Page 10 of Accidentally in Bloom

“How did I end up with such violent sisters,” Lily muttered, rubbing her shin.

“Wait a minute.” Gray’s face changed. “You’re Frank’s oldest?” Gray’s eyebrows came together with concern.

“The Bertha is silent in my name, too,” Rose drawled.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Ah, fuck. I’m sorry about your dad. I was out of town for a few weeks when everything happened. I hated missing the funeral. He was the best.”

Gray’s earnest look only made Rose madder. “Let’s not talk about my father.” Her ice shield was back in full force.

Gray let her sentence hang in the air, sending her a wary look.

God, stop sounding so shrill, Rose. Not everyone needs to know your shit.

He continued. “I know Vi a little bit from around town and met Lily because she’s hard to miss. Weren’t you upside down when I first met you?”

“I like to do yoga in the middle of the park.” Lily shrugged and hiccuped.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that you all were sisters.” Gray’s eyes moved to each of them as if trying to find the through line.

That wasn’t his fault; they looked utterly mismatched. Violet had riotous auburn curly hair and curves for days. Lily was short with long honey-blonde waves, whereas Rose favored her mother, who’d been tall and lanky.

Nash stretched his arm behind Rose. “What brings you into town?”

Rose caught a flash of heat in Gray’s eyes at the motion. It was innocent enough; she’d known Nash her whole life. They’d been childhood best friends, and there had never been any spark between them, even though Nash was a perfect fit for her on paper. And in all that perfection, she saw nothing that appealed to her.

Just for fun, though, let’s screw with him.

“Well, I’m so excited to run into my oldest friend.” Rose grabbed Nash’s cheeks and smacked an innocent, friendly kiss on one side. She saw a muscle twitch in Gray’s jaw.

Ha.

“But I’m here to deal with the will. Mrs. Maroo insisted the will reading be in person, and she kept rescheduling it for some reason. I had to move my flight twice.”

“That would be” —Gray threw a hand up— “my fault.”

“What?” Her head snapped around.

“I'm the reason we had to reschedule twice.” Gray fiddled with a creamer on the table, never breaking eye contact in a challenging glint.

“Why are you sitting there with a little smirk talking about ‘we’ had to reschedule?” She hissed through her teeth.

“Mrs. Maroo said I had to be there too. Video conference, phone call, talking to her later… nothing would do. I had to be there in person. And work kept getting in the way.” Gray shrugged as he twirled the creamer in his hands. “Guess I’ll see you there, ice princess.”

“Stop calling me that.” She yanked the creamer out of his hand.

Rose was baffled. The man sitting across from her was the complete opposite of her father. Why would a smoldering, tattooed farmer be at his will reading? Her dad had been lax and carefree, always looking like he was on the way to a Jimmy Buffett concert.

A dull ache thumped behind Rose’s chest as she remembered her father sitting across from her in a booth just like this. Before she’d finally lost her temper after he missed Lily’s tuition payment again, and all the horrible things she’d said to him spilled out of her.

“Hiya, kids.” Margie, the ancient waitress at Canon’s, popped over and interrupted the tension simmering in the booth.

Rose raised three fingers. “Coffees to go, please.”

“Actually.” Lily made a show of pulling up a menu. “We’ll have the waffle combination. Extra waffles, extra gravy. Hold the sausage on mine.”

“The hangover special?”

“We’re still buzzed.” Lily giggled with Margie.

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