Page 58 of Accidentally in Bloom

Mrs. Maroo walked in at lunchtime with her pickleball teammates. “This can’t be the same store. It just can’t be!” Her eyes took in the store with wonder, and her face split with a smile. “Oh Rosie, I bet your dad is busting his Hawaiian buttons with pride in heaven.” She gathered her in a fierce hug.

Rose smiled with embarrassment and muttered a quick thanks while Mrs. Maroo squeezed the life out of her.

She finally let Rose go and turned around, looking at the store. “This place is gosh darn beautiful. I might have to come here just to be near all these pretty fresh things.”

“You’re welcome any time. We can always use the company,” Rose said with warmth, and realized she meant it. She really did want her favorite people to pop by to say hello in her store. It sounded idyllic.

“Oh!” Mrs. Maroo fished in her oversized purse and pulled out three envelopes. “I found these in a folder that was misplaced. They should have been with the rest of your dad’s things, but they got misfiled.”

She handed the three letters to Rose, each sealed with a name on it. Rose’s heart pounded as she looked at the familiar handwriting on the envelope.

“You know half the town is coming here out of pure nosiness, but I hope you make them all repeat customers! These flowers are gorgeous! Marge, did you see these chocolates?” Mrs. Maroo power-walked through the store to catch up with her friends.

Rose glanced through the store for Lily and Violet. They were both busy with customers, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the busy crowd.

She looked down at the envelopes with her dad’s chicken scratch handwriting. We’ll talk about this later.

Throughout the day, it felt like the entire town stopped by to grab flowers. Pop got away from the diner for a few minutes, and Aaron and Nick came by and brought them “happy opening day” coffee and donuts.

They had a steady stream of customers all day, and Rose realized no one was leaving without purchasing a flower, which seemed statistically impossible. Around three, she started to panic they were getting low on stock.

“Violet, do you have any potted plants? Any additional things we could sell?” Rose started looking in the back, but they’d put everything on the floor for their grand opening.

Violet stared back with an equal amount of panic. “Everything I have is for my landscaping customers. I never expected it to be this busy.”

Rose thought about Gray’s comment. “I bet Gray put people up to this, so we’d have a good first day.” She marched out to the floor and found Nash browsing the arrangements.

“Hey, Rose,” He greeted her with a friendly hug. “Great opening. Things are looking busy.”

“Did anyone tell you to buy something today?”

“Don’t you want me to buy something?” He loved the chance to needle her when he could.

Rose playfully punched his arm. “Answer me.”

“Fine…” He laughed, rubbing his arm. “Gray suggested that I make it a point to stop by the store and pay my respects. Plus, it’s my mom’s birthday this week. So two birds, you know?” He turned back to the cooler. “She’ll know somehow if I don’t get the most expensive one, so you’re welcome.” He pulled out a stunning arrangement of white roses and a small bouquet of daylilies.

They walked to the counter. “Would Gray have told other people the same thing?” she asked, looking around at who was in the store.

“Maybe. He’s a friendly guy who loves to chat with folks.”

“Hey, Nash, nice choice.” Lily rang him up at the register as she locked eyes with him.

“Hey, Lilypad, haven’t seen you in a while.” They gazed at each other quietly, and Rose was picking up a vibe. He didn’t know she existed, my ass.

“Well, I’ve gotta go,” Nash said suddenly. “Good luck with the rest of your opening day, Rose. Bye, Lily,” he said quietly.

Rose smiled at Lily with a shit-eating grin.

Lily stuck her tongue out at her. “We’re gonna need more flowers tomorrow. Figure something out with that MBA brain.” She stepped away to greet more customers.

Shit, right. They needed at least one more day of stock until their next order was delivered on Monday morning.

Luckily, she knew a guy.

She texted Gray asking if he could spare some flowers for tomorrow and thought about thanking him for the flowers again but decided against it. It was already too confusing. Her hand rubbed her cheek where his stubble had grazed her. Her phone dinged with a response that he’d drop more flowers off that evening.

A steady buzz of customers lasted another hour until Violet walked up to Rose when they finally had a lull. Her brows quirked with confusion. “Don’t you think it’s weird everyone bought at least one flower today? Even Pop did. I love flowers as much as anybody, but...that’s weird.”

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