Page 30 of Accidentally in Bloom

“Gray, he’s just trying to help, and he’s not very funny.” She sent her husband a scathing look.

Gray wrenched open the door. I do this without anybody else’s help if it kills me.

Christ, Gray hated these meetings. He tugged his collared shirt and blew out a breath. These guys aren’t better than you. They don’t have to know you’ve been a colossal fuck up your entire life.

He glanced at himself in the rearview mirror of his SUV. He’d properly shaved that morning, removing the stubble he usually liked to keep.

Don’t fuck this up. He blew out a breath and shoved open the door. He’d parked outside of Bailey’s corporate offices and wandered into the gray box of a building.

He’d convince them he could produce flowers. This would be fine; flowers were his business.

Shit.

He walked back to his SUV and grabbed the pot of tulips he’d forgotten.

Damn, was this cheesy? He thought about tossing the gift back in his SUV but walked in with it anyway.

He visualized them saying yes to his request. Yes, Mr. Roberts. We’d like to pay you a fuck ton of money for a whole bunch of flowers. He shoved open the door, greeted the receptionist, and sat waiting for Bill.

His skin crawled from the anxiety of reaching beyond what he thought possible. And this goddamn shirt. He moved his shoulders around to ease the discomfort.

What would happen if Bill said yes to two times the number of roses ordered last year? What if he really needed the greenhouse from Frank’s estate?

And like a lightning strike, Rose’s face flashed in front of his eyes. The fiery storm he’d seen in them yesterday haunted his memory, making his blood course a little faster. His hands itched, remembering what her waist felt like underneath them. I desperately, stupidly, wanted to kiss her senseless.

Fucking Frank, he chuckled. He did this on purpose. He knew exactly what he was doing putting Gray, who had a problem with authority, with Rose, the bossiest woman God ever made.

“There he is!” boomed a smarmy voice. Bill, a portly man in his 60s, peeked around the corner of the hallway and waved Gray toward him. “How the hell are you, Roberts?”

Gray stood up and grabbed the plant. “Hi, Bill,” Gray strode confidently toward him and shook his hand. “Brought you something from the farm.”

“Lovely. Let’s go to my office.”

After exchanging pleasantries, Bill thankfully cut to the chase. “Your dad said you needed some help fulfilling orders?” Bill’s bushy gray brows drew together in concern.

He could throttle his father right now. Later. “The opposite, actually. Last year, our knock-out roses sold well in one of your stores.”

“I remember.” Bill leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “Couldn’t keep the damn things in stock.”

“Should we double your order this year for the entire region? We’re expanding the farm, and I wanted you to have the first pick before we reached out to other distributors.”

Lies, lies, lies. He didn’t have any other major distributors, not at Bailey’s scale.

“All right, what are we talking about here? Exclusive rights?”

“Sure, for a fee.”

“All right. Let’s say ten times last year’s order and 1.2 times last year’s price.”

Gray pretended to have enough confidence to have this kind of discussion. “I’m afraid I can only do 1.5, given the cost of inflation on fertilizer.”

Did Rose do this kind of shit for a living? How wasn’t she dead of a heart attack? Gray wondered if Bill could see the beads of sweat on the back of his neck and silently thanked himself for not getting a haircut yet.

Bill slapped the table. “Sounds like a deal. Just make sure to have those ready by early September, or…hell, as soon as you can.” Bill stood up.

Guess their chat was over. That was success, right? He got what he came for. Gray thought he’d get out while the getting was good, shook the man’s hand, and hurriedly walked out to his truck before he barfed all over the floor.

He let out a long, slow, controlled breath as he hopped into his SUV. He just made the biggest deal of his life, bringing in $80,000. His existing contract with the company meant he’d get paid half on signing, half on delivery.

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