Read Full Bloom for Free Online Page A

on the counter and shook out her umbrella. "It's Saturday. I thought you were spending the weekend in sunny Portland." She shrugged out of the shiny taxi-yellow rain slicker she was wearing.
    "Portland wasn't very sunny, after all."
    Diane peered at her from eyes that were outlined by vivid makeup. "Uh-oh, what happened? The family wasn't interested in loaning you the money to open the new shop on Fourth?"
    "The subject never came up," Emily explained grimly as she went behind the counter to open the cash register for the day. "My family had something else on their collective brain."
    "Something else?" Diane hung up the raincoat and reached for her coffee. "Like what?"
    "Like my love life."
    Diane choked on her first sip. "Your
what
?'
    "You heard me." Emily glared at her assistant's overdone expression of astonishment and grinned in spite of her bad mood. "I know. What love life? You don't have to look so stunned. I do have the occasional date now and then."
    Diane looked dubious. "The only man you've been dating recently is that good-looking Damon Morrell, and I recall you telling me distinctly he was just a 'friend.' "
    "My family thought it might amount to more than that."
    "So? Where's the problem if it did? Morrell's got everything most mothers would kill for in a son-in-law. He's making a fortune in that construction company he inherited from his father, he knows how to dress for success and he works out four times a week at a health club. What more could a parent ask?"
    "They would prefer that he did not happen to own a company that's in direct competition with Ravenscroft International," Emily said succinctly. "You have to understand that where my family is concerned, business always comes first. They assume everyone else operates under the same premise. They, therefore, came to the conclusion that there's only one reason Damon Morrell might be seeing me on a regular basis."
    Diane stared at her and then realization dawned in her blue eyes. "Good grief, you don't mean they're afraid he's got his eyes on you because of your position at RI?"
    "Bingo," Emily said with mock approval. "Go to the head of the class."
    "And that's what they wanted to talk to you about this weekend?"
    "They invited me down for the weekend to talk business," Emily said. "I, of course, naively assumed they meant they were finally willing to listen to my proposal about a loan for the new shop. As you can imagine, there was a slight communication problem."
    "Oh, Emily, how awful. What did they say? How did they handle it?"
    "They handled it the way they often handle a crisis. They called in Jacob Stone."
    "You're losing me," Diane warned. "Who's Jacob Stone?"
    Emily drummed her fingers on the counter, considering that question. "Jacob has worked for my family for several years, although I'm told he officially resigned from RI a couple of months ago. Obviously he didn't really sever his ties with the firm or he wouldn't have been available for checking out Damon Morrell."
    "What was his position with Ravenscroft?"
    "His position?" Emily narrowed her eyes. "Officially he was a vice president in charge of certain aspects of overseas construction operations. But unofficially he was my family's personal trouble-shooter. When the going got tough, my family's motto was Send Stone. Problems on the construction site? Labor difficulties? Industrial espionage? Trouble with local laws? Send Stone. One hundred percent reliable. Totally discreet. Utterly loyal. Always gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. In short, the perfect employee. I always thought of him as a paid enforcer. If my family had been a bunch of hoods instead of reasonably respectable business people, Jacob probably would have been a hit man."
    "He sounds fascinating." Diane took another sip of coffee. "So your family called him back into temporary service when they wanted Damon vetted, huh?"
    "Right. It's not the first time they've used him to get me out of what they considered