Page 36 of Love at the Flower Cafe

“What?” I asked, startled as I shoved the paper under my leg.

“Oh, please.” Danielle laughed. “I’m on your team, remember?”

“It’s rude to read people’s private notes, Dani.” I reached up and rubbed the tips of my ears where they burned.

“You look like you got windburned over here. I had to see what you were reading. Sorry.”

“They’re so cute,” Candace gushed.

It struck me as odd that both women were supposed to be competing for the same man as me but had become my cheerleaders. Maybe this happened on dating shows, with a houseful of women forced to get to know one another, but somehow, I doubted it. I think I just got lucky.

Across the room, Lexi snuggled up to Flynn in a booth. Even though I thought I knew how he felt about me, doubt rose in my chest like heartburn after a heavy meal.

“That’snotso cute,” Danielle replied, making a gagging face. “How do you stand that?”

“It’s a dating show. What am I supposed to do about it?”

“What is she supposed to do about it?” Danielle asked, rolling her eyes. “You go over there and claim your man. That’s what.”

I cringed. Confrontation wasn’t my favorite thing, especially when it wasn’t related to business.

Flynn excused himself and scooted out of the booth. The moment he stood, Lexi and I locked eyes across the room.

“Oh no,” I murmured. I knew that look well from our formative years. “Excuse me.”

Lexi couldn’t stand to lose and rarely did. Perhaps she could tell that he wasn’t interested, or that her claws couldn’t sink in as deeply as she wanted to keep his attention. She certainly wouldn’t like the idea of me being true competition. She’d taken down girls in school far less threatening than me, once embarrassing a girl so badly she’d transferred.

But she didn’t know me. She didn’t know the dance Flynn and I played for years, the history between us. Maybe it was the competitive atmosphere of the show, or the two women sitting behind me, egging me on. It could’ve been Flynn sending over my drink, or the note he’d written with it. A combination of all of it.

Something inside me raged to be taken seriously, to stake my claim for the one person I’d always wanted to notice me.

Attempting to remain calm on the outside, I rose to my feet and smoothed my clothes before I half ran across the room.

By nothing short of a miracle, Lexi got stuck in her booth and moved slow enough that I beat her to Flynn. Breathing heavily, I practically skidded to a stop just shy of us standing toe to toe. I hadn’t left much space between us, and he raised his eyebrows.

“Where’s the fire, buttercup?”

Memories from a holiday weekend long ago burned bright in my memory.

“No fire. Just a reminder.” I rose on my toes and pressed my lips to his before I could think of all the reasons it was a terrible idea.

His lips were as soft as I remembered, tasting faintly of chocolate as electricity zipped through me. After a second, he wrapped his arms around me. The firmness of his hands pressed against my upper and lower back, my skin sizzling beneath my sweater at his touch. Growth from a couple of days of not shaving grazed against my skin, an abrupt contrast from the skin of his mouth.

Shuddering, I pulled away enough to take a deep breath, my heart thundering in my chest.

He stopped me with a gentle press of his hand to the small of my back, as if he wasn’t ready to let me go. I took the pause to close my eyes and take in his touch, the way the smell of the chocolate clung to his skin.

We didn’t exchange any words before he stepped away. One look in Lexi’s direction gave me all the satisfaction I needed. When I glanced back toward my friends fist-pumping in the booth across the room, I knew I was in trouble.

Not just with Flynn.

I’d started a war.

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