A Week for Love to Bloom Read Free Page A

work, but it’s nice to meet you, Justin,” she said, averting her gaze to the ground before she briskly walked into the greenhouse.
    Justin felt paralyzed as the force of suffocating passion in the air crashed against him. He tried to wrap his mind around the intense moment shared between them when he couldn’t think—he only felt.
    He was pulled from the enthralling event when his brother yelled at him.
    “She’s not standing there anymore, you know.”
    J ustin scrambled to the truck. When he got in, Jonathan was staring at him.
    “ So are you going to tell me what the hell happened last night?”
    “How about I tell you over a beer?” The brothers dropped off the plants at the house and headed to one of the bars in town, Casey’s Place.
    ***
    Lauren was in a trance as she stood in the greenhouse. She couldn’t believe it was possible for a man’s gaze to make her panties wet. All she could think about was Justin’s charming smile, vast blue eyes, and the desire that surged through her body.
    She was so distracted by her thoughts of Justin that she didn’t notice her best friend, Ashley, standing in front of her staring.
    “What happened to you? You’re ten shades of red, girl,” Ashley said.
    “I uh, I just met this guy. Well, actually I met him last night, but it doesn’t matter . I don’t have time to think about a man.”
    “It sure looked like you were thinking about him from here.”
    “Stop. It’s embarrassing.” She wiped the beading sweat from her forehead.
    “C ome on. Let’s go have lunch, and you can tell me all about him,” Ashley said.
    Lauren went into the kitchen and made sandwiches and lemonade. Ashley worked full-time at a bank, but worked at the garden center some on the weekends to help Lauren out. Ashley was rather short and thin with long, blonde hair.
    She pried until Lauren shared the events from the night before and that day. She couldn’t stop laughing at Lauren over the hitchhiker story, but she also didn’t hesitate to let her know how dangerous it was to do such a foolish thing.
    “Lauren, maybe this was meant to be. I mean really, what are the odds you’d see him again this soon?”
    “I don’t know, Ash. He may not be staying in town. I couldn’t tell if he was moving here or visiting. Besides, he seemed out of my league, and I have no way to get in touch with him.”
    “ You talk yourself out of everything, and you’re going to have to trust a man, eventually. You’ve never even had a boyfriend, and you’ve barely even dated because of how wrapped up you’ve always been with this place. Lauren, you’re a great catch, and what if he’s the right guy for you? Anyway, you need to find a boyfriend before ‘buff Brett’ finds a way into your pants. I’ve really had enough of his drooling.”
    “Ash, shut it. Not Brett or any other guy is getting in to my pants.”
    “Oooh, if you hook up with ‘Mr. Mysterious’ we could have a double wedding. You’d have to hurry it up though. My wedding is only a year away,” Ashley said, beaming.
    “It doesn’t matter now. He’s gone, and I’m not going to search for him. Let’s get back to work.”
    “ I wish I got a look at this guy. He had to be hot if he got you this worked up.”
    “He was hot—beyond hot. Like I said, out of my league.”
    ***
    “That’s a hell of a story, bro. It was crazy enough you took the damn bus, but then not to call me to pick you up is just stubbornness. Instead, you let some chick do it. She can’t have much sense, picking up a stranger on the side of the road, especially heading away from town. That’s just dumb.”
    Justin got an uneasy feeling thinking of her picking up the wrong kind of stranger in the dark. He felt a need to protect her.
    “You need to forget about her. She was attractive, but like I said before, you should be with someone classier, whose family is respected in this town. You need a woman who has time to care for your kids because being an