Chapter 2

2

RHIANNON

" H ey, Rhiannon."

"Good morning."

"Nice to see you."

My coworkers called out greetings as I walked into the garden center where I'd worked for the past few months. I flashed a smile at each person I passed and wished them good morning while I headed toward the employee locker room in the back. My grin widened as I walked down the aisle that led straight to the door, trailing my fingers over petals and leaves.

Saying that I loved flowers was an understatement. I would happily live surrounded by plants all day and night...as long as I still had lots of creature comforts when I slept. No way was I giving up my favorite pillow and blanket, not even for flowers.

I'd taken them with me—along with my bed, even though it took up most of my available space—when I moved out of my mom's house and into a studio apartment a few months ago. The most difficult part of the transition had been losing my garden. I only had a tiny window ledge now, but I'd found some suction plant hangers, so at least I had space there for a few small potted plants.

As I stuffed my purse into my locker, I heard someone clearing their throat behind me. Whirling around, I found my boss leaning his shoulder against the doorframe.

Harvey wagged his finger at me. "How many times do I need to tell you that you don't have to get here fifteen minutes early every day?"

Taking a year off to save up for college hadn't been my first choice, but getting a job at In Bloom Garden Center and Florist made the delay worth the wait. Harvey was teaching me so much about plants, including stuff I probably wouldn't learn about once I got to college. And he paid me well, so my savings account grew steadily every month.

I flashed him a sheepish grin. "I wanted to pop into the greenhouse to check on the garlic and pickling cucumber starters before I clocked in."

"Why am I not surprised?" He shook his head with a laugh. "You'd spend every minute of your shift out there if I didn't have other stuff I needed you to do."

"I really would," I agreed, shutting the door on my locker and turning to head past him.

I only took a couple of steps before he jerked his chin toward the time clock and instructed, "Doesn't mean you shouldn't get paid while you're checking on plants that I'm gonna make money off."

"Except then you'd be paying me for time I'm not on the schedule, which isn't fair to you. I decided to come in early because I enjoy being in the greenhouse." I argued. Although I could use the extra cash, I didn't want Harvey to ever think that I was taking advantage of him. "Since I'm on deliveries today, I figured I wouldn't get the chance to pop in there except for a minute here and there."

"It doesn't feel like work when you're doing something you love, right?" he asked.

"Not even a little bit," I confirmed with a smile. "Which is why I'm going to major in botany when I get to college."

He tilted his head to the side. "Not horticulture?"

"I guess I should've said a plant sciences degree of some kind." I shrugged as I clocked in, knowing he wasn't going to let me go check on the herb starters until I did. "I'm not sure yet if I want to go the horticulture route so I can focus on how to grow better plants for customers or lean more into the theory and classification of plants with botany."

He patted my shoulder. "Either way, I have no doubt you'll do a great job."

Considering he owned the best garden center in town, his compliment meant a lot to me. "Especially if I pick horticulture since you're teaching me way more than I expected when you hired me. With my job description, I didn't think I would get to do anything with the plants other than maybe watering them."

"You should've talked up your green thumb when you interviewed. It's good for business," he pointed out as he stepped to the side to let me pass by.

I smiled at him over my shoulder. "I'll remember that the next time around."

"Just so long as it's not during an interview with one of my competitors." His eyes narrowed as he pointed at me. "If you're working at a garden center in Old Bridge, it'd better be mine."

"As long as you let me play with the plants, you've got a deal," I called as I headed to the greenhouse.

I was happy to see that the garlic and pickling cucumber starters were doing great and would be ready to sell soon. I spent ten minutes fussing over them before I went to the warehouse in back. Yanking the clipboard off its hook, I glanced down at the delivery log.

Harvey walked up as I scanned the list. A name in the middle jumped out at me. The orders for his business clients were delivered by a couple of my male coworkers, while I normally only handled smaller stuff for retail customers. "Cassidy Design and Landscaping? They're not usually on my route."

"Yeah, the owner had a plant emergency with one of his clients and needs those English shrub roses right away. He's going to plant them in one of the beds before we bring out the rest, just to make sure the guy likes them since he's gotta pull out a shit ton of tulips that they already planted."

I caught most of his explanation, but my mind was firmly stuck on the fact that I would have to talk to the man I'd been fantasizing over since I first spotted him in the store a month ago. At six feet two inches of tanned muscle, Viper was hard to miss. Add in his light brown hair, intense brown eyes, and perpetual scruff on his cheeks, and I had no doubt that he caught the attention of most women who crossed his path. Not to mention all the tattoos he had and that he was in a motorcycle club.

I'd never been drawn to bad boys—or any guys really—but that hadn't stopped me from crushing hard on Viper. And that was only from afar since I hadn't gotten courageous enough to approach him while he was in the store.

"Are you…um…sure you want me to do his delivery?"

Luckily, Harvey took my question at face value and didn't notice that I was blushing while he started to load the van. "It's a little more than I would normally have you do, but Viper will have guys on-site to help you unload. His stop is a little out of the way, but do it first so you can get these out of the way before your other deliveries."

"Will do." A tendril of excitement snaked up my spine, but I needed to focus on my job. At least until I was in the van and nobody was around to witness the buzz I was feeling over finally meeting Viper.

I glanced at the pallets of plants that had been delivered this morning before I got here. It reminded me of the mix-up I noticed when I accepted an order a few days ago. "Did you figure out why we got all those purple panolas?"

"No." Harvey pinched the bridge of his nose. "The supplier just told me to keep 'em since it was too much of a hassle to send them back. I'll probably need to sell them at a steep discount since they need to be planted soon. But at least today's order was accurate."

I wished again that I still had space for a proper garden. Purple was my favorite color, and I would've happily taken as many of the panolas as I could fit into the ground if Harvey really wanted to get rid of them. But that wasn't an option, so I couldn't offer to take some off his hands. "Even if you sold them for a dollar, you'd still make a profit since you didn't pay anything for them."

"That right there is another reason I'm damn glad to have hired you—I can always count on you to look at the bright side of things."