Page 37 of Accidentally in Bloom

Gray gave her a side-eye glare. “You haven’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat for anybody since you’ve been here.”

“I’m busy. I don’t have time to talk to everybody on the sidewalk like you do.”

“Rose, I run my own business, talk to everyone on the sidewalk, and I’m still here fixing this fucking shelf.”

She hated that it got under her skin whenever he made her feel incompetent. She already felt like a giant imposter running a business for the first time after she’d preached how easily it was done on her podcast. She’d barely slept the last week with the stress of it all.

She loved ordering new furnishings, imagining the space, and contacting potential consignment vendors for soaps and lotions, but the flower business still felt foreign to her.

Gray stood up and stretched, his black shirt tight over his chest. “I’m just saying: You want a successful business, and you’ll leave soon, so why don’t you let me handle it? Or do you not trust me?”

“I trust you.” Rose could feel her face scrunching in a frown at him, and she tried to fix it.

“Yeah, with what?” He stepped closer to her, heat in his tone.

“With that screwdriver and the,” she pointed, “gun thingy.”

“The power drill?” His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Did you hang any shelves in the last fifteen years of your life, princess?” Annoyance laced his voice.

Rose gathered the books, done with this conversation. “I have people for that. And I’ll be handling the vendor discussions. End of story.” As she turned to leave the cooler, the door slammed shut in her face.

Locking them in.

Fuuuuuck.

Chapter

Ten

GRAY

Gray rubbed his tired eyes. He’d lose his goddamn mind if he was trapped in a cooler with Rose.

Rose jiggled the door handle and then pressed her whole weight against it, apparently feeling the same panic he felt.

“Violet!” Rose let out a screeching yell.

“Okay, okay.” Gray put a hand over her mouth. “She can’t hear us, and I can very much hear you.” The cooler was tucked back far in the workroom, and Lily still had her music blasting.

Rose wheeled around and fumed at him. “Weren’t you supposed to fix the door?”

“Listen, princess; it’s not my fault the door closed before I could fix it. Someone was bothering me. Maybe you’re the problem around here.”

Gray leaned one hand against the locked door and towered over her. He loved riling her up and catching her off guard. She was wearing kitten heels today, and he enjoyed the way she had to lean back to maintain her furious eye contact.

“I am not the problem.” Rose shoved his chest and walked around him to the other side of the cooler, three feet away. “If you hadn’t chit-chatted with that redhead all morning, you’d be done by now, and I wouldn’t be trapped in here with you. Maybe next time, you can charm your girlfriends outside working hours.”

“Jessica and I aren’t dating.” Gray wiped a hand on his face. God, he didn’t have time for this today.

“No? She just happens to bring you coffee and doughnuts out of the goodness of her little ol’ heart wearing a skintight body con dress?”

Gray bit back a smile as it registered that Rose sounded jealous. “She has a crush, but I’ve tried to make it clear I’m not interested in anything.”

“Why not? She’s pretty.” A biting tone filtered in through Rose’s words.

Oh lord. He paced the short length of the cooler. He didn’t love where this was headed. “Jessica is pretty, but I haven’t dated in a while.”

“I can name ten women who’d give their left hand to lock you down for some ungodly reason. Or are you too good for Fairwick Falls, Mr. Popular?”

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