Chapter 20
Tex
Hollywood pressed up behind me and hooked his chin over my shoulder. “You don’t always have to cook.”
I gave the sausage and peppers a final stir before turning off the burner. “I don’t mind. Besides, when you tried those chicken-fried steaks—”
“Don’t finish that sentence!” Hollywood smacked my arm, making me laugh. He’d burned the breading while the inside remained mostly raw. That took a special skill—but not one any of us wanted.
“I meant I could bring home Zacos, asshole.”
“Asshole?” Ruby echoed. “Asshole!”
Hollywood clapped his hand over his mouth, looking horrified. That only made me laugh harder.
He spun. “No, sweetie, no. I said apple! I’m getting you some apple juice.”
She looked skeptical. “You call Teck an apple?”
I snickered until Hollywood elbowed me. “Do something,” he muttered between clenched teeth.
“Your Daddy is weird sometimes, honey. He called me an apple.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I’m so sweet.”
I swept her up and pretended to gobble her belly. She squealed and laughed, and by the time I set her down, she was done questioning our vocabulary.
“Okay, time to wash up for dinner.”
Hollywood took her hand. “Come on, Roo. Let’s go wash.”
“I an apple too!”
Oh, well, shoot. Apparently, she wasn’t going to forget that one. Hollywood shot me a look over his shoulder. I shrugged. At least she wasn’t calling us all assholes. I’d say it was a win.
I was still chuckling quietly as we all sat down to eat. I’d plated up sausage and bell pepper with rigatoni and a marinara sauce. It wasn’t fancy, but it was tasty.
“How was work?” I asked Hollywood.
He cut sausage into smaller pieces for Ruby. “Good. Knight came by and I gave him a trim. He tried to talk Clint into getting a tattoo of some scissors and a razor. The old guy laughed himself silly.”
“Maybe you should get one.” I eyed him. “Some ink would be hot on you.”
“Yeah?” Color climbed his neck and brightened his ears. “Maybe.”
Hollywood was still a little shy, despite being the more experienced of us two.
The more experienced with men, anyway. I’d been with a lot of women, but none seriously.
I hadn’t really wanted a relationship. That seemed like a red flag now.
Because I actually loved all this domestic shit.
I hadn’t ever been this close to a person, male or female.
We finished up dinner, and I did the dishes while Hollywood took Ruby in for a bath.
He loved spending this time with her, and I got her all day, so I didn’t mind the break.
When they came back out, Ruby’s skin had pinked up from the heat of the bath and she was snuggled into an adorable towel robe with a hood that had a duck’s bill on it.
“Quack!” she said.
I gasped. “Is that a duck? Where’s Ruby?”
She laughed as if it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. Hollywood rolled his eyes, less impressed with my humor.
“See? This is why I love kids,” I told him. “They’re easy to please.”
“I’m easy to please,” he said, giving me a look that made me want to say to hell with work and stay home.
I groaned. “It’s mean to put those thoughts in my head right when I have to leave.”
He grinned. “Well, feel free to wake me when you get home.”
“I will.” I leaned in and kissed Ruby’s cheek. “Make your daddy behave while I’m gone.”
She giggled again. “Daddy always be-aves.”
“Oh, he does, huh? Well, I guess you should too.” I grabbed Hollywood’s chin and gave him a quick peck. “See you soon.”
I got to Wilde Roots just as regular store hours ended. Ken was still there, emptying the register and updating inventory before he headed out. He brightened when he saw me.
“Hey, Tex. Great work last night. I thought that new inventory would take much longer to move in.”
“I’m a beast,” I said.
Helena passed by. “Got that right. He’s beastly and boring!”
Ken flapped a hand. “Don’t mind her. She’s in a mood today. Says all I ever do is talk about you. But, seriously, Tex, you’re doing great work. I value employees who value my business.”
“I appreciate that. Uh, actually, I have a question…”
“Shoot.”
I braced my elbows on the checkout counter. “Do you offer a discount to employees?”
“Oh.” He blinked. “Well, to tell the truth, most of my employees are family. They automatically get a family rate. But hell, Tex, why not? You work harder than most of them, anyway.”
“I know I haven’t been here long, and if it’s not your policy, it’s fine.”
“How does fifteen percent off sound?”
“Even if I had a fairly large order to make?”
He frowned. “What exactly are you planning to do, son?”
My stomach tightened. “You know what, never mind. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Are you sure?” His forehead creased. “We could figure something out.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to take advantage of the spirit of an employee discount.
It wasn’t designed to accommodate large orders that would go to another business.
It was tantamount to stealing. As much as I wanted to help Dad out, I just couldn’t do it.
This job was too important. I respected Ken.
Liked him, even. I could see myself working here for a long time.
“It’s fine, Ken. I was just thinking about that garden and getting a little ahead of myself.”
He chuckled. “All right, then. The fifteen percent offer stands, so long as you don’t order the whole store.”
I laughed with him. “Thanks.”
“Helena is leaving early tonight.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? What time?”
He rubbed at his jaw. “Tex, I hope you don’t mind, but she really doesn’t want to work past nine anymore. She says there’s not enough work for two people. If you disagree…”
Damn. There was enough work. More than enough. But Helena didn’t do her share even when she was here.
“I can handle it.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “She ducked out early last night too. It’s fine.”
Ken frowned. “Well, she didn’t tell me that.”
“I don’t mean to cause any problems, Ken. If she doesn’t want to be here, she’s not going to be helpful, anyway.” I met his gaze squarely, and he seemed to understand what I was saying.
“All right, Tex. But at this rate, I’m going to have to promote you soon.”
I smiled. “As long as I can stay on nights.”
“Why would you want to stay on nights? Not that I’m complaining. It’s tough to find someone who wants a shift like this.”
“I watch Ruby during the day. Her dad works at the barbershop.”
“Oh, no kidding? That young guy they call Hollywood?”
“That’s the one,” I said, stomach flipping. It hadn’t occurred to me that Ken would know Holly. I sometimes forgot how small Riverton was. Would he realize that Hollywood wasn’t straight and that maybe I wasn’t either? Unease slithered through me. Was I really still worried about this bullshit?
“He’s a nice fella. Real friendly.” Ken ran a hand through his thick head of silver hair.
“Clint does my cuts, though. Before that, his daddy did them. River Town Barber is a family business too. Until now, anyway.” He sighed.
“Kids these days. They want to go out and do their own thing. They don’t seem to care about what we’ve built. ”
“Does Clint have kids?”
“Er, no. But my son and daughter wanted nothing to do with the greenhouse.” He clapped my arm. “Good thing we have folks like you and Hollywood.”
“Ex-cons to the rescue,” I said.
Ken had himself a good laugh over that, then excused himself to head home to Caroline’s pork ribs. Maybe I should ask for a few recipes. My stovetop pastas and stir-fries were already getting a little boring.
Once the store was locked down, I went through my usual routines of checking on plant health, trimming and deadheading, and returning misplaced inventory. Customers were the worst about picking up things, carrying them around, then setting them down somewhere they didn’t belong.
Helena took off the second the clock hit nine.
Just after ten, my phone buzzed with a text from my dad.
Dad:
Pulling up in the truck in five minutes. Meet me at the loading dock.
Shit. I told him I’d ask about the discount, not that it was a done deal!
I headed into the back of the greenhouse, passing by the packaging station and hitting the large red button that would open one of the garage bay doors. We’d have trucks picking up paid shipments in the next hour, so I’d have to get Dad out of here before then.
I paced, agitated, trying to figure out how to let him down easy until his pickup—with a six-foot trailer behind it—pulled up. Just how much inventory was he expecting to buy?
The brake lights flashed red, then the engine cut. Dad hopped out of the pickup and strode over. “Hey, son! You ready to do business?”
“Depends,” I said. “What do you need?”
“Oh, the usual. Some boxwoods or camellias, some perennials, some ground cover like liriope. Hydrangeas or Knock Out Roses. I’d like to get a couple of eastern redbuds if you have them, too.”
“So, basically everything you’d need for a landscape project,” I said slowly.
“Well, yeah. I wouldn’t say no to some native grasses too.” He chuckled. “I wouldn’t want to be too presumptuous.”
I barked a laugh. “Right. Well, you really should have called ahead, Dad. I would have told you not to waste your time.”
“Why? You’ve got the inventory, don’t you?”
I did a mental review of the greenhouses. Wilde Roots could provide everything he needed with a couple of small adjustments. “Yeah, I think so. But this isn’t how things should be done.”
“What do you mean?”
“You rolling up here after hours, Dad. What if someone thinks I’m doing something shady?”
He scoffed. “You’re just helping out your old man by getting him a good deal. Your boss isn’t going to complain that you made him some money.”
Dad hauled himself up onto the raised concrete dock with a grunt, a determined gleam in his eye. I took a breath. He wasn’t going to listen to reason, was he?
“Okay, fine. If you want to buy some plants, we can do that. But I couldn’t get you that discount.”
“What?” he squawked. “That’s the whole dang point of this, Tex. I need that cost break.”
“Well, you could go somewhere else.”
“I can’t. This job starts tomorrow morning. Why do you think I’m here like this? I’m begging you, son. Help me out.”
Damn it. Well, I couldn’t discount the purchases, but I could make up the difference if it got Dad out of my hair. “Fine. Fifteen percent off.”
He nodded. “Great. Put it on my bill. Let’s load up.”
“Your bill? Dad, that’s not… I can’t just bill you. You need to pay.”
“Well, I don’t have the cash on me now. Just send a bill to my account. We’ll settle up later.”
“I’m not authorized to do that.”
“Come on, Tex. You know how hard it’s been, keeping this business going alone? I needed you, but you chose all this, so at least use it to help me out. There’s got be something we can work out, right?”
He stared me down, and I didn’t have it within me to refuse.
I sighed. “Fine, I’ll cover the tab, but you’ve got to pay me back as soon as you can.”
“Yes, absolutely. As soon as the job’s done, I’ll have the money.”
I nodded. “Okay, come on in. Let’s get you what you need.”
I grabbed a large flatbed cart, and we strolled through the store, loading up everything Dad wanted. Selling plants out the back of a greenhouse under the cover of darkness made my stomach squirm. It was too close to what had sent me to prison.
These were legal plants. I was paying for them. No crime was happening here.
So why did it feel so wrong?