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Handle? What did that mean? “Oh, no. It’s just Zachary. And I have so many other beautiful bouquets. We had to start moving them because they were making Stacey sneeze.”
I wanted to interpret the hardness in his eyes as thrilling. A possessive man who didn’t want anyone to interfere with his woman. That was exactly what I wanted, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t that look have been melting me from the inside?
But it wasn’t. It was scaring me a little.
“Preston, I’m sorry, but I’m with a client. It was just a harmless prank. I wouldn’t give it another thought.”
His expression softened and his dimples puckered with a small smile. “Of course.” His gaze flicked to Olive. “I apologize for the interruption.”
“Did you need something?” I asked.
“You weren’t answering your phone. I wanted to be sure everything was okay.”
“I’m fine, just working.”
He moved closer and held out an arm. I stepped in and he drew me against him, brushing my lips with a quick kiss. “I have to leave town for a little while. Probably just for the rest of the day, but possibly a little longer.”
“Back to Seattle?”
“No. Other business. But I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.”
He turned and left. I let out a long breath.
“Wow,” Stacey said. “That was Preston?”
I stepped back behind the chair and tried to focus on Olive’s hair. “I’m so sorry, I forgot you’ve never met him. I should have introduced you.”
“Don’t apologize. I don’t think he had any idea I was even in the room. That was a man on a mission.”
I caught Olive’s expression in the mirror. She was pressing her lips together, clearly trying to stop herself from grinning from ear to ear. I’d just given her quite the show—enough for a week’s worth of Tilikum gossip. She looked like she was in heaven.
And the entire town was going to hear about all of it within hours.
I finished up the last few touches on Olive’s hair, Stacey checked her out, and she picked her way around the cut flowers to reach the door.
“Leave those there, Stace,” I said. “Give me a minute and I’ll clean them up.”
“I’ll help in a second. I just need to give my husband a quick call.”
I went into the back office. I needed a minute. Between Zachary’s antics—and the fact that I wasn’t furious at him—and Preston’s response, my head was reeling. I didn’t even have room to worry about the gossip line. It was what it was. Once a story got going, it was like a boulder rolling downhill. There’d be no stopping it. At least until the next salacious story started going around.
The bell tinkled yet again and I closed my eyes. Who was here now? I steeled myself for it to be my dad with a construction crew, ready to remodel the salon in the middle of a workday because he read somewhere that hair dryers were an electrocution hazard.
Stacey didn’t call for me, so I waited. Maybe it was just a client popping in to make an appointment.
Another few breaths and my heart rate returned to normal. More or less. It clearly wasn’t my dad. I heard what might have been a man’s voice, but just as quickly, it was gone. The bell tinkled again.
I went out to see who had come in and found the front lobby clean. The remnants of the cut-up bouquet were gone, the floor clear of the mess of flowers and loose petals.
“Oh Stace, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I didn’t.”
Had Preston come back to clean it up? Had his chivalric instincts told him to take care of the little mess for me? How sweet.
“Then who did?”
