Rachel frowned, her attention returning to me. “A little bit of Floromancy isn’t enough to make me tremble in my boots.”
For the last minute or so, a vine had been creeping up Rachel’s leg. More than done with her shenanigans, I issued a mental command. Seconds later, Rachel was jerked off her feet. She slammed into the ground with a wild screech.
Rowan leaned over her, his hazel eyes sparkling. “You’ve never met a Floromancer like Evie.”
We grinned at each other. With a flick of my finger, the vine lifted her up and tossed her off my property. The quiet evening shattered with the sound of a high-pitched scream of “AIEEEEEEE!”
Rowan lost it. He threw back his head and burst out laughing which made me laugh, until both of us were standing bent over in the driveway wheezing for air.
An hour later,we were in the greenhouse sorting through the seedlings and cuttings I’d set aside for him.
“How was today?” I asked as Rowan studied a new strain of petunia I’d been working on.
“Same bullshit, different day.” He pulled the sketch over and peered down. “You really created a triple bloom petunia?”
“Sure did. It performs like the waving variety, so it produces a ton of flowers that mount and vine, but the blooms themselves are in triplicate.”
Rowan shook his head and straightened. “You could be filthy rich, Evie.”
“No desire for it. I do it for the thrill.”
He snorted. “What a pair we are. You thinking about selling the seedlings?”
“Not sure yet. I doubt it. Humans still don’t know all the things that go bump in the night actually exist, and these bad boys aren’t made with only science. If I do sell them, I may have to force residents into signing an agreement not to move the plants outside of Joy Springs.”
He grimaced. “Hard to enforce.”
“I’ll sic Caelan on them if they violate it.”
Rowan chuckled and pulled the next seedling over and studied that one just as intently.
“Tess is missing,” I said after a few beats of silence.
Rowan’s head jerked up. “Elaborate.”
I told him everything I found out. When I got to the part about my mother, he pushed the seedlings and sketches away. “Things have changed between you two.”
“They have.” I sighed and pulled a flat of basil seedlings over. I brushed my fingers over the tops and let magic trickle from the tips. “My father is being a real shit lately.”
Rowan’s attention sharpened. “How so?”
“He didn’t come right out and admit it, but I suspect he dropped Rachel onto Caelan’s lap.”
His low whistle made me sigh. “Daddy doesn’t approve of Caelan for a husband?”
“I don’t think Daddy would approve of anyone other than a pretty fae male, so the blood will run true.”
Rowan’s eyes narrowed. “He doesn’t want shifter blood in his line?”
I’d been wanting to tell him what I was for a long time now, but I still couldn’t bring myself to utter the words. Trust wasn’t the issue.
I was afraid.
Not of Rowan, but what he’d think of me, how he might change the way he looked at me. Change our friendship.
I liked the way things were, even if I were holding back one of the most important parts of myself.
“Evie?” Rowan coaxed. “Lost you there for a moment.”
