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“Oh. You’re staying at Hunter’s cabin? He doesn’t rent it out that often, especially to—strangers.”

She says strangers as if that wasn’t the word she wanted to use. I take another look at Daisy, trying to read her body language, hoping it’ll tell me something her words aren’t. The pink peonies in her shiny brown hair sway with her movement, and I notice tiny vines wrapped around the strands.

I wonder if she does that on purpose or if it’s a result of spending so much time around the plants. The end of her ear pokes through her hair with her movement, and it looks pointed, like an elf from Lord of the Rings. That is until she brushes her hair back over it, obstructing my view, so I can’t confirm it is actually pointed. It could have just been my imagination. It’s been rather active lately.

“Okay, well, Hunter’s mom is a fan of snapdragons and Tsumugi roses. So why don’t we start with those? We have a lovely selection to choose from.”

Daisy guides me with the arm still linked with mine down another aisle, circling through the large building to a section filled with all kinds of blooms. I have no idea what a tsumugi rose is. I picture the standard rose in my mind but am pleasantly surprised when Daisy stops in front of a section bustling with large, full blooms. These Tsumugi roses have more petals than a normal rose and they’re thinner and more rounded. One with soft, buttery yellow petals catches my eye. Reaching out, I brush a finger along the delicate petals.

“This one is lovely. Very nice choice. Yellow symbolizes friendship, so this would be a great color for starting a new friendship. They would go really well with these white ones.”

Daisy and I begin to pick out the best blooms for the bouquet—more her than me. The stems and blooms seem to lean towards Daisy as she brushes her hand over them and leans in to smell them, searching for the perfect bloom.

She says everyone I pick is 'not ready yet,' whatever that means. So, I let her sift through the flowers, choosing the ones she deems ready. Although I do pick out a few of my favorites and add them to my basket, which is now bursting with flowers.

Daisy is face-first into a bush full of roses, trying to find the last perfect bloom, when someone bumps into my side. Turning, I have to look up to meet the eyes of the man standing next to me—bright baby blues.

“Hunter. What are you doing here?”

“Found it!” Daisy calls out and places the white flower in my basket. “You know what? This is going to need a vase and maybe some greenery for fullness. Eucalyptus would be perfect.” She rambles, focused on the flowers, only finally noticing Hunter staring wide-eyed at us when I don’t reply to her.

“Oh, good, Hunter, you’re here. You can show Lottie where the snapdragons are while I fetch the vase and eucalyptus. She’s getting them for dinner with your parents tonight. You know where they are, so I’ll just find you. Okay?”

Daisy is speaking far faster and more animatedly than she had when I first met her at the front door, and the sudden turn of events has my head spinning to watch her skipping away on her bare feet, leaving me alone with Hunter. The only man in the world whose baby blues have made my stomach flutter as much as the butterflies overhead.

“You’re coming to dinner at my parent’s tonight?” Hunter asks, shocking me back to awareness.

“Yes. I thought you knew since your dad said you would all be there.”

He groans but smothers it quickly. “I knew about dinner but not about you attending. My dad left out that bit.”

“Oh, well, now you know.”

“So, it seems.”

“Don’t sound so excited about it.”

One side of Hunter’s lips quirk at our back and forth before he forces it back to neutral.

“Well, I suppose I should show you the snapdragons. And I guess I won’t be needing these.”

He holds up the few Tsumugi roses he had collected. They’re a soft pink that would match well with my yellow ones. I hold out my basket to him.

“Would you like to add them to mine?”

Surprised at my offer, he nods and adds them to my basket. Sitting next to the yellow and white, they do fit in perfectly.

“I don’t think I’m going to need many snapdragons at this rate,” I chuckle. “Especially if Daisy is getting greenery to fill in the gaps. Your mom is going to end up with a huge centerpiece instead of a bouquet.”

Hunter shrugs and gestures in a direction that leads out a side door into the gardens beyond. “That’s okay. She loves flowers. She won’t mind.”

“Good because I would feel bad telling Daisy I didn’t need all her precisely picked choices.”

A semblance of a grin crosses his face, and Hunter’s tight posture doesn’t seem as stiff. “Yeah, she tends to get a little overzealous when it comes to flowers and plants. I can barely get her to have a five-word conversation with me if it isn’t about something growing out of the ground.”

Laughing, my initial nervousness fades as we walk and talk casually. The other times I ran into Hunter, he was polite andcourteous but short, not stopping to have a full conversation with me as if he couldn’t spare the extra minutes. I’m sure mayors are busy, but still. Maybe this could be our redo first impression.

“Were you only here to get flowers for your mom?” I ask, subtly trying to discover his relationship status. Not that I need to know that for any specific reason; I’m just curious.