Page 29 of Bloom and Burn
By five thirty, I’ve made it over to the Blooming Orchid after stopping by the cafe next door to get coffee for all of us. I find my sister and her boss at the floral bar. Emily is on her laptop, and Ryan is making what looks to be a custom arrangement for a man in a blue suit. Since the last thing I’d want to do is interrupt their work, I drop the coffees on the bar and go for a tour of the shop.
Flowers are pretty, but like most people, that’s as far as my opinion of them goes. They are nice to look at and sometimes they smell nice as well, but I don’t normally notice them too much. Keyword being normally. Since meeting Ryan, I’ve been a bit more conscious of them, going as far as to google a few things so that I could impress him with my growing knowledge about them.
“Hey, Jack. Here to check in on me?” Emily says as soon as the bell chimes. She flips the open sign to closed after waving goodbye to the man in the suit and approaches me.
I spin on my heel and shake my head at her, fighting off a smirk. “Looking busy,” I hedge, posing my observation as a semi-question.
My attention moves on from Emily’s grinning face to Ryan, whose smile is subdued but still very potent. Our eyes meet and my stomach flutters with anticipation and nerves.
“Yes, but Emily has been great help,” he informs me pointedly, smoothing out his purple apron. He also wiggles his eyebrows at me.
My gaze snaps back to Emily.She winks, biting off a snort. Huh? What’s going on here? And why does it feel like these two are up to something?
“Don’t let her fool you,” I deadpan, looking between them. “And don’t leave her unsupervised or you’ll find your shop turned upside down.”
A crumpled paper hits me point-blank in the forehead, making all three of us laugh. “Em”—I turn to the perpetrator—“Josh called earlier. He said he wanted to discuss the adjustments to the third floor with you.”
My sister’s eyebrows slant down as if she’s trying to figure out if this is true or if I’m making it up so I can get her on her way home. It’s the former, even if my intention was the latter. Josh did call when I was driving over.
Emily seems to catch onto that, because she simply nods without being a smartass. “I’ll wrap up and head back then.” To Ryan, she says, “It’s not as bad as you said. Your expenses aren’t that high, but I can see some areas that can be optimized. I’ll have a think about that and come up with something.” She rolls her wheelchair over to the front of the floral bar and laces her hands in her lap. “Also, I can’t wait for Friday’s workshop. It’s gonna be so much fun.”
A workshop? What workshop? Why don’t I know about it?
I shoot Ryan a questioning look, feeling left out.
He chuckles. “I’ll be showing Emily some simple… flower arranging. You are welcome to join.” He poses that last bit as a challenge.
Did Emily put him up to something? Or does he think I will turn him down and that’s why he’s taunting me? I’m going to find out either way, I guess, since flowers havebeen growing on me anyway and I have no intention of turning him down.
“What time?”
His smile turns mischievous as if I’ve played right into his and Emily’s trap. God help me. “At six, after we close up.”
“Six p.m., here on Friday, gotcha.”
We see Emily off to her car and step back into the shop. Now that it’s just the two of us, I feel a little on edge, but a glance Ryan’s way tells me I’m not the only one. He’s busied himself organizing vases, but the telltale tautness in his delicate features gives his nervousness away. It also makes me want to reach out and smooth out the few lines across his forehead, but I manage to restrain that urge for now.
“So,” I start, grabbing a bunch of loose calla lilies, eucalyptus and dahlias so I can keep my hands busy. “I did come here for a reason other than to bug Emily.”
Ryan looks up from the vase he is working on, his lips hinting at a smile as he registers the flowers in my hands. “Good choice,” he deems, clearing up the space in front of him so I can place them there. “I guess Emily wasn’t joking when she said you’ve been studying up on flowers.”
Ah, was that what the earlier looks were about? Emily snitching on me when she knows I want to impress?
“I might have looked up a thing or two in my free time.”
Humming, he organizes the flowers and finishes up the bouquet by tying a cream ribbon with pink glitter around the stems. He takes out a simple card from the drawer behind the bar and slants one eyebrow up. “So, what’s the message today?”
I slide my credit card over the card machine. After it beeps, I tuck it away and square my shoulders, taking Ryan in. Beneath the purple apron, he’s wearing black jeans and a simple peach-colored blouse. The combination is very cute on him. I did opt in for a casual look myself, going for cargo pants and a dark-green zipper hoodie over a plain black T-shirt.
Running my hand through my hair, I clear my throat. “For the cute owner of the Blooming Orchid from his secret admirer,” I say in one go, not letting him react until it’s all out.
He pauses writing after the third word, frowning slightly as he looks up from the card and meets my gaze. It takes him a moment to catch onto what I’ve said and as soon as he does, he’s blushing in the most charming way.
“Oh.”
My nerves flare as I watch him contemplate how to respond to my declaration. Shit, did I go overboard? Is this too cheesy? But I’m interested in him and I wanted to let him know.
Pulling on one side of his bottom lip, he chuckles. It’s sexy and inviting. “Very smooth, Jack.”
