Page 24 of Grimoires & Glamoury

It was everything I had not to laugh.

“Come here,” he said, holding out his arms to his daughter.

Chloe flung herself toward her father and I stepped back. “It was nice to meet you Chloe,” I told the child. “Now if y’all will excuse me, I’m going to finish my shopping.”

“Bye Lorna!” Chloe waved as I maneuvered my plant cart away from the counter.

“Bye,” I said and started back to the geranium tables.

Now while I wasn’t a psychic like my friend Dex, I knew damn good and well that Charles Montgomery would likely follow me.

Call it Witch’s intuition.

I maybe had two minutes alone to consider the geraniums before he and his daughter joined me. He was wisely keeping her in his arms this time.

“Thank you, Lorna for helping with Chloe,” he said. “She thinks it’s hilarious to run off while she’s here and hide under the plant tables.”

“Bet that makes shopping a challenge,” I said, swapping out the scarlet geraniums for the coral color. After placing the new pots in the metal wagon, I lifted my eyes to his. “I wasn’t aware you had a wife and family.”

“It’s only me and Chloe,” he said quietly.

Before I could think best how to respond, Chloe asked a question. “Can I have a pink flower, Daddy?”

“Of course you can,” he said immediately.

I handed the girl a small potted hot pink geranium. “Here ya go.”

Chloe sniffed the flower dramatically and then wrinkled her nose at the sharp smell. “It smells funny. But I like it.”

“It would be pretty on our terrace,” Charles told her. “We’ll have Hattie find us a pot to put it in.”

“Can it be pink?” she asked.

“We’ll see what they have,” he said.

“Okay!” Chloe said, giving her father a hug and a big sloppy kiss on the cheek.

He didn’t wipe his face off; in fact he smiled into her eyes as if they were the only people on the planet. Seeing his obvious devotion to his daughter had my heart fluttering in my chest.

Don’t even go there, I told myself sternly.

He shifted his attention back to me. “We’ve been coming here for the past few years purchasing plants for our terrace.”

“We have flowers and plants at our house,” Chloe informed me.

“I bet that’s pretty,” I said to the girl and selected another coral geranium. “The Broussards do have an amazing selection of house plants. Kate buys them wholesale from them for The Apothecary Shoppe.”

“I’m not surprised by that at all. Kate Weaver has an excellent eye for plants and herbs,” Montgomery said.

“She does,” I replied, caught off guard by his unexpected compliment.

He hitched his daughter higher in his arms. “Chloe and I will let you get back to your shopping. Looks like you plan to do a lot of gardening today.” He looked meaningfully towards my loaded cart.

“Planting up my vegetable garden, containers, and window boxes,” I told him. “It relaxes me.”

“Enjoy your day off,” he said, stepping back with a friendly smile.

That warm smile caught me off guard completely, and I fumbled trying to think of a clever reply but couldn’t. So, I simply settled for a polite nod.