Page 61 of One Wild Chance

She gives me a look over her shoulder before walking out, and I wonder if we can survive working together with this unresolved tension between us.

Chapter 17

Summer

“So let me get this straight,” Larissa says, wrapping both hands around her cup. We’re tucked into the corner of Java Jane’s coffee shop after work, Larissa with her usual matcha tea latte, and me with a blueberry-lavender iced tea. “You told him you could run a profitable wedding venue out of an old barn, with no marketing, no bookings, and no track record?”

“Correct. And all the brothers agreed to it before they left Golden Springs.” It’s only been a few days since the night I presented my proposal, but the idea has been in my head for months, so it seems much longer.

She tilts her head. “And you said this why, exactly?”

“Because Jaxon needed a new idea for generating revenue on the farm.” I pause, wondering if I should tell her the other part. “And…I had a dream about it.”

Her brows pull down. “A dream?”

“Yes, months ago, and I never remember my dreams.” I lean back in my chair, the image branded in my mind. “I could see this bride, standing in the doorway of the old barn with light coming through the barn doors, flowers everywhere, and a man waiting on the other end of the aisle. I couldn’t see her face very clearly, but she was walking down an aisle sprinkled with flower petals. Outside the doors was my teal truck and the words, Just Married.” I stir my ice, leaving out the part about who was on the other end of that aisle. “When I woke up, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

She studies me. “You don’t think it had anything to do with the fact that you’re in the wedding flower business?”

“Maybe?” I play with my straw. “But I woke up from that dream wondering why nobody around here has anything like that, while we have this beautiful, old barn sitting empty.”

“Or,” Larissa says, pointing at me, “maybe it was because you were fantasizing about your own wedding.”

I tilt my head. “I was not fantasizing.”

Her pointed look dares me to admit it.

“I don’t even have time to date anyone,” I argue.

“Sure.” She takes her drink. “Heard that one before.”

“I’m working two jobs, three if you count getting this wedding venue off the ground. Even if I wanted to…”

I look out the window and catch Jaxon Chance on the sidewalk, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He’s walking toward James’s office, and it’s enough to disrupt my train of thought.

“Is that why you’re staring at Jaxon so intently?”

My attention snaps back to Larissa, but I can’t deny it.

Her lips curl into a grin. “You didn’t finish your sentence.”

I shrug, drinking my tea. “I was distracted.”

She leans back in her chair, holding her mug. “For someone who doesn’t have time to date, you sure notice him a lot.”

“He’s hard to miss.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “When is the last time you actually dated anybody?”

I bite my lip and try to remember my last date.

“My point exactly,” she says when I don’t respond. “If you can’t tell me in five seconds, that means it’s been too long.”

“There aren’t a lot of men to date in Golden Springs,” I argue, setting my tea down a little too hard to make a point.

She leans toward me. “There’s always Blaine Callahan.”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t want to date him.”