Chapter Seventeen
TYLER
I walk down the street, coffee in hand, and the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me by my side. While the weather has been cooler, the sun is shining today, igniting the fire inside the blue-green eyes and sunshine curls that bounce around her head.
After a stop at Betty’s Beans, we decided to shop around for some things because Sunny’s hosting family dinner tonight for the first time. Her apartment is still practically empty, save for the few things she purchased when she arrived.
So here I am, helping her scour stores, clinging to that tether of hope that it’s indication she’s considering staying.
Prior to her, I was a man with a reputation who didn’t give a damn.
Now, I can’t stop fucking caring about this little fire, despite the fact she’s burning every wall I ever put up straight to embers.
She’s talking a million words a minute about her last few shifts, and I’m standing here, unable to take my eyes off her completely mesmerized.
I fell.
I fell fucking hard.
Flat on my face.
I sit in a mess of love for this girl. I never thought I would know love, but then I found her. She’s here, standing right next to me. My ever-growing weakness, yet greatest strength all at once, shining her light across my dark soul, making me want to be a better man for her.
Fuck.
Sam buzzes around us, weaving in and out of shops, basically leaving me and Sunny alone for the majority of the day.
“Oh my god, a crystal store. Let’s go in!” Sam says, running inside before we can even answer.
“Crystals don’t help family dinner, Sam!” Sunny calls, shaking her head as we continue walking. “I have a question.”
“Ask me anything.” And god dammit there goes my mouth pulling into a too wide grin again.
“Have you ever had a desire to take over the company?”
“Yes and no. Either way I had no choice. Once I’m able to take on the company outside of Mitchell’s reach, I’ll lead a new era with it.
” I sip my coffee as the business plans I’ve built conjure through my mind.
“I’d be a leader, not a puppet master. I’d change the way things are run.
Sure, I’d get hate for it, but I don’t care.
I want to be a man who makes even better men. Who helps where help was never given.”
She gives me a soft smile. “That’s admirable. I know you’ll do it.”
I almost got a full one there.
“Tyler,” She breathes as she approaches a flower shop, examining the sea of flowers that engulf the entrance. The glass doors are open, welcoming in customers. “Look how adorable this little flower shop is!” She glides a hand over the flower petals. “Maybe I can get some for family dinner tonight.”
Sunny tucks her hair behind an ear as she bends down to smell the flowers. Her pert, freckled nose touches the petals and her eyes close. My god, I am so stupid in love. My obsession has grown so much deeper, and I’m not sure what to do with it.
“How about we go inside?” I ask, placing my hand on the small of her back.
She looks up at me and fuck, it undoes something in me, making my knees buckle. I’m about to make an idiot of myself if she keeps doing this to me.
“I’d like that,” she says. “But what about Sam?”
“She’ll know where to find us.”
Smiling, I watch my little fire waltz inside one of my best kept secrets.
SUNNY
I’m captivated by the aroma of florals. The store is painted in a rainbow of flowers. The perfect little Boston flower shop packed with people. Standing behind a desk is a woman beaming as she arranges flowers and helps customers pick what they want.
Glancing up, her eyes lock on Tyler, her already beaming smile radiates. “Tyler!” She exits from behind the counter and wraps her arms around his neck in a hug. He gives me a crooked smile as he embraces the woman back.
She looks to be in her forties. Her blonde hair is up in a clip and her body wrapped in an apron to catch the excess water from the florals. Something in her screams motherly, nurturing, and kind that reminds me of my own mother.
“Oh Tyler!” She cradles his face in her hands. “I’m so glad you are here. It isn’t already time for family dinner, right?”
Standing confused, I watch the interaction between the two. Tyler’s family is well known, but I wasn’t expecting him to know people in a random flower shop.
“No, no. We’re just stopping in. My Sunny darling here was captivated by your florals outside and wanted to come in.” He gestures to me, still standing in confusion.
“Oh, Sunny! How wonderful to meet you!” She wraps her arms around me. “I’m Leslie.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” I laugh in her neck.
“I’m so glad business is doing well. Even better that it’s everything you wanted,” says Tyler.
“Oh no, honey. It’s so much more because of you.
More than I ever could’ve imagined.” She looks at me.
“Tyler here is a dream maker, I swear. He’s been buying arrangements from me for years.
I’d been working out of my home and selling my arrangements on the streets.
He was a regular weekly, and offered up a business deal with me.
And I’d barely call it that. His only requirement is that I continue to make his mother and sisters bouquets. An angel sent to me.”
He kneads a hand behind his neck while clutching his coffee in the other, that crooked smile still present. It’s a rare occasion to see a humbled Tyler. I don’t think this is a version he likes people to see, but he’s letting me.
“I did nothing, Leslie. You did all this. You are the creator behind the art. I was just a customer who knew you could do big things.”
“You are a miracle worker! Okay, I have to get back behind the counter, but please say bye before you leave! And don’t forget to get this pretty girl something!
I really hope to see you here again soon, Sunny.
” She gives me a genuine smile, squeezes my arm, and finds her place back behind the counter.
“Wait, so you helped her open this place?” I ask, looking at him.
“Kind of. She was the brains, and I was just the financial avenue to get her there.” Taking a sip of his coffee, he walks around the shop examining the florals.
“I never pictured Mitchell contracting a small business like this.”
“He wouldn’t. So that’s why I do. I try to give people a shot. Small businesses like this deserve the same chance as the big ones. We all start somewhere.”
“So, you do this? You help people open their small businesses without Mitchell knowing?” I clarify.
He’s picking and prodding through the array of flowers. “It’s really not that big a deal.”
“Tyler,” I stand next to him, meeting his face. “You are making people who have dreams become their reality. You are helping people who would never have had the help in the first place.”
How many more small businesses in the city has he helped?
“I’m just doing my job, Sunny. Investing, contracting.” He plucks a sunflower from a bunch.
“With nothing in return,” I add.
He’s trying to push aside this part of him to minimize such an incredible thing. The predator trampling the human. The darkness over taking the light. The one time he chooses to be humble, when normally he is kind of a cocky bastard.
“That’s not true. I have my stipulations. Like Leslie not forgetting about me when she becomes a famous wedding florist.” He smiles, handing me the sunflower.
Looking at it, I blink up at him. He’s watching me but it’s different now, somehow. I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly those eyes say. Admiration. I take the sunflower.
“Oh, and the smiles on people’s faces. That’s the best part,” he says with a wink and turns around, walking through the aisles of flowers.
“And how many do you do? Like, do you have a goal?”
“I try to aim for one or two a week. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. It all depends on who I meet, and if my other contracts are too consuming or not. These are the ones I actually care about. The ones that actually mean something.”
“Show me more.”
It’s funny, seeing a man like him prowl through the aisles of flowers. Darkness among light. The black thermal that clings to his body in all the best ways as proof he seems so out of place.
He turns around with a smile. “Like Italian food?”
“I love it.”
“Perfect. I’ll take you to Leo’s. We’re opening his second restaurant soon.”
“You know, recent scientific studies show that supporting small businesses makes your penis bigger,” I joke.
“Huh,” He looks down. “Thank god, I could use the help.”
I bite back a laugh while he grins at me. I can’t like you, Tyler.
“I got the goods! We are gonna be doing some manifesting tonight baby!” Sam says, holding a bag filled with an assortment of crystals.
Tyler and I just look at one another.
Then the laughter follows.