Page 73 of Wallflower in Bloom

He wanted to make her happy, and he felt such a connection, like they were cut from the same tea-and-biscuits, cozy-cottage-dream cloth. He hadn’t had that in so long. Decades.

Oh god, wait.

Had he already fallen for this alluring vision in front of him?

He needed to get a handle on this.

Violet turned around, her face beaming. “This Venus flytrap and I are ready to dazzle the internet. You ready?”

Rose stood at the side, tapping away on her phone. “Don’t forget. We need to film a second one today. For our new sponsor, who we all love.” She arched her eyebrow with a meaningful glance at all of them.

“Wait, who’s our sponsor?” Violet asked.

“Gardener’s growth serum.”

“That’s not the kind I like.” Violet scowled at her sister. She hadn’t yet shown her temper, but Jack felt he was likely in for a show.

“Vi, we take the ad sponsorships we can get because they help keep our lights on,” Rose said with a chiding tone.

He didn’t love her sisters bossing her around. Many things could be said about him: he was a playboy, a flirt, and indecisive, but he was loyal as fuck.

“If she said it’s not her favorite, we shouldn’t do it,” Jack said, drawing his arm around Violet’s waist.

Rose scowled at him, unimpressed. “It’s not that simple. I said we’d do something for them because they paid us money.”

“You should have checked with me first.” Violet crossed her arms.

Damn right. He was so proud of her and squeezed her side in support.

“Vi,” Rose fumed and shoved at her hair.

“I can’t put my name on something I don’t believe in. I won’t help people if I tell them to use a crappy product.” Tears threatened Violet’s eyes.

His stomach clenched, not wanting her to cry.

Rose looked like she was at her wit’s end. “Vi, just do it this one time. I swear I’ll ask you in the future.”

“I have an idea,” Jack said, hoping to be helpful. “How about if I promote it? Violet won’t be associated, and I, the local plant dummy, can say, ‘Use it and tell me what you think.’ It still makes the viewers start a conversation about the brand, right?”

Rose slid her eyes from Jack’s hand on Violet’s waist with a measured glare. “That would work,” she said slowly as if she were saying fuck you.

“Work for you, plant mom?” he said, protectively squeezing her shoulder to him.

“Uh… yeah, I guess,” she said, dumbfounded.

“Great! Everyone wins.”

They decided to shoot that first as Violet got her stuff ready, and Jack felt grateful for all the years of improv classes his mum had made him take.

He spewed out something he hoped was charming and funny about a product he knew nothing about. Shay would throttle him for product endorsements without payment, but this would be a one-time thing. This was only to help his Violet.

His Violet. There was that phrase again. What was coming over him?

Rose watched it back on Lily’s phone. “Amazing. Ship it.” She went back to typing furiously, head in her phone.

“All right.” Jack clapped his hands together after setting the product down. “On to the next. You ready?”

“Hold on, final makeup check!” Lily said, rushing over to powder Vi’s nose.

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