Full Bloom

back to Seattle.
    At first he couldn't believe she had fled. She was too honest, too sweet and too much at the mercy of her own gentle conscience not to stick around and apologize for what she had done.
    She was acting as if she were the one who had been abused, he thought furiously.
    That chilled him. If she truly felt wronged it could only be because she actually had faced her family for his sake.
    Jacob drove back to his apartment grimly wondering for the first time if he might have misjudged Emily's motives for staging the scene in her father's study.
    She was just naive enough still to think he might need protection. And she was just reckless enough to try to offer the only defense she thought she could provide.

    "Emily, you're going to ruin our whole inventory of tulips if you keep jamming them into your arrangement like that." Diane glowered at her boss as Emily tossed another broken tulip into a nearby trash bin.
    "I haven't got much time to come up with a decent design," Emily muttered as she eyed her bedraggled creation. "The show is tonight. If I'm going to enter, I have to get my arrangement in by five o'clock this afternoon."
    "I know that, but you aren't going to create anything brilliant by attacking the poor flowers. What's the matter with you, anyway? You've been acting weird since you got back from Portland yesterday. Did you and Jacob quarrel?"
    "It's none of your business." Emily picked up another tulip and scanned her latest arrangement like a general preparing for battle.
    "Aha, so you did have a fight. I knew it." Diane broke off abruptly as the shop door opened and a customer ambled inside. She helped the woman choose some cut flowers, wrapped them for her and collected the money. When the shop door closed behind the customer, Diane turned to her friend as if there had been no break in the discussion. "So tell me about it."
    "There's nothing to tell," Emily said tightly. "I made another mistake. I tend to do that a lot when it comes to judging men. Have you noticed?"
    "Emily, stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell me what happened in Portland."
    Emily chewed on her lower lip while she considered her answer. She discovered she wanted to talk to a friend. The crushing weight of the disaster was becoming too much for her. She tossed a tulip down on the counter and looked at her assistant.
    "I only wanted to protect him, Diane."
    "Protect Jacob? From what?"
    "My family."
    Diane nodded wisely. "Uh-oh."
    "I was getting the usual static from my parents and from Drake," Emily explained. "Yes, they trust Jacob, but no, they don't think he's the kind of man I should get involved with. Yes, they like Jacob, but no, he's not right for me. Not the right social background. Divorced. Too hard. Too dangerous. I'll only get hurt. And so on."
    "So what did you do?"
    Emily looked down at her hands. "I tried to run a bluff."
    "How?"
    Emily sighed. "I told them that if they tried to manipulate Jacob into leaving me alone, I would sell my shares in Ravenscroft International to the first buyer who came along. Jacob walked into the room just as I was making my grand stand."
    "Oh, my God." Diane groaned and collapsed back against the counter.
    "I made a major tactical error," Emily said grimly. "Jacob instantly jumped to the conclusion that I was conducting my big scene in order to retaliate against my parents. He thought I was using him and my shares in RI to get even with them for all their interference in my life."
    "I gather he took exception to the way you handled the big confrontation?"
    "He was furious," Emily said quietly. "He refused to listen when I tried to explain that I had only done it to protect him."
    "Of course he did, you idiot. What man wants to think he needs protection, or worse, that his woman thinks she has to protect him?"
    Emily closed her eyes in silent misery. "I guess I really blew it, didn't I?"
    "Sounds like it," Diane agreed rather heartlessly. But there was an underlying sympathy in her voice when she added soothingly, "I have a hunch it will all work itself out in the end, though."
    "What makes you think that?"
    "Simple. Jacob wants you too much to let this situation go on very long. And you want him. You're in love with the man, Emily. Admit it."
    "I'm in love with him." It wasn't hard to admit. She had known it on one level or another for almost five years. The knowledge was a part of her now. "But, Diane, he doesn't realize the danger he's in. He does need protection from my