“You didn’t enjoy helping people make wreaths?” Abby asked.
He huffed. “Not when the older woman I was helping kept trying to cop a feel. At one point, she almost grabbed my junk!”
Arabella’s eyes went wide, and she gasped. “What?”
“Yeah,” Kyle stated. “I’m pretty sure my ass is going to have bruises where she kept pinching it.”
Both Abby and Arabella covered their mouths with their hands in an effort not to laugh. And both failed.
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Ha ha, get it all out. This is why I’d rather spend time with Cat.”
“Your dog?” I asked.
“My partner. And yes. She’s the only female I can trust and rely on.”
We all stared at Kyle.
“What?” he asked, his eyes bouncing around to each of us. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?”
“When was the last time you went out on a date, Kyle?” Arabella asked.
He lifted a brow. “What are you trying to say, Arabella?”
She gave a halfhearted shrug, then lifted her hands. “I’m not one to judge; I’d rather spend time with my bees than go on a date. It’s just, you sound like someone who’s been…um…hurt by a woman.”
Kyle let out a gruff laugh. “As if. No, I’ve just come to the realization that women are too much of a pain. I’ll stick with K9s.”
About that time, my mother rapped on the door to the room before poking her head in. “Kyle, sweetheart, this lovely lady out here needs help with her bags and asked for your assistance. She said you helped her make her wreath.”
Kyle’s face went white as a ghost. Arabella pressed her mouth into a tight line to keep from laughing, while Abby tried, and failed again, to keep hers in.
Kyle grabbed Arabella and started to drag her behind him. “Why are you making me go?” she asked.
“Because for the next few minutes, or until that woman gets in her car and drives away, you’re my girlfriend.”
“What?” Arabella exclaimed. “Are you serious? Do not even try to kiss me, Kyle Larson.”
He huffed. “Like I’d want Hunter to kick my ass.”
I watched Kyle tug an arguing Arabella out of the craft room.
“I’ve got to see this,” Abby said as she followed them out.
My mother gave me a confused look. “Did I miss something?”
“Trust me, Mom. You don’t want to know.”
Abby
I stood back and wiped the sweat from my brow as I surveyed the greenhouse. Taking in the sparking-clean windows and floor, a smile slowly grew across my face. With all of the plants cleared out, Arabella and I had spent nearly a week washing the glass walls and then cleaning, buffing, and waxing the concrete floor.
“It looks like a totally different place,” Arabella said, standing next to me. “It’s going to be beautiful, Abby.”
“I think so. Especially if it snows. The tulle actually looks like snow!”
Arabella linked her arm in mine. “I know. I am so glad we decided to drape it from the ceiling.”
Kyle walked up behind us and sighed. “And I’m glad I found you two trying to drape it from the ceiling. You both would have broken your necks putting up all this white stuff.”
Rolling my eyes, I looked at him as he studied the flowing rows of tulle he’d helped us hang.
“It’s called tulle, Kyle. And we would have been fine. Although, I feel like you had a sixth sense that we needed your help,” I said with a smile in his direction.
He winked. “I would have to agree with you on that one. It was like I knew the two of you were back here about to fall to your deaths while secretly planning a wedding. Bishop and Hunter would never forgive me if I let something happen to you.”
Arabella opened her mouth to say something, then shut it when Cat came running up and dropped her tug toy at Kyle’s feet. He mindlessly picked it up and gave it a small toss. “You mean to tell me Bishop hasn’t been the least bit curious what you two have been up to back here?” he asked.
Arabella shook her head. “He thinks we’re decorating for the Christmas Eve luncheon.”
Kyle glanced up, taking in the ceiling again. “You know what I think we should do? Add lights along that tulle.”
Arabella and I exchanged a quick look and tried not to smile.
Fixing my gaze on the ceiling, I replied, “I think that’s a great idea.”
Kyle’s mind was apparently still working since he went on. “And, with all the clear glass in here, it really brings in the outside with the trees and snow. Willow had these tables she rented out once at an event at the apple orchard. They were clear glass, and the chairs were clear as well. I think you should ask her where she got them. That way, they won’t compete with the outside. Instead, it’ll reflect it and make it feel like one big open area.”