He doesn’t react to my nickname.
I can’t get a rise out of him, and now I know why. He doesn’t think of me as a real player.
I don’t have to prune the hopeful part of me. My girlish crush is already withering on the vine.
“You really don’t have a last name?”
“Nope.”
“Everyone has a last name. What was your family called?”
“Fraternitas is my family.”
Ugh, spare me from mafia men and their stupid gang loyalty.
I finish sweeping up and lean the broom against one of the racks. Outside the greenhouse, the sun is sinking. The day is getting dark, and the light slanting across the racks of plants is a rich gold.
I crouch down and pull out a rack of mushrooms, setting it on the floor between us.
“There’s one thing you and your overgrown frat bros didn’t think about.”
“And what’s that?”
I fuss over the mushrooms, waiting until he’s moved closer. I’ll teach him he’s not welcome here.
His shadow slants over me, and I smile up at him. “I won’t be so easy to control.” I rise and stomp on the mushrooms, releasing a cloud of spores into the air.
Kaiser
* * *
Brown-gray dust blooms between me and Bella. I throw up a hand, shielding my face. My future wife just told me everything in here is poisonous, and even though she’s not trustworthy, I’m not about to risk my life to test if she’s telling the truth.
Sure enough, my throat muscles squeeze and I choke on air. I’m having some sort of reaction to the spores. My eyes feel gritty, and I squeeze them shut, backing up and turning away.
Only to spin back around when I hear the sound of the greenhouse door opening and banging shut.
My bride is running away.
I have two choices. Let her escape, or hunt her down and bring her to heel.
And I’ll have to run through the mushroom cloud to do it.
No pain, no gain. I’ve beaten worse odds against opponents much bigger than the sexy little psycho in a schoolgirl skirt and cute blonde braids.
I charge forward, knocking into a rack of plants. I open my eyes long enough to catch the rack and set it carefully back in place. Don’t want to destroy anything.
It’s not the plant's fault that their gardener is both my dream girl and my nightmare.
The mushroom dust coats me. The past few weeks, I’ve been feeling things more and more, and the dust is uncomfortable enough to register. When I focus, I can feel the desperation to scrub it from my skin, but it’s nothing I can’t power through, and I have years of practice in powering through. I race to the door and out into the fresh air.
Outside, dusk has fallen, but there’s enough light to showcase the vast acreage of the backyard in all its glory. Papa Bosco must have spent a fortune on this place. It’s more of a park out here, the long green lawn bordered by forest. You’d think we were in the middle of nowhere, versus in a city.
I can hear Bella cackling in the distance. She’s paused on the edge of the woods, unable to resist hovering to see if I’ll chase her.
Her curiosity will be her downfall. I almost feel sorry for her that she’s never faced a true opponent.
When I catch her, she’ll learn.
