"We have to tell her when she gets back," Jody said as she stroked Ellen's back.

"I have to go to Midland on Monday to give a seminar. I'll be back on Wednesday. Let's wait until I return. I don't want to tell her and then leave," Ellen said.

"All right, but we tell her Wednesday night. I'll invite her over for dinner, and we'll tell her then."

Chapter Eight.

When Jody arrived at Petal Pushers on Monday morning, Denise was in the workroom stacking supplies. Jody had meant to straighten out the supplies before leaving the previous evening, but it had slipped her mind. With college graduations and Mother's Day only six days away, they were already swamped with orders. In an attempt to keep up, Jody and Denise had agreed to start coming in two hours earlier each morning. They would use the extra time to prepare arrangements to cover their day-to-day walk-in customers and phone orders.

"Good morning," Jody called. She tried to sound as natural as possible. "Glad to have you back."

Denise turned and it seemed to Jody that she took a moment longer than usual to respond. Jody felt sweat pop out on her neck. Had Ellen already told Denise?

"I'm sorry," Jody said, her conscience already getting the best of her.

Denise gave a small snort as she picked up a box of bud vases. "Jody, please. You don't have to apologize. I'm only cleaning this out to prepare for Thursday's large shipment. I know how busy you've been. I saw the receipts. You've had to cover for me so much lately, I'm the one who should be saying I'm sorry."

Jody reached for the countertop to steady herself. She had almost blurted out her guilt. Get a grip, she told herself.

It was stupid to wait until Wednesday to tell Denise. Of course, with Ellen in Midland, they didn't really have a choice, if they wanted to tell her together. The next three days were going to be h.e.l.l. As she tucked her backpack under the counter, she considered telling Denise she wasn't feeling well and hiding out until Wednesday night, but that would leave Denise in a serious pinch. The next few days would account for over a fourth of the shop's yearly income. Most of that income would come from Mother's Day sales. Hectic wouldn't come close to describing the next few days.

If only all of this had happened two weeks later. Eric would be out of school, and Denise would be on vacation for a month.

With Eric working at the shop full-time during the summer, Denise normally took off the month of June and Jody took off July. It gave Jody an opportunity to spend time with her parents in Missouri and still have time to fly back to New York to visit old friends.

"I've made coffee already. As soon I finish setting these up, we can grab a cup. I want to talk to you."

"I'll get the coffee while you do that," Jody said, eager to escape.

The pot shook in Jody's hand as she poured the coffee. What did Denise want to talk about? If Denise asked her point-blank about Ellen, what would she say? She wished she and Ellen had discussed the possibility that Denise might find out before they told her.

Jody gave herself a good mental shake. Denise couldn't find out if neither she nor Ellen told her.

Everything will be fine, Jody told herself. All I have to do is keep my cool.

"How is Sharon?" Denise asked, appearing at Jody's side.

Startled, Jody leapt aside and yelped. Her leg knocked against the table and caused coffee to slosh over the rims of both cups.

"Jody, what is wrong with you? You scared the c.r.a.p out of me, jumping like that."

Unable to meet Denise's eyes, Jody grabbed a handful of paper towels and began to wipe up the spilled coffee. "I'm a little tired and you startled me."

Denise clucked her tongue. "Sweetie, you're getting too old for these all-night escapades. You need to find your Ms. Right and settle down."

"You're probably right," Jody agreed, pitching the soggy paper towels into the trash can. She could feel Denise watching her. To avoid meeting her gaze, Jody busied herself with refilling their cups.

"Are things with Sharon all right?" Denise asked.

Jody hesitated. Denise never settled for a simple statement. When she told her she was no longer seeing Sharon, there would be questions. Wednesday night seemed like an eternity. Again she cursed their decision to wait.

"I'm no longer seeing Sharon."

"I see. Your choice, I guess."

Irritated by her correct a.s.sumption, Jody looked up. "What's that mean?"

Denise held up her hands filled with rolls of florist tape. "Don't get mad. I only meant that when one of your relationships end, it's usually because you decided it was time to move on."

Jody shoved the carafe back onto the coffeemaker with a loud crack. "What the h.e.l.l do you mean? You make me sound like some female Don Juan who hops in and out of every available bed in town."

As if to dodge Jody's anger, Denise took a step back. "Jody, I'm sorry. That's not what I meant at all."

Ashamed of both her outburst and the fact that it had stemmed from guilt, Jody turned away. She heard the sound of the rolls of florist tape dropping onto the display case.

"Jody." Denise touched her arm. "Please, look at me. I'm sorry. Sweetie, I swear I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was rude and out of line. Please, forgive me."

Jody bit her lip, struggling not to spill out the secrets held in her own black heart. What kind of friend was she anyway? She should have sent Ellen home and never let any of this get started. There was still time. She could end things with Ellen before they told Denise. If they ended it now, Denise would never have to know.

"Please don't be angry with me," Denise begged. "You know I can't stand it when we argue."

Jody's guilt deepened. Denise, who was almost in tears, was the best friend she had ever had. It was stupid to do anything that would endanger that friendship. Ending this thing with Ellen was the right thing to do. So why did she feel like c.r.a.p just thinking about ending it?

"It's not you," Jody said. "I'm just being an a.s.shole. Maybe I am trying to be a female Don Juan."

Denise gave her a quick hug. "No, you're not. You just haven't found the right woman yet. As soon as she comes along, you'll settle down."

"Do you really think I'm capable of settling down?"

Denise took her coffee cup from the table and seemed to give the question some serious thought. "Do you want my honest opinion?"

"Yes." Jody's hands felt clammy, and she caught herself drying them on her slacks. She grabbed her coffee cup and wrapped her hands around it, even though it was almost too hot to hold.

Denise gazed into her coffee as though it were her crystal ball. "I think you're basically a homebody who wants to settle down."

"Then why did I cheat on Lauren?"

"Because she scared you, and I don't believe you ever really loved her."

"What do you mean, she scared me?"

Denise took a sip of coffee before answering. "Lauren was too much like Mia."

"No way," Jody protested.

Denise looked at her and smiled. "Think about it. They were both wrapped up in their professions. Both were very persuasive. You told me yourself that you hadn't been ready to settle into a relationship when they each came along, but they were. Look at how hard you tried to avoid further involvement with Lauren, but she kept ragging until you gave in. You're a pushover for a sad story."

"I am not."

Denise chuckled and said, "Remember the pens?"

Jody rolled her eyes. "He was a con artist."

Denise would never let her live that fiasco down. The shop had only been open a couple of weeks when a man wearing wraparound sungla.s.ses and carrying a white cane and a beat-up briefcase slowly tapped his way into the shop. He told Jody a sad story about losing his eyesight during a boating accident with his son, and now he had to sell pens for a living. She bought all six dozen of the pens he had with him, most of which she would soon learn were inkless.

Denise had been pulling into the parking lot as the man left the shop. She saw him fold up the white cane and tuck it into the briefcase. Intrigued by his curious actions, she watched him walk to the bus stop on the corner where he removed a paperback from his hip pocket and began to read.

Jody had been appalled when Denise told her about the odd scene she had witnessed. When Jody finally admitted her gullibility, Denise laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I am not a pushover." Jody would have liked to be able to offer a stronger-sounding denial, but deep down she knew Denise was correct. She was a sucker for a sob story. Both Mia and Lauren had given her one about their budding enterprises. She had fallen in love with Mia, but the only reason she allowed Lauren to move in was because she felt sorry for her. Lauren had struggled so, trying to work her way up in the publishing industry.

"Enough psychoa.n.a.lysis for now," Denise said. "I need to talk to you."

Jody's heart pounded. "What about?"

Denise looked at her and frowned. "Don't look so scared. I'm not going to ask for a kidney."

Jody tried to relax. There was no way she could continue with this charade.

"Come on back. We can work and talk at the same time." Denise motioned for Jody to follow her into the workroom. "As you know, sales are up almost twenty-five percent from this same time last year. I think the free city-wide delivery has helped. Plus, the contracts with the restaurants have really increased. I believe we are ready to expand. I know we've been talking about opening another shop," Denise rushed on, "but I was talking to Mrs. Jimenez this morning. She was opening up when I came in."

Jody nodded. Mrs. Jimenez owned the card shop next to them.

"Since her husband died last year, you know she's been thinking about retiring. Well, her daughter has convinced her to move down to Corpus Christi and live with her, so Mrs. Jimenez is going to sell the shop. What do you think about buying it?"

"A card shop?"

"No, just the building. We would need to talk to her, of course, but the way I see it, we could do it one of two ways. We could either let her dispose of the inventory and we buy the building or, if she doesn't want to do that, we could buy the inventory and building. We then sell the inventory to another card shop. Mrs. Jimenez invited me in to look the inventory over and everything is in good condition and it's current. I don't think we would have any trouble selling it."

"You want to open another shop next to this one?" The lack of sleep, plus worrying about Denise's reaction to her involvement with Ellen, was making Jody slow in catching up with Denise's enthusiasm.

"No, we expand this one." Denise waved her hands. "I've had longer to think about this, so let me tell you my vision and then you tell me what you think." She went back to working on the funeral spray she was arranging. "Okay, overhead, our biggest worry. If we open a new shop, we'll have to hire two full-time employees, one for each shop. You and I work so well together, I hate the idea of us working separately, but that's the only logical choice. We can't put the newbies in charge of a new location. Even if we're lucky enough to find someone with experience, one of us needs to be there."

Jody nodded as she manipulated a strand of ribbon into a large bow. There were so many things they wanted to do to expand the business. She had been pushing the idea of them taking on corporate accounts. She was sure they could pull in more restaurants. If there was anything San Antonio had plenty of, it was restaurants. And Denise had been wanting to start carrying gift baskets. They were always receiving requests for them, but they didn't have the time to prepare them. They had looked into the possibility of buying them from a vendor, but the real cash reward came in putting the baskets together themselves. Jody kept silent, eager to hear Denise's ideas.

Denise pushed on. "Then there's the concern of finding the perfect place for the new shop, the expense of setting it up, will the new employees work out, and all the other things we've talked to death."

Denise took the completed bow from Jody, inserted it into the spray and set it aside. She began to gather her materials for the next arrangement.

The business had grown so that they were struggling to keep up with orders. They needed to hire at least one full-time person and maybe even another part-timer, but the shop was already too cramped.

As if reading her mind, Denise said, "We're b.u.mping into each other now. Imagine what it'll be like with two more people. That's why I thought we should buy the shop next door. All we'd need to do is knock out the common wall, put in a door and move the workroom over there. Then we could use this s.p.a.ce as the showroom."

Jody thought about the plan. It did make a lot of sense, but she wanted to look at the numbers. The phone rang, giving her a chance to delay making a comment.

"Let me think about this while I'm making deliveries and we'll talk about it later. In fact, why don't you and Ellen come to dinner Wednesday night? We will talk about it then."

"Sounds good. Do you mind if I talk to Mrs. Jimenez about the price and how she's planning to sell?" Denise picked the phone up before Jody could reply.

She was still trying to process the fact that she had tossed out the invitation as though it were nothing more than a simple dinner invitation. In reality, what she had to tell Denise might seriously damage their friendship. It suddenly struck her that she was still thinking about telling Denise.

So much for my determination to end the relationship with Ellen, she thought.

When Denise took the phone from her ear and reached for a sales receipt pad, Jody said, "Let's wait on Mrs. Jimenez until after we talk Wednesday." She could see the disappointment in Denise's eyes as she nodded and went back to the phone.

Chapter Nine.

Later that night as Jody tossed and turned in bed, she tried to concentrate on Denise's plan for the shop. It was a good plan. It made sense to expand their current location and keep their work force combined. There were issues and questions to be addressed, but on the surface it was the logical choice. Would the ha.s.sle of the renovations cause them to lose customers? Would new employees change the feel of the shop? What were the tax implications? If they increased the restaurant contracts would the one van be able to keep up with the deliveries, or would they have to purchase another one? How would the shop look afterward? She tried to imagine how the two shops would look as one, but thoughts of Ellen intruded.

Jody's pillow felt as though it was stuffed with tennis b.a.l.l.s. She pounded on it until her arm grew tired, but it still felt lumpy. She finally gave up pummeling the pillow and admitted there was nothing wrong with it. She couldn't sleep because she felt so lousy about deceiving Denise. Why couldn't she just accept the fact that dating Ellen wasn't possible?

Disgusted with her restlessness, she got up and went into the kitchen to get herself a cold beer. Maybe Denise would surprise them and not object to their dating.

"Yeah, and maybe I'll win the lottery without buying a ticket," she grumbled as she dropped into her recliner. She sipped the beer. "No one dates her best friend's daughter. Especially not one that's nineteen years her junior. I'm lower than a worm t.u.r.d."

She slowly realized that as rotten as she felt about deceiving Denise, she felt worse about not seeing Ellen. She missed her. She never dreamed she could miss another person as badly as she did Ellen. A dozen times that day she had remembered things she wanted to tell her, only to realize she wouldn't be seeing her until Wednesday. While grocery shopping, she bought several items- which included a basket of fresh strawberries, a rich blend of Mexican coffee, a small stuffed puppy that barked and wagged its tail whenever you squeezed his foot-simply because she thought Ellen might enjoy them.

She pulled her feet under her and tried to get comfortable.

I must be losing my mind, she thought. Why else would she be getting herself into this crazy mess? The intelligent thing to do was to end the relationship before it went any further. It was crazy to jeopardize her friendship with Denise over something that was bound to end in disaster anyway. Ellen would eventually realize that her feelings for her were nothing more than a schoolgirl crush. The crush had only lasted this long because Ellen had been away all those years. She would see her mistake and move on to someone nearer her own age. This was just a fling for Ellen, Jody reasoned.

Besides, everyone knew she wasn't capable of maintaining a long-term relationship. How long could they possibly last as a couple?

She would end it when Ellen returned on Wednesday afternoon, Jody decided. That was the wise thing to do.

The phone rang, jarring Jody from her rationalizing. Who would be calling so late? It was after midnight. She glanced at the caller identification display. In spite of her decision to end the affair, her heart soared as Ellen's name flashed across the screen.

Jody s.n.a.t.c.hed up the handset and forced her voice to sound calm. "h.e.l.lo."

"Hi."

That was all it took. One simple word and Jody's resolve to break up with Ellen faded away.

A sense of warmth rushed over her. She was surprised to find there was more comfort than l.u.s.t in the feeling. Each of her relationships since Mia had been physically pa.s.sionate and short-lived, lacking the easy comfort of a real relationship.

"I know I'm being inexcusably selfish, waking you in the middle of the night, but..." Ellen hesitated and Jody thought she heard a small sigh.