Page 11 of Accidentally in Bloom

“On it.” She snapped up the menus from the waiting hands and zoomed toward the kitchen.

Anger threatened to boil over as Rose stared at the irritatingly hot pain in the ass across from her. He stuffed his face with pancakes and sent her a mischievous smirk as he chewed.

“So,” Violet said sweetly, trying to cut the tension at the table, “how’s work, Nash?”

Gray winked at Rose with a smirk, and she wanted to dunk his smug face in his pancakes.

Nash glanced from Gray to Rose. “Uh, it’s—”

“Why do you have to be at the will reading for our father’s will? Did you trick him into giving you all his Hawaiian shirts?”

Gray leaned forward, spite on every word. “All I know is I have to be there just like you do. Your dad was one of my best friends.”

Rose glanced at Violet, who shrugged and nodded.

“Then why did you change the will reading twice, farmer?” Rose snapped.

He leaned back, a cool look on his face. “What’s it to you, ice princess?”

“It’s about five hundred dollars in flight changes, you Neanderthal. And I am no one’s goddamn princess.”

Lily and Violet bit back laughter, and Nash’s eyes ping-ponged between Rose and Gray.

“Well, Rose.” Gray leaned back, enjoying himself. “Sometimes, I can’t spare even thirty minutes of daylight when planting a crop. I’m just a mindless farmer if you remember.”

Gray reached for his pocket suddenly, pulling out his phone. “Fuck. I gotta take this. Duke, stay here,” he called below the table. Lily and Violet scooted to let him out, and he walked out the diner door with a phone pressed to his ear.

Her father had a best friend who was twenty-five years younger than him, was that hot, and that annoying?

Figures.

Rose turned to Nash. “You have atrocious taste in friends.”

Nash twirled his coffee cup around the table, trying to hide a smile. “Gray’s all right. Seems like you got off on the wrong foot.”

“Hopefully, I won’t have to endure his presence beyond the will reading.”

Three plates steaming with syrupy gravy goodness slid onto the table, and the ancient waitress toddled off as fast as someone half her age.

Rose’s stomach turned at the thought of eating. She’d been up for almost twenty-four hours and already couldn’t wait to get back where she belonged: the hell out of here.

GRAY

Gray tried to follow the man on the phone, but he was driven to distraction. The thud in his chest hadn’t stopped since Rose had walked through the diner door.

He’d been thinking about the glint of the sun on her hair as she walked in, backlit with sunbeams. The joy on her face had transformed the ice princess into something magical and radiant as she’d locked eyes with an unexpected friend.

Her smile could have powered the fucking room. He was desperate to see it aimed at himself.

He tried to keep his thoughts straight as he listened to Bill from Bailey’s Home Improvement.

“I’d love for you to come in a week earlier.”

“Uh...” Gray had lost track of the conversation.

Focus, Roberts. “Yeah, that should be fine to come in this week. Wait…” Fuck. His trip to see Alex.

“You have a problem rearranging your schedule to meet with us?” Bill’s voice was stern.

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