McKinley Flowers.
The sign was simple, hand-painted, hanging above a storefront with wide windows full of color. Arrangements lined the glass—roses, lilies, things I couldn't name. Bright. Alive.
I stopped walking.
Flowers.
Her.
My brain told me to keep moving. To walk past. To forget I'd even seen it.
This was stupid. Beyond stupid. Insane.
But my feet didn't listen.
I stood there on the sidewalk, staring at the shop like it might explode if I looked away, and then—against every instinct I'd honed over a lifetime—I stepped closer.
Through the window, I could see movement inside. A woman at the counter. Blonde hair pulled back.
Her.
My chest tightened.
What were the odds?
She was laughing at something, her whole face lighting up in a way that made the flowers around her look dull by comparison. She moved with easy confidence here, in her space, arranging stems like it was the most natural thing in the world.
This was her world.
Gentle. Beautiful. Safe.
Everything I wasn't.
I should've walked away. Should've turned around and gone back to the Palmetto Rose and focused on the job, the paperwork, the future I was supposedly building.
Instead, I watched her.
Watched the way her hands moved—careful, precise, like every stem mattered. Watched the way she smiled at a customer, leaning in to listen, nodding like whatever they were saying was the most important thing she'd heard all day.
She had no idea I was there.
No idea I was standing outside like some kind of stalker, unable to look away.
And then she glanced up.
Our eyes met through the glass.
For half a second, recognition flickered across her face. Then surprise. Then something else I couldn't read.
I turned and walked away before she could react.
Fast. Purposeful. Like I had somewhere to be that wasn't justaway from her.
My heart pounded harder than it should have. Harder than it did on ops. Harder than it did when someone was shooting at me.
What the hell was wrong with me?
I didn't stop walking until I was three blocks away, tucked into an alley between two buildings, breathing hard like I'd just run a marathon.
