Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 102394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
A few miles down the road, I saw a little nursery tucked off the side of the road. Before I even thought about it, I turned in. Flats of flowers were stacked all over—red, yellows, blues, and bright purple. An older man looked up from behind the counter.
“Can I help you?”
“Yeah,” I said, glancing around at all the color once again. “I’ll take a hundred flats.”
He raised a brow. “A hundred flats of flowers? You know, a flat is the full plastic tray. There’re eighteen individual cells in one flat.”
I smiled. “I know.”
“Alrighty, then. Any particular kind?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I shrugged. “Just something that lasts.”
“You want them delivered to a jobsite? We can deliver them the day after tomorrow, on Wednesday.”
“No, thanks. I’m going to be planting them tonight.”
***
The next morning, I was running on fumes. I’d worked security from twelve to twelve and then spent the rest of the night planting until the first light of dawn. When I was done, I parked two houses down from Juliette’s place so she wouldn’t spot me right away. I just wanted to see her face when she came out and saw what I’d done while she was sleeping.
A few hours went by, and I nearly drifted off more than once. But then the front door opened. Juliette stepped outside, walked down the stairs, and froze. Her brows furrowed as she took it all in: beds packed with rows of fresh flowers, a rainbow of color where there had only been three plantings the day before. She stood for a moment, staring. Then she turned and scanned the street, and her eyes landed on my car.
I couldn’t help but smile. I lifted a hand in a small wave, then turned the ignition and shifted into gear, driving off before she could decide whether to smile back.
CHAPTER 30
* * *
Juliette
“Shit…” I was running late for book club.
I wasn’t really in the mood for it tonight, but I’d fallen into a funk over the last week since I’d seen Wes, so I was forcing myself to go.
I grabbed a bottle of wine, walked over to Pam’s, knocked on the door, and waited.
When she opened, she had a funny expression on her face. And when I looked over her shoulder into the living room, I knew exactly the reason why.
I put the bottle of wine on an end table as I stormed inside. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Wes sat in the circle with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Wes joined the book club,” Pam explained.
I looked back at her before returning to glare at him. “Why?”
“I had fun the last time I was here.” He popped a cheese curl into his mouth.
“We don’t have any rule that men can’t join,” someone said.
“I thought he was a friend of yours,” another woman chimed in.
Clearly, Pam hadn’t made the connection that the guy I’d needed to follow in her car that one night was Wes. And I was a little relieved. Either Pam hadn’t seen the news about us, or if she had, she was good at playing dumb. But the fact that she’d invited him tonight made me pretty certain she was clueless about my identity.
Wes smiled over at me as I took a seat in the circle of chairs. Since I was late, the book discussion was already underway.
One of the members tilted her head. “Wes, as you were saying…before Juliette arrived…”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “I think the concept of a why-choose romance makes a lot of sense. I mean why choose one when you can have both hot guys?”
I rolled my eyes.
He reached for the book he’d placed under his seat. “I actually annotated my favorite parts.”
To my shock, there were, in fact, colored tabs throughout the paperback.
He flipped through the pages. “Pink for sex scenes, blue for parts that made me swoon, and green for things I was curious to get your thoughts on.”
I sniffed the air, noticing a familiar smell. “You brought smoked sausage, didn’t you?”
Wes grinned. “How did you know?”
“I can smell it.”
He nodded. “Stopped in West Hollywood to get it.”
“Better here than in my fridge.”
He smirked, and I rolled my eyes before someone interrupted our moment.
“What was your favorite part of the book, Wes?”
Without skipping a beat, he shifted gears. “I loved how Aiden actually helped Marina see Adam’s perspective when Adam fucked up. Aiden convinced her that sometimes lies of omission aren’t personal. Sometimes they’re meant to protect. Adam was doing what he had to, but Marina took it personally, when she shouldn’t have.” He looked over at me. “That said, she was totally right to be angry with him. But Aiden helped her see that Adam really loves her and never meant to hurt her. It surprised me, though, that it was Aiden who stepped up to help Adam when they’d originally been competing for her love.”