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Authors: Pepper Anthony
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through the double glass doors to the nursery yard, wiping his suddenly damp palms on his jeans. A delicious apprehension spun through him like a summer dust devil. He was ready for this, right? It was just a business transaction after all. If he kept that in mind, he could probably handle things without making a complete ass of himself over the woman.
It would take her a good half hour to get here. Plenty of time for him to get his shit together. Meanwhile, he could get her order ready to load near the back gate. As he walked he took the walkie-talkie from his belt and keyed the call button. His brother Jim’s voice crackled back from the nursery’s office on the building’s second floor.
“Yeah?”
“Hey Jim. Can you look up an order for me from yesterday’s deliveries?”
“Sure. Which one are you looking for?”
“Wilson Homes needs to return five Japanese maples and pick up five more of the same arborvitae. Can you tell me which variety to pull?”
“Hold on.” Andy could hear the rapid click of computer keys in the back ground. “That would be Emeralds.”
“Thanks. Maya’s bringing back the maples today. You want to go ahead and credit their account? Oh, and add in six more number forty bags of mulch.”
“Wait. Did you say Maya’s bringing them?”
Andy held the phone away from his ear to keep from being deafened by Jim’s joyful whoop. His brother’s next comment was easily audible from a foot away. “It’s finally happening for you, bro.”
Andy grinned. There was no way he was going to get away without some good-natured ribbing from his older brother. He might as well get it over with.
“Yep.”
“Well, it’s about time you finally get to meet the girl of your dreams face-to-face. You’ve been haunting her Facebook page for months now,” Jim went on.
“There’s no harm in looking, is there? Just get the damn invoice ready, okay? And by the way, your daughter was on the bathroom break from hell earlier. Can you talk to her about that please?” Irritation and anxiety gripped his gut as Andy stuck his walkie-talkie back on his belt.
The late June sunshine fell across his shoulders, warming him as he crossed the yard. He zigzagged between rows of flowering azaleas and rhodies, glancing around him, making sure all customers had a staff member attending them. Then he grabbed the handle of a flatbed cart and steered it toward the materials area near the back fence.
As he began to heft and stack forty-pound bags of landscaping mulch onto the cart, he finally allowed himself to think ahead to what was about to happen. His pulse spiked as the realization began to sink in: sometime in the next hour Maya Thomas would come driving through the back gate. Somehow, he’d have to keep his cool and not act like a pimply-faced high school sophomore meeting the homecoming queen. It would be tough. She was beyond gorgeous.
And Jim wasn’t far off the mark. He was already halfway in love with her.
From the first time she had called in a materials order last spring, he’d felt drawn to her like steel to a magnet. Her upbeat, friendly phone demeanor was a welcome change from the run-of-the-mill gruff contractors he was used to dealing with. Wilson Superior Homes was the Portland area’s largest and best known custom homebuilder, and they were Paradise Nursery’s biggest account. During the dryer months he and Maya spoke at least a couple of times a week. Before long their calls had turned into something more social as they also began to chat a little about how their weekends had gone or plans they had for a Friday evening or the book one of them was currently reading.
It hit him hard one day how much he looked forward to talking with her. So much so that curiosity overcame him and he used the company Facebook page to look her up. Seeing her profile picture had sealed his fate. Though he hated to admit it to Jim, who had caught him once with her Facebook page open, he did indeed have
It would take her a good half hour to get here. Plenty of time for him to get his shit together. Meanwhile, he could get her order ready to load near the back gate. As he walked he took the walkie-talkie from his belt and keyed the call button. His brother Jim’s voice crackled back from the nursery’s office on the building’s second floor.
“Yeah?”
“Hey Jim. Can you look up an order for me from yesterday’s deliveries?”
“Sure. Which one are you looking for?”
“Wilson Homes needs to return five Japanese maples and pick up five more of the same arborvitae. Can you tell me which variety to pull?”
“Hold on.” Andy could hear the rapid click of computer keys in the back ground. “That would be Emeralds.”
“Thanks. Maya’s bringing back the maples today. You want to go ahead and credit their account? Oh, and add in six more number forty bags of mulch.”
“Wait. Did you say Maya’s bringing them?”
Andy held the phone away from his ear to keep from being deafened by Jim’s joyful whoop. His brother’s next comment was easily audible from a foot away. “It’s finally happening for you, bro.”
Andy grinned. There was no way he was going to get away without some good-natured ribbing from his older brother. He might as well get it over with.
“Yep.”
“Well, it’s about time you finally get to meet the girl of your dreams face-to-face. You’ve been haunting her Facebook page for months now,” Jim went on.
“There’s no harm in looking, is there? Just get the damn invoice ready, okay? And by the way, your daughter was on the bathroom break from hell earlier. Can you talk to her about that please?” Irritation and anxiety gripped his gut as Andy stuck his walkie-talkie back on his belt.
The late June sunshine fell across his shoulders, warming him as he crossed the yard. He zigzagged between rows of flowering azaleas and rhodies, glancing around him, making sure all customers had a staff member attending them. Then he grabbed the handle of a flatbed cart and steered it toward the materials area near the back fence.
As he began to heft and stack forty-pound bags of landscaping mulch onto the cart, he finally allowed himself to think ahead to what was about to happen. His pulse spiked as the realization began to sink in: sometime in the next hour Maya Thomas would come driving through the back gate. Somehow, he’d have to keep his cool and not act like a pimply-faced high school sophomore meeting the homecoming queen. It would be tough. She was beyond gorgeous.
And Jim wasn’t far off the mark. He was already halfway in love with her.
From the first time she had called in a materials order last spring, he’d felt drawn to her like steel to a magnet. Her upbeat, friendly phone demeanor was a welcome change from the run-of-the-mill gruff contractors he was used to dealing with. Wilson Superior Homes was the Portland area’s largest and best known custom homebuilder, and they were Paradise Nursery’s biggest account. During the dryer months he and Maya spoke at least a couple of times a week. Before long their calls had turned into something more social as they also began to chat a little about how their weekends had gone or plans they had for a Friday evening or the book one of them was currently reading.
It hit him hard one day how much he looked forward to talking with her. So much so that curiosity overcame him and he used the company Facebook page to look her up. Seeing her profile picture had sealed his fate. Though he hated to admit it to Jim, who had caught him once with her Facebook page open, he did indeed have
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