Page 131 of Wallflower in Bloom

“I brought the penises you wanted!” she called behind the large box.

A moment of stunned silence rang through the store. Jack smiled at Violet. “Exactly what kind of garden were you planning for her?”

Violet’s hand smacked her forehead. “Can we cut?”

Everyone burst into laughter.

“Let’s take ten, everyone!” Jack yelled at the crew. They’d hired a skeleton TV crew to shoot the pilot. Then Jack would take the edited pilot back to Wayridge to see if they’d fund an entire season.

Violet walked to grab the box from Mrs. Maroo. “You didn’t need to come until later. This was too heavy for you to carry in this bad weather.” They glanced out the window to the wintery, sleeting day of November.

Mrs. Maroo shook out her arms. “Sorry, dear. Didn’t mean to ruin your filming, but I knew you’d need the bachelorette stuff for tomorrow.”

Violet plopped down a heavy box on the table and saw the neon penis-shaped straws, tiaras with glitter penises on them, penis balloons, and light-up penis necklaces.

“Since I’m a remarried woman again, I don’t need them anymore,” the older lady said, waving her new wedding ring in the air.

“Your bachelorette party was a rager,” Lily said, poking through the box and pulling out a light-up necklace that said Same Penis Forever, Let’s Celebrate!

“Rose will hate wearing these,” Violet laughed as Lily gave her a high five.

“Loathe. I can’t wait to get pics of her in this one.” Lily snorted and held up a tiara and bridal veil covered in sparkly penises.

Gray and Nash walked in from the back entrance.

“You about ready to go, Jack?” Gray called.

It was only one month until Gray and Rose’s wedding, and the guys were heading to Montreal for Gray’s bachelor party after they finished filming.

Mrs. Maroo cocked her hip and stared at the three gorgeous men in front of her. “What trouble will you boys get up to in Montreal?”

“Seeing as I’ll have my five-year-old best man with us”—Gray smirked—“staying up past our bedtime.”

Violet’s heart clutched at the thought that Gray included his five-year-old son, Alex, who spent part of the year with his mom in Montreal.

“What time should we be at the Honky Tonk in Elliottsville tomorrow?” Mrs. Maroo said, turning to Violet.

“Shh,” Lily said. “Rose still thinks her bachelorette is just a spa day.”

“It’s going to be lit,” Mrs. Maroo said, wiggling her booty.

Lily and Violet snickered. Rose would never ask for a neon, 90s-themed bachelorette party, but she’d get a kick out of it. After treating her to a spa day, they’d karaoke all night long and ply her with shots, then drag everybody back to Violet’s house for a sleepover. Practically all the women they knew in town—plus Aaron and Nick—were invited, so it would be a raucous time.

“We better hide this box before Rose sees it. She has eagle eyes.” Lily hefted the big box on her hip. “Maybe I should hide this on a high shelf.”

Lily called out in the showroom, “Can somebody help me put this box up?”

“I can,” Nash said, walking over.

Lily stared daggers at him. “Anybody else? Anybody else want to help me lift this box up?”

A beat of silence dragged on in the showroom. Finally, a TV crew guy stepped forward. Gray put a hand on his chest and slowly shook his head.

Lily ran her tongue over her teeth.

“Ugh, fine. Here,” she said, shoving the box up at Nash. “Follow me.”

Rose walked through the front door of Bloom a few seconds later, unaware of their dastardly plan for her bachelorette party.

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