His gaze was steady on hers. “What’s your favorite flower?”
She smiled at this. Finally, something she could say without any room for stumbling over her words. “That’s easy. A Juliet rose. Roses are classic, timeless really. I guess you could say that I’m a hopeless romantic.”
She felt her eyes widen on her misstep. She had even managed to botch that response!
“Well.” She cleared her throat. “Let me just get that arrangement for you.” She hurried to the arrangement that she’d set aside. It was a colorful mix of garden roses, peonies, snapdragons, blue thistle, and ranunculus, and she was quite proud to present it and show what she was capable of creating. Certainly, he would need no further convincing.
But as she picked it up and presented it to him, Doug just said, “How much do I owe you?”
She exhaled nervously and flicked through her order sheets until she found the one that had been called in that morning. “That will be fifty, even.”
“Fifty dollars!” Now Doug was laughing, pretty good and hard, and Gabby had the uneasy feeling that it was at her expense. “And I thought my rates were high!”
Ah, yes, the one-upmanship. So it would seem not much had changed since high school after all.
“Fresh flowers of this quality are not free,” she assured him, lest he think she was running some kind of racket.
Instead, he motioned to the door and said, “Plenty of them growing for free on most people’s front yards.”
She pinched her lips, not bothering to point out that those flowers would most certainly die within a few days, if not hours, and she highly doubted that he was growing blue thistle in his front landscaping, let alone snapdragons, peonies, and… Oh, she was getting worked up again.
“Well, I think it’s a lovely gesture on your father’s part.” She felt very defensive of Mr. Monroe, who was a loyal customer, and, clearly, a devoted husband to dear Carol. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for their son, Gabby thought with a sniff.
“Could have bought her a bracelet for this amount.” Doug shook his head as he pulled out his credit card. “Would have lasted longer.”
“And been quite impersonal,” Gabby clipped. She swiped the card quickly and eyed the machine, suddenly keen to get him on his way and out of her store. He wasn’t just bad for business. He was bad for morale. “Besides, not everything is meant to last forever. Some things are meant to be enjoyed for the small amount of time they are with us.”
“Ah, so you admit that your product has a short shelf life.” His grin was one of amusement, or perhaps victory, she could never be sure.
Gabby felt her nostrils flare, and she handed him back the card along with the receipt. She knew better than to expect a tip and was almost miffed when he stuffed some bills in the jar.
“I hope your mother enjoys them,” she managed, because she sincerely did. She put her heart into every bouquet, and once she got to know a client’s tastes and preferences, she was able to truly perfect their arrangements. This year, she had a clear winner for Carol Monroe, regardless of what Doug might think.
Doug said nothing to affirm that she would, but just held up his hand and said, “It was nice seeing you, Gabby. Feels like old times.”
Gabby felt her smile whither as she watched him go and then plucked a rose from the bucket, accidentally popping the head from the stem in her haste. If by old times he meant sparring off on every topic from trade wars with foreign countries to whether they should go with colored or clear lights for the winter wonderland prom theme, he was right.
But she’d be damned if she’d let him have the final word when it came to romance.
Chapter Two
Gabby waited until her mother had returned to take her lunch break, even if she had lost her appetite. Honestly! The nerve of that man! To not only insult her store, but to undermine her passion and cheapen the mere notion of romance?
Her funk must have been noticeable by the time she arrived at the door of Something Blue, her middle sister’s bridal shop. Because she knew that her scowl was probably bad for business, and because she honestly couldn’t face yet another blushing bride-to-be just now, she peeked through the window before pushing through the door, relieved to see Brooke come from the back room alone, her arms laden with frothy tulle.
“Hey!” Brooke said brightly. “Just in time. Mind helping me hang these veils?”
Gabby felt a literal pang when she reached for the one on top. Three layers of soft, white tulle hanging from a sparkling crystal band.
“You want to try it on, don’t you?” Brooke’s grin was cheeky.
Was it so obvious? Sure, she had indulged before, probably more often than she should, really. But today Gabby shook her head. “There’s no point. I’ll never get married at this rate.”
“Oh, now, what happened to that hopeless romantic sister of mine?”
Gabby draped the veil over the satin hanger and set it on the hook Brooke indicated. Her eyes swept the room; she couldn’t help herself. The entire boutique was like an adult candy store for the lonely hearts in town. And right now, she felt like she was at the top of the list. It was bad enough that she was the eldest sister and that Brooke was already married. Oh, it was nothing new of course. Brooke had been married years ago, to her teenage sweetheart. Meanwhile, Gabby had never even had a date to the prom—that she’d helped to plan.
A foreshadowing of things to come, she thought darkly.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” Gabby
