A Week for Love to Bloom (2 page)

“Yes, Mom.”

“I’m glad you’re home. Did you have a good visit with your father?”

Lauren
rolled her eyes. “It was tolerable. I’m just dead tired from the drive. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Goodnight.”

She went up the stairs
to her room and undressed in front of her mirror. It appalled her that someone she was attracted to saw her looking disheveled. She looked closely in the mirror and pulled the skin down below her eyes. In addition to Lauren believing they were too big, she now found them puffy and dark underneath.

Lauren
curled up in bed and fell asleep recalling the handsome features of the hitchhiker.

Chapter Two

Justin awoke from a pillow being shoved down on h
is head. “Jonathan, cut it out already. I’m up dammit!”

Jonathan
lifted the pillow and laughed. “You didn’t call me last night to pick you up. I was worried. What did you do, walk?”

Not wanting to answer his question, Justin stayed on his stomach with h
is face buried in his pillow. They were always close, but since Justin dropped out of college after his junior year, four years prior, their relationship had been strained.

He
dropped out after his longtime friend Max convinced him to move to California to work on an oilrig. Max got that job through his uncle after he graduated high school and tried to get Justin to join him. Justin finally quit college and moved to California after the pressure to go to law school became too much for him to handle. His parents and brother were outraged when they heard the news, so he only returned home twice a year since he moved.

“Come get some breakfast. Emily is waiting to see you
and so is Jack. He hardly knows you’re his uncle, so get your ass out there and entertain him. Toddlers are a handful.”

When Justin
entered the kitchen, his sister-in-law, Emily, greeted him with a hug.

“Good morning, Justin. I’
m glad you found your way home. We’ve missed you.” Emily was always pleasant to Justin. He noticed she was still very pretty with her thick, chestnut hair and dark brown eyes. She was a few years older than he and always seemed wiser than her years. Her father owned a factory in a neighboring city, but she never cared about money or status. Justin liked that about her.

He approached his
young nephew, Jack, who was wobbly as he walked around the kitchen dropping Cheerios on the floor. He smiled up at Justin and reached out his hand, offering him a Cheerio between his two tiny fingers. Justin’s heart felt something it hadn’t felt before.

“So, Justin, what do you have in mind for the weekend?”
Jonathan asked.

“I
didn’t make any plans. I just want to see the family and relax. Working on the rig is strenuous, and I’m ready for some down-time.”

“Don’t get too comfortable yet,
Jonathan promised to go to the local nursery and pick up the plants I purchased yesterday. Right, honey?” Emily asked.

“Yes, and I’
m sure Justin wouldn’t mind going with me to help. Would you, baby bro?”

“I don’t mind. It’s the least I can do for my sister-in-law who was super kind to
make me breakfast this morning.” He gave Emily a massive grin, turning on the charm.

Emily
returned a smile before she gave her attention to Jonathan.

“Your mother said she’ll
watch Jack, so I can work on the landscaping. I thought you and Justin could spend the day together, and then we’ll go to your parents’ house for dinner.”

“Sounds great to me.
What about you, Justin?”

“Sounds good.”

***

Six o’clock in the morning
came too early for Lauren. She dressed in her usual clothes of jeans and an Evans Garden and Nursery t-shirt. Her hair was always pulled back, and at the end of the day, dirt was her usual make-up. Lauren grabbed a bite to eat and headed outside for a long day of work. The property came to life with customers on the weekends.

The land was picturesque
with a white two-story home her grandpa had built. Five greenhouses stood to the right of the home, vertical toward the back of the fifteen-acre property. Lauren was very close to her grandparents who signed over the business and land to her parents when they became too frail to work. Both died within the last five years.

When her
mom and dad separated, he left the business with her and her mother to care for alone. Her parents’ divorce was pending, and although her father caused the divorce by having an affair with a woman he met over the Internet, she was surprised he wasn’t trying to get half of the assets.  

Brett, a part-time em
ployee, arrived to work at nine o’clock. Lauren hired him the last spring season. Seventeen at the time, she thought he’d be a tremendous help with all the duties that were cumbersome for her and her mother, such as stacking mulch and loading orders.

Sh
e couldn’t deny that he was hot. She occasionally found herself admiring his fit body and his short blonde hair that twisted messy in the front, but he was a minor and an employee - a double no, no. But this season he was legal and making his attraction to her evident.

Brett approached her. “Good morning. What do you want me to start on today?”

“I guess work on some of the displays out front for now until the truck arrives with our mulch and soil order.”

Brett continued staring at her in silence.

“Is there something else you need, Brett?”

“Um … Lauren, would you want to go out tonight?
I thought it would be cool to hang out outside of work.”

“Do you mean like a date?”

“Um, yeah.”

“It’
s sweet of you to ask, but I don’t think it’s a good idea since you work for me.”

“Oh, OK
. I see your point. Maybe we can just hang out as friends some time.” Brett gave her a sly grin.

“Maybe. W
e’ll see. We probably should get to work now. I think we’re going to be busy today.” She quickly walked away. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for her to work around Brett.

The nursery was only half a mile away from Jonathan’s home. Justin found the property appealing as they entered the long driveway. He saw a sign when they were pulling in.

Evan
s Garden and Nursery ... Evans—No way—it couldn’t be that easy for me to see her again.

“I remember
this place now. Mom and Dad dragged me here as a kid. I never paid attention to the name,” Justin said.

“They
did the same to me, and I hated it, so I’ve avoided coming here as much as possible. Emily loves the place. She likes to shop through the week when they’re not busy, and then I go pick it all up on the weekends,” Jonathan said. He pulled around next to the greenhouses where he normally picked up Emily’s orders. They both got out of the truck and waited for someone to help them.

Lauren walked out of the green
house and stared at the hitchhiker, speechless and red faced before her hand-held radio slipped out of her hand.

He
walked over to her and smiled for a couple of seconds before he reached down to pick it up. He couldn’t help but find her blushing and nervousness both funny and flattering.

“So, w
e meet again,” he said, giving her a charming smile.

“I’m Justin.”

She scrambled to get the radio from his hands. “Sorry. The plants are right there.” She pointed to a long row of them lined up on the ground outside of the greenhouse. Jonathan started carrying them to his truck.

She glanced back to Justin.
“Wow, I guess you didn’t need training after all. Looks to me like your
stalker
skills are up to par.”

He ch
uckled. “Is this place yours?”

“My mom and I own it.”

“You have a pretty nice setup here.” He focused on her emerald eyes, amazed that they appeared even more luminous in the sunlight.

“Thanks,
it’s a lot of work, but I enjoy it.”

Justin
noticed a young guy approaching that looked tense and territorial.

“Lauren, the mulch order just arrived. Do you want me to
stack it with the rest in storage, or keep some out?”

“Storage is fine,
Brett. Thanks.” She turned back to Justin. “I better go get your receipt.”

Justin
was curious if the guy was her boyfriend. Instantly, he didn’t like him. He started helping Jonathan load the last of the plants while Lauren was away.

“I saw you talking to that
woman. Are you attracted to her?” Jonathan asked.

“She’s hot,” Justin answered
.

“Yeah, if you like plain, and that is not the kind of ‘dirty’
I’d want my woman to be.” Jonathan chuckled. He was a professional at work, but remained Justin’s crude, older brother who grew up in the country. He was kind at heart, but sometimes his ego got in the way.

“It’s obvious she works hard, and she owns a business. It’s impressive if you ask me,” Justin said.

“You deserve someone classier. Just sayin.”

When Lauren returned,
Jonathan and Justin were already in the truck, so she quickly handed Jonathan the receipt through the window and turned to walk away.

“
You might want to get a belt for that radio,” Jonathan yelled.

She turned and glared for a couple of seconds.

“Way to go, asshole.” Justin jumped out of the vehicle and ran after her. “Hey, Evans,” he called out.

Lauren turned around.

“Just ignore my brother. He can be a real
dick sometimes.”

“
I heard that,” Jonathan yelled.

Justin
turned and gave him the finger before he returned his attention to Lauren. He was standing only a few feet in front of her. “Honestly, I didn’t know this place was yours until I saw you. My brother asked me this morning to ride here with him. I didn’t have time to start my investigation, but it was definitely on my agenda,” he said with an alluring gaze. “I appreciate the gesture last night, by the way, even though you were rude to me at first.” A warm, huge grin spread across Justin’s face.

“I’m truly sorry I
kicked you out of my truck, but you kinda had it coming. I know you were screwing with me,” she said.

Justin slipped his hands into the pockets of his cargo shorts.
“I’m not gonna lie. I enjoyed watching you squirm with panic,” he said, laughing as he nervously skimmed his tennis shoe across some gravel in front of him.

“Interesting … you’re a stalker
, and you enjoy watching people suffer. I think I need to steer clear of you.”

“I
’m really not that cruel.” He gazed at her intently as his expression changed from playful to seductive. “In all seriousness, I hope I run into you again, and can I please get a first name, Ms. Evans?”

“It’s Laure
n,” she answered softly. Their bantering caused the air around them to fill with thick, sexual tension. He sucked in a breath and held it in his lungs, unable to exhale due to the heaviness of it. He thought she felt it too when he saw her blood, red lips quivering as he pierced her eyes with his all-consuming stare.

Justin felt an urgency to be closer to her, so he
took a step forward, closing the distance between them. He swallowed hard before his lungs were freed of air, only to fill once again with the saturated desire still encircling them. He stood only a couple of feet from her, gazing at her plump lips. He wanted his mouth on them.

“
I uh … have to get back to work, but it’s nice to meet you, Justin,” she said, averting her gaze to the ground before she briskly walked into the greenhouse.

Justin felt paralyzed as
the force of suffocating passion in the air crashed against him. He tried to wrap his mind around the intense moment shared between them when he couldn’t think—he only felt.

He was pulled from the enthralling event when his brother yelled at him.

“She’s not standing there anymore, you know.”

J
ustin scrambled to the truck. When he got in, Jonathan was staring at him.

“
So are you going to tell me what the hell happened last night?”

“How about I tell
you over a beer?” The brothers dropped off the plants at the house and headed to one of the bars in town, Casey’s Place.

***

Lauren was in a trance as she stood in the greenhouse. She couldn’t believe it was possible for a man’s gaze to make her panties wet. All she could think about was Justin’s charming smile, vast blue eyes, and the desire that surged through her body.

She
was so distracted by her thoughts of Justin that she didn’t notice her best friend, Ashley, standing in front of her staring.