Kay tried hard not to grin but failed. Neve was like a cat that way, latching onto people she liked, without a care for whether they returned the sentiment. She always won them over in the end—Duke was a prime example of the feat—and Kay relaxed.
Seraphina stared for another few seconds, then turned her back and pointed toward the couch. “Get comfortable.” A few minutes later, Kay sat with her legs crossed on the rug, while Neve and Seraphina carefully avoided sitting too close together on the small sofa. Seraphina had set out her go-to refreshments: bottled tap water and bowls of trail mix.
Neve picked through the offering with a frown. “If there’s nothing yogurt-covered, it’s just bird seed.”
Before Neve could gripe about the tap water, Kay cleared her throat. “I promise I wouldn’t have introduced you two like this if I had another choice. But tomorrow morning, I have to return to my job, and my job has become suddenly and irrevocably complicated.”
In absolute detail, she explained her day at the greenhouses. Well, not absolute. She left out that damning kiss. She knew Oliver had needed to sell the moment if they had a hope of Pattie believing they were up to nothing more than stealing a few kisses. He’d sold it a little too well, because a small, terrified part of Kay wanted to believe he hadn’t been faking it. She couldn’t even say why. Was a little mystery and wit all it took for her to develop an unhealthy crush?
After she finished her story, her two friends stared at her blankly.
“He’s full of baloney.”
“I believe him.”
Neve and Seraphina locked eyes. Kay groaned. “Neve, why do you think he’s lying?”
“How else would a rival company steal secrets from a major competitor if not from within? I think it makes perfect sense that your guy, Oscar—”
“Oliver.”
“Olliander is probably trying to get his hands on proprietary information.”
Kay sagged. “My first thought, too. Espionage.”
Seraphina shook her head. “A whole year undercover? That’s extreme for company rivalry. Besides, Free Leaf Concepts has always seemed a little too shiny, if that makes sense.”
Neve popped a handful of cashews into her mouth. “It doesn’t. How can you judge a company by its logo?”
“Easy.” Seraphina settled back into the sofa and crossed her arms. “We’re designers. Think about it from our point of view. Free Leaf is about landscaping, and yet, they give off the appearance of a pharmaceutical company. It seems to me they’re appealing to clients outside of the nurseries and gardeners that should make up their bread and butter.”
“It’s kind of true.” Kay told them everything Merit had explained. “They’re involved in some deep stuff, developing their own GMO crops. They study gene-swapping. Definitely more than pruning parties going on out at Capital Acres. Amos only discussed flower propagation with me, but I gather they have him working on any number of experiments.”
Seraphina shook her head slowly. “I’d trust one guy working on his own over a corporation any day of the week.”
Neve chewed her bottom lip. “The clinical crap throws a healthy amount of shade onto Free Leaf Concepts. Can’t ignore that big flashing neon light.”
“But what if he really is working for another landscaping company, Neve? I have to cut ties immediately. That’s why I didn’t meet him tonight. I’ll be guilty by association when he gets caught. No one will believe I wasn’t in on it, too. New to the company? Check. Buddy-buddy with the mole? Check. In a position of power and relevance? Check. I have clearance to access accounting records, the executive offices on the fourth floor, Capital Acres, and Amos’s lab any time I like.”
Seraphina frowned. She sat forward and drummed slim fingernails on the coffee table. “Three very good reasons for Oliver to go out of his way to get you involved. Could be a blackmail scheme.”
Kay hadn’t thought of that. “Make me look guilty, then threaten to use false evidence against me if I don’t help him. Man, that’d be some shit, wouldn’t it?” She buried her face in her hands.
An arm snaked around Kay’s shoulders. She looked up at Neve, who’d left her spot on the couch and joined Kay on the floor. “You have the upper hand, kid. If you come forward now with what you know, there’s no way you can get waylaid by the wily Orlando.”
“Oliver. And if he’s telling the truth? The article on my desk about the super shrooms, or whatever, could be legitimate. What if Free Leaf Concepts, or someone working the greenhouses, is responsible? They might get away with it if I ruin Oliver’s investigation.”
“Yeah, but why run the risk?” Seraphina asked aloud thoughtfully. “Free Leaf Concepts is a multi-million-dollar company. They’re successful. Why mess with that? How much money is there in street drugs?”
“Billions.”
“Trillions.”
Kay rolled her eyes. Neve always had to one-up. “In all seriousness, the illegal drug trade is easily a billion-dollar market. I gave it a cursory Google search after I read the article, because that was the first question I asked, too. Why? Evidently, there are a billion good reasons for a company like Free Leaf to want a piece of that pie.”
Neve gave her another good squeeze, then padded back to the sofa and the bowl of picked-through trail mix. “You’re going to have to make a decision. Believe your guy or rat him out for his shenanigans at the greenhouses.”
Seraphina shook her head. “Don’t jump at the simple conclusions, Kay. You’ve got some time before this comes to a head. Waiting a day or two won’t matter, and if you’re asked why it took you so long to report Oliver, tell them you wanted to look into it and be certain before you condemned an innocent man to the unemployment block. Besides, there’s an easy way to get to the bottom of all this.”
Neve snapped her fingers. “Make Otis introduce you to the rest of his team. If he’s clean, make him prove it. Going undercover isn’t something he could pull off on his own.”
Seraphina pressed her lips together and nodded. She and Neve had come around full circle to find themselves on the same side of the debate. On a better day, Kay might’ve come up with an alternative, but these weren’t better days. And this was exactly what she’d been hoping for when she’d dragged Neve away from her loft in the first place; a consensus from the two most important opinions in the world, barring her own. A whiff of despair settled over her like a delicate scent, wispy and untouchable, too vague to sweep away. What kind of loser had she become? Next, she’d be asking Neve what she should have for dinner, and calling Seraphina to help her decide between the nude bra and the black one.
Neve’s gaze did an alarming thing, a quirk Kay was all too familiar with. Her amber eyes fixed onto a point in the distance, and her lips thinned as an idea took shape. Usually, it heralded a brilliant design concept. But this wasn’t a scrapbooking party, and for Kay, that look was an omen.
Neve swung her probing stare to Kay and blinked. “You like him.”
Kay closed her eyes. She couldn’t lie. Neve would be on her like a flea on a stray dog. “He’s not ugly,” she admitted carefully.
“No, no.” Neve smiled even while shaking her head, shifting to sit forward and look at Kay head on. “You like him. Kay, I know you. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t have hesitated to turn him in immediately. You covered for him at the greenhouses.”
“I did not! He—”
“You didn’t give him away. It’s the same thing. Silence is also a choice.”
Seraphina’s eyebrows were drawn in deep concern. “You must believe him. Even if you’re not prepared to state your official position. You just don’t trust yourself to be right.”
Kay’s ears were ringing. She hadn’t wanted to go down this road. Not tonight, not with Neve, not with the memory so recent. “I don’t trust myself not to make this about the kiss, instead of focusing on what matters. You’re right, Sera, I can’t rely on my best judgment, because my judgment is pure sh
it lately.”
Neve grinned, hardly moved by her outburst. “A kiss. Ah.”
This had been a terrible idea. “Not as romantic as it sounds. He kissed me to hide the fact we were trying to break into Pattie’s office. I think his little bait and switch worked, but there will be a cost if Pattie reports us to Merit. I had two choices. Play along, or rear back and slap his face, and come up with some other reason we went snooping around after they told us to stay put.” She rubbed her face and glared at Neve. “You’re the last person I wanted to discuss this with.”
Her grin widened. “Because I won’t spare your feelings, or because I have a proven track record of being right about ninety-seven percent of the time?”
“Both.”
Seraphina cleared her throat, somehow making it a delicate gesture. “Kay, um, I don’t want to bring it up again, but have you given any more thought to what I suggested?”
Finn. She’d forgotten all about Finn. “Not really. You still think that’s the answer to getting over myself? Dredge up the past with the boyfriend I screwed over?”
She lifted one shoulder. “More like explaining yourself to him might help you get over what’s really bothering you.”
Neve blew a raspberry and cocked a brow in Seraphina’s direction. “You don’t have to justify yourself to anyone, Kay. Shit happens. For all you know, Finn has moved on, and you’ll just make everything worse by showing up unannounced and uninvited.”
Kay sighed and crawled toward the coffee table and the dregs of trail mix. Neve was clueless. The best part was the dried cranberries she’d left sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Kay scooped them into her palm and settled back onto the carpet. At least they weren’t talking about the kiss anymore. “Whether or not Finn forgives me shouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether I can forgive myself. It would help, but for now, I don’t know if I can face him.”
“You mean face yourself.”
Neve’s expression had turned serious, and Kay’s heart pattered uncomfortably in her chest. Neve was amusing and condemning in turn, maddening when she wouldn’t take things seriously. But for all that, when she got real, Kay never knew her to be wrong. Whatever she said next would be as good as gospel.
“Kay, hon, this has nothing to do with Finn. Have you asked yourself why you took a baseball bat to your relationship? I think it’s because you knew drastic measures were the only way. Finn, he’s an all-or-nothing kind of guy. Say you’d simply told him you weren’t happy and wanted to move on. It’d be as good as coloring your engagement in shades of gray, which is nothing shy of torture for a man who lives in terms of black and white. He’d have never let it go. Instead of being angry, he’d have spent eternity trying to fix something that can’t be fixed in an effort to win you back. Then, you’d both be miserable. In the end, you did what you did for a reason. And while the method was harsh, the method almost doesn’t matter, because Finn was going to suffer no matter what.” She sat back suddenly and shrugged. “Life is conflict.”
Seraphina was staring at Neve like she was something that had crawled out of a gutter. “Extraordinary gift you have, Neve. I bet you can explain away anything. No wonder you find it so easy to be crass and intolerable.”
When Neve turned her sharp look on Seraphina, it was all Kay could do not to shield her old friend and take the bullet for her. But there wasn’t any hiding from Neve.
“I’m not surprised you find my honesty distasteful. I don’t dress up my words in fancy outfits, which is stressful for people who rely on them to communicate effectively, because it never occurs to them to simply say what they mean. Now, as far as making excuses, I’ll be very clear...Kay doesn’t need to excuse what she did. She only has to acknowledge why she did it. Were it me, there’d probably be some terribly selfish reason, because I’m terrible and selfish. Kay is not. And so, one must ask why someone thoughtful and kind, like our dear little pumpkin, would do something so cruel.”
At this, Seraphina made quick work of a questioning glance toward Kay and bit her lip.
Neve carried on—a professor schooling her students. “In keeping with her character, only one thing makes sense. She martyred herself. She’d rather make Finn hate her than to admit to him he’s just not good enough. Girl like me, I wouldn’t care. I’d have crushed poor Finn’s little soul and left him drowning in the knowledge that he was boring the life out of me. But Kay couldn’t live with herself, because she knows that everything I’ve said about Finn is the absolute truth—he’d have never let her go that easy. She broke off the relationship in a clean break, if ruthless. I admire that. You don’t, and it’s fine that we’re different, Seraphina. Or maybe it’s not, since you just pegged me into a hole and slapped a label on it.” She turned to Kay with a genuinely puzzled expression. “Why do people find it so hard to believe that life is complicated and painful?” She shook her head as if she could hardly stomach the disappointment and looked at Seraphina again. “Life isn’t pretty all the time. And trying to force something pretty, well, it’s like plucking a flower and sticking it onto a pile of steaming dog turds because you can’t stand the smell. It’s a disservice to humanity. We run the spectrum, and so do our thoughts and actions.”
Seraphina chewed the inside of her cheek for what felt like an eternity, her thoughtful expression glued to Neve. Kay watched with bated breath for the next evolution in her life to take place. Her mentors were so different, yet so alike. They could take over the world if they joined forces, or destroy it in a fantastic clash of opposing wills.
Neve finally lost patience. “Whatever,” she said, waving her hand as if batting away a response that never came. She rose from the sofa. “I don’t need an opinion of my opinion. Kay, it’s been interesting. Keep me updated on Omar.”
Kay sighed. “Oliver.”
“Whatever. Call if you need me.”
“Pfft. I’m going to call all right, but only to get to the bottom of your problems with Duke.”
Neve reached the door and cast Kay a withering glance over her shoulder. “Careful where you step, little one.” Then she was gone.
The energy in the room seemed to have left with her, because Kay was suddenly exhausted. “So.” She smiled benignly at Seraphina. “What do you think?”
“Of Neve? I think she lives up to her reputation.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
Seraphina shook her head. “I can’t decide.” Her wide, considering gaze moved to Kay. “Is she right?”
Kay’s skin felt thin, her throat dry. Maybe it was a disservice to humanity to determinately stroll through life in rose-colored shades, believing only the good stuff. Turning a blind eye to the harsher side of humanity’s nature. But Neve had struck a deep chord of truth, and it reverberated and sang through Kay like a warbling swallow. “Yeah,” she admitted quietly, breaking eye contact. “I think so.”
Chapter 6
It’s almost over. It’s almost over. Kay repeated the mantra through her morning meeting. Her mood seemed contagious. No one was particularly peppy—with a pang, she realized bringing the pep was her job. She had to set the dial for the team’s energy level. She was failing them.
Guillermo and Jasper were at each other’s throats again. Amos wore an expression that probably mirrored Kay’s own: barely contained rage, brought on by the incessant arguing.
Amos had a cart piled high with vases nurturing cut sprigs of several flowering bushes. “These here, the yellow ones, they gonna be for this area back here.” The plant he held was a long stick with tiny yellow buds running the length of the long thin branches. They were delicate yet hardy, but Kay wasn’t sure about the color.
“Yellow?” She scratched her cheek and went to the wall where they’d hung up the color board. “I don’t know. So far, we’ve got cherry blossoms and a sage background. The green and yellow together...” She couldn’t compare them to puke out loud. Amos would never forgive her. “They don’t flatter each othe
r. But if we got rid of the green, I think the pink and yellow would pop on a white background.”
“White?” Guillermo’s plaintive voice exposed Kay’s own concern. White was typical and boring. Design had to be something really stunning to pull off plain white. And they hadn’t stumbled upon stunning yet.
Frustrated, Kay groaned. “Okay, let’s start over. Maybe cherry blossoms are too easy.”
Amos raised his thick, coarse eyebrows. “Too overdone, certainly.”
She couldn’t recall whose idea they’d been. Probably hers. She kept her shoulders straight with sheer will. “Nix the cherry blossoms.”
Guillermo pointed at the carefully penciled plans on the drafting table. It was a layout of the spa’s entrance, where a greeter would wait to jot down names and collect payment after services were rendered. Jasper’s first assignment, and Kay was disappointed with the simplicity. “What about the mocha here? It’s called mocha ’cause is the color of brown, you see?”
“It’s not the color of brown, it is brown. And you can’t call any shade of brown mocha because you like how it sounds. There are rules, Taco Bob.” Jasper smirked, and it took everything Kay had not to backhand it right off his mouth.
She drummed her fingers across the white surface and pressed her lips together against the onslaught of a hundred choice words. Guillermo’s face was reddening, and he was sucking in a big inhale to fuel his lengthy, indignant reply. Kay held up a hand to stop him, but the Spaniard’s eyes glittered as he stared at Jasper, who remained delightfully amused by the scene.
Kay glared at him. “I’m writing you a pink slip for harassment. You’re excused for the day, Jasper.”
Just like last time, he had the audacity to appear perplexed, staring at her as if she’d lost her damn mind. “Are you kidding me? It’s one thing to send me to fetch coffee, but you’re actually going to write me up? For a joke?”
“For one joke, no. For ten, all aimed at Guillermo? Absolutely.” Kay fought to appear calm and in control. Inside, she was seething. “I’ve already given you a verbal warning. I don’t know how else to get through to you. It’s harassment, plain and simple. And that’s not all. Two days ago, I said I wanted a rough draft. This morning, I arrived to find an e-mail from Guillermo, explaining that you were unavailable the two times he approached you to discuss the spa.” She stabbed a finger at the plans laid out before her. “You worked alone instead of coinciding your efforts with Guillermo. What we have as a result isn’t the cohesive template I wanted to start with, but a boring, standard backdrop on which we’re to play a game of stick and paste. Your design should inspire ours.”
Love on the Vine Page 9
