“Afternoon, Daisy,” I said to the older woman at the register. The owner’s grandmother worked here to stay active. A favorite with all of us, she owned every syllable of her name, wearing outfits dedicated to the flower from her earrings to her socks.
She cackled. “Must be nice to stroll in here after noon.”
“Hey, blame the boss. I don’t make the schedules.”
That made her laugh even harder. Clocked in, I began my shift.
I hadn’t begun my stay in Oliver Creek at the nursery. Mason and I came here together. Making his dream of a restaurant come true drove every decision. Sadly, Mason was great at the dream part—the working hard and making things happen—not so much.
Six months after moving here, he bailed on me. He walked away from the business, his loans, the lease. All of it.
I’d sunk most of my personal savings into his dream as well. That was gone and then some.
He left a note, scribbled on the back of a past-due bill telling me he was wrong. About the restaurant. About running a business. Moving to Oliver Creek.
Wrong about me.
My world crashed down in one split second. I had no income. The lease was almost up. No business. No partner. The only suggestion of a bright spot was that, despite his promises, he had not put my name on anything. So the debt did not cling to me. I’d simply been an employee.
The next morning, I went from place to place and practically begged for a job. I gave almost all of them too much information about my situation, hoping they would give me a job out of pity.
One of them did. Tim not only offered me a job that day, he also offered for me to stay in one of the cabins on his land adjoining the nursery. He’d saved me.
I knew nothing about plants. Never worked a job outside. Couldn’t even keep a snake plant alive.
Now, these plants were my friends. I watered them. Took care of them. Talked to them about everything.
They were really great listeners.
“Excuse me.” A customer pulled me from my thoughts as I moved a flat of flowers to the front and made sure every one was getting ample sun. “Can you recommend a plant for inside that is…”
“Easy to take care of?” I asked.
The young woman laughed. “I was going to say hard to kill. Your version sounds much nicer. I-I have a new girlfriend and she’s not good with plants, but she was admiring my houseplants, and I thought I’d give her one.”
“That’s nice of you. Follow me to the snake plants. Nearly impossible to murder.” I had killed one once, but I left that part out.
The woman left smiling, and we even sold her a bow to put on the new pot she’d purchased.
I could’ve moved away from Oliver Creek and gotten a corporate job, but this one was everything I never knew Ineeded. Fresh air. Sun. Outdoors, for the most part. Talking to people from the community. Getting plenty of exercise.
Some people had dreams of climbing the career ladder. Mine was to stay right here, with living things surrounding me.
“I wish the new ice cream parlor was open already.” Tim came to stand next to me. Not a manager who stayed in the back office, he preferred to be hands-on as much as possible. Sometimes, he worked harder than the rest of us. Daisy said he prided himself on being a good example.
“Ice cream parlor?” Spring was barely here, but already I could picture a hot summer day and taking a break for ice cream. I could taste it on my tongue, the chilled sweetness hitting my throat.
“Yeah. I saw in the town blog that an ice cream parlor was proposed in the building down the street. It’s only two blocks from here.” He patted his flat stomach. “A good idea, but also a bad one.”
I laughed. Shifters, like me, found it easy to keep from gaining weight. Bears, in particular, had extremely fast metabolisms. Tim knew about shifters and let me run on his land when I wanted to, one of the best people I knew. After Mason, I gave up on all kinds of people. Stopped longing for a fated mate. Mason wasn’t mine. We knew that going in, but after he left me like that, I couldn’t bring myself to trust any alpha, even one made for me by a cosmic force.
Sometimes, I found it hard to trust anyone, anymore.
“As long as they have good flavors, I don’t care.”
“I could get down on mint-chocolate-chip in a cone right about now but then again, I forgot to have lunch.” Tim left me to help a couple discussing which varieties of tomatoes to plant. It made me laugh. He really was customer-centered.
A good thing in this business.
