“Thank you,” she breathed. “I don’t know what happened—I’ve never frozen up like that before.”
“It’s OK, April.” Luke’s eyes were still full of concern, but there was a reassuring warmth to his presence that she savored as they stood there, the gentle trickle of water from the fountain soothing her. “I know you don’t need me to fight your battles or anything, but I couldn’t just let that douchebag talk to you that way. He’s a nasty piece of work—Noah always said so, and I saw that first-hand tonight. You deserve to be with someone who loves you for who you are, rather than someone who just wants to control you. I’m just sorry you had to put up with him for so long.”
April stayed silent for a moment, slowly processing Luke’s words. Her upset at Tyler’s call seemed to have melted away as Luke spoke, and while there was undeniably a lot of truth in what he’d said, her brain was mostly caught up on one little word.Love.Did Luke love her? Did she love him?
Yes.
The answer came to her so easily she nearly choked.
Luke misread her shock for anger. “I’m sorry if I overstepped; I just hated hearing him talk to you like that.” He muttered something under his breath that sounded like “little worm” and April couldn’t help herself—she burst out laughing. “You’re not mad?” he said hesitantly, and in answer she stood on her tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his lips, her hands winding their way around his neck.
“Pointer,” she said smugly, a sly grin spreading across her face, “do you love me?”
He blinked rapidly, clearly surprised at the change in conversation. “Well, I-I mean, I guess I did say that, yes, but it doesn’t mean you have to—”
She kissed him again. “I love you, too.”
“Oh,” he said, and then he grinned. “Your mom is going to be thrilled. She’s been dying to have me as a son-in-law.”
April rolled her eyes. “Let’s not get carried away.”
“Come back to mine?”
She bit her lip on the smile that wanted to escape. “Yes, please.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“I think that seems like a fair deal, don’t you?” Izzy was closing a large binder as she spoke, and April stood, following her friend out of the back office.
“Izzy, are you insane?” April was unable to keep the shock out of her voice. “You can’t seriously be offering to pay me that much to supply flowers to all the competitors in the Spring Flower Festival? You’re going to be done for government corruption at this rate.”
“Ah, but it isn’tjustfor the flowers,” Izzy said, holding up her finger to silence April. “You’re also running the floristry workshops, which is a lot of extra work to take on, and you’re having to order in extra flowers last minute, which will make them more expensive, so I’ve had to take that into account, too. Besides, I’ve got the budget signed off by Walston; it’s up to me how I allocate the money.”
It was lunchtime on Tuesday, a week since April Blooms had opened. The first week since opening the store had flown by in a pleasant, but exhausting, haze. The flow of customers had been steady, not quite as busy as her first day but enough that April was nolonger worrying about the store not being viable. Izzy had texted April that morning to say she had an urgent business matter to discuss, and when she had turned up with a huge binder and a serious look on her face, April had feared the worst. Had Izzy heard back from the authentication committee to learn that the buildings on Main Streetweren’tprotected? Was her little store barely going to survive until the summer with construction work starting back up next door?
It had turned out that Izzy actually wanted to enlist April’s help with the Spring Flower Festival, which was due to start that Friday and run over the weekend. The relief April had felt as Izzy explained her plan was undeniable, but she also couldn’t help but think that Izzy was pulling strings to give her the best chance at success.
“You’re devious, Isobel,” April teased as they headed toward the door.
“Devious andbrilliant,” Izzy corrected, and April chuckled.
“Single-handedly keeping this place afloat,” she joked, giving her friend a hug and hoping Izzy could sense the immense gratitude she was putting into the embrace.
“Oh myGod, it’s my two favorite people!” Emma breezed into the store, the small bell that Noah had placed above the door over the weekend tinkling sweetly as she did.
“Hey, you.” April smiled. She’d been expectingEmma, as they’d planned to film some more content for the Instagram page that afternoon. She’d been by several times since the opening to make more content, including one video that had gone semi-viral, much to April’s surprise.
“April, the views on that video are still going up! I think the story must really be resonating with people.” Emma waved her phone in April’s direction, delight in her voice at the video’s success.
“I can’t watch it without getting a little bit teary,” Izzy added, squeezing April’s arm.
It was actually a video that April had been most reluctant to make. The first half had been fine, showing off the shop in the sunlight, but the second half was apparently what had resonated with a lot of people. Emma had asked her to talk about the history of the store before she’d moved in. April had been expecting the question, but it had still taken her a moment to gather her thoughts before replying.
“Well, the store was originally my dad’s, Martin Jones. Everyone loved him. He made everything around him feel more colorful, more vibrant.” April didn’t often speak so openly about her dad, but had found that as she did, with Emma nodding encouragingly behind the camera, it became easier. “This place was actually a bar—The Last Call—and it was his baby. He loved it so much; he really poured his heart and soul into it. I’m sure lots of Magnolia Springs locals still miss it—I know I do.” She’d smiled wistfully beforecontinuing. “Sadly, business got tougher over the years, and the bar was on its last legs when he passed, about eight months ago now.
“My family and I weren’t really sure what to do with it at first, and we even debated selling up but decided against it. I realized eventually, with a lot of encouragement from the people around me—my mom and my brother in particular—that I wanted to do something to honor my dad. He loved this place, and I know he’d have wanted us to use it to bring some joy into our lives. So I figured, what better way to keep his memory alive than to bring some more color into the world?” At this point, she’d become too choked up by emotion to keep going, but apparently she had said enough to resonate with viewers.
“I still can’t believe how many people have seen it,” April said, scrolling through the comments on Emma’s phone. People from far beyond Magnolia Springs were saying how wonderful it was to see her dad’s memory kept alive, and how important it was to support small businesses. And it wasn’t just people in the comments section, either. On Thursday morning, a woman around her mom’s age had come into the store and immediately made a beeline for April.