Page 67 of Accidentally in Bloom

“C’mon, I’ll walk you to your car.” He headed toward the front door.

“Don’t be silly. I’m parked right outside.” But he kept walking, and she rolled her eyes as she followed him. He held the door open for her and flipped off the light.

Rose locked the door and turned to see him leaning against her car.

“Hell of an opening day, partner.” His arms were crossed as he held eyes with a double meaning.

Indeed.

“Gray,” she started but paused. Should she even ask? “Did you have anything to do with the flowers on my dad’s grave?”

Gray rolled his lips together as he considered whether that was a bad thing or not. “He was special, Rose. He deserved something on the big reopening day. I hope,” he paused, looking for the right words. “I hope that’s okay. I know you didn’t get along, but...” Gray met her eyes. “What?”

Rose took in the kind, frustrating, sexy as fuck man before her.

“You’re a good man, Gray Roberts. He would have loved it.” Her heart thudded against her chest again.

This man had done unspeakable things to her five minutes ago, but that admission felt like she’d just bared her soul to him.

His face turned suddenly serious, and his hand came to her jaw as he kissed her deeply, making Rose feel like the most precious thing in the world. Their tongues fought and danced, but after a long slow kiss, Gray pulled back, leaving her dazed.

His thumb lingered on her chin. “For the record, you’re not out of my system.”

Rose’s breath caught in her throat as she stepped back. She couldn’t get entangled for long. Gray turned around and walked to his truck.

This had to be a fling. She had her real life to get back to soon.

But she still felt the heat of his hand on her face, and her hand went to it.

Rose got in her car and sat, her heart still slamming against her chest. You can’t catch feelings. You’re leaving soon.

Whether you like it or not.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Rose yelled at the greasy-looking man backing up to the driveway and attempting to hook Violet's car to his tow truck.

Rose had barely slept last night, replaying the opening day and her sexy session with Gray over and over in her head. At five a.m., she’d heard the beeping of a truck in their driveway. She’d thrown on a robe in record time and sprinted down the stairs of Violet’s cottage.

The pot-bellied man turned around with sweat stains all over his white shirt and an open button-down shirt with a name patch that said “Lenny.”

“I just tow ’em when I'm told, lady.”

Rose wrapped her robe around her tighter and marched down the front steps.

“Rose, what's going on?” Lily called out from behind her. She was in her sleep shorts and tank top, hair mussed from sleep.

“I'll handle it. Go back inside.”

“Does she think we're still, like, seven years old?” Lily said to Violet, who appeared beside her in oversized striped pajamas.

“Hey, that's my car!” Violet padded out in her giant fuzzy slippers behind Rose.

Rose got in his face. “Why are you towing my sister’s twenty-year-old paid-for car from her own house?”

“Look,” the guy said through the cigarette between his lips, “you don’t pay your taxes, I take your shit. Simple.”

Rose plucked a piece of paper sandwiched between the windshield wipers on Violet’s car and Rose’s rental. It looked eerily like the mail that Violet had gotten for the past few months, and she realized his voice sounded familiar.

Lily stormed at him. “You're the asshole that keeps hounding us even though we’re trying to pay the tax debt of our dead father?”

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