“We’re good with what we already have planned,” I said, and she led me to the refrigerator in the back to show me all the blooms that had just arrived.
“Like I said, we already have everything here and ready to go.” She shrugged.
The white hydrangea and peach ranunculus mixed with all the greens were going to be beautiful. The second arrangement was of peach roses and white gardenias with the same greens and would complement one another perfectly.
“This is going to be gorgeous. I am curious, though—what did she want to change the arrangement to?” I asked.
“Red roses and purple tulips.”
“But the wedding colors are peach with sage-green accents.”
“Yep. That’s why I was a little thrown,” she said, which made me laugh.
I sighed. “All right. If you get any other calls from her, you can just ask her to call me. I’m sorry about the confusion.”
“You’re a saint doing this job, you know that? I don’t know how you deal with all the bridezillas of the world,” Charlotte said with a laugh. “And the mother of the bridezilla might be the worst in this case.”
I laughed. “You aren’t wrong. This job definitely keeps us on our toes. But I love it too.”
“I saw you, Charlie, and Harper when I was leaving the diner last weekend. It was nice to see that man smiling. Keep doing whatever you’re doing to him.” She winked.
Normally I would have corrected her. Deny that anything was going on. Insist it had nothing to do with me.
But I didn’t do that.
My chest puffed up with pride, and I smiled. “I think we’re both smiling a lot lately.”
It was true.
I wasn’t overthinking things anymore.
I was just living, and it was really nice.
I waved goodbye, and on my walk back to the office, I glanced at my phone to see I still had an hour before I had to meet with DJ DaddyO. I decided to stop by the hotel to see Charlie. We did this often, stopping by just to say hello.
“Hey, Will,” I said when I stepped inside and took in the large entryway that Will was painting. “Now you get to spend your days over here.”
“Yeah. I preferred it at your place. It was a lot quieter, and no one brings us treats over here,” he said.
I chuckled. “I could still bring you treats.”
“How’s the house? No sign of the groundhog?” he asked.
“The house is perfect. I love it. Every detail just makes it feel like mine. And Chompers the groundhog has been caught on my Nest camera a few times lurking around, but you fortified that deck so well, he’s got nowhere to go,” I said, acting all tough, when the truth was I felt bad that he’d lost his home. Even if he pissed me off. So I was putting fruits and vegetables and a little dish of water out near the tree line for him.
Will stopped painting and smirked at me. “Really? Charlie tells me you’re feeding that bastard.”
“Charles is such a traitor!” I threw my hands in the air.
Will was laughing hysterically now as he shook his head. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.”
“Fine. I’ll go to the source. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I think he was heading toward the office last I saw him,” he said.
The place was coming along, and it was a big project. I rounded the corner to where the front desk was, the whole place still under construction. There was an office behind the desk, which I knew because Charlie had pulled me in there last week when I’d dropped off lunch for him, and we’d sneaked in a daytime quickie in the closet.
They were getting ready to paint, so the window looking into the office was lined with paper. I heard voices and froze once I realized one of them was a woman’s voice.
