“I know this one. A daisy. My mom always had them around when we were little. No clue what it means, though.”
“Good job,” she says, taking the flower from me. “This one is red, so it means . . .” She puts it down and starts toward the next stall.
“What’s it mean?”
She stops. “That you’re unconsciously in love.” She nibbles on her bottom lip. “So that’s bogus, right?” Quickly, too quickly, she swipes a weird-looking flower. “This one is more accurate for right now.”
“So it means something like you’ve been somewhere for four hours and it’s time to go?” I offer.
“It’s a bird of paradise, and it means something exciting is going to happen.” She holds her hands to her sides. “I’m starting at the shop in two days.”
“If today is any indication, you’re going to do great.”
“I hope so. I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about flowers so I’m prepared.” She gives the flower back to the attendant. Looking around the room, she sighs. “Doesn’t this just make you happy? Surrounded by all this beauty?”
I didn’t have to come here for that. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours by your side, and I had you in my bed.
“Sure,” I say as we take off walking again.
We move along the last wall quietly, stopping to inspect random flowers or to talk to suppliers about interesting props. I stay in the background and watch a side of Haley I haven’t seen before.
She looks like what I feel like in my office. When I’m surrounded by numbers, I feel at home. Comfortable. I know I can piece them together and have them make sense. They speak my language of logic and facts. Flowers do that for her.
Here, she’s confident. Authoritative. In her element. Watching her move about this world, one I know nothing about, is the biggest turn-on.
“Not that you aren’t a barrel of fun,” she says, handing me a piece of a sample cookie, “but I bet Meredith would’ve loved it here.”
I take a bite of the cookie. “You liked her, didn’t you?”
“She has a greenhouse,” Haley deadpans.
I laugh. “A greenhouse I fucked you in.”
I’m rewarded with a flush of her cheeks.
“She also has an entire collection of Van Gogh paintings of flowers,” Haley says. “What do you have to say to that?”
“He cut his ear off, you know.”
“So?”
“So nothing. I was just pointing that out.”
She stretches her arms over her head and yawns. Her T-shirt rises just high enough to show a sliver of skin above the waistband of her jeans. She looks like a commercial for cereal or pajamas—one of those ads where they pick the prettiest woman they can find so other women want to buy their product. That’s her. The epitome of perfection.
My chest tightens like I’ve been hit in the stomach.
“I’m ready to go if you are,” she says.
My spirits sink as I look at the clock. By the time we get out of Nashville and to Dogwood Lane, it will be almost four hours. That means it’ll be four hours until I take her home. And not much longer until I return to Nashville without her.
“Let’s check out that line of photographers first,” I say.
“Really?” Her eyes sparkle.
“I mean, unless you don’t want to.”
“No, I totally want to. I just thought I was boring you to death.”
I wrap my arm around her waist as we turn around. “I don’t think it’s possible for you to bore me to death.”
And that’s a scary thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
HALEY
Neely hands me a glass to put away.
“We should be able to move in a week or so,” Neely says. “The bathrooms at the new house get tubs and showers this week, and then it’s just picking off little things.”
I set the glass in the cabinet. “I can’t believe you guys won’t be living in this house anymore.”
Neely frowns. “I know. And I kind of feel bad about it because Dane bought the new house for me, but you all have the attachment to this one. You have memories here.”
“Yeah, but it’ll be good for Mia to grow up out there and for you to start fresh in a new place as a family. Maybe you guys can get some horses. Or cows. I’ve always wanted a cow.”
“Why?” Neely laughs.
I shrug. “They’re just so pretty.”
She shakes her head and fills the now-emptied dishwasher.
I swipe my phone from my pocket and check it. It’s been really quiet since Trevor dropped me off at my house this afternoon. He walked me in, kissed the crap out of me, and then told me he was going to try to talk his girlfriend Lorene into renting him a room for a couple more days.
A couple more days. That’s it. The house will be done, Branson and Meredith will be moving in, and life will go back to normal for Trevor in Nashville.