“Ouch. That’s rough.” I stopped and looked at her. “Do you know what you need?”
She blinked at me. “Um. I’m kind of winging it, to be honest.”
“Right.” Of course she was. I should have known. “Do you mind if I run through and grab what I need then come back and find you?”
“You want to leave me alone? In a garden centre? With all the plants?” Her dark eyebrows arched in disbelief. “Don’t tell my father you did that. This is dangerous.”
I fought back a smile. “I’ll only be ten minutes. If you get lost, call me, and I’ll come and find you.”
She looked around longingly at all the plants. “Oh, you can try.”
***
“Your father called me and expressly said no more house plants, princess.”
“Not a princess.” Gabriella fingered the edge of the large, waxy-looking green monstera leaf. “But we don’t have a monstera,” she replied wistfully. “And it’s so pretty. Look how green it is.”
“He said no. I’m just passing on the message. And I would like to keep my job, so please listen to me.”
“I’ll put it in my room.”
“I’m not arguing with you.”
“You could have fooled me.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Did he really call you?”
“Yep. That’s how I know about the debit card he gave you preloaded with money for your college project. Not the project where you try to turn your bedroom into the Eden Project.”
She pouted. “My bedroom is not the Eden Project.”
“Not yet.” I rubbed my hand across my jaw. “I counted fourteen houseplants in there, Gabriella.”
“The spider plant keeps having babies. Am I supposed to abort them?”
“You could put them for sale in the estate gift shop.”
“How do I know they’ll look after them properly?”
“You don’t, but you’re one plant away from being a jungle.”
“It’s either the Eden Project or a jungle. It can’t be both.”
“Have you been to the Eden Project? It is a jungle.”
“I see no issue with any of this.” She sighed. “But you’re right. It’s not like the monstera is cheap, and the card is loaded with my budget for the project.”
I blew out a sigh of relief. Not only had it taken me longer to find her than it had to do the shopping I’d needed, but Henry really had called me and warned me about her addiction to houseplants. I was a little surprised, given they were quite sparse in the rooms I’d seen inside, but apparently, he’d humoured her little houseplant love until they ran out of space in the part of Arrowwood Hall that was open to the public.
Now she was on a strict no-houseplant buying ban.
That didn’t include the babies of her spider plants, evidently.
“You’re not letting her buy that, are you?”
I turned in the direction of the voice. A very attractive brunette was standing and pointing at the monstera in front of us with one eyebrow cocked and her lips pulled up to one side.
“Don’t start!” Gabriella huffed, finally relinquishing her hold on the leaf. “There’s nothing wrong with liking houseplants.”
The brunette slid her gaze from me to Gabriella. “You have enough house plants to start an indoor jungle, and I’m not taking any more babies from you. Mum is wondering why there are twenty spider plants in the hotel!”
“Twenty? Only twenty? Try two hundred,” said another voice with a similar lilt. Another woman walked up behind the one who’d spoken originally, and I blinked.
They were identical.
Was I seeing things?
“There are not two hundred spider plants in your hotel! Oh, my God. Be quiet.” Gabriella shook her head. “Miles, this is Adelaide and Evangeline, my best friends. Addy, Eva, this is Miles.”
“Pleasure to meet you, ladies,” I said, taking each of their offered hands and dropping a kiss to their knuckles.
What? My mother raised a gentleman.
Evangeline—I think—blushed. “I’ll say.”
Adelaide—maybe—elbowed her. “Shut up.”
Gabriella sighed. “Their parents own The Fox and Hound. It was Addy I texted the other night.”
A wave of gratitude washed through me. “You’re the ones who helped my grandfather and his demon cat?”
“That’s us!”
“Eva, stop flirting,” Adelaide said.
Right.
Adelaide was in the blue, Eva the pink. I just had to remember that.
“Yes, we did. Since the power is sorted, we took him back home on our way here—he and Mars are absolutely fine. We checked his house over and there’s no damage.”
Eva nodded. “We left him with his fire going and a crisp sandwich. Apparently, he was sick of soup.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. That sounded just like my grandpa. “Thank you so much for looking after him. I really appreciate it. If there’s anything I can do to repay you, please let me know.”
“Well.” Eva grinned playfully. “I can think—”
Adelaide clapped her hand over her sister’s mouth. “We’re good but thank you. We don’t mind helping out when it’s needed.” She looked at Gabriella. “I’m going to take this one before she gets herself in trouble.”