He’s a worrier, and a smidge overprotective. He also cusses when it’s absolutely not necessary. But thankfully, he’s a thousand times more handsome than my pug-faced cheater customer, way more respectful of women, and the furthest thing from a cheater you could find. Nix just doesn’t have it in him to hurt those he loves. It wouldn’t even register in his mind to be sneaky in that regard.
“My phone has been in my drawer.” I gesture toward it with a sigh. “It’s on silent. I had no appointments scheduled until this afternoon, and no reason to have it out, so I tucked it away with agood riddance. Watching it light up all day gives me a headache.” I press my fingers to my temple. “Seriously, Nix. If I could run a business without technology, I would. I’d toss that thing in the garbage and never look back.”
He ducks his head lower so our eyes meet. “You have a bad day, kid? You sound like you’re about to rip my face off.”
“I am not!” I turn away and draw my work closer. “I’m not in a bad mood or anything. But I dostrongly dislikemy phone. And cheaters.”
He flashes a grin as he folds his arms and leans against my workspace. “Cheaters? You got something you want to talk about?”
“No. Just bad people who come in here buying flowers to say sorry for cheating.” I snip a length of ribbon from the roll on the desk and begin twining it around the bunch I’m working on. “Like a fifty-dollar flower arrangement is good enough payment for being a slimebag.”
“Slimebag? Heavens to Betsy, I’m clutching my pearls, Abigail! Don’t use such filth in front of me.”
“Zip it.” I kick out and smack his shin, but my smile remains. “I just don’t like men like that. This guy comes in looking like a magazine model, he has a nice smile, a wedding ring, and I start thinking true love might exist outside of Momma and Daddy’s marriage. I’ve spent my whole life wondering if Mom and Daddy took all of the love and left none for anybody else. I mean, come on! They had six children, and not one of them have found love. They kept it all for themselves, Nix!”
I’m tempted to kick him again when he only watches me with adoring eyes.
I sigh. “But then this guy comes in and says he’s buying for his wife, so I figure maybe there’s more to spread around. Maybe there’s an untapped well somewhere and there’s still hope for the rest of us…”
“Did he break your heart?” Nix reaches out and rests a hand on my shoulder.
He’s not mocking me anymore. He knows how I feel about romance; I’ve been planning weddings since I was four and swore I’d find a prince charming that could live up to the bar Daddy set. I’ve been playing with flower arrangements my whole life in preparation for my wedding bouquet. I’ve been involved in hundreds of weddings since I went into business for myself. I’ve witnessed others get their slice of the love pie, but every man that has come along and tried to charm me has turned out to be a frog.
I’m twenty-five years old, but I swear, I feel like a forty-year-old spinster inPride and Prejudice.
“I mean…” I sigh. “He broke my heart a little bit. I’m not crying or anything, but I charged six times the ticket price for his flowers, and I’m tempted to look him up in the phone book so I can drop in to meet his lovely wife.”
“No meddling.” He squeezes my shoulder, then pulls back. With a grunt that makes him sound old, despite only being two years older than me, he lifts himself up to perch his butt on my table. “You’re not the patron saint in charge of helping every woman exact revenge on her man. You just need to concentrate on your own life and the pretty flowers you’re strangling right now.”
I look down to the bunch I’m white-knuckling, and jump back. “Ah, frick!” I lift my hands as though in surrender… and apology. “He made me so mad, Nix.”
“Wanna come over for dinner tonight?” He folds a little lower as the bell above the front door rings again. “My place, seven o’clock, we can eat something nice and watch a movie.”
I slap his thigh when my regular customer practically struts into my store with a satisfied smile. This is the kind of guy I’d like to model mine off of. Not the massive muscles or the tattoos all over his body. Not the wicked smirk and his almost-always bleeding knuckles. But the way he uses such gentlemanly manners every time he’s in here, the way he speaks of his beautiful wife, and the way he pays double and triple the ticket price, only to justify it by asking me to pick the best of the bunch.
All of my flowers are amazing, but Bobby Kincaid doesn’t want any spots or blemishes. He doesn’t want a nicked stem, or anything that looks even remotely like a wilt. He wants the best of the best, and for them to last the whole week until he picks up the next lot.
“Mr. Kincaid. I’m just finishing your order now.”
He stops at the top of the row with a dark baseball cap pulled on low and his hands dug deep into his jeans pockets. “I have all the time in the world, Miss Rosa. My girl is busy until four, so I have time to sneak in and out and pretend those same lilies have been on our table since the dawn of time.”
I smile and finish up with quick movements. I wrap the bunch, box them, and when our eyes meet again, I take two more and lay them in the box beside the main bunch. “For your daughters.”
“Gotta make sure my girls know how to be treated.” He flashes a handsome smile that outshines anything Mr.GQcould pull off. Placing cash on my counter and flashing a grin at Nix, Bobby Kincaid takes his gifts and walks away with a whistle. “Till next week.”
I hate that my heart races as he walks through my door and the bell announces his exit. I’m not crushing on Mr. Kincaid. I don’t lust after married men, or hope to lure them away from the women they love. But I crush on their love. I lust for the connection they have.
“Momma and Daddy shared with that guy.”
Nix shakes his head beside me. “You have a sickness, Abby. Seriously. Why can’t you just watch a chick flick like all the other normal single chicks? Why do youwantto live your life for someone else?”
I push my cash register closed and turn to him with a frown. “I don’t want to live my lifeforsomeone else. I want to live itwithsomeone else. But it can’t just be any old schmuck. He has to act like that.” I point toward the door. “Could you imagine having a guy smile like that every day because he loves you?”
“Well… no. Because I’m not into dudes.”
I smack his arm and push him away from my counter. “Go away. This side is staff only.”
“Dinner tonight!” He laughs as I shove him away. He has a full hundred pounds on me, and a foot in height, so he’s obviouslylettingme push, but still, I move him halfway across my store before he grabs my hands and stops me. His aftershave fills my lungs as he stares down into my eyes and chuckles. “Come to dinner tonight. I wanna see you some more. I miss your face.”