Then Comes Love (Blue Harbor Book 6) Read online

Her eyes narrowed slightly. Still, she forced herself to remain positive. “With proper care, they can last longer, and of course, flowers are the simplest expression of love, if you ask me.” Which he hadn’t. And she’d just said the word love. And now he was looking at her like she had a third eye.

  “I mean, once you know someone’s favorite flower, it’s such an intimate, personal gift.” She felt her cheeks flush. Intimate? There would be hell to pay if her sisters or cousins ever caught wind of this. It was just like Doug to get her all tongue-tied and flustered, something he seemed to take endless joy in doing when they stood at their posts in debate club. Of course, she had only joined because she’d had eyes for Chad Johnson, captain of the soccer team, who was only on the debate team for extra credit due to his shaky grades. And much as she’d tried to catch his attention, the only one who seemed determined to jostle her was Doug.

  His gaze was steady on hers. “What’s your favorite flower?”

  She smiled at this. Finally, something she could say without any room for stumbling over her words. “That’s easy. A Juliet rose. Roses are classic, timeless really. I guess you could say that I’m a hopeless romantic.”

  She felt her eyes widen on her misstep. She had even managed to botch that response!

  “Well.” She cleared her throat. “Let me just get that arrangement for you.” She hurried to the arrangement that she’d set aside. It was a colorful mix of garden roses, peonies, snapdragons, blue thistle, and ranunculus, and she was quite proud to present it and show what she was capable of creating. Certainly, he would need no further convincing.

  But as she picked it up and presented it to him, Doug just said, “How much do I owe you?”

  She exhaled nervously and flicked through her order sheets until she found the one that had been called in that morning. “That will be fifty, even.”

  “Fifty dollars!” Now Doug was laughing, pretty good and hard, and Gabby had the uneasy feeling that it was at her expense. “And I thought my rates were high!”

  Ah, yes, the one-upmanship. So it would seem not much had changed since high school after all.

  “Fresh flowers of this quality are not free,” she assured him, lest he think she was running some kind of racket.

  Instead, he motioned to the door and said, “Plenty of them growing for free on most people’s front yards.”

  She pinched her lips, not bothering to point out that those flowers would most certainly die within a few days, if not hours, and she highly doubted that he was growing blue thistle in his front landscaping, let alone snapdragons, peonies, and… Oh, she was getting worked up again.

  “Well, I think it’s a lovely gesture on your father’s part.” She felt very defensive of Mr. Monroe, who was a loyal customer, and, clearly, a devoted husband to dear Carol. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for their son, Gabby thought with a sniff.

  “Could have bought her a bracelet for this amount.” Doug shook his head as he pulled out his credit card. “Would have lasted longer.”

  “And been quite impersonal,” Gabby clipped. She swiped the card quickly and eyed the machine, suddenly keen to get him on his way and out of her store. He wasn’t just bad for business. He was bad for morale. “Besides, not everything is meant to last forever. Some things are meant to be enjoyed for the small amount of time they are with us.”

  “Ah, so you admit that your product has a short shelf life.” His grin was one of amusement, or perhaps victory, she could never be sure.

  Gabby felt her nostrils flare, and she handed him back the card along with the receipt. She knew better than to expect a tip and was almost miffed when he stuffed some bills in the jar.

  “I hope your mother enjoys them,” she managed, because she sincerely did. She put her heart into every bouquet, and once she got to know a client’s tastes and preferences, she was able to truly perfect their arrangements. This year, she had a clear winner for Carol Monroe, regardless of what Doug might think.

  Doug said nothing to affirm that she would, but just held up his hand and said, “It was nice seeing you, Gabby. Feels like old times.”

  Gabby felt her smile whither as she watched him go and then plucked a rose from the bucket, accidentally popping the head from the stem in her haste. If by old times he meant sparring off on every topic from trade wars with foreign countries to whether they should go with colored or clear lights for the winter wonderland prom theme, he was right.

  But she’d be damned if she’d let him have the final word when it came to romance.

  Chapter Two

  Gabby waited until her mother had returned to take her lunch break, even if she had lost her appetite. Honestly! The nerve of that man! To not only insult her store, but to undermine her passion and cheapen the mere notion of romance?

  Her funk must have been noticeable by the time she arrived at the door of Something Blue, her middle sister’s bridal shop. Because she knew that her scowl was probably bad for business, and because she honestly couldn’t face yet another blushing bride-to-be just now, she peeked through the window before pushing through the door, relieved to see Brooke come from the back room alone, her arms laden with frothy tulle.

  “Hey!” Brooke said brightly. “Just in time. Mind helping me hang these veils?”

  Gabby felt a literal pang when she reached for the one on top. Three layers of soft, white tulle hanging from a sparkling crystal band.

  “You want to try it on, don’t you?” Brooke’s grin was cheeky.

  Was it so obvious? Sure, she had indulged before, probably more often than she should, really. But today Gabby shook her head. “There’s no point. I’ll never get married at this rate.”

  “Oh, now, what happened to that hopeless romantic sister of mine?”

  Gabby draped the veil over the satin hanger and set it on the hook Brooke indicated. Her eyes swept the room; she couldn’t help herself. The entire boutique was like an adult candy store for the lonely hearts in town. And right now, she felt like she was at the top of the list. It was bad enough that she was the eldest sister and that Brooke was already married. Oh, it was nothing new of course. Brooke had been married years ago, to her teenage sweetheart. Meanwhile, Gabby had never even had a date to the prom—that she’d helped to plan.

  A foreshadowing of things to come, she thought darkly.

  “I’ll tell you what happened,” Gabby said. “I’ve realized that being a romantic is exactly what you said. Hopeless.”

  Brooke was having none of it. She gave a little smile and motioned Gabby to the seating area in the center of the room. On the marble coffee table was Brooke’s lookbook, similar to the one Gabby had back at Sweet Stems—a brag book, essentially, full of photographs of their best work; only in Gabby’s shop, customers came around the counter. There was no velvet seating in her shop. No ball gowns either, she thought, letting her attention drift to the corner of the room where one of Brooke’s newest designs was on full display.

  “Your mouth says one thing, but your face says another.” Brooke’s expression was rueful when Gabby finally looked away from the soft and lovely and oh so romantic creation. “What happened?”

  Gabby sucked in a breath, not sure if she wanted to bother with the details of her morning, but instead settled on the bigger issue. “I have a wedding every month through September.”

  “So do I,” Brooke said. “Not that I’m complaining. Business has been better than I could have hoped, with a little help from you, of course.”

  Gabby managed a smile. It was true that as sisters and fellow shop owners who both catered to the bridal industry, they were able to cross-promote, or at least send a client in each other’s direction. Though some of those clients they probably preferred to have never met.

  “Candy was in today,” Gabby said drolly.

  Brooke rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “She was here, too. Now she wants to shorten the train! Well, little does she know that I’m not doing it. Knowing Candy, she’d change her mind and want it longe
r at the last minute, and it’s much different to add fabric than it is to take it away.”

  Gabby laughed. “You sound like me. I already told her the sample bouquet won’t be ready until the day before her wedding. I usually do that weeks in advance.”

  “At least she can use it for her rehearsal,” Brooke pointed out.

  True. Her sister was smart, and not just in business. She’d picked the right guy years ago, even if she hadn’t exactly found eternal bliss with him until recently when she’d moved back to town and opened her shop. Like Gabby, Brooke prided herself on her creative energy, but unlike Gabby, Brooke had managed to find a personal life too.

  “She was trying to push me to invite Jackson to the wedding as my date, even though he’s already invited, of course.” Gabby sighed, and Brooke could only laugh. Not only was this classic Candy, but Brooke knew Gabby well enough to be sure that Jackson was not long-term relationship material.

  Maybe no one was. With a wedding every weekend between now and Labor Day, the single men were quickly being snatched up, for good.

  “I suppose that I should be grateful for a free glass of champagne after a long day,” Gabby said, thinking of the wedding she had tomorrow, down at the Yacht Club, a popular destination in town for such things. She usually got to know her brides so well, they were all too kind to invite her to stay and enjoy their big day, even if, lately, she wished they wouldn’t.

  “A reward for your efforts! Look at it like that.” Brooke reached over and squeezed her hand. “Besides, you love a good wedding as much as you love one of those paperback romance novels you read by the dozen.”

  Gabby went quiet. It was true that once she loved standing behind the guests, watching from a professional distance as the bride began her wedding march, and later, her eyes would mist as the happy couple took their first official dance as man and wife, but something had shifted, and this morning hadn’t helped matters. She’d dared to hope, but now, that hope was starting to fade.

  “I’m nearly in my mid-thirties,” she said bluntly.

  “So?” Brooke straightened the items on her coffee table.

  “And Blue Harbor isn’t exactly crawling with men.”

  “Hasn’t stopped me,” Brooke replied. “Or most of our cousins.”

  “Are you saying that there is something wrong with me?” Gabby wasn’t insulted, and this sisterly banter wasn’t new either. They’d had this conversation hundreds of times through their teen years when Gabby was always single and Brooke was happily dating Kyle Harrison. She knew exactly what Brooke would say before she even opened her mouth. Sometimes, she needed to hear it, though.

  “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I think you could stand to be just a little less picky,” Brooke said pertly.

  “And date Jackson Bradford?” Last Gabby had checked, the man didn’t date, at least, not for long.

  “Not Jackson,” Brooke said to her relief. “But maybe, keep your heart open.”

  “My heart is open!” Gabby cried, sitting up straighter. Or at least, it had been. So she thought.

  “For something less than perfect?” Brooke raised an eyebrow.

  “What’s wrong with holding out for true love?” Gabby retorted. “Are you suggesting I lower my standards?” Settling down was one thing, but settling? She couldn’t imagine anything worse.

  “I just think that relationships take work and compromise…”

  “I’ve never really had a long-term relationship, as you may recall,” Gabby reminded her sister. The sad truth was that she wasn’t even often asked out on dates. Sure, there had been a few setups over the years, a few casual weeks with tourists or summer staff. “And now I don’t even have a date to these weddings.”

  “Maybe that’s a good thing,” Brooke said.

  Gabby perked up a bit. “It’s true that the singles table are where the eligible men would be…”

  Brooke swatted her. “I mean, take some pressure off yourself. Go to the weddings, have some fun. Be yourself. Go for a good time, not to look for your soulmate.”

  Be herself. It was so seldom that she met a man that checked her boxes, that Gabby wasn’t sure she could trust herself to be anything less than her best self, meaning she squared her shoulders, smiled her best smile, and was, well, basically a stiffer version of the Gabby she let her friends and family see.

  Brooke hesitated. “Just…don’t be too quick to judge.”

  Gabby let that sink in for a minute. Too quick to judge she could work with—unless, of course, the evidence was glaring.

  Doug pulled up to a stop behind his brother’s SUV, taking in the old, wood-sided house that he’d called home every one of his thirty-three years. Columbus had never been home, and he’d just been unable to realize that at the time. Too blinded by love.

  Too fooled, really.

  It wasn’t a large home; if anything, it was one of the smallest in Blue Harbor, but his mother took pride in it and always had: flowers bloomed in the window boxes, the yard was a vibrant green, and the interior always felt like it was waiting for company to stop over at any moment. Doug carried the flowers carefully, a little surprised that they hadn’t yet wilted, and let himself in the front door, where his father met him in the hall. “Ah, thanks for doing that for me, son. One of the perks of having you back, eh?”

  Doug sniffed the air, and his stomach grumbled from the aroma. “One of many,” he said, thinking of the endless supply of frozen pizza, take-out, and restaurant fare he’d lived on for most of his adult life. His ex, Lisa, had never been much of a cook, and neither was he. His father, on the other hand…

  “Let me guess?” He hesitated, trying to discern the scent, until he settled on the obvious. “Paella?”

  “Your mother’s favorite,” his father said with a smile of contentment.

  Doug followed his father down the hall to the dining room, where his mother was already seated at the head of the table, Doug’s brother Justin to her left, in his childhood chair.

  Carol’s face broke out into a smile as she stood to collect the arrangement. “Oh, Doug! You spoil me so!”

  “Something beautiful for my beautiful birthday girl,” Doug’s father replied, looking downright proud as his wife set the vase in the center of the table.

  Doug and Justin exchanged a glance. Growing up, they’d been embarrassed by their parents’ affection. Thought it was downright corny. Now, Doug had to admit it was sort of sweet.

  But there was another feeling there too, one that hadn’t been there before, one that didn’t even really make sense. If he didn’t know better, he might call it jealousy.

  “Happy birthday, Mom,” he said, shaking away those thoughts and leaning down to kiss his mother on the cheek. He handed over the small gift he’d purchased that morning. “And here’s my gift. It’s a gift card to the salon,” he explained as she opened the envelope. “I thought you could treat yourself one of these afternoons.”

  “Oh. How…thoughtful.” His mother’s eyes crinkled into a smile, but it wasn’t as big as the one she’d given him when she’d thought he’d been responsible for the flowers. He had half a mind to show her the size of the voucher—enough for a full day of pampering and spa treatments, but his mother patted his hand and said, “Would you mind helping your father with dinner? Every time I stand up, he orders me back into my chair.” She laughed, and he nodded.

  “Sure thing, Mom.” He noticed the card from his father propped on the buffet table next to what was clearly a homemade cake. While an expert on the range, baking was one of Howard’s newer endeavors, and his decorating skills had a long way to go.

  “Hey, Dad,” he said, coming into the kitchen where the counters were piled high with empty boxes and cutting boards, cutlery, and evidence of a lot of work. “I could have picked up a cake at the grocery store for you, too, you know.”

  “A cake from the grocery store?” His father nearly laughed.

  “Or the bakery…” Doug had noticed a new one in t
own since his last visit. Buttercream Bakery, owned by one of the Conway girls, apparently.

  Conway. His mind drifted to Gabby Conway. Always the prettiest of that family, if anyone were to ask him, not that it was really debatable. Gabby Conway had the most beautiful smile, the shiniest hair, the brightest eyes, and the most difficult personality of all her sisters and cousins combined. She knew what she wanted and she didn’t back down, and he’d seen that firsthand on those disastrous prom planning committees he’d signed up for as a way to stay involved in school activities. Don’t bother asking her for a date, so the locker room talk would go. Gabby was very pretty, and like many pretty girls, she knew it. And most guys weren’t looking to set themselves up for rejection.

  Doug sure wasn’t. Ever again.

  “I know my cake might not be a looker, but it’s your mother’s birthday,” Howard continued. “It’s my day to spoil her. And as the saying goes, it’s the thought that counts.”

  That was a common phrase in their house, especially during the years where his father’s business took a hit. Before he retired, Doug’s father owned a boating and water sports rental company, which heavily depended on tourists, as did most businesses in Blue Harbor. When the rains were heavy, or the weather too cool, Howard felt the sting. There were many homemade gifts those years, Doug remembered. It was one of the reasons he’d always promised himself to see that those holidays didn’t happen again. That his parents would be secure. That they wouldn’t need to worry about their business, or him. He’d helped out free of charge once he was old enough, maintained strong enough grades to get a full ride to college and then law school.

  He’d never given his parents cause for worry. Until now, it would seem.

  Looking around the mess of the kitchen, Doug understood why his father kept ordering his mother back into her chair every time she stood up. She’d be trapped in that seat until midnight if Doug or Justin didn’t roll up their sleeves and pitch in.

  “Let me at least get a start on these dishes while you finish up,” he said to his father.