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Reaching for her hands, I cupped them and blew my breath into my hands to warm hers. “I can’t make any big life decisions yet, Avery. I haven’t even been here a whole week. Right now, the only thing that would keep me here is you.”
“Is that a bad thing?” she asked.
I let go of her hands and kicked at nothing on the garage floor as I thought about what I wanted to say. Lifting my head, I met her intense gaze. “If I asked you right now to move to Texas and live there with me, would you?”
She chewed on her lower lip. “I mean, I’ve got the new business I’m starting up with Emily. It’s a dream of mine that I can’t walk away from.”
Taking her hands again, I softly squeezed them. “I know, and I would never ask you to give that up for me.”
Closing her eyes, she said, “I’m so selfish.”
“Hey,” I whispered, pulling her body to mine. “You are far from selfish. I just need to see how things go here in Montana. And I don’t want to put any kind of pressure on either of us.”
“I don’t either.”
“Then we go back to taking things a day at a time.”
Smiling up at me, she said, “Yes. I’m sorry.”
I kissed her lips softly. “Don’t ever say sorry for being honest about your feelings, princess.”
Avery wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. It was the kind of kiss where, if we’d been back at the hotel, I would have carried her to the bed and made love to her. But, instead, we were standing in front of her parents’ house.
Taking a step back, I reluctantly broke the kiss. “Goodnight, princess.”
With a lift of her hand, she waved her fingers. “Goodnight, cowboy.”
I watched as she walked into her parents’ house. Once the door shut, I turned and walked to the rental car. I slid inside and stared up at the window that I knew was her bedroom. Without waiting for a light to come on, I turned around and drove out of the driveway, only looking back in the rearview mirror once.
Chapter Twenty-Two
AVERY
A week. Over a week. Ten days, to be exact.
Ten days ago, Beck Dahlstrom blew into my life and changed everything. It had been a wonderful ten days. Most of it, however, was spent with Emily and me getting everything set up for our new business venture before she needed to fly back to New York. We finally came up with a name and had our lawyer register it with the state of Montana. Bitterroot Flower Club was what we chose. After going back and forth with cute names, we ended up agreeing that simpler was better.
Two days straight were spent in the greenhouse, getting our space up and running. That meant planting hundreds of seeds and seedlings. Beck had stopped by one afternoon and helped out. Not minding at all getting his hands in the dirt. I loved working alongside him.
Since I wasn’t earning any income, now that I was home from France, I also went back to work for Morgan and Georgiana at their boutique, La Chic. I didn’t really want to get back into fashion, but if I wanted to move out of my parents’ place anytime soon, then I needed to work.
Upon arriving in town, Emily had immediately procured a job at one of the local floral shops in Hamilton, and they had agreed to let her start once she and Doug officially moved, which would be in a couple of weeks. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was insanely jealous she was working around flowers, and I was back doing what I didn’t really want to do. She had offered to see if they had another spot open for me, but I had told her no, I was fine at the boutique.
“Avery?”
The sound of Morgan’s voice caused me to turn away from the window display I was working on. “Yeah?”
“Will you please come back to the office?”
I closed my eyes and prayed they wouldn’t tell me they couldn’t afford for me to work there. If that was the case, I’d have to find a waitressing job.
Climbing out of the window display, I started back toward the offices. Could I even work as a waitress? Knowing me, I’d spill something on someone. Like hot coffee.
Knocking lightly on the door, I peeked in to see Georgiana leaning over a sketch of what was sure to be one of Morgan’s latest designs.
“What’s up?” I asked. Stepping in, I glanced at the sketch of what looked to be a wedding gown.
Morgan and Georgiana both looked up and smiled at me.
“The window displays have never looked so good,” Morgan said.
“Thanks. I learned a lot in France.”
Georgiana leaned against her desk. “I’ll say.”
