Page 9 of One Bossy Date

“Hello, my love. Sorry to bother you at work.”

“Oh, no problem.” It wasn’t like I had tons of business to get to, but I refrained from telling her about the issues we’d been having.

“I just wanted to find out if you got my invitation.”

The little pink envelope appeared in my mind’s eye. “Oh, yes! I got it. Sorry for not getting back to you yet. Super-cute invite, thank you. Loved the balloons.”

“I thought so! It’s in two weeks. Are you going to be there?”

“Wellobviously,” I teased. “Who would I be if I missed my favorite gran’s seventy-seventh birthday party?”

“You mean youronlygran? Dead meat is what you’d be.”

“You’re my only! Period. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Granny Dotty was basically my mother—she’d raised me from childhood. We were close, and a pang of guilt settled in my gut for not telling her about my business issues.

“Wonderful! So, tell me—will you bring a date?”

I cringed a little. It was Granny’s favorite question. One I particularly disliked because I mostly had the same old answer. “I just said you’re my only. Like, literally.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It means, no, I don’t have a date to bring.”

“Good!”

“What? Why?”

“I’m inviting Brody.”

“Nooo, Gran! Please. Don’t do this to me again.” Brody was a family friend, and my gran’s go-to man when it came to my love life. She invited him to every get-together, just hoping and praying for us to fall in love. There was no way I would fall for him. Not even if Hell froze over. Brody was only good at one thing: staring at my chest. The creep.

Of course, I couldn’t tell Granny that.

“Honey, you’re not getting any younger.”

“I’m onlytwenty-nine.”

“Exactly. Almost thirty. By that age, I already had three children.” She seemed to take a breath and soften her approach. “I just don’t want you to be the only single one again. The family talks, you know.”

“Yes…I know. And I, for one, don’t care.”

“Honestly, just find a man before I die, would ya?”

“Ah, Granny, it’s not as easy as it looks.”

“Just promise you’ll try.”

I let out a sigh. “Okay. I’ll try my best. See you soon!”

We were close, and I loved her to bits, even though she believed all I needed to be happy was a man—Brody, of all people. When I’d started the boutique, everything had seemed so promising, so perfect, with Leo—my “benefits” guy—as my business partner. We planned everything together until he fell in love and pulled out of the deal. It was then that my gran insisted on giving me a loan, stating that “Banks will charge me an arm and a leg in interest,” and I couldn’t argue with that.

“Sooo, what did lovely Dotty have to say?” Jim’s cheery voice sounded behind me as soon as I hung up.

“She’s setting me up with Brody again.”

His jaw dropped theatrically. “Oh,no, you’re not serious?”

“Yep.” My expression was flat.

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