Chapter Twelve #2
Natalie looked startled. “Seriously? I didn’t hear that part of the story. Hannah only said you were exactly the kind of guy Holly ought to be taking to a wedding where she can’t avoid seeing her jerk of an ex-husband. I definitely agree.”
Ryan grinned at both of them, sending nerves fluttering through Holly. “I’m looking forward to it,” he repeated. “We’re going to have a great time.”
A few more customers came in behind Natalie. Now Holly had five customers inside the store. She wasn’t leaving anytime soon and that fact was clearly obvious to Ryan as well.
“About those deliveries,” he said. “My truck is parked down the road. I’ll move it closer to the back door and when you have a breather here between customers, you can show me what I’m taking where.”
He turned and walked out of the shop without giving her a chance to argue. As soon as the door closed behind him, Natalie turned to her, eyes dancing with glee.
“Wow. He’s gorgeous. Hannah was absolutely right.”
Holly sighed. “I know.”
He was entirely too gorgeous. And she was entirely too drawn to him.
“And now he’s making flower deliveries for you?”
She moved toward the counter. “I’m extremely short-staffed right now, with Kim gone until after Christmas.
Both Ginger and Carla are out sick today.
I planned to close the store for an hour while I tried to catch up with deliveries.
Ryan offered to make the deliveries for me so I don’t have to lose business unnecessarily. ”
Natalie grinned again. “I have to say, if a guy like Ryan Caldwell showed up on my doorstep holding flowers for me, I would probably either believe he was a hitman or suspect that I was being punked.”
“Or that it was the single luckiest day of my life,” one of the older women said, obviously eavesdropping on their conversation as she shopped the ornaments for sale on one of the Christmas trees.
There was so much more to Ryan than his extraordinary good looks. He was kind to her daughter. He cared about his niece. He was deeply loyal to his sister.
She liked him entirely too much.
“What kind of hostess arrangement would you like?” she asked Natalie, eager to change the subject.
“I have no idea. Something festive and bright. Whatever you create will be beautiful, I know.”
“Can you give me a minute to organize the deliveries for Ryan? Then we can go over some options.”
“I’m in no rush at all,” Nat assured her. “Take care of whatever you need to do. If you want me to, I can also ring up your customers, as long as their order isn’t too complicated.”
Nat had pinch-hit for her before at Evergreen & Ivy when she was in town, between her stints as a travel writer and digital nomad. She knew the drill for working the cash register and the credit card system.
“Thank you,” Holly said. She was deeply grateful for all of her friends, especially the three she considered her ride-or-die team: Natalie, Amanda and, of course, Hannah.
She was in the back organizing the deliveries by address when Ryan opened the back door.
“Okay. What am I taking and where is it going?”
The deliveries were nestled together in two large cardboard boxes with dividers between them to protect the delicate arrangements from damage.
She gestured to the boxes and handed him a paper full of addresses. “These numbers I’ve written next to each arrangement correspond with the delivery address on this paper. I can also text it to you if that is better.”
“That would probably be best. That way I can punch it right into my navigation app.” He looked at the flowers. “Wow. These are all lovely. You really know what you’re doing.”
She smiled, gratified at the praise. She had loved working with flowers since she had taken a job during the summers here at the store, owned at the time by her father’s sister.
After college, Holly still worked the occasional part-time shift for some extra spending money, arranging her schedule around her full-time job as an office manager for a medical clinic in town.
Around the time of her divorce, Aunt Mary had decided she wanted to retire and asked Holly if she might be interested in purchasing the store.
To this day, she wasn’t sure if Mary really had wanted to retire or if she was only offering Holly a way to support herself and her daughter after Troy left.
Regardless, she would always be grateful for the opportunity and for Mary’s willingness to carry the loan so she could afford it.
“Thank you,” she answered Ryan. “Most of the time I feel like I’m winging it but I’ve worked here since I was a teenager so I’ve been able to pick up a few skills here and there.”
She picked up one of the boxes and carried it outside the delivery door while he picked up the other one.
He had opened the back door of his pickup truck and she slid the box inside on the floor.
“Those boxes should be stable, as long as you don’t take any wild corners.”
“I’ll drive like an eighty-year-old on the way to church.”
“Maybe you’d better not do that,” she said with a smile. “I know a few eighty-year-olds in town who drive hell-for-leather. You don’t want to be on the road when any of them are heading to church.”
“Thanks for the warning.” He smiled and for one charged moment, he gazed down at her. Once more, she remembered being in his arms and felt breathless and tongue-tied and silly.
She turned away, closing his truck door to protect the flowers from the cold. “Thank you so much for doing this. Once more you’ve come to my rescue. This is becoming a habit.”
“I’m glad to do it,” he answered, swinging into the driver’s seat. “I’ll stop back in when I’m done with the deliveries to bring back the boxes and give you my report.”
She should probably tell him he didn’t need to return the boxes, he could simply find a recycling bin somewhere, but he closed the door and put his truck in gear before she had the chance.
She definitely needed to work harder to resist the man, she thought as she returned to the store. At this rate, she was going to end up with a broken heart, something that certainly hadn’t been on her wish-list for Christmas.