Peter: Hey bro. Call me when you can. Jenny has a place she’d like you to check out for flowers for the wedding.
I rolled my eyes and stepped onto the elevator when it arrived, scowling at my phone all the way down. When I walked into the lobby, I hit the dial button and pressed my phone to my ear. Best to get this over with.
“What’s up, Cy?” Peter greeted me. “Thanks for calling me back so soon.”
“Yeah, sure.” I moved my hand to the back of my neck and squeezed, weaving my way through the crowd of people in the lobby of the skyscraper. “I just got out of a meeting. What do you need?”
“Like I said on the text, Jenny found a floral company online she might want to use. A place called The Watering Can. I’ll text you the address. Do you think you’ll be able to check it out for us sometime this week?”
“Yeah.” I sighed and pushed my way through the double doors leading out onto the street. The humidity level was starting to rise, and soon, the city would be stuffy and sweltering once more. “I’ll go tomorrow. Anything else?”
“That’s it for now.”
Thank God. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Thank you again for doing this for us. We really do appreciate it.”
And that right there, the genuine thank you and appreciation in his tone, was why I couldn’t back out of our agreement. No matter how much doing all this wedding shit was going to suck, my brother needed me to do this properly and there was no way I could let him down. Not after everything he’d done for me.
Chapter 5
Luna
“Before I had Adi, I had all these fantastic ideas about how to raise children,” April said as she pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and collapsed into the chair across from mine. “It’s amazing how much those ideas have changed over the years.”
We were meeting for lunch at an outdoor cafe near both our apartments and I’d managed to snag us a table underneath a large umbrella. Whiffs of melting butter, bitter coffee and the occasional hint of garlic drifted out from inside, drawing more and more people in like moths to a flame.
Maybe I should do something like this with my shop, start frying bacon in the office or making toasted sandwiches at the counter.
April’s voice broke into my thoughts as she slumped back in her chair, letting her purse drop to the ground next to her feet.
“I mean, I swore to anyone who would listen that my kid would never eat fries for breakfast. Guess what Adi had for breakfast this morning, Luna? Fucking fries.”
“At least she ate,” I said, offering my friend a smile as I pushed a menu over to her. “Now it’s your turn to do the same. In case you don’t feel it today, let me remind you that you are an amazing mother and you’re doing your best.”
“Thanks,” she said, her voice calmer now. “I guess being a mother is just nothing like how I thought it was going to be. For starters, I never thought I’d be doing it alone.”
“Your ex is an ape. As far as I’m concerned, you’re both better off without him.”
“Don’t insult apes that way.” Her eyes sparkled with laughter despite the seriousness of the topic. It was one of the things I loved most about April, her ability to smile through anything life threw at her and to make others laugh about it too. “At least when they fling shit at you, they’re letting you know honestly that they want you to fuck off. They don’t keep lying about it until they finish their studies.”
“True. He’s a real class act to follow. I’m sorry to say this, but it’s a good thing your marriage to him didn’t work out. I shudder to think about the damage he would have caused you both if he was still in your lives.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re right. Divorcing him was the best damn thing I’ve ever done. I should have thrown myself a fucking party.” She snapped her fingers before waving one at me. “You should look into that, flower arrangements for divorce parties instead of for weddings. Doing flowers for weddings only fuels the idea of marriage. You should do re-bachelorette parties, divorce-iversaries. All those kinds of parties instead. It’s a way more realistic industry to be supporting.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea. I know all those things are, well, a thing, but I’ve never really thought about catering to that market.” The romantic inside me kicked and screamed against the idea, but at this point, I had to take whatever I could get.
Hope flickered in April’s eyes. “So you’re going to stop doing weddings?”
I snorted out a laugh. “No way. Weddings are still the best way for me to make money. The other functions and day-to-day sales help, but weddings are what keeps the doors open and the lights on.”
“Damn right,” she said. “It’s a well-known fact that anyone who works in the wedding industry charges at least double what they normally do when they’re doing it for a wedding. If I had the ten thousand dollars back I spent on my wedding, I’d go on vacation for a month.”
“I don’t charge more,” I protested, but then I remembered that I had done it once or twice. “I’ve only ever charged more when it’s taken me forever to source something special the bride insisted on or something like that. But then I’ve put in a lot of time to track it down and I’ve used my own phone to make all those calls.”
“Fair enough, but I wasn’t talking about you anyway. You have to be the only honest person in the entire industry, I swear. If you look at my pictures and I tell you what I was charged for things, you’d faint.”
“If it’s for your wedding, though, I figure it’s worth it. Didn’t you feel that way at the time?” I couldn’t help it. That romantic who lived deep down in the depths of my soul just wouldn’t quit.
As much as I hadn’t been in a serious relationship since Landon and wasn’t looking for one, I still desperately believed in love. I figured I’d get back on the proverbial horse eventually and start looking for my own Prince Charming, but I wasn’t ready yet.
April rolled her eyes so hard, I thought they’d get stuck in the back of her head. “It doesn’t matter if I felt that way at the time. I was wrong. I learned my lesson. Now I just have to pass it onto you so you don’t have to learn it for yourself.”
I propped my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my palm, noticing that despite the laughter still in her eyes, she was also deadly serious. “Do you honestly believe there’s no one else out there for you? You’re such a loving, radiant person. There has to be someone out there you were meant to be with.”
“If there is, he’s going to be alone for the rest of his life.” Her tone was resolute, her chin tilting up in determination. “I mean it, Luna. I don’t care if I meet the hottest guy on the planet when I get back to work this very afternoon. I don’t care if he’s every dream I’ve ever had come true and I don’t even care if he’s desperate to be the father of a six-year-old. All I’d do is fuck him. I’m never getting married again.”
My heart felt like it’d been whacked by a skillet at her words and the absoluteness of them. April deserved only the very best in life, and yet she’d been dealt a pretty crappy hand in love. I wondered if that was how it worked, though. If someone got burned that badly once, was it impossible for them to ever really move on?
I wanted to believe it was, but I just didn’t know. Landon hadn’t burned me that badly. He’d stung me enough to leave a scar, and I definitely wasn’t the same happy-go-lucky, trusting girl I was before, but he also definitely hadn’t taken me out of the game for good. I was merely recovering.
“We’ll see,” I said. “I’m not trying to be contrary and I’m not saying it because I’m trying to convince you that you’re wrong. All I mean is that we will eventually see if there isn’t maybe a man out there who can convince you that you are, in fact, wrong.”
She flipped me off, then picked up her menu. “Sorry to crush your hopes, my little romantic, but there isn’t a man alive who would be able to do that. We’d better order or we’re both going to be late getting back.”
It turned out that we were a few minutes late getting back anyway. When I got to the shop, I heard the beep-beep-beep of a delivery truck from the bay around back and rushed over to check if it was one for me.
It was.
The driver hopped out with a clipboard in his hands once he’d parked. His eyes darted from side to side until they met mine. The smile he gave me as his gaze raked down the length of my body was nothing short of lecherous.
For a moment, I thought back to what April had said about meeting the hottest guy in the world when we got back to work. It seemed I was out of luck because with bald patches on his head, a beer gut that seemed to have grown from an entire case of the stuff, and red, blotchy skin with sweat running in rivulets down his cheeks, the driver was definitely not hot.
Nor was he the man of my dreams if the lascivious way he looked at me was any indication of his personality. Well good, because I’m not looking for my dream guy right now anyway.
“You Luna from the Watering Can?” he asked after lifting the clipboard to check my name. “I’ve got a delivery from the Fresh Market I need you to sign for.”
“I’m her,” I confirmed, taking the clipboard from his sweaty hands and trying to hold back a shudder. I ignored his watery blue eyes on me and dropped my own to check the delivery note instead. “Do you have another note for me to sign? This one doesn’t have everything on it that I ordered.”
He shrugged and produced a toothpick from his pocket, shoving it between his lips. “If it’s not on there, it’s not in my truck. I loaded this up myself.”
I scanned the clipboard again and frowned. “But this isn’t even half of what I ordered.”
“What do you want me to do about it? I loaded up everything on that form. If it’s not on there, the system must have made a mistake, or you didn’t order what you think you did. I’ll check when I get back to the office, but you’ll have to wait the normal amount of time between deliveries. My schedule is full.”
“I need those other flowers.” I batted my eyelashes at him, not above a little low-level flirting if it would help, but I quickly saw the man wasn’t going to budge. He was in defense mode with his arms crossed and his widened stance.
It was a strong hint that a mistake had, in fact, been made. “I have orders to fill, and if I don’t have them, I can’t do that. There has to be something you can do. I know I placed the order correctly. Could you please call in and check your system?”
Arguing with him wouldn’t make the flowers miraculously appear, nor would throwing blame around. I was hoping that if he called in and confirmed some kind of mistake or miscommunication, he would be able to fit another delivery in for me sooner than the week it had taken for this one to arrive.
“Even if there has been a problem with our system, I still can’t clear my schedule for you.” He lifted one shoulder in that what-you-gonna-do way. “I don’t have any other deliveries around here this week and my truck’s filled up with what I got anyway. No space for more.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face, a scream of frustration bubbling up in my throat. Swallowing hard, I pushed it back. He was only the delivery guy. Maybe I could reason with someone at his office instead. “It’s fine. I’ll—”
“It’s not fine,” a commanding voice said from behind me. The fine hairs at the back of my neck lifted at the sound of it, like a rasp of gravel wrapped in the smoothest silk. “If an order has been placed and paid for, the responsibility is on you to ensure delivery.”
I spun around to face my mysterious defender with the words to tell him to butt out already on my tongue. Despite how sexy his voice was and how much I appreciated his willingness to jump to the aid of a total stranger, I didn’t need his help. I fought my own battles.
Whatever I was about to say flew right out of my mind when my eyes landed on him. Because holy wow.
Once again, my brain flickered back to that meeting the hottest guy in the world this afternoon conversation, and strangely, that might be exactly what had just happened.
But it didn’t take more than one look at him to conclude that this man was no Prince Charming. He definitely didn’t look like the type who was going to give anyone a leg-up onto the back of his white horse and ride off into the sunset.
He was more of a pretty to look at, lovely to hold, but he will break you so don’t consider yourself sold kind of guy. Easily a foot taller than I was, I had to tip my head back slightly to take in the whole package, even when he stood a short distance away from me.
Sandy, light brown hair shone in the mottled sunlight filtering in through patches of clouds. He might not have been standing that close to me, but the green of his eyes was so bright and brilliant that the color was obvious even across the space separating us.
A white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows stretched ever so slightly over his chest and biceps, the fabric just a touch tighter there than in other places. Not so tight as to make it look uncomfortable, but more like the shirt fit so well it had to have been made for him but it couldn’t quite hide the toned physique it covered.
Broad in the shoulders and narrower at the hips, he had that swimmer’s build I had always found attractive. But that was the pretty part.
The part that made me convinced he wasn’t the type to sweep women off their feet and romance the heck out of them was all in the attitude. His eyes might have been bright and brilliant, but the green orbs were also ice cold.
His angular features were set in an expression so sharp it could cut diamonds and he radiated a certain dominance, the very air itself crackling with the almost aggressive vibe he was throwing off.
Feet spread apart with his hands in the pockets of the black slacks he wore, he had this haughty mask of entitlement as he jutted his chin up and glared at the delivery man. “So, what are we going to do about this?”
The gravel and the silk were still there in his voice, but there was also an edge to his tone that made me curious to see what was about to happen if I didn’t intervene after all. I really did need those flowers and this guy might be my best chance at getting them.
Besides, he was really lovely to look at. I’d never get to hold him, and I couldn’t have him, but looking couldn’t hurt. So I let my protests go and simply watched him, reminding myself all along that I wasn’t in the market for that dream guy right now.
Even if I had been, this particular guy was too cruel and confident to be him.
Chapter 6
Cyrus
The delivery guy was clearly very bad at reading people. He took a step toward me and narrowed his eyes, his head dipping to the side. “Who are you and why are you in this conversation?”
If he thought I was intimidated by him or that I was about to just back away because of the unspoken threat in his tone, he was very, very wrong. The malice seeping out of him rolled right off me as I curved my lips into a smirk. “I’m the new bookkeeper for the Watering Can and this delivery is only half of what we wanted.”
“Yeah, well. Nothing we can do about it. Like I said. My schedule is full for the rest of the week. You can sort it out with my office and I’ll be back next week.”
“I’m afraid that’s not good enough.” I cracked my neck and moved closer to the man, my smirk growing when he took a step back and paled a little. “We’re going to need you to sort things out with your own office and fix your own mistakes. We’re also going to need those flowers to be delivered tomorrow at the latest.”
He started to protest, but I held up a finger and locked my gaze on his. “I don’t give a fuck about your schedule. Move things around, go into work early, or stay late tomorrow to get it done. Ask another driver if you have to. I really don’t care what it takes, only that it gets done. If it doesn’t, not only will we be moving our business elsewhere, but I’ll also make a few calls that I guarantee will be detrimental to your job security and to your employer’s bottom line.”
He sputtered with indignation, but when he looked at me for l
ong enough to realize I wasn’t joking and the threat was very real, he reared back and nodded. “I’ll have double what you ordered tomorrow.”
The beautiful woman next to me sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s really not necessary to double it. Just what I ordered will be fine.”
“We’ll expect double the order by this time tomorrow, not a minute later,” I said. “And without any extra charge. You fucked this up, so you’re going to fix it and make up for it all at the same time.”
The driver kept nodding and raced back to his truck as fast as his bulky body could move when I inclined my head toward the vehicle.
I shook my head at the coward who’d given in a hell of a lot easier and faster than I’d expected, and a chuckle escaped me. That had been fun.
A pair of cerulean, Caribbean-sea blue eyes latched onto mine the next second.
Right. The woman. The owner or manager or whatever.
She really was beautiful. As I’d rounded the corner to see if I could find another entrance to the locked shop Peter had sent me to, it had been her that had caught my eye.
Coming closer to ask if she knew about another entrance or when the shop would reopen, because I sure as fuck wasn’t coming back here if I could help it, I’d heard her pleading with the driver.
I raised an eyebrow at her now, shifting on my feet so I was facing her fully. “You have to learn to stand up for your company. I’m assuming you own the flower shop?”
She nodded, those eyes never leaving mine. They were wide and clear, open and honest.
Tendrils of pitch-black hair that had escaped the messy, windblown bun on top of her head framed her heart-shaped face, her skin pale and porcelain smooth. Her lips were bare but deliciously red.
If fact, she was like the living embodiment of that princess from the kids’ movie, the stupid one who ate the apple her stepmother gave her. I couldn’t remember the name of it since I didn’t make a habit of reading or watching fucking fairy tales, but it was one of those ones everyone knew about. Snow White maybe?
Say You Do Page 4
