“I thought you pulled out because of your rabbit show?”
Leanne paused a few seconds, then shook her head. “You know, I told Rowan not to get involved with you.”
“You did?” I’d never gotten the impression that Leanne didn’t approve of me dating her friend.
“I thought for sure that he’d get hurt. That something new and sparkly would come along and you’d forget all about him.” She sighed. “I didn’t think you were capable of seeing that there is no one more sparkly than Rowan. He’s the best. He deserves someone who’s all in for him. He’s had a really tough year. I think he’s ripe for being taken advantage of right now.”
“I wasn’t taking advantage of him.”
“Yeah, well, he obviously didn’t listen to me, did he? He’s completely under your spell. But it’s his life—I didn’t even say ‘I told you so’ when he told me you were leaving him.”
“I’m leaving theBloom. Not Rowan.”
She crossed her arms. “You promised him you wouldn’t flake out on him or make him regret inviting you on the team.”
I exhaled. “Look, Leanne, you can play the intimidating best friend game with me all day. You’re probably right. I’m terrible for Rowan. He deserves someone who can commit to the things he cares about, and maybe I’ve got too much going on in my own life to do that. But right now all I need is to make sure Rowan and June don’t miss out on theBloom. I honestly don’t care if you like me or not, but I know you care about Rowan. Iknowyou care about Juniper.”
Leanne gritted her teeth. She blinked at me for a few seconds. There it was. Leanne totally had feelings for June.
“Don’t you even bring Junebug into this,” she said, sternly. “First you begged her to be in the competition, and now you’re just abandoning her? You also promised you wouldn’t hurt Juniper. They both deserve better than you.”
“Exactly. They deserveyou.”
She glared at me again, then sighed, uncrossing her arms. “I have a confession. I’m not going to the rabbit show this weekend.”
“What? You’re not?”
She shook her head. “I think Daphne wants to retire. She’s been even flightier than you, lately. So, fine. I’ll take your place in the Bloom. But I have two conditions.”
“Whatever you want.”
“Don’t call Rowan. Or text him or anything else while you’re gone. Let him focus on the Bloom—this is important for him. You two need to take a break.”
I didn’t like that, but what choice did I have? “Okay. What’s the second condition?”
“While you’re in the city, you have to go to this book signing downtown on Saturday at three and get a signed copy of Lexi Greer’s newest Silverborn book for Juniper.”
I blinked. “Is that where you werereallygoing this weekend?”
Leanne looked out into the distance again, and nodded. “Don’t tell anyone.”
I still didn’t know exactly what was going on in Leanne’s head where June was concerned, but one thing was clear. She didn’t want to talk about it—at least not to me. Which, fair. But this was something I could do. I’d be downtown anyway for the profile with Dasha at one.
“Done,” I said. “Send me the details. I’ll get her the book. And I’ll keep it on the down low, if that’s what you want.”
She nodded, then shook my hand. “We have a deal, then.”
After leaving the farm, I texted Matteo that I was coming to the Dasha Payne photo shoot. Then I called Rowan to tell him Leanne had agreed to take my place on the Bloom team. He couldn’t talk long since he was at work. I suggested we meet in the yard when he was done, but he said it was going to rain and he had to work early again. He didn’t mention having breakfast together. He didn’t want to see me.
I exhaled as I put my phone in my pocket. I was doing the right thing. I wasn’t going to let myself regret this choice, no matter what.
I woke up even before dawn the next day. I wanted to change up a sweatshirt to wear for the photo shoot so it wouldn’t be a repeat on my feed. After pulling up the original design on my iPad, I played around with cropping the length. I also drew in some epaulets on the shoulders and metal studs on the neckline. Perfect. I had all the supplies to do this. I pulled out my notions box and the white and gray sweatshirt and started working.
It was so great to be engrossed in a sewing project again, but I made sure to go outside at eight for breakfast with a faint hope that Rowan would be there. He wasn’t, but Juniper was.
“Row told me to tell you he went to the nursery early,” she said, sitting across from me.
I sighed. “He’s mad at me. Are you mad at me, too?” I didn’t think I could handle both Johnston kids being upset with me.
