Page 38 of Between the Shady Groves
Maybe this would be a good time for him to ask her what she was planning. And perhaps it would be a good time for him to tell her what he had decided.
“I… I don’t want to open a can of worms, because I didn’t ask you out to eat with me so that we could fight.”
“I don’t really think we ever had too much trouble fighting, did we?”
“No. I guess not. I guess I’m just…a little gun-shy right now.”
“I’m sorry. That’s my fault. I can promise I will try as hard as I can not to get upset about anything.”
He figured that was probably the best promise that he could get. But he didn’t know what subjects were touchy for her and which ones weren’t.
“I wanted to know how long you’re planning on staying here?”
She didn’t say anything for a bit, twisting her hands in her lap and looking out her window before sighing. “When I left, I was planning on moving here permanently. I wanted to open up my mom’s bakery. I’ve always wanted that, and we talked about it whenever she came to stay with us, remember? She was worried about it.”
“Yeah. And you wanted to come out here and keep it open for her,and take care of her too. I thought that was going to be too much for you.”
“And you were right. By the time she got really sick, it was all I could do to take care of her, and that was even with some help. There is no way I could have run the bakery too.”
He thought that she just said that he was right. She’d given him credit? He glanced over, but she didn’t seem to be keeping score or at least wasn’t tallying up anything on his side of the scorecard, so he assumed not.
“So you said when you left that’s what your plan was. Is that still your plan?”
“I don’t know. I honestly didn’t think that you cared whether I was there or not, and that was informing what I did.”
“I’m sorry you got that impression. And I understand how you got it. I did a lot of thinking last night, and I realize you came to a perfectly logical conclusion. If I don’t spend time with you and on you, and I don’t think about you and make an effort to…know you, then you have every right in the world to think that I don’t care. But just for the record, that’s not true.”
“I think I figured that out. I… I don’t know what to do. I guess maybe I was thinking that we could talk about that today.”
“All right. Well, I actually was talking to George today, and he’s been interested in buying the company for a while. He’s talked about buying other security companies, if I wouldn’t sell to him. I just brushed it off, because I have a couple of other guys who will take his place if he does decide to open his own business.”
“Okay,” she said, looking at him uncertainly.
Of course she had no idea where he was going with that. Because he’d never said a word to her.
“He’s going to see if he can get funding, and then if he can, he’s going to purchase the company from me.”
“You’re selling your company?”
“I’m moving here. I didn’t know if you’d let me live with you, but if not, there’s a house up the street that’s for sale. The sign just went up a couple of days ago according to Matteo, and I thought I might see what they wanted for it. The lease is up at our apartment in Cincinnati in twomonths anyway, so we wouldn’t be losing a whole lot. And this is a nice place. A good place to raise children.”
There. He’d said it. He realized that after the miscarriages and losing her mom, she felt lonely. She wanted a family. Not just him. She wanted children. Look at her and the stray dog. She was constantly bringing people around her, and…she deserved to have a family. When they got married, they were planning on it.
“Cannon?” she said, like she didn’t quite understand what he was saying.
“You can think about it. I haven’t made any firm plans. I did want to talk to you about it first. But George is going to do some talking to a couple of different bankers and see what he can come up with.”
“Oh my goodness. All right.” She seemed stunned. Not necessarily happily stunned, just stunned. He wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
They didn’t say too much more as he navigated the road toward Blueberry Beach. He needed her to give him a few extra directions, since he wasn’t as familiar with these roads as she was.
“If it’s okay with you, I thought we could eat before we go grocery shopping. I want to get a few things that need to stay cold.”
“That’s just fine.”
“All right. The diner should be right over here, you can park anywhere along the street.”
He found a spot, pulled into it. He shut the engine off and got out, intending to open her door, but she didn’t wait for him. How long had it been since he’d opened her door for her?
