A Rose in Bloom Read online

  “Don’t you have work to do? Have you set up an appointment with that girl who wants a personal trainer?”

  “Yup.” He smirked.

  “Good… That’s good.”

  Jaxon forced his attention back to his task of completing fifty lunges, while attempting to keep the car parked across the street in his side vision. It was a fancy jacked-up truck, definitely not the type of car driven by Elyssa’s usual customers. He hadn’t seen the driver, so it was possible the person had parked on the side street before visiting another business on that block, like the barbershop or Donut Dock. But the truck had been parked in the same spot all morning, and he couldn’t help but wonder about the owner. If only he could see in through the side window of A Rose in Bloom, but the reflection from the sun’s glare on the window made that impossible.

  “Mack?” Nate cocked his head to one side.

  “Huh? What do you need?”

  “You did two lunges, and now you’re just standing there, staring out the window. Not very inspiring to our other patrons, are you?” One corner of his mouth pulled up in a smirk.

  “And how are you inspiring them, standing there leaning against the desk?”

  He raised his brows. “Well since I just finished leading a ninety minute spin class, I think I can afford a ten minute break. You, on the other hand, have done zero since you got here this morning. I’m just shocked because it isn’t like you. What gives?”

  “Look, I’m the owner and you’re the employee. You don’t have any right to criticize me.” Jaxon regretted his harsh words when Nate stiffened, his brows dipping down over his eyes.

  “Sorry, boss.” He pivoted on one foot and headed toward the back.

  “Wait! I’m sorry, Nate. I didn’t mean that.” Jaxon caught up with him, grabbing his arm. “I’m only grouchy because I didn’t sleep well last night.”

  Nate snatched his arm from his grasp. “We’ve been friends for a long time, Jaxon. This is the first time you’ve ever acted superior, so I’ll cut you some slack. Even though you’re my boss right now, that won’t always be true. The pay around here isn’t that great, you know.”

  “I know Nate, and I appreciate your work. You’ll be making a lot more once I can expand the gym. Money’s just tight right now. If it makes you feel any better, you’re making more money than I am.”

  “Is that what’s wrong with you? Are you still trying to buy that building across the street? I thought you told me that girl refused to even discuss the possibility of a sale.”

  “Yes, but I’m working on her. I think I’ll be able to wear her down eventually.”

  “It’s not the only building that would suit your gym. Why don’t you have your real estate agent look at other options?”

  “Because right now we’re the only gym within walking distance from the Palmer Building, and Elyssa’s building is the only one with the right square footage if we want to stay within walking distance.”

  Nate narrowed his eyes. “Why do I get the distinct impression where Elyssa Rose is concerned, you care about more than just her building?”

  He bent to retie his shoelace, attempting to cover the rush of blood to his face. “Look, I think I need to take a run outside—get some fresh air. I’ll be back in forty.”

  Ignoring Nate’s chuckle, he trotted to the door. Outside, he immediately found himself crossing the street, casually stopping to stretch on the curb while checking out the fancy truck. Glancing behind him, he realized he could see into Elyssa’s shop. She was talking to a man, standing way too close for a customer interaction. He must be the owner of the truck. She threw back her head in laughter, and then touched his arm as she spoke to him. He responded with a smile, pulling her into an embrace. She didn’t act awkward at all as they walked toward the back, arm in arm.

  He couldn’t believe it. She was with another guy only a few hours after accepting his invitation to a dinner date. Well… maybe it wasn’t exactly a date, but it had the potential of being a date. And if she was as innocent as she'd claimed, why was she so comfortable in this man’s arms.

  He was inside the door of the shop before he’d even realized he was moving. She twisted toward the door when the little bell rang, and the guy’s arm fell off her shoulder.

  *****

  “Jaxon, what are you doing here?” The last thing she needed was Jaxon making an appearance when Scotty was around. She’d only just managed to convince him of her success and independence.

  “Who’s he?” asked Scotty, a deep furrow creasing his forehead.

  “He’s nobody. He’s just the guy who owns the gym across the street.” She shot Jaxon a look, silently pleading with him to go along with her story.

  “That’s right. I’m just the guy who owns the gym across the street.”

  She let out a relieved breath, until she saw his expression. His grin was just like Lucifer’s. Oh no… What was he going to say?

  “Of course we did spend the night together last night.”

  She felt her mouth drop open. She stared at him, speechless and shocked, as he strolled across the floor and placed a proprietary arm around her shoulder. Her astonishment fled, replaced by a sudden vehemence. Without a thought her hand rose and slapped him soundly across the face, as she spun away from his grasp.

  “I may have borrowed your roommate’s empty bed, but we did not spend the night together.”

  Now it was Jaxon’s turn to look astonished, as he massaged his jaw.

  Scotty laughed out loud. “Whew! I guess you’re right, Sis. You seem to be able to take care of yourself, after all.”

  “Sis? This is your brother?”

  “It’s none of your business. Get out of my building.”

  Jaxon gave her a wry grin. “But we’re still on for tonight, right? Dinner at my place? Seven o’clock?”

  “I don’t think that would be a wise thing to do after the stunt you just pulled.”

  His face fell. “I understand. I can clean out the refrigerator by myself. It’s just so odd the way it popped open during the night all by itself. It’s almost as if someone opened it on purpose. Do you suppose—”

  She cut him off, placing both hands on his chest and shoving him toward the door. “Fine, I’ll come to dinner. Just get out of here and leave me alone. I’ve got a lot of work to do before tomorrow. Don’t you need to be somewhere doing something that makes you sweat?”

  He grinned, his eyes twinkling. “No, I thought I’d save that for after dinner.”

  “Out.” She raised her palm in a threatening motion.

  He laughed as he backed out the door, shutting it behind him. She leaned against it, sliding all the way down to sit on the floor. The man exhausted her.

  Scotty was staring at her with his arms crossed. “Seems like you may have left a few things out of your update, Sis.”

  Part 10: All Tied Up

  ELYSSA GROPED IN DESPERATION through the spools of colorful ribbon in her drawer. How could she have miscounted? She needed at least three more spools to finish her bows for the pew ends. But instead of the aquamarine ribbon she’d been using, the rolls at the bottom of the stack were turquoise. Her heart hammered. What could she do? It was already six thirty. Would any of the floral supply shops be open at this late hour? Would they have the exact color she needed? Frantically flinging spools about, some popped out of the drawer, rolling across the room in every direction. Maybe there’s more aquamarine buried in the bottom. Maybe… Maybe… No.

  “You don’t have to throw things at me.” She jerked at the voice behind her and turned tear-filled eyes to face Jaxon. What was he doing here? She didn’t have time to deal with him now. Her career depended on this wedding.

  “I came to make sure you keep your promise to help clean out the refrigerator. I thought we might pick up some Chinese take-out.”

  “Jaxon, leave me alone. I’ve got a crisis right now—I need to think.”

  *****

  His heart twisted in his chest. All thoughts of
teasing her fled from his mind. All day he’d been rehearsing lines about chocolate addicts, food burglars and such, hoping to keep her off balance and worried about her sleep-eating incident. Now, seeing her in distress made him want to pull her into his arms and soothe her tears away.

  “What’s the crisis? Maybe I can help.”

  “You can’t help, unless you have a supply of aquamarine ribbon hidden under a set of barbells.” Her tone was full of sarcasm, but he could feel the panic in her voice.

  “You need ribbon? For the wedding tomorrow? Shouldn’t you have bought it earlier in the week?”

  “I thought I had plenty of ribbon. But I need aquamarine, and all I have left is turquoise." She straightened, holding two spools of ribbon in front of his face.

  “Aren’t those the same color?”

  “No, they’re not the same!”

  “They look the same to me. Really Elyssa, nobody will be able to tell the difference.”

  She gaped at him with the same expression Luke Skywalker wore when Darth Vader said, “I am your father.”

  “I can’t use turquoise ribbon. I have to have aquamarine.”

  “Where are you going to get it?”

  “I don’t know… I don’t know… What am I going to do?” She paced, punctuating her words with ribbon-fisted gestures. “It’s so late the shops may not even be open. I can’t wait for them to open in the morning. It’ll be too late. What am I going to do?”

  “Get online and find a shop that’s open.”

  She rushed to the computer and punched in a search. “Here. This shop is open. And this one, too. But they may not have the right color.”

  She picked up her phone and called the first shop. Without waiting for her direction, Jaxon called the other number. Turning to the side, he said, “Yes, I’m looking for ribbon. Do you have… Elyssa, what’s that color? Do you have aquamarine? She said she needs silk, inch and a half wide. Okay. Yes. In stock? No, we need it tonight. Never mind, thanks.”

  She shook her head, quickly searching for another number. She found two more prospects. He called his number, but no one answered the line.

  “You have it? Are you sure it’s aquamarine? And you have three spools? Actually, I want four, just to be safe. Oh, thank you! What time do you close? Fifteen minutes? Oh my gosh! Please wait for me! I’m on my way!”

  “I’ll drive you, Elyssa. I know the back way. Come on.”

  *****

  She blinked hard to hold back tears. They’d barely made it before the florist supply store closed, but the ribbon wasn’t the same as the ribbon she’d been using.

  “The color is wrong?” asked Jaxon.

  “No, it’s the right color, but this is a hand-dyed silk ribbon. It’s beautiful, but it just looks different from the ones I’ve already made. I guess I could buy enough ribbon to use this for all the bows on the pew ends. But, I’ll have to remake all the others, and I haven’t even started making the bridesmaids bouquets yet.”

  “I’ll help you. Don’t give me that expression. I know I don’t know anything about flowers, but I can hold things and hand you things. Surely I can speed things up a bit. I’ll go get food and bring it back to the shop. We’ll stay up until we get it done.”

  “Why would you do that? This is your big chance to see me fall flat on my face. Then you can swoop in and grab my building when my business fails.”

  She regretted lashing out when his face clouded. “So that’s how little you think of me?”

  What was that expression? Was he angry? He almost looked hurt. Her self-righteousness wavered. “Isn’t that your plan? Don’t you want me to lose everything so you can buy my building out from under me?”

  He pressed his lips together in a tight line. “I never said anything like that. I offered to buy your building at a fair price.”

  The storeowner interrupted. “I’m sorry, but it’s past time to close. Do you want the ribbon or not?”

  She glanced at Jaxon, who turned his stiff back toward her.

  “Yes, I’ll take ten spools.”

  She paid her bill and followed him to the car. The return trip seemed to take forever. Silence hung over them, suffocating and itchy. As he pulled up to the curb in front of her shop, she reached over and touched his arm.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for what?” he asked without meeting her eyes.

  “For what I said back there. I’m just scared. Okay? There, I said it. I’m scared I won’t make it. I’m afraid to fail.”

  He stared straight ahead, gripping the steering wheel. She saw his Adam’s apple bob up and down. His jaw flexed, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

  Part 11: Mincing Words

  WHAT SHOULD HE DO? No matter what he said or did, she always believed the worst about him. He was wasting his time with her. Then again, he had her off-balance right now. She seemed genuinely contrite.

  “Okay?” She sucked her lower lip between her teeth. She was awfully cute when she was worried.

  If he didn’t take a chance, he’d only regret it later. “Only if you promise to sign up for a trial week at the gym.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Next week, you have to come over and try it out, take a few classes, under my supervision. Deal?”

  “Maybe I’d rather have you mad at me. I don’t do exercise. I don’t like sweating or breathing hard or having my heart speed up.”

  He struggled to keep a straight face. Did she really just say that? Should he be nice and not take advantage of her when she set herself up to be teased? Nah—she deserved it.

  “Perhaps if you tried it with me, you’d like it. Maybe I could speed up your heart and make you sweat and breathe hard in a way you’d find quite pleasurable.” He grinned and bobbed his eyebrows up and down.

  Even in the dim light from the street lamp, her face looked bright red.

  *****

  Why did she always stick her foot in her mouth around Jaxon? It was like his presence made her brain disengage, but her words kept spilling out. How was she supposed to respond? No snappy comeback came to mind.

  “But really, Elyssa, if we take it super slow, it might not be as bad as you think.” He winked at her.

  Now he’d gone too far. She wouldn’t let him get away with talking so crudely.

  “I’ll thank you to keep your filthy, sexual comments to yourself. You need to get your mind out of the gutter.”

  He blinked at her with wide innocent eyes. “What are you talking about? What sexual comments? I was just referring to SuperSlow weight lifting. It’s a great workout for your muscles, but won’t raise your heart rate much or make you all sweaty.”

  She felt even more blood rush to her face. Too bad there wasn’t room for her to crawl under the car seat.

  “I’m sorry. I… I thought you were… Never mind. I can’t deal with you right now. I’ve got to get all this work done, and I’ll probably have to work all night. But thank you for taking me to get the ribbon. I probably wouldn’t have made it before the store closed if you hadn’t driven.”

  She slipped out of the car, anxious to make her escape. But as she struggled to unlock the shop with her arms full of bags of ribbon, Jaxon walked up to stand behind her. His overwhelming presence invaded her personal space.

  “What are you doing? I told you I need to work all night.”

  “You turned down my offer to help because you thought I wanted your business to fail. If you’ve really changed your mind about me, there’s no reason I shouldn’t stay.”

  Oh there were plenty of reasons she shouldn’t let him stay, not the least of which was how good he looked. Followed closely by how good he smelled. Followed closely by knowing if he tried to kiss her, she wouldn’t be able to stop him… or want to stop him.

  He was still standing so close she could feel the heat from his body. “So what do you say? Can I stay and help you get this work done? I’d love to watch you… arrange things.”

  She tried to swallow, but co
uldn’t find a drop of saliva in her parched mouth. Her voice came out in a rasp.

  “Okay.”

  Part 12: Wedding Jitters

  JAXON FUMBLED WITH THE RIBBON, trying to copy the neat way Elyssa had wrapped the stems of the bouquet. Each time he managed to wind it almost to the bottom, the ribbon loosened before he could secure it. He slammed his fist on the worktable, jarring the glass vases that held the four bouquets she’d already completed while he was toiling over his single unfinished project.

  “What’s wrong?” She looked up from her task with wide eyes.

  “This is impossible. It’s ridiculous. Can’t you just glue it on here or something? The ribbon doesn’t look even, and it doesn’t stay where I put it.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I can do it myself. Maybe there’s something else you could do.” She screwed up her face and wrinkled her nose in concentration. “Oh, I know. There are forty-two vases that need to be packed up for transport. I’ve already washed and dried them, and they’re all sitting out on the table in the back room. The boxes and the bubble wrap are right over there.” She pointed with her chin as she added pearl head pins to the tiffany blue ribbon to finish her bouquet.

  “Sounds like busy work, but I’ll take it. I’ve never felt so inept in my life. Don’t you have something heavy I can lift? I’d like to feel useful again.”

  She sighed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. “To be honest, I’m actually just glad to have the company. It’s so much work, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

  “Can’t you do more of this stuff ahead of time?”

  “That’s the problem with fresh flowers. You can’t work ahead or the flowers will be wilted when it’s time for the wedding. Most everything has to be done at the last minute. I’ll take all the peonies over to the reception and make the arrangements in the vases you’re packing for me. The only thing I could really do ahead of time was making these pew end arrangements with the baby’s breath. I should have started the bows earlier. But when my brother dropped in to visit, I wasted most of the day.”