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CHAPTER TWELVE

OLIVIA

Fresh air hit me as Roz and I walked out onto her parents’ back deck, which overlooked a tennis court, swimming pool, and a large expanse of neatly cut grass, surrounded by rose bushes. The sprawling property and the gorgeous white two-story colonial revival mansion we’d just exited were a far cry from the cozy cottage I’d grown up in. Roz’s family was clearly loaded.

Roz leaned against the railing of the deck. My eyes lingered on her firm-looking ass, which was encased by perfectly tailored black pants. While her back was to me, my gaze traveled up to take in the back of her purple silk shirt and her neatly cut short blond hair. Black oxfords completed the look. Her outfit was ridiculously formal for a Saturday lunch with family, but it did look good on her.

“I thought that went fairly well,” I said as I rested my arms on the railing. Fred had left ten minutes ago.

Roz shoved off the railing and glared at me. “Are you serious? It was a disaster.”

I opened my mouth to object, but Roz kept speaking.

“Did you miss my mother telling Fred I’d crashed a tractor? Not exactly information that’s going to instill Fred with confidence in my ability to run a farm. And then you hijacked the discussion with all your sustainability talk, which Fred now wants me to include in the business plan before Friday. Not to mention how I nearly blew our cover when I stumbled over Mom’s and Fred’s questioning.”

I pressed my lips together. I supposed it wasn’t great, but it could have been much worse. “But at least Fred liked my ideas, right?”

Roz huffed. “ Wrong . You have to stop pushing your own agenda. You’re making me look bad in front of Fred. It could make the whole deal fall through. Not only that, but I don’t have time to become an expert in sustainable farming and buildings between now and Friday. So the two of us have a lot of work to do over the next few days.”

I stared. “The two of us?”

“I’ll send you the sections of the business plan I need you to update with your sustainability stuff.”

I bristled at Roz’s tone. “I signed up to fake date you, not work for you.”

“You were the one who suggested it. You’re clearly passionate about it and presumably know what you’re talking about. So you should be the one to do it.”

“And what if I’m too busy?” I could probably fit it in, but I didn’t want Roz thinking I would just fall at her feet when she was so rude about it.

“If Fred doesn’t agree to move forward, the flower fields are gone, remember? So you have a vested interest in making my business plan as good as possible.”

A swallow dived and somersaulted over the lawn. Roz had a point.

I rubbed a hand along the smooth wooden railing. “Okay, fine. Can we walk down to the roses? I told your dad I’d take a look at them.”

“Sure.” Roz turned and started striding toward the stairs. “And we have some other homework as well,” she said over her shoulder.

I raised an eyebrow, hurrying after her. God, she was demanding. “What?”

“Our fake-dating arrangement.” Roz took the steps two at a time. “We weren’t very convincing today. We need to get our backstory straight, make sure we know the basic information two people dating would know about each other, or Fred might become suspicious.”

We reached the perfectly manicured lawn, pausing for a moment.

“Okay.” I folded my arms. “So what should I know about you?”

“Not right now.” She gave a small shake of her head. “We should both write a list of key information—a family tree, where we went to school, that type of thing, and then exchange it. I’ll prepare a questionnaire tonight and send it to you. I’ll need both the questionnaire and the updated business plan done by close of business Wednesday so I’m prepared for when I see Fred on Friday.”

We began walking toward the roses, my feet springing on the grass. Roz was right. If we were going to convince people we were dating, we should get to know each other. But I wasn’t going to answer a questionnaire for her. I’d be spending enough time on my laptop as it was, working on her business plan.

“No thanks. If we’re going to do this properly, we should do it in person. You don’t learn about someone from reading a survey. And how are we going to get our beautiful love story straight that way? Why don’t we have lunch tomorrow and talk about it?” I’d intended to hike up Breakback Ridge tomorrow, but saving Sapphire Blooms had to take priority.

Roz shook her head, slowing as we reached the roses. “I can’t. I’ve got to do some more research for Fred on the local competition.”

“Competition?” A flash of yellow caught my eye under a rose bush. Was that an American goldfinch? I bent down. No, it was just a tennis ball.

“Other taphouses and event spaces that Red Tractor Farm would be in competition with. He wants to get more information about them to make sure the business plan for investing in the farm is strong.”

I frowned, leaning over and inspecting the rose bush. Roz’s dad was right. Tiny green larvae dotted the underside of the rose leaves. Rose slugs. It was unusual for them to appear this early. I glanced up at Roz. “That’s a strange way of thinking about it. Aren’t they more your… colleagues than competition?”

“No.” Roz shot me a withering look.

I raised my eyebrows but decided it wasn’t worthwhile pressing the point. “Okay, so what does your research involve?” I straightened, and walked to the next rose bush, Roz strolling next to me.

Roz ran her hand through her hair. “I’m going to scope them out. The information I gave Fred already was based on desk research, but I’ll need to do some field research to provide him with the level of detail he wants—covertly, of course.”

An image of Roz wearing a fake mustache and cap, going undercover to get information about the other event venues in the area flashed into my head and I snorted.

“What?” Roz eyed me.

“Nothing. Sorry.” I inspected a few rose leaves. No sign of larvae here. “Anyway, I can help you with your ‘mission’. I know the event spaces around here pretty well from doing flower arrangements for weddings in them, and taprooms as well. Why don’t I come along too, and we can get to know each other better?”

Hopefully it wouldn’t be too painful. Sapphire Blooms was closed tomorrow, and we were supposed to have lovely weather. I’d also been having a craving for quark which they only sold at Lawson Grove Dairy’s store. Fingers crossed that was on Roz’s list. “Do you have a list of places you want to visit?”

Roz swatted away a fly with her hand. “In the plan I gave Fred, I included a high-level overview of all the venues in the region. But tomorrow I need to focus on the event spaces that would be most likely to compete with my proposal for Red Tractor Farm—so any function spaces that can accommodate around two hundred people.”

I nodded, furrowing my brow. “Okay, let me think about it. My sister-in-law is an event planner, so I’ll ask her for some advice and come up with an itinerary for tomorrow.” Ideally one that involved visiting Lawson Grove Dairy.

Roz gave me a small nod. “Thank you. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at eight a.m.” We started to retrace our footsteps.

My eyebrows shot up. “Eight on a Sunday? No thanks. Let’s say ten. That’s a lot more respectable.”

Roz pursed her lips. “Fine. Ten.”

We walked across the lawn and back up the stairs, the trills of a warbler the only distraction from the awkward silence.

Roz paused at the top of the deck, rubbing the back of her neck. “So how did your friends and family take the news of our fake dating?”

“I haven’t told them yet. I was planning to tell my friends today. We’re meeting at Builders Arms for a drink this afternoon.” I glanced down at my watch. “Shit, it’s later than I thought. I’d better be heading off.”

“Just to let you know, I’m planning to tell Matt as well,” Roz said as we headed toward the back door. “I think he already suspects something is up.”

I grimaced. “We weren’t great, were we?”

“No.”

Inside, we found Roz’s parents cleaning up the kitchen.

“Thank you so much for having me,” I said.

“It’s our pleasure.” Roz’s mom dried her hands on a towel then reached out for a hug. “We’re just so happy Roz has finally found someone as lovely and as youthful as you.”

Roz’s jaw tensed, but she said nothing. She walked me down the hallway.

At the front door, she faced me. “Can you text me your address?”

I bent down to pick up my handbag I’d left next to the door. “You have it already—I live above Sapphire Blooms.”

“Ah, right. Well, I’ll need your email address too, so I can send you the business plan sections for you to complete.”

The last thing I felt like right now was working on a damn business plan. “I’ll text it to you.”

“Do it now so you don’t forget.” Roz held the front door open. “See you tomorrow.”

I stepped outside and huffed. Thank god Roz had agreed to the ten a.m. start. There was no way I could deal with her any earlier than that. I needed at least an hour of lying in bed and two coffees to prepare me for more one-on-one time with her.