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Byrne Nursery.
Another place I’ve avoided as much as I can. Even going so far as to drive down to one of the big box home improvement stores for my flower beds during the spring and summer. Anything to avoid running into Warrick.
I figure I can snag a tree and set expectations for our dates while I’m here. Because Lord knows expectations and boundaries need to be set.
What was I thinking agreeing to go on dates with the man?
I drive through the gates, park near the front of the house-turned-store, and climb out before skirting around to where they have the Christmas tree displays set up. After picking out one that will work, I look around for an associate to help me with my purchase and loading the thing on the top of my vehicle.
“Hey, Sylvia.” Warrick’s voice comes from behind me where there are a few different buildings set up.
I turn around and just raise my eyebrows. “Nope.”
“Alyssa?”
“Not even close.”
“Barbara, Bonnie, Bessie?”
“Bessie?” I ask incredulously.
“I figure if you go by Chip, then your real name is either embarrassing or you don’t like it. Bessie covers both.”
“Nice try, but no cigar.”
“Rumpelstiltskin?”
I laugh at that one.
“No. Can I get this one?” I point to the fir tree that’s leaning a little bit to the right and is chunky around the middle.
“Sure.” He pulls a walkie-talkie off his belt loop, and after talking into it for a minute, asks, “You just here for a tree today?”
“Nah. Figured I’d pick up a tree and say hi, count it as one of the owed dates.”
He shakes his head at me. “That’s not gonna fly and you know it. How about dinner tonight?”
I pretend to be put out and let out a heavy sigh.
“Sure. When and where?”
“I’ll pick you up at six. That work?”
I nod. “Fine.”
“Hey now, don’t look so excited. Is it really a hardship spending a night with this level of sexy?” He runs his hands down his hips as he says the words, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop from laughing at him.
“You almost smiled. How about that?” He grins at me, before nudging my arm and saying, “Follow me.”
I walk behind him to the front of the store and stop by one of the registers. I assume he led me up here so that I can pay for my tree while it’s loaded for me, but he keeps walking past the registers and toward the back of the space.
“Where are we going?”
He opens one of the doors, and my heart stops dead in my chest.
Reaching into the room that can only be described as hell on earth, he snags a green thermos. Unscrewing the cap, he pours some brown liquid into the lid before offering it to me. “Hot cocoa. Have some.”
My jaw is still hanging open from the vision of something I’ll never unsee when he asks, “What?”
