And family was a big deal to Sam.
She pushed through the doors of the offices, her arms filled with bouquets. Georgia was right there at the front desk waiting for her, looking slim and gorgeous as always.
“Hello, Georgia, how are you?”
“Doing wonderfully, Samantha. And you?”
“Great.” She pressed a kiss to Georgia’s cheek while simultaneously juggling two baskets of flowers.
“The baskets are gorgeous, honey,” Georgia said. “The tables are already set up inside, so you can place them in the center of each one.”
“Will do.”
Sam went about her business, and once she finished, she said good-bye to Georgia and headed back to the shop. She still had several individual flower orders to prepare and deliver, which took up the remainder of her day.
Which suited her just fine. Busy was good for business, and business had been great lately. She had two weddings coming up, including that of Georgia’s daughter Molly next month.
When her phone buzzed, she smiled. Speaking of the bride-to-be . . .
“Hey, Molly,” she said, putting her phone on speaker so she could continue to work.
“Are you sure all the flowers we ordered are going to come in on time?” Molly asked.
“Yup.”
“In the right colors?”
“Absolutely.”
“And how about the lilies? Oh, and the corsages for my mom and for Carter’s mom?”
“All under control, honey.”
Molly paused. “I’m being a neurotic mess, aren’t I?”
“Nope. You’re being a bride. This is normal.”
“I have a checklist of items, and then I came across flowers, and I know we’ve gone over this a hundred times, but you know, I just had to check.”
Sam was used to this. Brides called her all the time, even if everything was perfect. “Of course you had to check. Call anytime. But Molly? I’ve got this. Trust me.”
“I know you do. Honest, I really do. Oh, and Sam, thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll talk to you soon.” She hung up, figuring Molly would call her again tomorrow.
Which didn’t bother her at all, because as a florist, her job was to keep her customers happy. And when one of her customers was also one of her closest friends, that counted double.
She delivered the afternoon flowers, then came back to clean up the shop and prep things for tomorrow morning. By then it was closing time, and she made a quick grocery list so she could dash into the store and get what she needed for dinner tonight.
She had no idea why she’d invited Reid over for dinner. First she had to go in and start blabbering at him like she had some kind of motormouth disease.
Ugh. What was wrong with her, anyway? She was normally calm and in control of herself.
Except around Reid, for some reason. Ever since that night at Logan and Des’s wedding when she’d sat next to him, she’d felt an instant zap of attraction.
And ever since that zap, she’d been ridiculously shy around him.
Normally when a woman was shy, she’d be quiet, right?
But not Samantha. No, she had run-of-the-mouth issues when she was around a man she was attracted to.
So what did she do with Reid? She invited him to dinner. An impulse suggestion, sure, and only because she really wanted to see the blueprints. But was that really the only reason? When he’d been in town in the spring for the wedding, she’d definitely felt that tug of . . . something.
He’d gone back to Boston soon after his brother’s wedding, and she’d ignored the zap, figuring it had been nothing more than a passing mutual interest in the mercantile. But seeing him today, that zap had been something entirely different, and totally biological.
She chewed on her bottom lip and decided to call her best friend, Megan, for some advice. She punched in Megan’s number on her phone.
“What’s up, Sam?” Megan asked when she answered.
“Reid McCormack is back in town.”
“I heard. So he’s going to start work on the mercantile, right?”
“Yes. I popped over there today when I saw him go in. And then I invited him to dinner.”
Megan paused. “That’s interesting. Why?”
Sam pulled up the stool behind the counter and took a seat. “I don’t know. Impulse. And, you know, I got to talking to him. I might have overtalked.”
“You babbled.”
Leave it to her best friend to know her so well. “Yes, I babbled. I guess I babbled my way into a dinner invitation. We were chatting about the building and he had the blueprints, which I was really interested in, and I could tell he was busy, so it was an impulse thing.”
“Always go with your impulses, Sam. You’re obviously attracted to him. Did he say yes?”
“He did. And why do you think I’m attracted to him?”
“Everyone saw the way the two of you were together when we all went to check out the mercantile in the spring.”
Sam frowned. “What do you mean, everyone saw? What did they see?”