“Do you work here?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.” Colton smiled at her, and it was a real smile, easy and warm, the kind that transformed his face entirely. “Just helping out today.”
“He’s my very tall assistant,” Indy said without looking up from the ribbon he was cutting. “I keep him around for the high shelves and the intimidating presence.”
The woman laughed, a bright sound that bounced off the cooler glass. Colton took the freesia from Indy’s hand without being asked and held it out for the woman to smell, tilting the stems toward her at an angle that made the gesture feel natural rather than performative.
“Oh, that’s lovely,” she said, leaning in with her eyes closed.
“They’re sweeter than most people expect,” Colton told her. “Most people think of roses when they want something that smells like a gift. But freesia is better.”
Indy looked up from the ribbon.
The woman was charmed. Completely and thoroughly charmed, which was evident in the way she was looking at Colton like he’d just said something both intelligent and personally intended for her. Indy finished tying the ribbon and set the bouquet on the counter.
“He’s right, for the record,” Indy said. “And I’m the one who sells flowers for a living, so I’m the expert here. But, yes, he’s right.” He slid the bouquet across the counter. “Add the freesia to the arrangement and it smells like someone actually thought about it.”
She bought them. She also bought a small potted succulent from the display near the door because Colton mentioned, entirely conversationally, that they were nearly impossible to kill and she’d said that sounded exactly like what she needed.
When she left, the bell above the door chiming behind her, Indy turned to look at Colton.
“You,” Indy said, “are a menace.”
Colton looked untroubled. “She was happy when she came in. She left happier.”
“She left forty dollars lighter.”
“She also left with flowers that’ll last two weeks and a plant she’ll probably name.” The panther moved unhurriedly back toward his position near the cooler. “That’s a good transaction.”
Indy pointed at him with the ribbon scissors. “You flirted with a seventy-year-old woman to sell a succulent.”
“I was friendly,” Colton said. “There’s a difference.”
“There absolutely is not a difference and you know it.” Indy put the scissors down. “Also, she was delighted, so I’m not even mad. I’m just noting it for the record.”
“Noted.” The corner of Colton’s mouth pulled up, and he leaned back against the wall with his arms crossed, returning to the contained watchfulness that was apparently his default setting when he wasn’t busy charming elderly customers out of their spending money.
Indy turned back to the counter and started clearing the wrapping scraps from the last arrangement. The shop smelled like it always did mid-morning, the cool green exhale from the cooler mixing with the warmer air near the window, where the sunlight was hitting a bucket of sunflowers and pulling something honeyed out of them. The freesia the woman had smelled was still faintly present, sweet and clean.
It was a good morning, objectively. Three completed orders, steady foot traffic, no unexpected visits from anyone who made Indy’s fox go rigid with the urge to bolt. Colton had been at his back all morning, not hovering, not making a production of being there, just present in the way that large, dangerous things could be present without demanding acknowledgment.
Indy was aware of him constantly. Not in the way he was aware of Malik, which was a whole separate category of problem, but in the way you were aware of someone whose job it was to step between you and anything that came through the door.
He found it both reassuring and slightly claustrophobic, which seemed about right.
“You’re good at that.” Indy pulled a fresh sheet of kraft paper from the roll. “The customer thing. The smiling and being helpful. I would’ve pegged you for more of a lurks-silently-in-corners type.”
“I can do both.” Colton wiggled his brows.
“Versatile.” Indy set the paper flat and started arranging stems for the next order, a standing weekly arrangement for the law office two blocks over. “What’s your background? Before, you know.” He gestured vaguely. “Whatever you guys do.”
“Ran my own security firm.”
“Did security come with a customer-service component, or is that a natural gift?” Indy layered in some greenery, checking the proportions.
Colton was quiet for a moment. “People are easier when they feel seen.”
Indy’s hands slowed slightly on the stems, then resumed, quietly building a picture of the people his mate trusted.
