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“We need to put ya in a class of decorum,” Adeline suggests. “This isn’t the big leagues.”

“Well, they need someone to talk to them like that if they plan⁠—”

“Get out,” I order, because there’s no reasoning with him on anything when it comes to communication. “I don’t want any more calls for the rest of the week. Or I’ll make somethin’ up and bring ya in.”

Briggs blinks at me because I’m clearly bullshitting, and he knows it. I guess you wouldn’t be the least bit afraid if you’re used to starting chaos in town. That’s all he would cause when he was younger, and he still kinda does.

“Let me know when he has his foot out of his ass,” Briggs tells his sister as if I’m not here. “I can’t deal with the power trip.”

Power trip?

I glare at him as he walks away. Just because we’ve known each other our whole lives and I’m in the position I’m in, some folks I grew up with think I’m better than them because of it.

It’s utter shit.

“You off soon?” Adeline asks me, steering my focus back on her, which is too easy. “Ya look like you could use the break.”

“Ya lookin’ to call?” I blurt out before I can think better.

I implied some things the other day I shouldn’t have said, but I’m extremely curious about how far Adeline is willing to go with me, if she were so inclined.

I see the way she looks at me.

Sometimes she blushes slightly, but she seems to either have mastered that art or she’s not into me.

However, the tension I feel toward her is something I can’t make up. It’s either because I put us there or we both caused it.

Adeline bites down on her lower lip slightly, a habit she does when she’s nervous. “I got Daddy comin’ over to help move my greenhouse.”

I lift my head in understanding, immediately catching on to the excuse. “Right. What day is that again?”

Because she doesn’t know my day off, and all I’m hearing is what I need to know.

She isn’t interested in me.

“Thursday.”

My day off.

“Why don’t ya just buy a new one?” I ask. “No point in movin’ it.”

Her brows pin together. “Now, why would I do that when he ain’t gonna use it and it’s gonna go to waste?”

“Because that thing is so big, it’s gonna knock half the town down.”

Her green eyes point heavenward when she shakes her head. “It ain’t that big or bad to move.”

“Ya movin’ it?”

She lifts her chin. “Daddy won’t let me.”

“Why, because you’ll be in the way?”

“Dodger, are ya lookin’ to fight with me because Mrs. McLowen is annoyin’ as hell? Or is this how you’re tryin’ to be charming?”

“I’m just askin’ a question.”

“Several,” she corrects me with some grit in her voice. “And I don’t appreciate ya thinkin’ it ain’t worth it to me. I love growin’ things, and I want to open up my own flower shop one day.”