Page 90 of Accidentally in Bloom

“No, you don’t have to go.” Rose shoved her hair and grabbed her stuff. “Stay. It’s fine. I’ll handle it.”

“Rose, I’m coming with you. Our problems, remember?” The steely glint in his voice caught her attention.

She nodded quietly.

“Let’s go.” Gray thundered down the stairs, let Duke out to do his business, and they were off on the road two minutes later.

“Fuck. The Lopez meeting,” Rose remembered the appointment Violet mentioned. “She called—oh, wait. No. Looks like Lily already handled it.” She scrolled through a wall of missed texts.

“You don’t always have to be the one to handle everything, Rose.”

“I’ll handle that fucking debt collector.”

They drove into town a few minutes later. There was a small crowd gathered outside of the Bloom front door.

“Well,” Gray muttered. “So much for keeping it quiet.”

They hopped out of the SUV and walked to the front door.

There was a giant padlock on the back and front doors. Lily stood off to the side, mouthed “Nash” to Gray, and pointed to her phone. He was no lawyer, but he would at least have experience with debt and how it’s collected.

Mrs. Maroo stormed down the street, walking from Pop’s Diner. “Can you believe this?” She waved a handful of flyers she snatched off the light poles.

Rose had started shooing people away, telling them this was a misunderstanding. “And don’t forget to put in your Father’s Day order,” Rose said half convincingly as people sent her worried looks and wandered away.

“Rose, they could have helped us,” Violet said. Her arms were wrapped around her body so tight that Gray worried for her circulation.

“How?” Rose put her hands on her hips. “Playing a tug of war with a deadbolt lock?”

“This is all my fault.” Violet’s hands came up to her face.

Gray gave her a quick hug, but Rose was in no mood to comfort. “Vi, I need your game face on. We can have feelings later. Mrs. Maroo, we need council.”

“Rosie, these debt collectors will do anything they can to get money from you. If we can prove you are operating in good faith and you’re trying to pay, then they should back down. If not, I’ll wallop their asses so hard in court, they won’t be able to sit down for two weeks.”

“I sent the money transfer yesterday, but it hasn’t cleared yet. I just literally can’t get the money to them any sooner.” Rose bit her top lip, thinking. “We have to move two client meetings today. Cancel a bunch of orders.”

“You can have the meetings at the farm,” Gray offered.

“I’ll handle it.” Rose sent him a stern look. “Aren’t you busy today, anyway?”

Fuck. He was supposed to drive across the state to Lancaster today. A grocery store had placed a huge order for his hothouse pansies, and he was already behind on his day. It was four and a half hours there, one way. He’d have to leave Rose in the middle of this mess.

Gray’s phone rang. His eyebrows leapt to his hairline when he saw the caller ID. He swiped to answer it. “Allison. How’s it going?” He locked eyes with Rose as she whipped around to him.

“Gray, I heard about Bloom. They’re going out of business?”

“You heard?” Gray sent an eye over to the lock, and all three Parker sisters did a simultaneous facepalm. “News travels fast.”

“My sister lives in Fairwick Falls, and she knows Rose and I have been talking about me taking over the store.”

Gray’s heart plummeted.

“I tried to get ahold of Rose, but I only have the store line.”

“I’ll put you on speaker. She’s right here.”

“Allison, hi,” Rose said in a warm, calm voice that completely hid the chaos in front of him.

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