I stared at him, trying to understand what had happened in the space of minutes.

“Dog grooming. It’s a booming industry.” His words echoed in my ears, bouncing around like kids in a ball pit, screaming and laughing at my shock.

I had to be dreaming. Because this was the sort of weird twist that occurred only when I slept and the painkillers were heavy in my system. This was not reality.

There was no way Roger would start a dog-grooming business. No way he would sell the house that meant so much to me.

“You hate dogs,” I managed to get out. “You always said we couldn’t have one because they were too stupid to exist. They stink. And bark incessantly on top of being too needy. You chased Mrs. Whitmore’s poodle with a shovel, threatening to brain it because it peed on our lawn.”

He took his hands and clasped them behind his back. “That was then. I’m a changed man, and, well, I’ve changed my mind. We’ll be grooming cats too.”

I stared at him with my mouth open, unable to fully process the speed at which the conversation had begun to tank. What the fricky dicky was going on? Had he smacked his head on something and gone off the deep end?

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I struggled to get hold of the conversation and myself. I had to steer this the right way, or Roger would never pull himself out of the mess I could see him sinking into. And in not too many weeks I’d be gone and unable to help him.

“Okay, let’s assume you really do this. Cats hate water, they have claws and teeth they aren’t afraid to use. And if I may remind you, the last cat I had, I caught you dancing a jig when she got hit by a car.”

“I wasn’t dancing, I was upset.” His eyes lowered and he sniffed loudly.

“What, you just decided at that moment to see if you could still do the Robot?” I snapped. This was ridiculous. Dying I might be, but I wasn’t going to let him throw his life away on some harebrained—no pun intended—scheme. Sitting up was no small effort, but I pushed my deflated body upright and leaned back against the metal-tubed headboard. “Roger, this is ridiculous. You’re being stupid, and there isn’t time to mince words.”

“Tell him how you really feel, Alena,” Dahlia said with a snicker.

“That’s why I can’t come here. I told her you would be like this. The needle to my hot-air balloon.” Roger spoke as though his business partner actually had some say in this conversation.

“You got that right, you’re a hot-air balloon.” I took a slow breath and tried to contain my emotions. “Roger. You hate animals. You know nothing about running a business; the bakery was all me. You couldn’t even take the garbage out without spilling it all over my kitchen. Three times in a row.” I paused, summoning the courage to tell him the truth. “Roger, my love, someone has seen that you have money, and they’re taking you for a ride. They’re using you. Whoever this business partner is, they—”

He stepped back, his whole body shaking inside his suit. “That’s exactly what she said you’d say. I told her you loved me and would want me to be happy. I guess I was wrong. There is something else too.”

I put a hand to my head, my whole body trembling. Whether it was with fatigue from sitting up, or from what Roger was spitting out, I wasn’t sure. “Who is this ‘she’ you are talking about?” Oh, God, the blonde in the doorway. “Your business partner came with you? Wait, what else have you got to tell me?”

He drew himself up, and I knew in my belly what he was going to say. I held a hand out. “Don’t you dare sell my bakery to that woman. Don’t you dare!” If he sold my bakery to Colleen Vanderhoven, I might die on the spot and be glad of it. She’d been the bane of my existence from the day I set my shop up. The closest thing to an archnemesis I’d had in my entire life. She’d done everything she could to sink my business, from setting up her bakery a street over, to attempting to steal my recipes, to actually stealing some of my employees.

“We’re signing the papers next week.” The words started out of his mouth strong and ended on a sigh.

My bakery. I leaned back against the headboard, eyes aching as though tears fell from them. I loved Vanilla and Honey almost as much as I loved the house my grandparents had left me. Shaking, holding back the gulping sobs that leapt up to escape me, I managed another question. “Tell me about this business partner. Who is she?”

What if he was partnering with Colleen in more than one capacity? Burn my sugar biscuits! If he partnered with fat-nosed, mean-as-a-badger Colleen in the dog-grooming business, I would strangle him myself.

Roger nodded. “I don’t know why you’re surprised. You were the one who said I should move on with my life. To find love again so I wouldn’t be alone.”

What was he going on about now? I opened my eyes and stared at him as his words settled around me.

Dahlia let out a low groan from her side of the room. “Oh, you didn’t, you dumb schmuck. Tell me you didn’t.”

He acted like he hadn’t heard her. As he leaned close, his helmet moved like a bobble-head doll on the dashboard of a car, giving the illusion that his head wasn’t quite attached the way it should have been. Which in that moment I could believe. “I love her, Alena. I know you understand because, really, this was your idea. But Barbie doesn’t want me coming back to see you anymore. She’s afraid I might get sick, and she has a point. Not to mention the cost of the ferry back and forth all the time. I have my whole life ahead of me. You said it yourself. So I’m getting on with it.”