Chapter 21
Elsie
I feel off-balance, like my equilibrium is askew.
I’m jumpy, I’m jittery, I’m bumping into things.
It’s been approximately fourteen hours since I kissed Declan – not that I’m counting, that would be ridiculous – and I feel like it’s written all over my face.
Every time Noah looks at me, I worry he’ll see it, the evidence of Declan stamped across my forehead. Or my mouth.
I’m walking over to the display at the front of the shop when I trip – over my own stupidity, apparently – and nearly drop the vase of tulips and ranunculus I’d just spent the last half-hour perfecting.
Noah rushes to my side, panicked. “Elsie, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I assure him.
“I mean, like, in general,” he says hesitantly.
“I’m good,” I tell him. “Really.” I rearrange the shelf to make room for the new arrangement, ignoring the dull ache in my hip from where I banged it on the work table a little while ago.
And the pain in my elbow from where I smacked it on the doorjamb when I went to hide out in the break room.
I had needed a few moments away from Noah’s watchful gaze.
“You’ve been a ball of nerves all morning,” he accuses. “And I watched you make your coffee. You had to do it twice because you forgot to put the grounds in the first time.”
“Maybe I was making tea and needed hot water,” I deflect.
“You muttered, ‘Dang, forgot the coffee.’”
Well, alrighty then.
“I’m fine,” I insist. “I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
When the shop bell dings, I seize the opportunity and greet our customer before Noah has the chance to.
I manage to keep busy for the remainder of the morning, but not so busy that I don’t notice the second the lights turn on in the shop next door.
I normally sneak peeks here and there when I think nobody will be looking, but I can’t bring myself to do it today.
If I meet Declan’s eyes after last night, I’m worried I’ll blush so hard I’ll combust into flames.
I’m embarrassed, but I don’t know yet whether I should be. I’ve never kissed anyone like that before. Never been so overcome with need for another person that I couldn’t help myself. The way he kissed me back, I think he enjoyed it as much as I did, but I can’t be positive.
I want to know what he’s thinking, but I’m also terrified to know what he’s thinking. So naturally, I plan to avoid him as much as humanly possible and hope he forgets the whole thing ever happened.
Even if I really want a repeat performance.
Thankfully, I don’t have too much time to dwell on it with customers in and out all day.
When afternoon hits, we switch our focus to Olivia’s wedding.
It’s already July first, which means the big day is exactly one month away.
I’ve been planning and sketching out my ideas since Olivia asked me to do her flowers back in April, but it’s time to buckle down and get serious now that I’ve got a shop full of flowers to practice with.
Her wedding colors are pale blue and light orange, which I wasn’t sure about until she showed me her Pinterest board.
Now, I think it’s going to be absolutely stunning, the perfect summer wedding.
I’ve been itching to finally get my hands on all the flowers I’ve been dreaming about, to put together the different combinations I’ve been mixing and matching in my mind and in my sketchbook over the last few months.
“That’s gorgeous,” Noah tells me, nodding across the table at the half-finished bouquet in my hands. I’m working with blue hydrangeas and peach roses, but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
“Thanks. It needs some white mixed in, I think. Maybe even the tiniest bit of yellow.”
We’re brainstorming our options when the bell above the door dings.
“I need help,” our new arrival announces. Hands still full of flowers, I turn to see Ty stroll through the door, which isn’t unexpected – but the golden retriever attached to the leash in his hands is.
“Lucy Lu,” I coo, setting the flowers in a vase so I can drop to my knees. “Hi, pretty girl.”
Ty walks her over to me so I can give my favorite four-legged girl the attention she deserves. With her tail wagging at maximum speed, she drops to her back on the tiled floor so I can scratch her belly.
“Who’s this pretty girl?” Noah asks, rounding the table to get a better look at our visitor.
“This beautiful, slobbery stealer of both hearts and socks is Lucy,” Ty explains. “Cam and Olivia’s dog.”
“Her doggy daycare is closing early for a few weeks, so Ty has been picking her up and watching her for a few hours in the afternoons,” I explain.
“Exactly,” Ty says. “But now I have to go out of town for five days and I need to find someone to watch her for the rest of this week, and maybe Monday.”
“Everything okay?” Noah asks. He’s crouched down on the floor with me, scratching Lucy’s belly.
I never had a dog growing up because my mom is allergic, but being around Lucy makes me consider getting one.
I run my hand across the top of her head and she gives me her big, goofy doggy grin, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.
I think my heart grows at least two sizes.
“Totally fine,” Ty says, waving off Noah’s concern.
I notice he’s let go of Lucy’s leash, but the angel has made no attempt to escape.
“I’m a flight attendant and I’m on reserve right now.
I guess a couple crew members got food poisoning at a cookout this week.
I’ve got to be in Boston tonight, then we’re heading to Europe for a few days. ”
I swear, Noah’s eyes nearly pop out of his head with giant hearts on them, like in a cartoon. Being a jet-setter who gets to hop on a flight to Europe for a few days just made Ty even hotter, I suspect. I can’t wait to tease him the second Ty leaves.
“Which brings us to why you’re here,” I prod.
“Right!” Ty says, shaking his head. I can’t be sure, but I think he’d been staring at the way Noah’s forearms are flexing as he pets Lucy.
Goners, the both of them.
“I was wondering if maybe you could watch her here?” Ty rushes out. “She’s an angel; you won’t even know she’s here. You’ll just have to let her out a few times, but she’s so good, and –”
“Done,” I cut in.
“Elsie June, you are a lifesaver,” he declares. “The only problem is she has to be picked up, so you might –”
“That’s okay,” I cut him off again. “Noah can handle things at the shop while I step out for a bit. As long as Noah is okay with it, I mean.”
“Absolutely,” he agrees easily. We both stand, leaving Lucy lounging on the floor, belly up, just in case someone decides they want to give her more scratches.
The second I’m upright, Ty grabs the sides of my face and plants a loud kiss right in the middle of my forehead. “You’re a peach,” he tells me fondly.
At that moment, I hear the door that leads to the tattoo studio creak open. Whatever part of my brain controls rational thought must have taken the day off, because I bolt. I don’t even take the time to check and see if it’s Declan. Somehow I just know, and my body has chosen flight over fight.
“Where are you going?” I hear Ty call out just before I click the break room door shut. There’s no lock on the door, so I hurry into my office and close that door, too, locking it behind me like the chickenshit I am.
I lean against the cool wood of the door and look around my tiny office.
I’d managed to fit a small desk, a chair and a short book case under the window with a few plants on top of it.
I didn’t decorate much, but I have a photo of my family on my desk, and one with Olivia and Grace taken on Grace’s cousin’s boat last summer.
I hung a few pieces of artwork on the limited wall space I had.
My favorite is the watercolor painting of a lavender field that reminds me of the one next to my cottage.
I picked it up at a farmer’s market a few years ago.
I round the desk and sit at the sage green upholstered chair I found secondhand at one of my favorite thrift stores in Portland.
My office isn’t much, but I managed to make it feel like mine.
Which is nice when I’m crunching numbers and tracking inventory and learning how to do things like putting employee benefit packages together.
This office is where most of my stress happens, but at least I can look up at the print next to the door that says “Slow down, you’re doing fine” and feel marginally better. Thanks, Billy Joel.
I nearly fall out of my chair when the doorknob rattles, followed by banging on the door.
“Let us in,” Ty demands.
“Please,” Noah adds.
“Who’s out there?” I ask.
I hear a muttered curse. “Just Noah and I. No tattooed sex god to be found.”
I’d like to protest, to tell Ty that Declan is not a sex god, but for all I know, he could be.
I try to ignore the part of my lizard brain that desperately wants to find out.
I hurry to the door and unlock it, then rush back to my seat and attempt to look busy. The door flies open as I’m tapping away at my keyboard. I can feel the weight of their stares on me, but I don’t look up.
“What’s up?” I ask, hoping I sound nonchalant. I fail epically.
“You tell us,” Ty says. “Why’d you run and hide the second your man showed up?”
This time I do look up, only to glare at my friend. “I did not run and hide,” I insist. “I remembered something I had to do.” Too late, I realize I didn’t correct him about Declan being my man.
He stares at me for a moment, deadpan, then leans over so he can see my computer screen.
My pitch black computer screen.
“Right,” Ty says slowly, raising an eyebrow at me. “Want to try that again?”
Noah, the absolute traitor, says from behind Ty, “She’s been acting strange all day, all jumpy and knocking into things. She wouldn’t tell me why and insisted she was okay, but it’s been very weird.”