Chapter Two
Current Day
Iflipthe lights on and close my eyes, inhaling the waft of roses, jasmines, sweet alyssum, stargazers, and gardenias. I wish the aroma would last longer than a few brief moments before each unique scent becomes familiar and mute. As I place my keys down on the counter, the back doorbell buzzes.Gosh, this is early for a delivery, I think to myself while peering at mywatch.
I open the back door to accept the delivery and Dax walks in, placing a box down beside my feet. “Sorry if this is too early, Ari, I’ve got a packed schedule today.” He runs back out to his truck and returns with a smaller box and hands it to me. “Just these twotoday.”
“Great, thank you!” I carry the box in my hands out front and place it on the counter then turn back for the second box, but Dax is in front of me…right in front of me. Like, two inches in front of me. “Hi,” he says, his voice soft andraspy.
“Hi,” I respond, questioningly, feeling as though the wind has been sucked out of my lungs. Being this close to him, I can’t help but notice a certain darkness in his eyes that doesn’t match the friendly grin stretching across his stubblycheeks.
“I don’t really have a packed schedule today,” he corrects himself as his smile across his lips stretches wider. The vibe between us is causing the heart in my body to pound, reminding me it’s there and pumping at full capacity. “I actually wanted to ask yousomething.”
“At eight-fifty-five in the morning?” I hardly getout.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me,” he says, taking one of the two inches away from the space between us. “You’ve seen the way I look at you.” I didn’t think I was being obvious when I try not to look at him, or when I’ve tried my hardest to avoid staring with determination as I debate whether his eyes are a caramel or a cappuccino color. I’ve done my best not to look at his full lips when he asks me how my day is going every morning at nine-thirty on the dot, or when he every so often grabs my arm and tells me to smile. I’ve also done my best never to ask him anything more than his name. More questions lead to more answers, and more answers lead to more questions, and more questions lead to a friendship, and friendship with a man is never platonic, and the opposite of platonic is the definition of a commitment, and since my heart can never fully commit to me, I can never fully commit to it. Of course, this brings us back to this exact moment where the potential man of my dreams with dark, wavy hair and a smile that makes women sigh when he walks by, is standing less than one inch in front of me, waiting to ask me aquestion.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I take the free inch I just realized was behind me, pressing my back up against the cold counter, but it doesn’t take long for him to steal my last freeinch.
“Can I take you out?” he asks as his breath fogs over mylips.
“You don’t even know me,” I croakback.
He snickers under his breath. “Sure I do, Ari. You own a floral shop. You like to read. You aren’t married. You have a friend named Piper. And Piper told me a lot about you. Piper is your one and only employee and in exactly one week, she’s leaving the country for the man ofherdreams.” His grin grows wider. “So, can I take youout?”
“I don’t date,” I reply sternly, looking down between us. I hate saying it, but to be fair, I have to say it. This heart isn’t mine for the offering. It was given to a man who is heartbreakingly living without the love inside. This heart belongs to Ellie and Hunter, notme.
“Whoa, whoa. Who said anything about a date? Don’t you think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself here? I just—wow. You like to make things awkward,huh?”
I shove the heels of my palms into his chest and push him away, taking the space I’ve needed for the past twominutes.
“Dax, what do youwant?”
“Will you be my plus one at a wedding this weekend?Please?”
“Isn’t that a date?” Icounter
“No, I’m trying to piss off my ex and you’rehot.”
I narrow my eyes at him and tilt my head to the side. “So you’d just be using me?” Actually, this works for my situation. I never swore off fake dates, so it could beokay.
“Well, I guess since I’m not paying you to be an escort, technically we can label it as me using you. Although, if that’s a complete turn-off, then, no, I would never dream of using you.” I can’t tell where the accent of his seriousness lies, but he’s making me fall for thisploy.
“Okay,” I tell him. “But this is for show. Only. Gotit?”
“If that’s what you would like.” He leans in, moving his lips close to my ear, causing a chill to slowly trickle down my spine. “I apologize inadvance.”
I pull away, slipping away from his invisible hold. “For what?” I ask, opening the box of flowers I had placed on the counter. I find myself using it as an excuse to move as far away from him as possible.If I don’t let feelings in, they can’t embed themselves inside of thisheart.
“I look damn good in a suit and you might regret that our date is only fake.” The cocky smirk he’s giving me forces warmth through my cheeks—I’ve always known him to be cocky. He’s definitely the type of man who knows he looks good. He knows he can get any girl he swoons. Maybe that’s why he’s interested me. I’m not just any girl. Dating has never been at the forefront of my mind, and hot men are just now being noticed in this new life I’ve been given a chanceat.
While I know almost nothing about Dax, he’s been making deliveries to my shop every morning for the past three years. We’ve shared many exchanges, and though all of them were friendly and mostly humorous, it has always stopped with that. It’s not to say he hasn’t tried his hand at twenty-questions, I’ve just become infamous for avoiding all things personal. This is why I have turned him down the twenty-two times he has asked to take me out. Each time, I wanted to say yes. Each time, I wanted to say yes more than the time before that. However, the heart in my body has said no, and I listen to thisheart.
Dax disappears into the back room and returns a moment later with the larger of the two boxes. “Hey,Ari?”
I look up at him as I pull the first bunch of flowers from their wraps. “Mmhm?”
“What made you say yes this time?” A smile teases my lips and I try to stop it from happening as I refocus my attention on the roses I need to prune. “Is it the new cologne I’m wearing? Because I got it last night and the lady at the counter said it would definitely attract women. I guess she wasn’t lying.” I always notice his cologne, mostly because it lingers in the shop for more than a half hour after he leaves every day. Today, though, he has me so wound up, I might have forgotten to breathe during the entire ninety-seconds he more or less had me pinned against the counter. The scent of his cologne may not hit me until after he leaves and I realize what I agreedto.
