Opposites Attract (The Locklaine Boys Book 2) (15 page)

“Deal,” I finally answered as we shook on it.

“Great! See you Monday morning, boss man! You won’t regret it.”

I wasn’t so sure about that.

“
UH… DEL
?”

I didn’t turn my attention away from the arrangement I was putting together as I asked, “Yeah?”

From the corner of my eye, I could see Toni’s vibrant purple hair moving closer as I jammed another rose stem into the glass vase. “Shit!” I curse, lifting my finger to see a drop of blood forming on the tip. “I missed a couple thorns,” I grumbled. “I never do that.” As payback, I threw the rose across the room, barely refraining from going over there and stomping on it for good measure.

Toni stepped in between me and the flower arrangement. “Okay, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from the flowers before you destroy them all.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, moving to the side to try and get back to the arrangement only to have her block me again.

“Del, sweetie, you’ve been working on this arrangement for the past fifteen minutes. You’ve cut your hand on thorns twice, broken five roses, and thrown one across the room. Not to mention, this isn’t really your best work, is it?”

I glanced over her shoulder, feeling more than a little insulted by her question. That was, until I got a good look at the arrangement. Some of the roses that managed to make it into the vase were wilted from being mishandled. There was a handful of petals scattered around the table from where they’d fallen off. The ones still attached were beginning to bruise from where I’d jammed them into the vase. The arrangement didn’t say, “
I love you to the moon and back
,” the very words the client requested be written on the card. It said, “
I don’t like you very much, and I wanted to give you a shitty arrangement to rub that in.
”

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered, my shoulders drooping in defeat.

“So, you want to tell me what’s got your panties in a bunch this morning?” Toni asked oh-so-eloquently.

“My panties are
not
in a twist,” I snapped. Toni’s hands fell to her tiny hips as she shot me a
you’re-full-of-so-much-shit-I-can-smell-it
look. There was no way she was going to let it go, so I huffed out an agitated breath and finally relented. “Fine, so my panties are a little twisted this morning. Everyone’s allowed to have a bad day.” I’d blame my bad mood on lack of sleep, maybe my period, but there was no way I’d admit to Toni my frustration was of a sexual kind — as in, I needed it really flipping bad. I’d rather volunteer for a pap-smear before admitting to that. Toni was just as bad as Devon most days. No way I’d ever live that down.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “
Normal
people. But you aren’t normal, Del. I half expect you to fart rainbows most days. I love you with all my heart so I say this as a friend, but sometimes your cheerfulness makes me want to punch you in the ovaries.”

Despite my foul mood due to lack of orgasm, I couldn’t help but laugh. I gave up on the arrangement and let her take over, heading to the counter to man the register just as the bell over the door tinkled. I looked up from the stack of receipts Toni had been organizing and the smile I’d pasted on my face slowly melted away at the sight of the person entering.

Sweet Hell, did he really have to look so good
all the time
? It wasn’t fair! The dark gray t-shirt and jeans would have looked plain on anyone else, but on Richard they looked like something that belonged on the runway. In his case, the man totally made the clothes. Did he own anything that didn’t hug all those glorious muscles?

Meanwhile, I felt so out of his league in my paisley sundress that did almost nothing for my shape, my bun, and my glasses.

“What are you doing here?” My tone might have come off a little more abrupt than I would have liked, but that didn’t stop Richard from smiling, all hot and smolder-y, as he made his way to the counter in the center of the shop.

“Hello to you too, cutie,” Richard replied. He walked — no, that wasn’t right; Richard Locklaine didn’t just walk, he
swaggered
— to the end of the counter and rested his forearms along the top. His beautiful, muscular, tanned forearms that I found myself wanting to lick just then.

Down girl
!

“Can’t a guy just come by to say hello to a
friend
?”

The way he said the word
friend
had me feeling a little skeptical. “You just came by to say hello?” I said slowly, my eyes narrowing on him.

“Yep. My motives are completely altruistic, I swear.” He held up two fingers like he was an innocent boy scout.

“Mmhmm,” I hummed, still somewhat suspicious. Yes, I knew it was my suggestion that we be friends, but it had only been a little over twelve hours since he had me jacked up against the wall, dry humping the living shit out of me. Was it really possible for him to be over it that quickly?

And that question led to an entirely different line of thinking. What if he really
was
over it already? Was I that forgettable? That easy to get over?

Oh my God, I’m depressing the shit out of myself! Stop it Delilah!

“What the hell’s wrong with those roses?” he asked, pulling me out of self-pity mode.

I turned to look at the raggedy bouquet I’d been working on earlier before being sent away by Tori. “Oh, uh…”

“They’re for a dude’s side piece,” Toni answered. “We don’t put a lot of effort into those kinds of orders.”

“Smart.” He grinned at Toni and I could see the way her eyes glazed over at the swoon-worthy sight. For crying out loud, Toni was a badass! She wasn’t supposed to get all mushy over a guy. I needed to get him out of my shop, and fast. Not only for my sanity, but for the sake of my employees as well.

I clapped my hands in front of me. “Well, we’ve exchanged hellos, but I really should be getting back to work. Lots to do. And I’m sure you’re super busy today.”

“Nope,” he responded nonchalantly. “No plans today. My schedule’s wide open. Maybe I can help out around here.”

Wait… “You want to
work
? On a Sunday?”

“Sure,” he shrugged casually before standing tall and coming around to my side of the counter, standing way too close, his yummy smell invading my senses. “I’m a quick learner. Give me something to do.”

“Don’t you…” I had to shake my head to get my bearings. “Don’t you have some work of your own you can be doing? You were just complaining about being swamped since your assistant quit.”

He grinned at me like he had a secret. “The assistant position is covered, but I appreciate your concern for me.”

“That’s not—” I began to argue, to tell him I wasn’t concerned about him, when he reached over and pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. The gesture felt just as sweet as it had the first time, damn it!

Instead of moving his hand from my face right away, he trailed the tips of his fingers along my forehead and down my cheek, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear as he went. A brief look over his shoulder showed that Toni had just witnessed the entire thing, and was currently standing with her mouth hanging open,
what the whaaaaa
written all over her face.

I tried to move a step back, only to be foiled by the stupid L-shaped counter blocking my path.
Stupid L-shape. I hate you, counter
! “So what do you say?”

I blinked. Then I blinked again. “About what?” The moment I could smell his cologne all my synapses had misfired. My brain was fried.

“About me helping you, cutie.”

Oh God, I didn’t know if I was strong enough to withstand him calling me cutie much longer.

Just as I opened my mouth to politely ask him to step away — you know, so I could function like a normal human being without his hotness clogging my brain, the bell of the door rang again.

“Lilah Bug!”

“Oh balls!” I cursed under my breath as I looked at Richard in a panic, silently begging him with my eyes to move back before my father caught on to the fact we were standing far too close to each other.

“What’s going on? Who’s the guy shoving you against the counter?”

Too late
.

“Hi, Daddy,” I spoke sweetly as I sidestepped the wall of muscle before me. To his credit, he looked just as freaked out as I felt the moment the word
Daddy
came out of my mouth. I let out an uncomfortable laugh as I made my way over to my father and stood on my tiptoes to kiss his scruffy cheek. “This is Richard, Dad. He’s my and Devon’s neighbor. I’ve been a little backed up and he came to help me out.”

Dad looked suspicious, obviously not buying my excuse as he stared Richard down. “That’s what Toni’s for. She keeps you from getting too bogged down. That’s why I told you to hire her in the first place. Have you been taking on too much work again? You always do that. I told you—”

“Work to live, don’t live to work,” I spoke at the same time he did, rolling my eyes for added effect. I’d gotten that very same lecture about twice a month ever since taking over Flora. No matter how old I got I would always be his little girl, and he would always treat me as such. Which meant putting up with him hovering over me at times and threatening anything with a penis that looked at me for longer than five seconds — the acceptable amount of time for a man to look at a woman as allotted by my father.

“I’m not taking on too much work, Dad. I promise.”

His bushy brows furrowed. “Then why are you so swamped that you’d need this…” he trailed off, curling his lip in Richard’s direction. “…
guy
to help?”

“I got sick yesterday, Mr. Northcutt. No biggie, but with me out Del was kind of in a bind.”

God bless Toni. If I swung that way I’d have kissed her right on the mouth, and the appreciative look I shot her said as much, causing her to let out a laugh that she quickly tried to cover with a fake cough.

“Well,” Dad said. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Toni.” He shot a sideways glance at the still-quiet Richard before looking at me. “If you need help you can always call me, Lilah Bug. You don’t need to depend on a man who’ll probably use chivalry as a way to get into your pants.”

“Daddy!” I shouted, my cheeks suddenly heating with intense embarrassment. I couldn’t bring myself to look in Richard’s direction, even as he cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Sir, I can assure you, that’s not my intentions. I just wanted to help your daughter out.”

“I know how men think,” Dad scoffed. “And I know what I saw when I walked in here. How you were staring at my daughter wasn’t the way a man who just wants to help looks at a woman. What exactly are your intentions, huh?”

Toni released another choked laugh, clearly enjoying my humiliation. “Oh, my God. Dad! Richard is just a friend. There’s nothing going on. And besides, if Mom found out I was letting you come in here and help I’d never hear the end of it. And neither would you. You’re supposed to be
retired
, remember?”

He batted my comment away like it was nothing, but I knew it was all for show. He knew as well as I did that Mom would make
both
our lives miserable if she found out he was working again. “What’s this guy even know about plants anyway, huh? He’d probably screw up more than help! And I don’t like the way he stares at you.” He turned back to Richard who, I could have sworn, looked a little paler than usual.

I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole, but since that wasn’t happening, I was going to have to use a different tactic to get my father out of the shop before he could embarrass me any more than he already had. “Dad, if you don’t leave, I’m going to have to call Mom.”

He narrowed his eyes at my threat. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would. I love you with all my heart, but don’t for one second think I won’t throw you right under the bus. You know the rules. No working. I’m not going down because of you. If it’s between you or her, I choose her. She’s way scarier.”

I could have sworn I heard him mumble “
traitor
,” under his breath. Choosing to ignore it, I gave him my sweetest smile, the one that always got me out of trouble with him growing up. “I’ll see you tonight for dinner, Dad.”