Me: I’d love to know which you’d pick.
Trevor: Since it’s your first day at work, I’d pick bamboo for good luck.
Me: Well played.
Trevor: See you soon, pretty girl.
I do a little dance before grabbing a couple of balloon options and heading back to the front.
“Haley, that’s so cute,” Aerial gushes. She holds the vase up in the air. “Is that a penny in there?”
“Yes. The copper is an acidifier, so bacteria and gross stuff won’t grow as easily.”
“I didn’t know that.”
My stomach flutters. “I learned it at a flower show this weekend.”
“Fun.” She selects the balloon she wants, and I ring her up. Once she’s paid, she heads out the door. But before she gets out, someone else walks in.
“Penn Etling, what are you doing in here?” I laugh. “I didn’t know you knew this place existed.”
“I need some help and I figured you were the girl to ask.”
“If this has anything to do with something dirty . . . ,” I warn.
He grins. “I have another project for Meredith, and I need to plant . . .”
“What?”
“I don’t know what to plant. She didn’t include specifics and Dane said to plant bulbs that will come back every year, only I didn’t know plants even did that and I’m not telling him that.” He leans on the bar. “What do you suggest?”
“Definitely tulips,” I tell him. “Tulips might be my favorite flower of all. We don’t sell the bulbs here, but they probably do at the hardware store.”
“Okay. What else?”
“Crocuses are nice. You could do daffodils, but they’re kind of boring, if you ask me.”
He stares at me. “Could you text me this? Because I’m going to forget.”
“Then why didn’t you text me to start with?”
He winks. “Because I never, ever miss a chance to see your face.”
“Oh, boy,” I say with a sigh. “You are a handful.”
“I’m about three handfuls, if we’re measuring that way. Or seven inches—”
“Can you not?” I say, smacking his hand. “I’m at work, Penn.”
He rolls his eyes. “Fine. But you will text me this, right? Like now. I need to go get the stuff right now.”
Something prickles at the back of my mind as I watch him. There’s something off, something not quite right, and I don’t know what it is.
“How’s the house coming?” I ask. I know the answer. Most of it, anyway. I just can’t keep myself from asking and trying to prepare for the inevitable.
I need to talk this out with Trevor. I need to see if anything has changed after our night in Nashville, but I’m scared to ask. I’m terrified to come across as pushy. No matter what else I do, I refuse to be viewed as clingy.
“We’re done.” He shrugs. “The house is what we call substantially complete. That means our work is done, but there might be little things here or there that need to be hashed out. But we won’t know that until Branson comes and tells us what he wants.”
“Can’t Trevor do it?”
Penn bites his lip. “He already did.”
“Oh.”
I can’t look Penn in the face. Despite the fool he usually pretends to be, I know he’ll try to make me feel better if he thinks I’m upset.
Am I upset? I don’t know. Everything is too confusing.
“Hey,” Penn says, his voice softer. “Are you all right?”
I look up just in time to see Trevor walking by the front window. He sees me through the glass. A soft grin plays on his lips, and I melt into a puddle of goo.
He pulls open the front door and stops when he sees Penn.
“Hey,” Penn says. “We were just talking about you, Kelly.”
“Yeah?” he asks, looking between Penn and me. “What’s going on here?”
“Penn needed some advice on flowers, actually. I think I have him pointed in the right direction.”
Trevor nods, still unsure. “Hey, Penn—if you’re going to be around for a few, I’d like to meet up with you at the café. Just a few things I want to see if you can do before Dad gets here.”
“Sure. I can head over there now and give Claire hell until you make it over,” Penn says.
“Sounds good. Be there in fifteen or so.”
When Penn is gone, it’s then Trevor who makes his way to the desk. I busy myself organizing notes from a call earlier about a wedding because I don’t want to look at him. I’m not sure what to say.
“Hey, you,” he says, breaking the ice for me.
“Hi.”
“How’s it going today?”
“Good. I really love it here,” I say, sighing happily. “It feels good to walk in this place, you know? I love being surrounded by all this beauty.”
Trevor laughs. “I’m happy for you.”
“Me too.”
Silence creeps around us, a weight that sinks into the room. It’s large and oddly shaped and impossible to get comfortable with. Trevor feels it, too, because he shifts his feet like he does when he can’t figure something out.