Page 20 of Garden Daddy

“Oh, well, I don’t know… I wasn’t expecting to have to pay an extra employee for today.”He shook his head regretfully.“I don’t think I can pay you for today.Maybe we can work… something else out.”

Eden’s eyes widened in mock surprise as she put her hand to her chest like she had a pearl necklace there to clutch.Her fingers lingered over the top petal on her Flower Power t-shirt.Maybe it was silly, but seeing her in his nursery’s shirt did things to him.

“Are you suggesting alternate payment?”she asked in pretend shock.

“Sure.I can pay you in sausage.”He winked at her and grinned as she cracked up, unable to keep a straight face after his suggestion.Hell, it wasn’t such a bad idea.She did deserve a reward.

Covering her mouth, she snorted as she tried to get her laughter under control, trying to get back into her role, but she couldn’t keep the grin off her face.

“I, uh, suppose that’s acceptable.”She coughed, trying to cover more giggles.

“You’re going to have to come back to my place to get it.”

“Also acceptable.”

“And you’re going to have to leave me alone for a few minutes so I can finish this.”

Before he’d finished speaking, Eden was already shaking her head, a mischievous smirk on her lips.

“Absolutely not acceptable.”

“Brat,” he retorted, chuckling as he looked back down at the receipts.Still giggling, Eden sat beside him in companionable silence, doing something on her phone while he finished everything he needed to do for the evening.Having her there was nice.Distracting but nice.Marcus whistled under his breath as he locked up before turning to Eden and holding out his hand.

She slid her fingers into his.

“Sorry our date got messed up.”

“That’s okay.It wasn’t like you could plan for an injured employee.At least he’s doing all right.”During the afternoon, he’d gotten the text from Janet.Dillon had a nasty sprain, but at least his leg wasn’t broken, which had been the initial worry.He also had a minor concussion, but they’d released him to go home.She’d offered to come back in, but at that point, Marcus had told her to stay with her nephew and that he’d see her tomorrow.

“Yeah, and he wasn’t supposed to work tomorrow, anyway.I’ll have to figure out the schedule for the rest of the week and tweak some things so he can stay on the cash register once he comes back until his ankle is healed up.”His mind was already moving ahead to all the little things he was going to have to take care of—then he yanked it right back to the present.Where he wanted to be was here, with Eden.

Thinking ahead was natural and easy for him, and it was easy to get lost in his head, but that meant he’d sometimes accidentally left Eden behind while he was distracted by his thoughts.He was doing so well today, he didn’t want to get bogged down with his head on work.Those were issues for future him.Right now, he wanted to focus on current Marcus, who was about to take Eden back to his house and fuck her silly.

“Already figuring out the schedule in your head, aren’t you?”Eden asked.

At least she sounded amused rather than upset.Something had shifted between them today, even though he’d had to cut their date short.

Maybe because he hadn’t just canceled it completely and asked her to come with him.If that was the effect it had, he’d happily take her along to work anytime.Not that he wanted more of their dates cut short by issues, especially not ones involving people getting hurt, but as the owner of Flower Power, sometimes there were things only he could handle.And, in an emergency, he was the one ultimately responsible.

“I’m trying not to,” he admitted, making her laugh.

“Go ahead.I know you’ll feel better and be better focused on, ah, doling out my payment once you’ve got it figured out.”She winked at him as they reached the car.Shaking his head, Marcus smiled and opened the door for her to get in.

She really didn’t seem bothered by his preoccupation, so he let his mind dwell on the schedule, what Dillon might need, and how to balance the hours he’d been putting in the entire way home.He was mentally writing out the email in his head when they pulled into the driveway, and he gave her a guilty look.

Eden laughed.

“Do whatever it is you need to do.”She pointed her finger at him in warning.“It better not take more than five minutes, though.Tops.That’s a real five minutes, not a Marcus-five-minutes.”

“Done,” he agreed.“I just need to send a quick email to the other employees, letting them know about Dillon and asking them to send back any openings they have to help cover the gaps in the schedule.”

“Okay, I’m going to hold you to that,” she said.

It was more than he’d expected.

Letting her into the house, Marcus went to his computer in the den since he could type faster on the keyboard than on his phone.He didn’t get pulled into checking anything while he was there—he wouldn’t let himself.No looking at the other emails, definitely no opening them.Just get in, type up the email, and get out in exactly four minutes from the moment he sat down.

Hopping up, he went to look for Eden.She’d been in the kitchen getting a glass of water when he’d gone into the den, but now she was nowhere to be seen.Marcus frowned.

---