Page 56 of Sheltering His Second Chance

“What do you think?” Parker held up the small arrangement she’d been working on tirelessly for the last two hours.

The brunette lifted her chin and her pert nose wrinkled. “It’s fine. I can tweak it when I’m done here.”

Parker realized she was far from having a green thumb, but the woman’s insolence only made the situation worse. After biting her tongue for a few days now, Parker had come to the end of her patience. The time had come to figure out why the woman didn’t like her. “Did I do something?”

Ophelia kept her back to Parker when she said, “What are you asking?”

“Why don’t you like me? Is that to the point enough?” Working with men who whether intentional or not had despised Parker for getting promotions quicker than them, she knew sometimes it took a special kind of firmness to find the fundamental cause of things.

Finally, Ophelia set her work aside and faced Parker. “We don’t have time for this.”

“No, we don’t, and we certainly don’t have time for sour apples. We both have the same goal and that’s helping Bonnie.”

With a raspy laugh, Ophelia shrugged. “If you say so.”

“What does that mean?” Parker huffed.

“It means that you come here from the big city and suddenly you think you’re one of us. You sweep in, wanting to change everything, and we’re supposed to grin and follow your orders.”

Parker was blindsided. “I’m just here doing my job. That is to fix everything that’s broken and in the process hoping to save the greenhouse and business. Every change is to help.”

“Bossing Bonnie? She needs to make decisions for herself.”

“I can assure you that I’m not bossing her around. She’s stronger than people give her credit for. I’ll take accountability that my delivery might need some work but I’m resourceful.”

“This isn’t the city. Bonnie will never learn to use the computer and she’ll never care about numbers. You’re saving something possibly for now but what happens when you leave?”

Parker opened her mouth to answer but she stopped herself. The woman had a pretty solid point, but how could she tell Ophelia that saving the business wasn’t a guarantee. “I can’t make empty promises, and I’ve told Bonnie as such.”

Ophelia crossed her arms over her slender waist. “You don’t care about Second Chance, and you definitely don’t care about Bonnie and her legacy. How she started the business. How she and her husband loved each other deeply.” She sighed. “We don’t have test groups here. We have word of mouth. Raven thinks highly of you, obviously, and he thinks you’re going to change everything.”

“Is that what this is about? Raven?”

She laughed. “That’s ridiculous. It’s only my opinion. You’re the big marketing expert.”

“I understand your concern, but I do know marketing, and about middle America.”

“Do you? You know how people in small towns think?”

“I think I do, at least I’m getting a better understanding.”

“We like life simple. We don’t drink coffee with weird names. We don’t own designer heels. We’re humble folk.”

“Then please, tell me what you think will work. I’m all ears.” Parker wasn’t too prideful to accept help from folks in Second Chance. Apparently, Ophelia cared enough to dedicate her time so Parker could at least hear her ideas.

“I heard you want to advertise in a magazine and I’m just saying adverting tricks like that don’t work here. For instance, last month when Desiree Goodman wanted to buy a pretty dress for her son’s wedding, she remembered seeing Gladys Oates wearing something like what she was looking for. Gladys told her where she could go to find a dress. Desiree didn’t go online to a website that’s hard to navigate for many people. It’s called word of mouth. Some don’t even have internet, never even heard of it. They listen to what their neighbors are saying. If they see something they like, they don’t pull out their phones and Google it.”

Parker leaned a hip against the work table. “You have a point. Word of mouth is extremely successful. So, what I hear you saying is that we need to plant ideas into peoples’ heads. We need to use the buy local angle.”

Ophelia blinked. “Not really, but yes. You see, you understand business but not this one. Places like Bonnie’s Bluebonnets no longer exist. It’s like a baker harvesting their own wheat and having a wheat field in their backyard. It’s much easier to use a middleman to get these items. Just like it’s easier to get online and have flowers delivered from a big store. This is outside of Bonnie’s league. I love her but it’s the truth.”

Parker thought she finally caught on. “So, you’re on the side that Bonnie should sell this place?”

After a long, drawn-out hesitation, she finally nodded and said, “I do.” It seemed to take everything she had to admit to that.

“Then why are you here?”

Ophelia lifted her chin stubbornly. “Because the Bonners have been good to me. We help each other here. We’re more like family than neighbors. I think Bonnie’s rich nephew sent you to do the dirty work.”

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