonnie. They’ll tell us if we need to hire a lawyer for the paperwork or not.”

Carla grabbed a sheet of copy paper off the seldom-used fax machine and together, they began scribbling down all of the details – who was in charge of what, how much was owed, what hours Autumn would work, and so much more.

“Oh Lordy,” Autumn finally said, pushing at the curls falling down into her face. “I feel like we’ve figured out soooo much, and I bet we haven’t even scratched the surface.”

“Jenn and Bon will be a lot of help,” Carla said confidently, pulling her reading glasses and settling them on top of her head. “They’ll help us avoid any major screw-ups. I’ll call them and set up an appointment for us to go over together. Does that work for you?”

“That would be terrific. Work is busy right now at ED&J with summer in full swing, so having you take that off my plate would be helpful.”

“Of course,” Carla said, and patted Autumn on the hand. “Is work why you look a little…tired?” Her friend looked like she was nearing the end of her rope, honestly, but Carla would never say that out loud.

“Johnny’s going through…a rough patch.” Autumn’s gaze slid past Carla’s searching eyes and landed somewhere in the distance. “You know how he is. Johnny is…Johnny. So,” and her voice brightened and she sent Carla a sly smile, “what happened between you and Christian at the party? Tell me everything!”

Carla just stared at her.

Sure, she’d gotten all excited because he’d asked her to stay, but then he’d promptly ignored her for a good hour before she finally gave up and left.

In no universe would that be considered something exciting to report.

“You can’t fool me,” Autumn said with a glower, crossing her arms across her chest. “I know better. Christian practically demanded that he be the one to come in here and order the flowers from you. Didn’t you wonder why a guy who is definitely not into decorating was the one who came in here?”

Carla shrugged. She was not about to cop to her Sherlock Holmes moment where she was sure she’d figured out that Nieves was in a wheelchair and her parents were dead. There was no reason to share that…tidbit of information.

“C’mon,” Autumn said with a laugh, poking Carla in the side, “you can tell me. How many times has a guy come in to order flowers for his sister’s quinceañera?”

“Never,” Carla admitted begrudgingly. “But that doesn’t mean he likes me. Maybe he was just bored that day. Or something.”

Autumn shook her head in mock disapproval. “You can see it for everyone else but yourself. Christian wanted to order those flowers from you. He asked you to stay that evening. He likes you.”

Carla’s brain felt like it couldn’t quite keep up with the conversation. There was a part of her – admittedly, a very large part of her – that wanted to believe that Autumn had it right. Hadn’t she had exactly this thought when Christian had invited her to stay?

But that had gone absolutely nowhere. Surely Autumn was just making this up. Wishful thinking and all that.

Just then, the front door swung open and the bell jingled merrily as Christian came walking in.

Autumn let out an audible gasp that had Carla wanting to strangle her on the spot and then she announced loudly, “Okay, business partner, we’ll have to discuss the deets later!” With that, Autumn practically sprinted for the door.

Carla was sure that Autumn could not have been more obvious if she’d run out the door holding up a sign that said, “I’ll leave you two to make out!”

As the door tinkled closed behind her traitorous friend, Carla was left to imagine all of the ways to slowly kill her (or at least make her really, really miserable – even in her daydreams, she couldn’t be too violent) as Christian picked up and put down the figurines up in the front display.

Huh. These were the kinds of kitschy items that a person would give to their elderly aunt on her 90th birthday.

In other words, not something she would’ve expected Christian to be interested in.

“Can I help you with anything?” she asked into the deafening silence as she walked around the