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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

OLIVIA

I wish Roz was here. She’d be at home in this world.

I stared up at the soaring skyscraper and swallowed. My eyes dropped to the foyer of Fred’s building. People in dark suits swarmed through the formidable revolving doors, ready to throw themselves into another week of making rich people even richer.

A chill shot down my spine. Drew, the cheating banker I’d dated, had worked in a building just like this. Maybe this was a bad idea.

A man pushed past me, briefcase in hand, jerking me forward.

“Ouch!” A pain shot through my shoulder. I glared at him. He looked like my loan officer—the one who’d refused to give me more time to pay back my loan for the recycled cooking oil business. I only needed a few more months to start turning a profit, but he wasn’t willing to wait any longer. My stomach roiled with nausea.

In fact, the last time I’d been inside a building like this, it was to speak to an attorney about the best course of action after I’d received intimidating legal notices from the bank. She’d charged me thousands of dollars to tell me that I should give up, liquidate my assets and find another job to pay back my debt.

And this was why I hated suits.

I clenched my jaw. Well, I wasn’t going to give up so easily this time. All I had to do was try to convince a man I’d just spent the last six weeks lying to that he should invest millions of dollars in Red Tractor Farm. How hard could it be?

I strode up to the revolving doors, jumping in quickly as they swung past. My heart pounded in my ears, but I managed to get in without losing any limbs.

The foyer of the building was covered, floor-to-ceiling, in expensive-looking marble. Footsteps and voices echoed around me. I strode up to the reception desk.

“Hi, I’m here to see Fred Stockdon, of Stockdon & Associates.”

A bald white man looked up at me. His eyes dropped to my clothes, and heat shot up my cheeks.

When I’d dressed this morning, I’d thought my pink-and-blue flower-print pants and purple silk blouse looked smart. But I was in Roz and Fred’s world now. I should have gone with something more subdued. However, unless I was willing to race to Macy’s and purchase some suit pants I’d never wear again, I was stuck with this outfit. I certainly wasn’t about to make the hour and a half trip home to Sapphire Springs to change.

“ID please.” The man held out his hand.

Fumbling, I pulled my wallet from my handbag, took out my driver’s license and handed it to him.

“One minute.” He raised a phone to his ear. “Olivia Mitchell to see Fred Stockdon.”

After a moment, the man frowned and looked at me. “You don’t have an appointment?”

I shook my head. “Can you tell him it’s important?”

He turned back to the phone. “She says it’s important.”

My heart pounded in my chest. Were they going to send me away? When I hopped on the train this morning, I knew it was a real possibility. My stomach sank at the thought of coming this far and not even getting to make my case to Fred.

The man put down the phone. “His assistant is checking with him. Can you step to one side please?”

I hovered near the desk while the man gave a temporary visitor’s pass to an employee who’d left theirs at home and then took another phone call.

Once he put down the phone, he waved me over. “Okay. They say you can go up. Here’s a temporary pass. Thirty-first floor.” He handed me a small white card with a barcode on it. I exhaled.

I scanned the card at the security gate, passing through into the elevator banks. I looked around, confused. Where the hell was the up button? It took me a few moments to register that, instead of pressing a button to call an elevator, I had to enter the floor number into a touch screen, which then told me which elevator to take.

The elevator shot up to the thirty-first level. I stared at the floor, trying to avoid the mirrors that reflected my bright floral outfit to infinity from all angles, making it seem even more garish. It was almost a relief when the doors opened and I walked out into a stark white foyer with yet another reception desk.

A woman sat behind the desk in a black pantsuit with a sleek headset on her black hair that was tied in a ponytail.

“Hi. Um, I’m Olivia Mitchell. Here to see Fred. I mean, Mr. Stockdon.” Sweat prickled my armpits. Was it suddenly very hot in here?

The woman’s eyes flicked down to the screen in front of her. “Mr. Stockdon is in a meeting right now, but he said he’d see you once it has ended, which should be around eleven a.m. Please take a seat.” She gestured to three black leather couches near the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.

I walked over and sat next to the window. I peered out, hoping the view would calm my nerves. God, we were up high. Tiny people scurried down on the pavement, while cars, taxis, buses and motorcycles moved slowly down the street. If I leaned in, I could just spot a green glimpse of Central Park. I smoothed my hands over my thighs and then stood up and peered out the window from a different angle, before sitting again, this time with my legs jiggling. The receptionist shot me a look. I need to calm down.

I took a deep breath, trying to visualize myself in the middle of the flower fields, dahlias stretching out around me, inhaling their earthy, slightly sweet scent. My happy place. My shoulders relaxed. Suddenly, a herd of cows appeared in the fields, trampling my precious flowers and snapping them off at the stems with their teeth. My chest constricted. So much for a relaxing meditation.

“Olivia.”

I started at Fred’s voice.

Heart racing, I jumped up and walked toward him. He wore a charcoal-gray suit, polished black shoes, and a white shirt. His face matched his voice—calm and serious.

“Come through.” Fred swiped his pass next to a door, opened it and ushered me through. I followed him down a hallway of glass offices until we reached a large corner one. Expensive-looking landscape paintings adorned the walls. The windows offered a view of Rockefeller Center.

When he’d shut the door behind us, he gestured for me to take a seat in front of his large redwood desk. He walked around and sat facing me.

I gulped. “Thanks for agreeing to see me.”

Fred shuffled some papers on his desk. “I thought about turning you away, but since you came this far, I’ll give you a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “I’m so sorry for lying to you, Fred. I completely understand we betrayed your trust. I was hoping you’d be willing to let me explain what happened, in case it changes your mind.”

Fred put down the papers and fixed me with a stare. “Okay. Go ahead. I’ve got five minutes.”

Despite the time constraints, I started from the beginning—the very beginning. I spoke fast, the words jumbling out as I told Fred about Roz and I meeting at Pryde, the phone number mishap and then Roz blurting out my name as a way to get her mom off her back. And then me showing up at Red Tractor Farm, guns blazing.

“Roz wasn’t trying to trick you into lending us the money on false pretenses. I just jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of Roz’s mom introducing me as her girlfriend to try to influence you and Roz to save the flower farm and, by extension, Sapphire Blooms. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision and Roz was so taken aback, she played along, only afterwards realizing what a hole we’d dug for ourselves.”

Fred frowned. “You could have come clean to me then.”

I dropped my head and gazed at my hands in my lap. “What we’d done just sounded so ridiculous, we thought you wouldn’t want to lend money to idiots who’d gotten themselves into that position.” I peered up at Fred.

Fred snorted. “Well, perhaps.”

“Not only that, but Roz worried that you’d already feel it was a betrayal of trust. At the time, it felt like an innocuous enough lie. Why did it matter who Roz dated? And then, what began as a rather acrimonious partnership developed into something else.” I swallowed.

Fred raised his eyebrows. “I see.”

“I’m so sorry, Fred. I put Roz in an impossible position, one she felt terrible about.It was my fault.”

Fred nodded, his face still serious. “I can think of a number of ways the two of you—not just you—could have handled the situation differently, but I appreciate the context and the apology.”

I took a deep breath. “Even though I’ve only properly known Roz for six weeks, I can assure you that she’s a very trustworthy and sensible person, and that this whole situation was very out of character for her. Both of us will do everything we can to regain your trust.”

I looked at Fred, trying to gauge his reaction, but his face was neutral. Shit. Give me something, Fred.

“Not only that, but the investment is an excellent business decision. Roz has the vision and the drive to make Red Tractor Farm an incredible success, and if you—and Roz—still want me to be involved, I’ll happily continue to make myself available. Or I—I can stay away, if that would make you more comfortable.” I winced at the increasingly desperate tone to my voice.

Panic bubbled in my chest. Fred’s gaze held mine, his face expressionless. He did not appear to have been swayed by my speech.

“I came here to try to save both Red Tractor Farm and Sapphire Blooms. If Roz shuts down the flower operations, Sapphire Blooms will need to close. But I completely understand if the flowers and Sapphire Blooms aren’t your priority, especially not after the role I played in this whole situation. But please… please at least invest enough money to keep the farm going and to build the event space. You know Roz would make it a success. You’ve seen how passionate she is. She’s smart and determined and loves the farm fiercely.”

I shuffled in my seat. As painful as it was, I could live with the fact that my actions had caused Sapphire Blooms’ demise. I had no one to blame but myself and I’d do everything in my power to ensure Maddie found a new job. But the farm… that was more than I could bear.

“It seems she’s not the only one.” Fred smiled weakly.

I sat up straighter. Could he…? “You’ve seen how incredible the farm is, providing entertainment to thousands of families year round. It would be a huge loss to the Sapphire Springs community and the greater region if it was bulldozed to the ground.” I blinked away the tears that had started to brew in my eyes. “Not only that, but Dana, Ronnie and all the other employees you’ve met would lose their jobs.”

Fred’s face softened. “Discovering the two of you had been lying felt like a huge breach of trust. And based on what you’ve said, Roz wasn’t completely blameless in this.” He sighed. “But while it seems like a completely bizarre set of events, I appreciate that you didn’t set out to trick me into investing in the farm. And while there are clearly much better ways you could have handled this situation, it does make some strange kind of sense to me—not that I would have ever gotten myself into this position.”

A lightness rose in my chest. Was he going to agree to the funding after all?

Fred opened his mouth again. “I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll think about it.”

At least it wasn’t a no. Not yet.

“Thanks, Fred. I really appreciate you hearing me out, and I’m so sorry that things happened the way they did. Even if you don’t decide to invest, I hope you’ll pop into Sapphire Blooms to say hi.” If it hadn’t closed already. I dug my fingernails into my hand. Do not cry.

“Thanks for coming in, Olivia.” Fred reached out his hand and I shook it. “I’ll walk you out.”

We walked in silence back to the reception area, my chest heavy. In my more hopeful moments, I’d imagined Fred agreeing to invest after all and me racing to the farm to tell Roz the good news and apologize for storming out on her.

As the elevator doors closed behind me and I began my descent to the ground, I exhaled. Whatever happened next was out of my control, but at least I’d tried my best. I would go back to Sapphire Springs knowing that I’d done everything I could to try to save Red Tractor Farm.