I could see it and smiled. “Yes. And we have almost everything we need. But …” I frowned. “Will it be enough?”

“No.” She deflated for a beat before popping up straight, beaming. “Wheat fields.”

She grabbed her notebook from the table and doodled. Ivy and I leaned over her shoulder.

“We can make frames, like this.” She drew a rectangle. “Chicken wire inside. Take the wheat in bunches and make a field and angle and twist them so it looks like the wind is blowing through in a current. And on the display table—gosh, even under it—we can use the old rain boots and fill them with sunflowers.”

“It’s genius,” Ivy said, grinning ear to ear. “What do we need?”

Tess’s mouth quirked as she nibbled on her lip again. “A shitload of wheat. I have a bundle of dried pampas, but I think I’ll need some more. And twine. Lots and lots of twine.”

I nodded. “I know where to get the grasses and more sunflowers. What about the twine?”

“There’s a fiber shop a few blocks from here,” Tess said. “I’m positive they’ll have what we need.”

“All right. I’ve got to go—if I don’t leave now and the supply store doesn’t have what I need, I’m gonna have to run around. Are you guys good until I get back?”

Tess nodded, smiling. “This is simple and bold enough, it just might work.”

“It will definitely work,” I assured her, pulling her into my arms. “I promise.”

And I stole a kiss before bounding out the door to make it happen.

It was nearly dark by the time I was heading back to the shop. I’d been on a runaround from hell in the delivery truck, looking for sunflowers that weren’t worm-eaten or withering. Thank God we’d closed orders for the day, only selling our stock and taking orders for tomorrow, knowing it would take us all night to get the windows ready and the shop prepared for the shoot.

It was madness, the whole thing. But we would do it. I had no doubt of that.

Tess and I had been in communication all day with updates via text. Jett and Kash had helped her break down the installment and hang the frames I’d built for another installation. The four of them had cut a couple hundred lengths of fiber and tied all the pampas she had, and I was on my way back with the rest while they got the shop ready. And once I was back, we just needed a handful of hours and a whole lot of hands to tie what was left, hang the poles, and stuff the frames I’d build for the wheat.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, expecting a dinner order from Tess.

What I found was a text from Wendy.

It was long, too long to read at a glance. I skimmed it at a light, and fear gripped me, cold and merciless. Words jumped out at me: can’t, hurts, alone, how, please.