“If you’ll just let me—”

“I’ve got it,” I repeated with a laugh as I headed for the door to the shop, not entirely sure how I was going to open it. “I just need to—oof.”

I hit the worktable with a thump and a burst of pain in my hip.

With a chuckle, he took the load off my hands. In his massive arms, they looked inconsequential. In mine, I could barely see over the top.

“Sure you don’t want anything else?”

My face flushed. “Well, since I’ve got more room, I’ll just grab some of these.” I reached for the bucket of pods. “And maybe some of these. Oh! You know what would look great …”

And seconds later, my arms were almost full again.

He shook his head at me, his smile sidelong and sweet.

“Okay, that’s it.”

“You sure?”

I cast a forlorn look at the flowers before promising, “I’m sure. Thank you, Luke.”

He started walking, and I followed the expanse of his back. Which he’d been on half an hour ago. With me in his lap. Naked.

I realized I was smiling and pursed my lips, taking a breath to try to cool the warmth on my cheeks.

So I’d caved that night in the greenhouse. And then I’d caved again the next day. And the day after that.

And then I’d given up fighting, which was when it had become fun.

Luke Bennet singlehandedly made every minute of my days light and carefree, bright and brilliant. His unworried, unhurried attitude kept me more still and calm than I’d been in years, since before my mom died.

We’d closed the shop together every night for a week.

Every morning when I came in, he was already here. I would make arrangements with Ivy all day while Luke ran deliveries between repairing furniture he’d found in the basement. Or building things for me. Or discovering new props for the shop in the depths of the forgotten wealth of storage.

Mrs. Bennet had advised me on plans for window installations, her ideas fresh and clever and sparking my own. Laney and I had coordinated our social media for the next few weeks with the store’s displays, and Luke had helped build a photo spot for a corner of the store. This week, it was a flower wall with ivy and zinnias in hot summer colors. Next week, it would be a wall painted a pale pink, topped with garlands of roses. The week after would be daisies hung vertically in strands. We’d only had it up a week, but our Instagram had exploded with several thousand followers in just a handful of days. Laney had set up newsletter promos for coupons, bouquet giveaways for our followers, and a dozen other promotions that I would never have even considered.

Luke built whatever she needed alongside putting in beams in the ceiling where we hung planters and some old tobacco racks for displays. We built and created every day, and Luke showed up with the sun with nothing but a smile on his face and the motivation to get shit done.