D.W.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sabrina finally interrupted. "You want me to pick out furnishings for your house? And paint?"

"Yeah. I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Okay," she said dubiously. "I guess I can do that." Then a grin came to her face. "What do you think of pink for the living room walls?"

"No!" Doug half yelled.

"Come on," she gave a mischievous laugh, her green eyes twinkling like emeralds. "It would be like living in Barbie's Dreamhouse."

"More like someone's stomach who has taken a dose of Pepto-Bismol," he replied. "Please don't do that to me."

Their talk was curtailed further as a man walked in and they went back to doing business by discussing signs. Of course, the man needed to know what they needed and where, so they strolled around the warehouse inside and out determining their placement. For Doug, this wasn't new. He had gone through it before with John when they first opened the warehouse where he developed his company. Sabrina, on the other hand, hadn't seen this before. Once it was through, she thought things would pretty much be complete. Doug knew just how wrong that thought was, and she was about to learn about it all in the next few weeks. There were all kinds of requirements that had to be met for safety as well as profit. Permits had to be purchased to meet legal requirements. OSHA standards had to be met concerning all sorts of matters, including the storage of hazardous materials since they would have propane for the tow motors and fertilizer on site. Records would have to be properly filed and stored. Maintenance of equipment and the building had to be considered. And that was only the beginning. Once she found out about it all, she wondered if they could get it all done. To top it all off, they were already doing business in the area, and customers had to be taken care of. But first, they had to take care of the signs.

Signs. Signs for the company identification, truck entrance, employee/visitor parking, offices, product placement, maintenance services, janitorial services, and much more. At the end, of the discussion, they were back in the dock area next to the table with the donuts and the coffee maker.

"I think I have all I need, sir," said the man. "But can I ask what the deal is with your logo? Why have the duck's head on it?" he pointed to the head of a cartoon duck above the name "D.W. Landscaping" with the words "and Lawn Service" below that.

"When I was about nine or ten, I hung out some with a guy whose little sister couldn't talk very well yet. She tried to say my name, "Dougie," but it always came out "Ducky. I just incorporated it into the logo. Come to think of it, she should be entering high school next year, I think."

As Doug finished the story, the door opened again and a blonde woman in her twenties walked in. She walked up to Sabrina as she separated from the other two. "I thought we finally got rid of you," she announced with a curse. "What are you doing here?"

"Just my job," Sabrina replied. "How are you, Charlie?"

"Like you would really care. I suppose I have to deal with you. I was hoping you had moved your stupid..."

"Charlie!" Brie interrupted. "I know we don't exactly get along and you don't like me, but can we at least be civil with each other? We have a job to do. Are all the trucks here?"

"Bitch," The newcomer muttered under her breath. "Yeah, we're all here. Who's the new guy? Maybe I can deal with him instead of you to get this done and get out of here and away from you."

"You'll meet him soon enough. Trailers are to be brought inside and dropped over in that area," Brie ordered while pointing to where they had planned for the small open trailers to go. "Once that's done. The trucks can go into the docks to be unloaded." With that she turned to walk back to the other two who were just shaking hands to say goodbye.

"Let's get something straight, Sabrina. You are not the boss. I don't take orders from you. Got it, Miss Priss?

"You must be Ms. West," Doug entered the conversation as he laid a hand on Sabrina's shoulder.

"What's it to you, new guy? Charlie spat thinking he was just another peon in the company."

"Ms. West. I'm Doug Wheeler. And if you want to keep this job, I suggest you get rid of the attitude and do what Ms. Townsend tells you to do."

"What? You think you own the place, boy? Wait till you're out there and I have to train you for this job. You'll learn."

"Charlie," Sabrina warned.

She looked at her and decided that these two probably knew what Branham, the guy she thought was in charge of the company, wanted and turned towards the big garage door that was blocking the ramp. "I'll get the trailers in place," she announced and, after pushing the button to raise the door, walked out.

While Sabrina oversaw the dropping of the trailers and the unloading of the equipment from the trucks, Doug was busy on his phone. Once they were done, the group gathered near the card table and she gave them their boxes of doughnuts then waited for him to finish his last call. After hanging up, he stepped forward to address the group.

"How's it going, Doug?" Bill Farrington asked as he came up to the group.

"Very busy, Bill. How are you?"

"I'm good, boss. I was surprised to hear about coming into this area, though."

"I think it will be a good move for us. We already have a few contracts and more will come." He turned to the rest in the group. "Listen up people," he said in a louder voice. The chatter died, and the workers looked at him. "For those of you who don't know me, my name is Doug Wheeler. I am the owner of D.W. Landscaping, and I'd like to welcome you to our new location. I have accommodations for you for tonight and tomorrow night. I hope that you will enjoy your stay here. You have been chosen to work this facility through tomorrow, at which time, you will be given the opportunity to decide if you want to continue working here or go back and stay at our original location. We will be hiring new people as well, which means that if you stay, you quite likely will be partnered with one of them to train them. Right now, we'll show you around so that you know where everything is here."

After showing the warehouse, he decided to send everyone to lunch. "There is a diner down the street and several other places to eat in the area," he announced. "You may use the trucks to get to them. Thanks for your work,everyone, and let's all be back here in one hour."

"So, no more hiding?" asked Bill referring to him telling everyone who he was as he came to where Doug was standing with Sabrina.

"No. No more hiding," Doug replied with a furtive glance at the dark haired beauty. "Since I turned eighteen, it isn't needed anymore."

"Why did you need to?" Brie asked.

"I, um, don't want to say," he answered.

"Come on, Doug. If there is no more hiding, there should be no more secrets, either," she said. "If we are to work together, we need to get everything out in the open."

"Everything?"

"Just spill it, Wheeler," she ordered frustratingly.

He looked at her for a few seconds wondering how she would take it if he told her. Finally, he began to talk. "I told you how your father was taking part of my money. He can be rather greedy, Brie. If I had let it out that I had this company, I wouldn't have this company. He took a lot of money from me at the beginning saying it was to pay for my upkeep even though he was being paid from a fund my mother set up to provide for my care. Fortunately, when the lawyer came to me to tell me about the inheritance, he wasn't there to hear it. I'm sure he would have tried to get his take out of that, too."

"Was he taking a lot?"

"He thought I was working a small time job or he would have taken a lot more."

"I understand your reluctance. I guess it would be pretty hard to tell me about that. You know mom didn't know about him taking money from you, don't you? I'm sure she would have tried to stop him from doing it."

"You're not going to defend him?"

"I realize it was harder on you than it was me, but it wasn't exactly a picnic growing up in his house for me either, you know."

"I know," he replied. He sensed that she wanted to say more, but she kept quiet. "Lunch?" Bill had already left while they were talking, so they headed for Doug's car to find a place to eat.

An hour later when they returned to the warehouse, everyone else was already there. Charlie took note of the fact that they were together in the car and approached Brie as they came up to the door to unlock and enter the docking area.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised after what you did your freshman year in high school, should I?" Charlie cooed.

"What are you talking about, Charlie?"

"You sleeping with the boss. You got away with blowing Ken that time. Even got me in trouble for revealing it. But you really outdid yourself this time."

Doug was close enough to hear what she said. "Ms. West, do you like your job?"

"What?"

"It's a simple question. I just wonder why you are taking so much risk of losing it by trying to start these unfounded rumors all the time. Ms. Townsend could make a case for sexual harassment with what you are saying." He knew that the rest of the group was with in ear-shot and kept going to establish the facts. "I knew her before she came to the company, but I was not a part of the hiring process when she was brought on to the payroll. John Branham had that task as it was for the position of his assistant. I wasn't aware of it until she was already hired on. And she was unaware that I own the company until this last weekend. And for the record, we are not now, nor have we ever been a couple. If you persist in this telling of falsehoods to try to disgrace Ms. Townsend, I will have no choice but to see to it that your employment with this company ceases. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Because I'm sure you need the work. I don't allow for sexual harassment and I don't participate in such. As it happens, neither of us has ever seen the other without clothing let alone engage in the type of activity you are suggesting ."

"That's not exactly true Doug," Brie noted.

"What?" he asked surprised.

"There was that time that I walked in on you when you were in the bathroom after that really rainy day and you were covered in mud from Mrs. Grainger's flower bed."

"I had forgotten about that."

"Um," Bill spoke up. "I think we need to hear about this one, boss. She saw you naked?" The others started to ooh at the thought.

"I was only nine at the time," Doug announced with a blush. "And she walked right back out when she saw I was in there."

"Nine?" Charlie noted. "You mean the two of you are related?"

"No, Charlie," Brie answered.

"If you must know, I'm an orphan. My mother died when I was six and in her will, she asked her best friend, Sabrina's mother, to raise me. So, yes, we grew up together, but no, we're not related. Thus, why she was able to accidentally walk in on me when I was getting cleaned up."

"Well I guess she knew all the, uh, ahem, dirty facts that day," Bill teased. Everyone laughed.

"You're such a bully," Doug teased back.

"Wait a minute," Charlie started in. "I say something about the two of you and you threaten my job, but Bill says something, and you laugh it off? Something isn't right with that."

"You said something with the intent of causing harm, Ms. West. Bill has been with the company from the moment I first started hiring people, and his statement wasn't meant to be spiteful. I'm sure you know the difference."

"Chill out, Charlie," Jim Hampton added. "What's with you anyway? Why do you hate her so much?"

"Because she's a boyfriend stealing slut!" Charlie yelled.

"What are you talking about?" Brie asked. "You started this when we were freshmen in high school. I didn't have any boyfriends that whole year. In fact, I wasn't allowed to date until the next year. And I sure wasn't sleeping with anybody."

"Oh yeah? You mean you didn't duck under the bleachers with Jerry Carstairs? You didn't sneak under there when everything was being set up for the game against our biggest school rival? I know what I saw.

"Jerry Carstairs?" Brie had to think for a minute before she could put a face to the name and figure out what she was talking about. "Wait a minute. That's what all this has been about? My going under the bleachers our freshman year with Jerry? The only thing I ever did with him was help make sure that all the bolts were tightened properly. And if you saw that, then you should also have seen Coach Brandt go under there, too. She was supervising."

"You mean..." Charlie blushed.

"Ms. West. It is obvious that there has been a misunderstanding between the two of you. It seems you owe Ms. Townsend an apology. I think we all can see how things have gotten blown out of proportion, but I think it best that we forget that this happened and continue with the work at hand. Can we do that?"

"Yes, sir," she answered contritely.

"Good," he declared before turning to include the rest of the employees. "Here's what we have going on this afternoon. We have a lot of different companies who will be bringing in office equipment and furniture. Although they will have people to unload, it is our job to see that everything is put in place by the end of the day and everything is set up and in working order. We have drawn a map of the facility so that everyone can see what goes where. Please refer to it often to be sure what is unloaded goes to the right place. We will begin as soon as they start to arrive. Any questions?" When there weren't any, he turned to Sabrina. "No pink," he said pointedly as he handed her two credit cards, one for the company and the other his personal one. She grinned mischievously before walking out the door.

Brie spent the afternoon going from one furniture store to another to try to get the right pieces for Doug's house. She wasn't sure how she was going to do that. How would she know what he would want? Before, she would have thought it easy. But how much did she really know about him? He had kept his business a secret for all those years. Then again, even if he hadn't, she wasn't sure that she would know what to get. The furniture in his room back home had been placed there when he was six without thought about what he might like. Still, she had to make decisions on what to get somehow.

Since the paint for the warehouse would be the most expensive and hardest to handle, she decided it would be best to hire the job out instead of trying to do it themselves. That way, the professionals could worry about getting the paint and taking it to the warehouse. That was the easy part. The more difficult part was planning for Doug's home. In the end, she decided to buy what she thought would look nice and be functional if she were going to be living there. The cost was nearly astronomical, and she was glad it wasn't coming from her bank account. Another thing to worry about, she thought. Finding a local financial institution and transferring her funds. Then there would be actually finding a place to live and moving. How was her mother going to feel about that? Although she had talked with her the first night after she got there, she hadn't told her about that part yet.

When she returned to the warehouse, she found that they were just getting ready to leave. Doug had offered to pay them to help clear out his house and all but two had taken the offer.

The paint was placed in a corner of the kitchen. As the group started looking at the furniture and household goods, a few decisions still had to be made. "Furniture, for the most part, has to go," Doug announced. " There might be a few things that can be saved, but not much. Brie and I tried to sort out some of it and put stickers on most pieces detailing whether they stay or go. If there is a question, find one or the other of us and either of us can probably direct you accordingly." They broke as a group to start the clean up and Doug decided to send Sabrina to get pizza for everyone.

It was an hour later when she returned. "Pizza's here!" she yelled. The rest of the group headed in right away and found her placing five boxes on the card table that they had brought from the warehouse. Doug looked at her and seemed to have a bit of a scowl on his face. "I got a variety of types," she continued. "And Bill and Angela happened to be there so I went ahead and put their order on the charge cared as wel-" her voice trailed off as she noticed the scowl. "Is that a problem?"

"Paying for theirs?" Doug asked. "No. that's no problem."

"Something else wrong?"

"Brie, what did I say to you about the color of my living room?"

"You said pink would make it seem like you were living in someone's stomach coated with Pepto-Bismal."

"I specifically said that I didn't want pink, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Yet when I look at the paint you bought, what do I see?"

"A lot of cans of paint with different colors?"

"One of which is what?"

"Well, there is some pink, but-"

"So tell me. Why do I have pink paint in my house when I said I don't want pink?"

"It's not for the living room, Doug," Brie interjected. "Did you look at the others? I got more than the one color, you know."

"Yes, you did. But you also got pink!"

"It's only for one room. Look. For the living room, I got Mountain Mist Green. I think you'll like it. It's a pale green color that will look really good on the walls. The Kitchen needs to be bright and cheery, so I got a Canary Yellow for in there. Then there were the bathrooms. I got a kind of sand color for them. With the shower curtains I bought, which are kind of a water theme, it ought to make people think of the beach which I think will really go well."

"Where does the pink come in?"

"I'm getting to it."

"I hope you don't think it should be in the master bedroom."

"No. I got a soft off white for there. It will make it light enough yet not so bright that it seems to glow when the lights are off. Then, I got paneling for the bedroom that's closest to the stairs. They'll be here tomorrow with the materiel for that."

"Paneling?!"

"Yeah. It will be the in-home office. Then I got the colors for the other two bedrooms. Crystal Blue Waters for the boy's room and the Almost pink for the girl's room. That's where the pink color you found goes."

"What boys? What girls?"

"Doug, you might not be dating anyone right now, but I'm sure there will come a time when you will marry and have kids. So I got colors for their rooms. As they grow, they may want a change, but to start, they get what they get."

"I see," Doug said. "And when is this wedding supposed to take place?"

Everything in Brie made her want to yell out that they would marry in September, but knew that she couldn't do that. He could never know how she felt. "I don't know," she said sheepishly. "I'm just sort of playing the odds. It seems probable that it will happen some day. Someone like you will get snatched up pretty quickly."

"So you don't have everything all planned out? The day of the wedding? All the details of the wedding? How many kids there will be?"

"No, of course not," she replied while thinking that she wanted to have the colors be light blue and white at their wedding and she wanted at least one of each gender when it came to children. She could feel her face begin to heat up as she considered it, but tried her best to keep calm. "I didn't give any specifics, only that you would marry some day. Probably."

Doug thought back to that first lunch they had when she came here and he asked her why she hadn't gotten married yet. "You just turned eighteen a few months ago," she had replied. "And you're just now graduating high school. I think it better that we wait until you're at least half way through the year. Maybe even wait until after your next birthday." He had a hard time keeping a straight face and walked away at that point to keep from laughing aloud. 'Just two more days,' he thought. 'Saturday after the graduation ceremony.'