I’d spent the last hour in storage, focused wholly on assembling a display piece made out of a dozen triangles that Tess wanted to plant with ferns and moss. When it was finished, I headed out of storage looking for her.

I found her digging determinedly through the buckets of flowers on one of the tables. Ivy watched her with concern.

Her hair was a little wild, worked loose in tendrils around her face, which was tight, brows furrowed. A huff left her, noisy and impatient as she moved to the next bucket.

“The search is over,” I teased, spreading my arms in display.

She didn’t even look up, never mind laugh. “There was an orchid in one of these buckets, and I can’t find it.”

I frowned. “An orchid?”

“Yes, and I need it.”

I stepped up to the buckets and dug alongside her. “And what’s so urgent that it hinges on this particular orchid?”

“I’m working on the bouquet that I’m going to pretend to work on when the editor comes in tomorrow, and I need that orchid!” She dove into the next bucket, too frantic to really see anything. “It’s on my list, and I can’t move to the next task until I find this orchid and put it where it belongs.”

In three steps, I was in front of her, having wedged myself between her and the table.

She glared up at me. “Luke, what are you doing?”

“Getting you out of here,” I answered, steering her toward the door.

“But I need that orchid!” she sputtered over her shoulder.

“Ivy will find it. Right, Ivy?”

“On it!” she called after us.

“See? She’s on it.”

Tess’s lips flattened defiantly, digging in her heels like she could stop me, which was adorable. Her feet skipped as I kept walking.

“Luke, if I’m going to get all this done, I need to stay on schedule. I can’t leave!”

“Yes, you can.”

“No, I can’t.”

At that, I actually did stop, turning her to face me. “Tess, the world will not grind to a halt if you don’t find that orchid.”

“But—”

“What’d I tell you about buts?”

“No buts,” she grumbled.

“We are leaving here, right now. We are going to get ice cream and walk to the park because you need to remember that a whole world is happening outside of this shop, all day, every day. You know, we have a saying among waiters—Burgers and fries, nobody dies.”

That earned me a hint of a smile and the smallest laugh ever known to man.

“This isn’t brain surgery, Tess. It’s a flower shop. We will get it all done, and it’ll get done on time even if we have to stay all night to do it. It’s not like we won’t be here anyway,” I said with a meaningful look.

One that softened her. I felt her relax when she sighed. “Fine. Ice cream and the park, but no lallygagging, okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a smirk. “Are you going to come willingly, or do I need to throw you over my shoulder?”