Page 37 of Pining for You

Okay, that wasn’t as warm and inviting as I’d hoped, but it was better than “I don’t think we fit” unless “I like you” was followed by a “but.”

“But…”

Shit.

She looked over the lake for so long, I wasn’t sure she was going to speak again or if she was waiting for me to say something. Or maybe she was gathering her courage because she thought I’d react badly? But then why not meet me somewhere crowded instead of this abandoned beach?

“But?” I prompted.

“I come with a lot of baggage.” She then proceeded to tell me about her ex, about how he’d scammed a bunch of people down in southwestern Ontario, how he’d left her holding a lot of the debts he’d incurred, and even how the police and others had suspected she’d been part of his scams. She told me of lawyer debts to defend herself, of being unable to find a job because people would request a background check or do a quick search on the net and her ex’s history would pop up. “So I came home, changed back to my maiden name, and with a lot of help from my family and a couple good friends, here I am. Working for PRP doing outside work that I swore I never wanted to do again. I’m not complaining about the money, or the work, it’s just not what I spent four years in university to do.”

“And you’re terrified that you’ll find yourself back in the same boat with another guy who’ll leave you with a mountain of debt you won’t be able to get out from under.”

“Right.”

“I’m not in a mountain of debt, Chloe. As for the bank loan?” Since I’d told John I hadn’t gotten the loan, and I’d heard him tell Molly to contact that other firm, I rationalized my promise to keep it secret was over. “A couple weeks back, John offered me the chance to buy him out. That’s what the bank loan was for. I didn’t tell you—or anyone else other than Ellie who helped me with my business plan—because he made me promise not to say anything in case word got out and the guys started quitting. And after I got turned down? I felt like a failure.”

“A secret which you’re breaking now?”

“I couldn’t get the loan. The deal’s off so I don’t think my promise applies anymore.”

“I hate to tell you, but it might. A verbal agreement might still be enforceable.” She frowned. “But you were talking about it with Josh.”

“Forgot to mention he helped me with the proposal. The accounting parts.”

Chloe’s eyebrows arched. “Did they know you weren’t supposed to be talking about it? Because if she did and she told anyone else, that’s a serious ethics breach.”

I scraped my hand across my hair. “It's hard to remember the exact sequence of events. John had mentioned it to me right before we met, but he didn't get serious about giving me a deadline until a while later. Then when he was, John didn’t ask me to keep it on the down-low until I'd already asked Ellie for help, and the damage was already done. Besides, he knew I’d have to tell some people because I had to get funding and write the damned proposal.”

“So you told Josh and Ellie, but not me—who actually works for…” Comprehension lit her eyes. “John’s selling the company to someone who may not keep us all on.”

“He’s selling to someone who I suspect only wants our equipment. So we’ll all be out of a job. You’d only been there ten days, Chloe. Less. I didn’t want to get you worried about having to look for another job if I could get the loan and save the company.”

She may have muttered idiot but I wasn’t quite sure and I already felt like an idiot, so why make her repeat the obvious?

“Why did the bank turn you down? Did they tell you?”

“The letter’s back at my apartment—to be honest, it’s over my head. I know trees, not numbers and business plans.”

“I’m not an accountant but I’m pretty damned good at this type of stuff. Let me look at the letter and see what I can come up with.”

A half hour later, I found myself back at my apartment, sitting across from Chloe, the business plan and letter from the bank spread across my tiny kitchen table.

With a glance from under her eyelashes, Chloe dug into her purse and pulled out a pair of glasses, then flipped through the pages of the business plan. How did I not know she wore glasses? Reading glasses obviously. Sexy as hell, too. She reminded me of a school teacher or librarian, neither of which had been sexy to me in school, but sitting across from me, reading a column of figures that meant diddly squat to me? I wanted to sweep her into my lap and kiss her until her lenses fogged.

I wondered if that was possible. My mother often complained about how her glasses fogged up if she left the house in the middle of winter, or when she left her air-conditioned car in the middle of a heat wave. Could you fog a pair of glasses from kissing the wearer? Now I was determined to find out.

“Would you mind if I take the business plan and the letter and show it to some people? Get some advice? I could take a photo of it if you’d prefer.”

“What people?”

“My cousin Nick, for starters. He’s a financial wizard down on Bay Street. He might have some ideas of how to get funding, or at the least introduce you to people who can back you.” She tapped a paragraph on the bank’s letter. “I also want to look into these government grants.”

“I thought that was for a start-up company.”

“There are all sorts of grants out there. It’s a matter of finding the right one. I have some contacts who can help me.” She pushed her glasses up on her head. Which I also found sexy. “Since you can’t buy out John, you can start your own business. You’ve already got the contacts. You live here. You know almost everyone whose trees you’ve worked on. It’s simply a matter of remembering and writing them down. Contacting them to see if they have more business for you, or can recommend you to their neighbor or family member. Look, when John can’t get to a job Dad needs done, Dad phones a firm in Peterborough. They’ll come out here, but they charge the client from the moment they leave their office and that makes them more expensive than hiring a local arborist. Hiring you. It gives you an immediate advantage to undercut their prices.”

“But John’s selling the equipment that I’d need.” And not to me.

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