“Of course,” Ivy answered with a smile.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” I said, meaning it. This shop was all I’d known, and its future was too tied up in mine to miss a single decision they’d have me be a part of.

“Good.” His smile was too pretty to be real. “Then it’s a date.”

He turned before I educated him on the meaning of the word date, and Ivy stayed me with a glare, just in case I had a mind to speak. But I kept it to myself, choosing instead to fill my mouth with his peace offering as I watched his stupid, fine ass walk away.

I’d agreed to a truce, dazzled by pastries and struck by Ivy’s insistence. I’d give Luke Bennet a chance.

And I sure did hope he didn’t waste it.

6

Big Ideas

LUKE

“All right, all right—settle down,” I said over the din of my siblings.

No one settled down.

We sat around one of the big tables in the back, all hitched on stools. The only lights were the hanging tin farm lamps over the table, making it feel more like a clandestine mob meeting than a chat among siblings about the future of a flower shop.

“I need a gavel or something,” I said half to myself.

“Here,” Tess said, thrusting a hand spade into my palm.

“Thank you,” I said before banging the handle on the wooden tabletop.

Slowly, the noise dimmed, their faces all turning to me.

“All right, Bennets, Tess, Ivy. Tonight marks our first meeting, hopefully of many. We all know the shop is in trouble, and it’s up to us to save it. I was thinking about it this morning and have some ideas.”

“Before or after you boffed Judy?” Kash called from the back.

“Before. A little during. Mostly after.”

Laney groaned, Marcus rolled his eyes, and I didn’t miss Tess stilling next to me.

Marcus folded his arms across his chest. “This is going to be like the lemonade stand all over again, isn’t it?”

My siblings burst into laughter, but Ivy and Tess looked confused.

Kash leaned on the table, smirking at them. “Luke’s notorious for rallying us for some big cause—lemonade, cookie sales, dog-washing for tips. Ask me how many he actually worked at.”

Another round of laughter and a superior, though amused, look from Tess.

“Listen—the lemons would have stung my cuts from Mom making me work on the roses, I wouldn’t have stopped playing with the dogs long enough to wash them, and I’d have eaten all the cookies before we got our first customer. You guys didn’t want me there.”

Marcus shrugged. “Guess we’ll never know, will we?”

“Oh, give him a break, warden,” Kash said. “You lorded over us with a cash lockbox, a calculator, and a legal pad. It’s not like we blamed him. And anyway, you have to admit—he always had good ideas.”

“And I’ve got another one,” I started, glancing around the table to meet everyone’s eyes.