It’s a new sale every day, and it’s the highlight of my mornings to make a guess about what the sale of the day will be. My sisters and I even have a dry-erase board on our fridge where we post our guesses. Loser （the person who gets the fewest correct guesses in a seven-day period） gets grocery shopping duty that week. Unfortunately, I’m the loser this week.
“Selling like hotcakes! Who knew bolts and screws would be so popular? I haven’t had a sale this successful since rakes last September. Stop by the store later, Annie girl, and I’ll give you a packet of bolts. Never know when you’re going to need one.”
“You’re the best, Phil.”
He frowns again. “Annie, has that boy said something to upset you?”
Shoot. The last thing I need is for the whole town to suspect that Will is hurting me. They’ll run him right out of here if they think I’m heading for heartbreak.
Am I?
I hazard one last glance over my shoulder and find Will standing up from the table while throwing cash on the check. Because I’m a coward, I turn and practically run out the door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Will
It’s nighttime before I can get away to find Annie.
I still don’t fully know what happened this afternoon. Everything seemed to be going well, and then I called her sexy and everything fell apart. She said something about it being a nice line and working perfectly. But I’m not sure what about that would have hurt her so badly.
All I know is that the look she had before she shot up from the table gutted me. She was smiling with tears in her eyes. One glance at those blue eyes filled with emotion, and I wanted to beg her to stay so I could fix whatever happened. I haven’t been able to shake the image from my head all day. And now I’m finally off work, and I’ve been trying to hunt Annie down. I checked her house first, but her truck wasn’t there. And then I drove by Hank’s, and she wasn’t there either.
Even though her shop is closed, I decided to come by anyway, and sure enough, there she is. The town is dark, but her shop is lit up like a glass box. I see her in there standing in front of the wooden worktable, shoving stems of greenery into a vase like it personally offended her. Her long blonde hair is piled on her head in a messy jumbled heap, and she’s wearing a light pink oversize sweatshirt that’s draping off one of her shoulders. I’ve never seen her undone like that, and it’s making my pulse race. My fingers ache to sink into the back of her messy hair and wreck it even more. Seeing her bathed in light and surrounded by flowers from out here in the dark makes me feel like a man who slipped out of hell and is glimpsing heaven.
Annie takes a step back from her worktable and presses one sweatshirt covered fist to her mouth, appraising the bouquet she’s been working on, and then apparently deciding she hates it and ripping all the stems out again.
I try the door, expecting it to be locked, but it’s not. The bell chimes above my head as I step into the warm shop.
“We’re closed,” Annie says without even checking to make sure a serial killer isn’t about to murder her.
“That’s too bad because I really need to buy a bouquet for a woman,” I say, and Annie’s body stiffens. “It’s an emergency.”
Slowly she turns to look at me. Her face is a study in embarrassment, but I don’t know why. I’ve never wanted to crawl into someone’s head and read all of their thoughts like I do with Annie. My need to understand her, to know every desire, every hope and fear and longing, scares me.
“What kind of bouquet do you need?” she asks, tugging the sleeves of her sweatshirt—which I can now see has a slightly faded Charlotte’s Flowers logo on the front—over her fists and bunching them up at her chest.
I squint one eye. “An apology bouquet.”
Her face softens and her hands fall to her sides. “Will…you have nothing to apologize for.”
“I do, though—I said something that really hurt someone, and I don’t know why.” I take two steps closer. “But I want to fix it. I want to make her feel better. So if you could make her a bouquet that you would like to receive, I’d be so grateful.” She watches me closely as I edge even closer to her. “Or…if you’re too busy, maybe I could make her one myself?”
A warm smile curves her full lips and more than ever I want to press mine to hers. I want to lick the sweetness right from her skin. “You don’t need to do that, Will.”
I lift a brow. “Very presumptuous of you, ma’am. You don’t even know the lady.”