Page 7 of The Brit and the Bridesmaid (Sweet Treat Novellas #1)

O ver the next weeks, Abby saw Matt— she discovered he preferred to be called Matt instead of Matthew—more often than she saw her own sister.

An evening here or there, plus Saturdays, belonged to wedding preparations, but the rest of her evenings and Sundays were spent with Barney and Matt.

She didn’t think she was necessarily a lonely person, but having those two to spend her time with filled a hole in her life she hadn’t realized was there.

She learned all about Barney’s late wife, how they’d met and fallen in love over plants. He taught her a few things about caring for fuchsia, his wife’s favorite flower. Fuchsias hung in baskets all along his roofline.

They saved the tomatoes from mites, trimmed back some overgrown rosemary, and, using Abby’s own formula rose food, had his Sunflare roses blooming to perfection.

And while she enjoyed every minute of that, and came to adore Barney like a wonderful mixture of grandfather and friend, Matt somehow managed to be an even better part of those evenings and Sundays together.

She found out he talked with his mom a couple of times a week, not in a mamma’s boy kind of way, but simply because they liked each other and got along. More impressive even than that, he wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed of being close to his family. Abby liked that. A lot.

Matt wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and help with the gardening.

Though he didn’t have Barney’s experience or Abby’s expertise, he knew his way around soil and plants and gardening tools, and he was a quick learner.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so at home with two people.

Even her own family grew quickly tired of her obsession with flora.

For dinner the Sunday night exactly one month since Abby had begun frequenting Matt and Barney’s apartment building, she and Matt introduced Barney to Indian food.

Much to the dear man’s surprise, he liked it.

After a leisurely, casual meal, Barney made his way back to his own apartment, tired from a day of gardening.

“I have a feeling he’ll be sending me out for coconut korma on a regular basis now.” Matt smiled as he dropped to the sofa. “I would, of course, have to reward myself with a little dhansak for my troubles.”

“Of course.” Abby pulled her feet onto the couch next to her. “And if I was here, what you bring for me?”

He didn’t even hesitate. “Channa masala.”

Abby was impressed, but not surprised. Matt noticed little things like that. “What if we were having Thai food?”

“Chicken Pad Thai.”

Not bad . “What do I like on my hamburgers?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Nice try, Abby, but you don’t eat hamburgers. No red meat for you.”

Not bad at all. Her eyes darted to the entry table near the door, where her keys sat by her phone.

“What is on my key ring?”

He turned his head toward the door. Abby moved quickly, scooting over so she knelt right next to him and covered his eyes with her hand. “No peeking. We’ll see just how observant you really are, Matthew Carlton. What is on my key ring?”

“Your keys.”

“Very funny.”

He flashed her his brilliant smile. Even with her hand lamely covering his eyes, that smile was dazzling. She thought she’d become immune to it over the past weeks. Apparently not.

Completely unaware of how distracting the lower half of his face really was, Matt answered her trivia question with her hands still covering his eyes. “You have on your key ring a brass-colored bauble in the shape of the state of Oregon.”

That was absolutely correct. She dropped her hand away. “How did you know that?”

His deep green eyes met hers. “Why are you always surprised that I notice things about you?”

“Because you notice everything.” She wasn’t creeped out or worried—Matt was a nice guy, a good guy in a way she’d long ago decided didn’t exist anymore. “It’s like you’re...”

“Paying attention?” he finished for her. His smile tipped with amusement. “That surprises you?”

When she really thought about it, the attention he paid her was surprising. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had really noticed her. Dirk had only ever taken note of what she wore or did or said when she fell short of his expectations.

“Most people don’t notice the girl with dirt under her nails,” she said. “I work an unimportant job at a hole-in-the-wall nursery.” She was embarrassing herself, pointing out her shortcomings and yet could seem to stop the list from pouring out of her. “Why would anyone pay attention to—”

“Abby.” He set a hand gently on the side of her face.

Her heart jumped to her throat, pounding and pulsing.

Heat poured into her cheeks. Matt had never touched her like that before.

They’d brushed hands or arms a few times while working in Barney’s garden.

They’d high-fived after scoring a goal during Sunday afternoon soccer matches.

But he hadn’t ever touched her that way, deliberately and affectionately.

He said her name again, but slower and softer. He cupped her face in his hand, his thumb slowly brushing along her cheek.

Abby tried to hide the way his touch upended her. If he had any idea how quickly and fully she was falling for him, he would have all the ammunition he needed to break her heart. She wasn’t ready to feel that kind of vulnerability again.

“If you keep doing that, I’ll think you’re about to kiss me.” She tried to keep her tone light and joking. She could tell she didn’t entirely succeed.

“Maybe I am about to kiss you.”

Her heart flipped over. Every ounce of air slid out of her lungs. She couldn’t look away. Matt moved closer. She met him halfway. The space that separated them jumped and crackled with energy. Anticipation tiptoed over Abby’s skin.

I don’t know if I’m ready for this. Her mind warned her not to get in any deeper, but her heart pounded too loudly. She wanted Matt to kiss her, she’d wanted it for weeks, though she’d never admitted it to herself.

Why wasn’t he moving? Was he waiting? Had he changed his mind already? Abby lowered her eyes. If he was about to reject her before they even had anything between them, she didn’t want to have to see it on his face.

“I probably should go,” she whispered quickly.

But he didn’t drop his hand from her face. “Please don’t.”

She met his gaze again. “But you—”

“—promised my dad years ago to never kiss a girl without giving her ample opportunity to tell me to take myself off.”

He was waiting for her? “I didn’t tell you to take off.”

His gaze dropped to her lips. “I noticed.”

Matt closed the gap, his mouth brushing over hers. Abby set her palms against his chest. All thoughts of past heartache and disappointment and vulnerability fled from her mind. There was nothing in that moment but him and that kiss. Warmth spread through her like a slow-burning fire.

He held her close, earnest but gentle, as he deepened the kiss.

Abby simply melted against him. She hadn’t expected this to happen.

After Dirk, she’d promised herself that it wouldn’t ever happen again.

But Matt had found his way past the barriers.

Being held by him this way, feeling the warmth of him there beside her, Abby realized she was beginning to fall in love with him. More than just beginning to, in fact.

***

Abby hadn’t seen Matt since their kiss in his living room two days earlier. She’d missed him, but she didn’t want to seem desperate. When an order came through at the nursery for Sainsbury House, Abby jumped at the opportunity to make the delivery.

She didn’t find Larry in the gardener’s shed.

She decided to slip inside the house and say hi to Matt.

Abby was glad she’d worn her favorite pair of work jeans instead of the ratty ones she’d had on the last time she’d come to Sainsbury House.

Her blue t-shirt was in decent shape too.

She’d spent the day at the counter and not among the plants, so she was still clean.

Not a bad day to drop in on the guy who’d somehow managed to lay claim to her heart.

Abby smoothed her hair as she stepped onto the porch and into the entryway.

She hadn’t been to Matt’s office many times, but she remembered exactly where it was.

His voice floated out his open office door.

That accent had turned her off when she first met him.

He’d seemed stuffy and arrogant. Now she loved the sound of it, loved the way her name sounded like poetry when he said it.

“We can, of course, accommodate you in that,” he was saying to someone inside. “At Sainsbury House we pride ourselves on making our clients’ experiences as close to perfect as we can possibly manage.”

Abby leaned against the wall beside the door, listening.

“And you can guarantee the staff will remain out of sight and unobtrusive throughout the night?” Whoever was in there with them seemed adamant on that point. “We don’t want the help getting in the way.”

The ones doing all the work have to stay out of sight. Some people were so arrogant.

“I will make note of that,” Matt answered.

She leaned around the doorframe, not stepping fully into the threshold.

Matt sat at his desk, wearing a suit and tie, hair perfect like a model in a magazine.

A couple sat across the desk from him—pearls, cufflinks, polished shoes, snotty expressions.

Abby knew in a glance that they were exactly the sort of people Dirk had tried to make her fit in with, the ones who always sighed in dismissive annoyance at her appearance and her clumsiness and her plainness.

She must have made some kind of noise. All three people looked toward her.

The same familiar discomfort she’d known every minute she’d spent with Dirk in public came rushing back.

When it was just the two of them, things were fine.

Not great, but fine. But as soon as someone else was around, she wasn’t good enough.

Matt was up and out of his chair in an instant, moving to where she stood. “Abby. What you are you doing here?”

He didn’t seem at all happy to see her. “Larry ordered some plants and things from the nursery,” she said. “I’m delivering them.”

Her eyes darted to the couple. They were watching her, their faces pulled in expressions of disapproval.

Matt slipped a hand under her elbow, moving her toward his office door with obvious determination. “Larry is probably in the shed. You should look for him there.”

“I was just there,” Abby said. “He was gone, so I came to see you.”

Matt glanced back at his office before returning his gaze to her. “He may have returned by now.”

“Maybe.”

Matt was still lightly pushing her back toward the entryway. He didn’t want her going in his office?

“I’m interrupting, aren’t I? I can just wait out here”

He shook his head no. He doesn’t even want me to wait?

He lowered his voice. “This is a very particular client. They can be very picky about things.”

“About things or about people?” The question slid unbidden from her lips.

“Both,” he said. “They have very particular... standards.”

She didn’t like that word choice at all.

“Let me put it this way—they are not the sort of people to know what a gardening shed is, let alone go inside one.”

There was no mistaking that. She didn’t belong here among his important, highbrow clients.

She couldn’t have been more out of place in her jeans and t-shirt, the smell of potting soil clinging to her the way the aroma of money hung off the couple seated by Matt’s desk.

He didn’t want them to see him with the “garden shed girl.”

Dirk’s words echoed in her mind, but in Matt’s voice: Everyone has their level.

Once again, she’d given her heart over to a guy who looked down on her.

He was ashamed to be seen with her in front of his snobby clients.

Abby wasn’t about to go through that again.

If he was embarrassed by her, hiding her away from the fancy, important people in his life, then so be it.

But she wouldn’t hang around, enduring the humiliation of it all.

She nodded then turned and walked away. If she kept her shoulders and head up, he might not realize her heart was breaking.