Page 124 of Bitter Rival

Daisy places the bouquet into it then steps back, tilting her head to study it. She makes a few small adjustments until she’s happy with the arrangement then turns to face me.

Her brows knit. “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean, am I okay?” I hand her the box of chocolates, fairly certain that I’m not okay. Those roses from her ex pushed me over the edge.

She lifts the lid and peeks inside then sets the chocolates on the counter and continues quizzing me. “Did you catch a deadly disease? Have you been given six months to live?” She presses her palm to my forehead. “Do you have a fever?”

“They’re just flowers. Stop making such a big deal out of it,” I say gruffly.

“These are not just flowers.” With a sweep of her hand, she gestures to the flowers cascading from the urn—peonies, snapdragons, delphinium, sweet pea, baby’s breath, ferns, trailing vines…the floral arrangement takes up most of the island and there’s not a goddamn rose in the bunch.

“This is the entire Garden of Eden. Did you leave any flowers for the rest of Sutton Ridge?”

I scoff as I check my phone messages. “Who gives a shit about the rest of Sutton Ridge?”

“What’s the occasion?”

You. You are the occasion.

But do I say that? No. “We’re nearly at the end. We’ve come through this alive and in one piece.” I pocket my phone and spread my arms. “I think that surviving this whole mess calls for a celebration, don’t you?”

Her face falls, but she quickly recovers and flashes me a bright smile. “Yeah, of course. That’s the perfect reason to celebrate.” She leans over and inhales the scent of the flowers. “Thank you. These are the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever received. In fact, I think it’s the first time anyone has ever brought me flowers,” she says with a light laugh.

Actually, it’s the second. Your ex-boyfriend sent you flowers but you wouldn’t know that because I destroyed them before you had a chance to appreciate just how unoriginal your ex is.

“I thought they looked like you,” I say.

“They’re gorgeous.”

“Like I said…”

She blushes. “Stop being so sweet. You’ll give me the wrong idea. Let’s just be us.”

I’m not even sure who that is anymore. I used to know what “us” looked like but that was before I got the bright idea to ask her out to dinner and buy out an entire boutique. Speaking of which…

I clear my throat. “I got you something else.”

Her brows shoot up. “More gifts?”

“Only because I ruined your dress.” I jog out the front door, grab the shopping bags and garment bags from the back seat of my car and carry them inside.

Daisy is standing at the door, gaping. “Did you buy out the entire store?”

Close enough. “If you don’t like them, you can return them and get whatever you want.”

“I…this is…it’s too much. You don’t have to buy me presents.”

“Like I said, I owed you a new dress.”

I carry them up the stairs and pile everything on her bed. When I’m done, you can’t even see the bedding—that’s how much shit I bought.

We both stare at the spoils of my shopping trip for a few moments without saying a word.

Not sure what there is to say about this. I might have gone a bit overboard.

When I described Daisy to the saleslady, she knew exactly who she was because she sold her the white sundress.

So I told her I’d take one of everything in Daisy’s size, and while she ran around the store gathering items of clothing, shoes and accessories for my approval, I sat on a velvet chair checking my emails and drinking a cappuccino.

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