Page 70 of Accidentally in Bloom

“Don’t be silly. I grew up with pig manure.” She kissed him on the cheek.

“Your roof looks like it’s about to cave in.” His dad pointed up at the apex of the older greenhouse.

Missed you, too, Dad.

“It’s fine.” Gray tugged off a glove and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“We just wanted to make sure everything was okay.” His mom rubbed a hand on his arm.

“I’m fine, Mom. Just busy.”

“Bill said he decided to give you a shot.” His dad’s eyebrows raised expectantly, waiting for a thank you.

Gray bit his tongue so he didn’t say something he’d regret.

His mom took his arm as they walked to the house. “What have you been up to?”

“Been really busy. I own part of the flower shop in town, and we had our grand re-opening a few days ago.” Gray left out his tenuous fuck-buddy relationship with Rose that haunted his every waking hour.

“That’s small potatoes, son. You should focus on bigger investments. A shop like that won’t turn much of a profit.”

Gray finally broke. “What the hell do you know about it? You’re a mayor for twenty years and suddenly know everything about flower shops with built-in revenue from a small town without any other competition?”

“Now, Gray.” His mom patted his arm.

“Mom, I’m done. I’m done with you both not respecting what I do.”

His dad pulled out a check. “We think you can do lots of things, son. But we don’t think you should have to do it by yourself. Now, I know you’ve taken out several loans that we’re not sure you can repay,” Gray threw his head back and tried not to scream. “Take this check and consider it a peace offering.” The paper flapped in the breeze as his dad held it out.

Gray tugged the check from his hands and ripped it into tiny pieces without looking at the amount. “I do not need your help. I’m doing perfectly fine.”

“But you look so tired.” His mom ran a hand down his hair, and her eyes were full of concern.

He was pretty fucking tired. Tired of not spending every night with a woman he wanted to bed. Tired of missing his best little buddy and not having time to fly and see him. He was tired of doing everything himself and getting no thanks for it.

“Giselle mentioned you postponed your next trip to Montreal.” There was a disappointed tone in his mother’s voice.

“You know this is the busiest season.”

“For farmers,” his dad interjected.

“Yes, Dad. For farmers. Because that’s what I fucking am. I’ll see Alex soon. We FaceTime all the time.”

His mother clicked her tongue. “They aren’t young forever, Gray. You’ve already missed so much with him.”

“Did you both come here for a reason or just to make me feel like shit?”

“We just want you to be the best dad you can be,” his father said.

“Like you?” Gray laughed through his frustration.

“At least I was there for you. I wasn’t a thousand miles away.”

“First of all, I dropped everything when Giselle surprised me a few weeks ago. Alex got every second of my attention for the few days they were here. But when I was a kid?” Gray got in his dad’s face, anger spilling over. “You never saw anything I did. You didn’t know me. You didn’t see me. Or maybe you didn’t like what you saw.” He waved a hand at the land behind him. “I have a thriving business. I’m sober. I’m actually happy. But you see none of that. You just see what I’m not.” He turned on his heels. He was done.

His parents called after him to come back, but he jogged to the greenhouse.

He was literally running away from his problems, he knew, but he had shit to do today, and being treated like trash wasn’t on his agenda. He needed to make time so he could see Rose tomorrow on their non-date date.

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