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My gaze snapped up and met her teasing one for a second before it scanned the room. My office in town had been nothing more than a glorified storage closet with a desk. Hell, it had hardly stored anything because I hadn’t bothered to bring much over from Blooms.
All that started to change two weeks ago.
Now, my computer was finally set up on my desk, two chairs positioned in front of it like I could actually take a client meeting in here rather than in the small conference room down the hall. The boxes of books littering the floor had been emptied onto the bookshelves. There was even some massive, leafy plant in the corner by one of the windows that Gwen had dropped off as a thank you for the donation I’d made to the hospital two months ago; it was a miracle—or Callie’s daily watering—that kept it alive this long.
The only thing I had left to unpack was the box in front of me filled with more diplomas and awards. I hung my law degree, but I had no plans to hang the rest. There was only one thing in this box I wanted.
A grunt burst from my chest when I found the small frame and tugged it free. I wiped the dust from thefaded photograph of Addy and me standing alongside Larry Ocean the day we’d opened Blooms.
Larry was the unofficial grandfather of Carmel Cove. He was the man who treated everyone like family even when he hardly knew you. The man who left his front door unlocked and his invitation to Sunday night spaghetti and meatballs open to anyone who needed a place to go and someone to lean on. He was the man who’d helped so many people find a way forward, myself included, even though, in the end, he hadn’t been able to find one for himself.
I set it on the corner of my desk. Ironically, even though the image was taken the day we’d opened Blooms, it never reminded me of the events of that day—only the events of two years prior.
After Ace and I had saved my sister, I’d brought Addy back to Carmel—to the house our grandparents had given us to heal… and to hide. For weeks, her body had gotten better but her mind had stayed stuck. Fixated on the one man who’d betrayed and almost killed her—fixated on all the evil he was still committing.
Larry had found me sitting on the front porch of the house, afraid to go inside one more day with no idea how to make anything better—how to stop my twin sister from heading down a path that would destroy her.
He’d handed me a cup of Roasters coffee. Every time he left the coffee shop for a walk, it was with two coffees, one for himself and one for the person he knew he’d find along the way who’d need it. That day, that person had been me.
“I don’t know what to do,” I’d told him.
“Because you’re thinking too big. It’s small deeds that change people, Zeke. It’s small deeds that change the world.” And then he’d pushed that spare cup of coffee into my hand. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
“I don’t have anything.”I’d dropped out of my final year of law school when I realized Addy needed me, so I had no degree. No job. And no idea how to help her.
“Bullshit.” He’d pointed over his shoulder. “You have this house. That’s more thanalot of people.”
I’d hung my head, his words sendingawash of guilt over me. He was right. Having a safe place to live was more than most people had—and it was the reason Addy was so fixated on retribution. Her ex had preyed on women who needed a safe place to stay and then exploited them. It kept her up at night worrying over his next victim.
And that was the moment the idea had hit me. We had a safe place to stay. For us. For them.
I’d turned slowly to look at Larry, and I remembered wondering if he knew what he’d done—if he knew what he’d given me.
“How do you know the right thing to say?”
“I don’t.” He rose carefully from the steps and brushed off his pants. “I just do what I can to remind people that good things don’t come fully grown. You’ve got to plant the seed, do the hard work, water the world with kindness, because that’s how every good thing blooms.”
I’d planted the seed that day. Found something greater than justice for Addy to focus on. And six months later, we were a registered non-profit, accepting applications for residents and donations to our cause. The very first check that came to us was from Larry. I never asked, but I imagined when he made it out toBlooms,he knew it was our conversation that had given me the idea, not just for the organization, but for its name.
“Seriously, it was a great idea for you to hire Kenzie to help over at Blooms. So great, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it,” she teased, a twinkle in her blue eyes.
I grunted. “Me too.”
I wasn’t sure my rash decision on the front porch almost two weeks ago was a great idea… more like the product of a thunderstorm and temporary insanity. Maybe it was a great idea for Blooms because the house was certainly benefiting from the way Kenzie had thrown herself into the role; I actually managed to check things off my to-do list. Before Kenzie, I didn’t even have time to make a to-do list.
But there was also a good chance that this great idea could turn into a giant mistake if I couldn’t continue to keep my distance from her.
I did my damnedest to keep things professional. I met with Kenzie for an hour each morning, and we talked solely about the house. About the things that needed to be done. Tasks I needed to complete, and ones that she could take over for me. We worked in a kind of sync that was so perfect, it would’ve been frightening if there wasn’t something bigger to fear in the room: the attraction that crackled and popped every time our eyes met.
She didn’t mention her son again.Jake.But that hadn’t stopped me from thinking about him. Some quick mental math on the porch that night revealed Kenzie had only been eighteen when she’d had him. But that was the extent of the information I could glean, and it had been like giving a crumb to a starving man.
I wanted to know more. I wanted her to trust me with more. And, God help me, I wanted to touch her again. To hold her face and explore her mouth. To pull her close and feel every inch of her soft curves on purpose rather than by accident. So that was why I kept our meetings focused, productive, and brief—because if there was any hope of remaining professional around her, I needed to spend the rest of my time avoiding her.
Hence how my office in town had finally been unpacked and organized.
“What do you need?” I asked, mindlessly straightening the folders on my desk and catching sight of the clock. “I thought you were heading out soon?”
“I am.” She nodded. “I was just wondering if you were heading back over to Blooms later? I accidentally put this address on the return for Kenzie’s request, and the reply from Stan’s lawyer came today. I know she’ll want to read it right away, and I’d take it over there myself if I didn’t have to scoot out of here so Reed and I can make it into the city on time—”
