Page 20 of The One You Want

“You need to stand up to them, Jenny,” Riley said, her eyes hard on mine. I had expected her to laugh at my dating woes but instead she seemed to be truly bothered bythis.

“Easy for you to say,” I muttered, because, come on. Of course a girl like Riley James would see it that way. It was basically impossible to intimidate her. Riley was the most competitive person I’d ever met in my life. She actuallyenjoyedconfrontation. She had no idea what it was like forme.

“Jenny,” she said, voice sharper, and I shot her a warning glare, trying to telegraph my need for her to dropit.

Libby glanced between the two of us. “You’re leaving out the important part,” she said, and I was grateful for her ability to read the tension between us and change the subject. She leaned closer to me, grinning now. “Was the guyhot?”

“You know the weirdest thing?” I grabbed the bottle of wine to top off my glass. “I can’t even remember what he looked like. Seriously. I’ve seen him half a dozen times this week and I’m not sure I could pick that man out of alineup.”

Cora snorted into her glass. “So he wasnothotthen.”

I shrugged. “I mean, I remember thinking he was attractive? I guess? Like, he was tall and he was obviously in good shape and he dressed well. He just…didn’t make an impression. All I saw when I looked at the guy was another robot working in my grandfather’s office. He could have been any well dressed guy and it wouldn’t havemattered.”

Iris made a face. “Sounds like my last boyfriend before I left Chicago. Total dud in a Armanisuit.”

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Libby said, pointing at her. “Iris met David right after Armani suit guy. So maybe the pattern will hold for you,too.”

Iris knocked Libby’s pointed finger away from her face. “Whatpattern?”

“First you date the boring, robot business man and then you turn around and fall for the hottest man on theisland.”

Iris rolled her eyes. “Do not let him hear you call him that. David’s ego is just fine without the addedcompliment.”

“His ego isn’t the only thing that’s fine,” Libby sighed, staring across the bar at David’s table in appreciation. We all turned and followed her gaze because, duh. David Jenkins was ridiculouslyattractive.

“What?” he called out over the noise of the bar. “Why are you all staring atme?”

“Just objectifying you, dear,” Iris called back happily, and we all laughed as David rolled hiseyes.

“So you weren’t kidding about the Libbies, huh?” a low, rumbly voice muttered in my ear and I turned in surprise to see Grant leaning close, beer bottle in his hand, eyes sparkling withamusement.

“God,” I muttered, placing a hand over my heart. “You scaredme!”

He just grinned. “When you told me about all of the sexual harassment, you failed to mention that you were aparticipant.”

I couldn’t help but mirror his easy smile. “I mean, have youseenDavidJenkins?”

That earned a full laugh from Grant, his head tilting back. Across from me, Riley cleared herthroat.

“Uh, Jenny,” she said pointedly. “Who’s yourfriend?”

I smirked up at him. “I warned you, mister,” I muttered. “Should have stayed away.” I turned back to the girls, who were all staring at us with wide-eyed expressions I couldn’t reallyread.

“Ladies, this is my friend Grant. He opened that new flower shop around the corner from Libby’s store earlier in thesummer.”

I introduced each of the girls but Libby interrupted before I got to her. “Hey, Grant.” She waved, obviously having met him before—no surprise there. Libby was a gossip hound and knew pretty much everyone on the island, particularly those in the business community. She turned to the other girls. “Have you been in there yet? It smellsdivine. I’ve been picking up fresh flowers for the shop everyweek.”

Grant grabbed an empty chair and pulled it up to the table, sitting backwards and resting his flannel clad arms on the back rung. “I set aside some real pretty hyacinths for you, Libby,” hesaid.

“How do you have hyacinths this time of year?” Irisasked.

Grant shrugged, taking a swig of beer. “I have a greenhouse on my farm. I can grow most of theyear.”

My eyes traveled to the hand holding the beer bottle, the familiar sight of his hopelessly dirty nails and callused fingers making mesmile.

“But in the fall and winter I mostly work with dried flowers,” he continued. “I do arrangements and wreaths and stuff.” He turned to me. “Which reminds me, I have all those flowers ready foryou.”

“That wasfast.”