Chapter 30
“Thank you for the lovely bouquet,” I scream-sing the lyrics to the titular track of Taylor’s newest album that’s playing on vinyl.
My besties and I walk into the kitchen, which I took over as my own personal workspace today.
The countertops and kitchen table are covered with clean buckets filled with water, flower food, and all the flowers I harvested this morning from the greenhouse at the flower shop.
If all goes well at this event, I’ll plan on using my contacts to order a larger variety of blooms in the future from other vendors.
But for tomorrow, they’re all homegrown in the flower shop’s greenhouse that, luckily, wasn’t touched by the fire.
“Shay, they’re beautiful.” Alyssa leans close and smells one of the buckets of roses.
Tess sidles up next to me. “How do you feel about your opening day?”
“Excited but also slightly terrified,” I admit. There’s always a risk when opening your own business that it won’t succeed. I could show up to the festival tomorrow and not sell a single bouquet, but I choose to hold onto faith.
A girl doesn’t survive a fire and get gifted enough money to purchase and renovate her own mobile flower truck for no reason.
Selling flowers is more than a job. It’s my purpose.
A way to spread joy and love to the world, one bouquet at a time.
So, regardless of how things go tomorrow, I know I’m doing the work I’m meant to.
“I don’t think you’d be human if you weren’t nervous.” Tess threads her arm through mine.
“I hope you’re proud of everything you’ve accomplished. Daffodil is the most adorable flower truck I’ve ever seen,” Kelsey says.
I smile, thinking about how far my truck has come in a little over a month. “The cutest.”
“We’ll all be there for you tomorrow. No matter what.” Alyssa slings her arm over my shoulder and pulls me into a side hug.
“Yeah, and I’ll chase people down to sell bouquets if needed.” Mallory smirks. “You’ll be sold out before you know it.”
I laugh. “We don’t want to scare the customers.”
She shrugs. “There’s nothing wrong with a healthy dose of persuasion.”
“It is when it’s your kind of persuasion.” Kelsey nudges her.
Mallory holds a hand to her chest in mock offense. “Whatever could you mean?”
“You literally just said you’d chase people down. I don’t even want to think about what you’d do to get people to adopt puppies from my future dog rescue.”
Tess bumps my hip with hers. “It would probably look something like the scene in The Proposal where Sandra Bullock is running around holding the puppy above her head.”
I laugh at that mental image.
Mallory shakes her head, but there’s a hint of a smile on her lips. “Okay, enough about that.”
“Yes.” Alyssa turns to face me. “What still needs to be done for tomorrow?”
I move farther into the kitchen and grab my checklist because sometimes a girl just needs a physical list to cross things off to feel accomplished.
Winston comes running behind me with his tongue lolling, like he wants to help, too.
“I think just about everything’s done. I already got all the payment options squared away for tomorrow and stripped all the flower stems, so if y’all want to hang out with me while I arrange the bouquets, I would love the company. ”
“Are you—” Mallory presses her lips together, turns to the other girls, and points at me. “Is she crazy?”
“Oh yeah, she’s definitely crazy if she thinks we aren’t helping,” Kelsey says.
I shrug. “I don’t want to make y’all work on girls’ night.”
“We wouldn’t have it any other way.” Alyssa steps toward me with open arms, and the rest of the girls quickly follow suit.
I hold back tears as I’m engulfed in a giant group hug. We may seem like an unlikely group with our different personalities and interests, but we’re connected by the most important thing: sisterhood. “I love y’all forevermore.”
“Forevermore,” they echo back.
When they all pull back, Kelsey salutes me. “Okay, tell us what to do.”
I explain the flower combinations I had in mind, including an assortment of bouquets inspired by the different Taylor eras, then show them an example arrangement.
“I’ll make any final adjustments and wrap them in the Kraft paper. I want you to have fun with it.” I smile. “It is girls’ night, after all.”
I shove the worry down that this is too much to ask of them.
Over the last month, Connor helped me realize that it’s not only okay to set boundaries, but that it’s okay to ask for assistance.
It doesn’t mean I’m not enough. It means we aren’t meant to live this life alone.
That we don’t have to burn ourselves out when we have our chosen people around us and helping carry the load.
Mallory moves over to the vinyl player, and soon enough, the nostalgic intro of “Welcome to New York” is floating through our kitchen. She smiles over at me. “Since 1989 is your favorite album, I figured this would be the best pump-up music.”
I shake my booty to the rhythm and the girls jump in, laughing and moving to the beat with me. Tess grabs my hands and twists back and forth with me as I watch Kelsey, Alyssa, and Mallory attempt to do some type of triple twirl. This is it—peak girlhood. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
When the next track starts playing, Mallory sticks her pointer finger in the air and waves it in a circle like she’s rounding up the troops. “All right, ladies, let’s get to work.”
Everyone spreads out around the kitchen and starts making bouquets. I station myself in front of the roses, peonies, and daisies and start building a bouquet. I’ll fill in the gaps later with some baby’s breath and maybe some white asters.
“Time for happies and crappies.” I don’t want us to miss out on our Friday night tradition just because they’re helping me.
Alyssa shakes her head. “No, time for you to give us an update on everything that’s been happening between you and Connor.”
I squeal. “We kissed.”
“Oh, we know.” Tess fans her face with the bouquet she’s making. “That kiss said he would love you forever and hurt anyone who got in the way of your happiness. Like hungry and possessive, but not in a toxic way.”
“Okay, ew.” Mallory shuts her eyes and cringes.
“Wait, y’all saw that?” My face heats as I remember all the feelings that coursed through me during that kiss. I can almost feel the stroke of his strong hands on my face. The way his fingers tangled in my hair. The confidence in every press of his lips to mine.
They all nod.
“I went to kiss Evie goodnight that night and she tried to open-mouth kiss me.” Tess doubles over and laughs so hard, I think I see tears in her eyes. “I asked her why she was doing that, and she said she wanted to be more like you.”
“Ranunculus,” I sputter, mortified. “I’m so sorry.”
Tess uses her shoulder to wipe the tears spilling onto her cheeks on the sleeve of her shirt. “Don’t be. It was a good teaching moment.”
“Don’t always do what you see other people doing in public?” Kelsey teases.
“Exactly.”
I groan. “I’m never going to be able to face Evie again.”
“She probably won’t even remember it next week. She’s always coming home with crazy stories about all the kids in her class.” Tess picks up a peony. “Who knew there was so much drama in kindergarten?”
I try to shrug it off as Alyssa brings us back to the topic of conversation. “Tell us all the details, Shay.”
Mallory lets out a small sound of disgust. “Nope. Please spare me the details about making out with my brother.”
“Not about the kiss. I know you shared a little bit with us at the last girls’ night, but I want to know the whole story.
When did you know you had feelings for him?
When did you find out he had feelings for you?
Is he always so stoic and brooding, or is he different around you?
” Alyssa adds another lily to her bouquet.
“I need to live vicariously through you now that Tess and I are the only ones left in the single ladies crew.”
I take a deep breath, bracing for their reaction. “I’ve kinda had a thing for him since we all met.”
They all gawk at me. Mallory even does a good job of feigning surprise since she already knows everything.
“I never did anything because of the promise we all made to each other to not date each other’s exes or siblings.
I always told myself that if Connor ever showed interest in me, I would just talk to Mallory about it, which is why I wanted to talk to her after the pickup game.
” I add baby’s breath to my bouquet, then turn and look at it from all angles to make sure it’s perfect before I continue talking.
“It just turned out that he didn’t return my feelings for about fourteen years. ”
“You’ve been holding this in for over a decade?” Tess squeaks. “Girl, you’re way more patient than me.”
“I didn’t feel very patient.” I laugh. “But it was definitely worth the wait because at Thunder, he told me he wants there to be an us.”
“We’re so happy for you.” Tess grins.
“I mean, I’m a little upset you kept your crush a secret for over a decade”—Kelsey shoots me an annoyed look—“but I also understand why you did. Mal can be scary when she’s mad.”
“I prefer intimidating, thank you very much,” Mallory deadpans.
“I promise, no more secrets,” I say.
Alyssa fiddles with her half-made bouquet like she has a secret of her own, but I’m riding on too much of a love-drunk high to say anything right now.
“As for the brooding and stoicism, Connor’s more reserved than anything.” A blush climbs my cheeks. “But he’s different around me. More talkative and thoughtful and so sweet.”
“I can’t wait to see y’all together tomorrow.” Alyssa grabs eucalyptus from a bucket.
“He’s working an overnight shift into the morning, so hopefully he’s not too exhausted.” I wrap my finished bouquet in the brown Kraft paper.
“He’ll be there no matter what.” Mallory sounds sure.
“Miss ma’am.” Alyssa shoots her a look. “Do you have insider information?”
Mal’s face gives nothing away. “I can neither confirm nor deny—”
Kelsey groans. “Oh, come on. You obviously know something.”
“My lips are sealed.” Mallory mimes a fake key in front of her mouth before tossing it over her shoulder.
Everyone laughs, and we dive into our happies and crappies of the week as we continue arranging all the bouquets. By the time we finish at one in the morning, I’m feeling extra thankful for my friends. There’s no way I’d be getting any sleep tonight without their help.
As my head hits the pillow, I drift off to sleep with a smile on my face.
A future with Connor finally feels within reach.
My friends are all caught up on the details of my relationship.
And I have my first event for Sunshine Blooms to look forward to.
My whole world is blooming, and I couldn’t be happier.