by A. K. Evans
“It’s got to be either the place you’re sourcing them from or the way you’re caring for them before they’re purchased. Or maybe it’s the food you’ve chosen for them,” Kathy suggested. She finally threw her hands up in surrender. “I don’t know. No matter what, make sure you keep doing whatever it is that you’re doing. In my fifty-five years on this earth, I’ve never been given a flower arrangement like that.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Reynolds. That really means a lot to me.”
“Zara, honey, call me Kathy.”
I gave her a nod of understanding.
“This heat is killing me,” Alex declared. “I think I’m ready for a dip in the pool before Theo decides he needs to eat again.”
Seconds later, with Pierce holding Theo in his arms, Alex had whipped off her sundress. As she stood there in her bathing suit, completely confident, I felt envious. Alex was not even three months post-partum and she had no problem being in a bathing suit.
“You look fantastic,” I stated because she did. Her body might not have met typical beauty standards, but that didn’t mean she was anything less than stunning. I had a feeling it had everything to do with the fact that she was confident in herself just as she was.
She let out a laugh and surprised me when she confessed, “Thanks. I’m not back to my pre-pregnancy size yet, but I found this suit that makes me feel great. I mean, I’ve sat and stared at myself in the mirror a few times since having Theo and I’ve been less than impressed. It’s taken some time, but when I look now, I see what my body gave me as a result of the changes it’s made. I have Theo and I love my body for giving me him, even if it’s not perfect.”
I stared up at her in awe.
Eric came up behind his wife, slid his arm around her, and rested his hand on her abdomen. “Your body is perfect, baby,” he proclaimed in a comment meant for her, but loud enough that I heard it.
Pierce heard it, too.
Eric continued, “It was before you had Theo, and it’s even better now.”
After Alex gave him a kiss, she turned toward me and added, “The positive praise from my husband doesn’t hurt my self-esteem either.”
I smiled at her as she turned and walked toward the pool with Eric by her side.
“Wow,” I whispered.
A moment later, Pierce’s hand wrapped around mine. When I turned to him, he gave me a look that told me he felt exactly the same about me and my body as Eric felt about Alex and hers. I let that settle in me briefly before I dropped my eyes to Theo.
“Can I hold him?” I asked.
Pierce grinned at me. “Yeah.”
Once I had Theo resting quietly in my arms, I stared down and marveled at the wonder of him. It didn’t take long for me to understand just what Alex meant. Watching Pierce’s nephew sleep in my arms, I realized it was possible to find the beauty in imperfections. She now had this little miracle as a result. And when that hit me, I knew I wanted to get myself to a place where I could accept and appreciate my own imperfections.
I glanced over at Pierce and found him watching me, nothing but adoration on his face. When I offered him a warm smile, I did it because somehow, I knew he was going to be the reason I learned to love myself.
The beginning of August rolled around. I could feel the fall and winter seasons creeping up on us, and I couldn’t wait.
Petals had been steady throughout the summer, and thankfully, not unmanageable on my own. I found Saturdays, when I had shortened workdays, were my busiest days.
Today was Saturday, and it was an hour before I was set to close. I’d had a steady flow of clients throughout the day, and while I’d had days that were far more successful in terms of sales numbers, today was turning out to be one of the most special days. The reason for this was because I was currently in the midst of booking my first wedding.
Roughly forty-five minutes ago, a gorgeous and endearing couple walked through the door.
“Are you Zara?” the man asked when they walked in.
Puzzled that he knew my name, I nodded and gave him a questioning look. He immediately introduced himself. “My name is Cruz Cunningham and this is my fiancée, Lexi Townsend.”
“Cunningham?” I repeated.
He grinned and confirmed, “Yep, that Cunningham. Levi, my brother, is the owner. Pierce is one of my co-workers.”
“It’s so nice to meet you,” I returned, stunned that so many handsome men worked in the security business. “How can I help you today?”
Cruz looked at Lexi, who replied, “Cruz and I just recently got engaged. We are going to need a florist for our wedding. When I stopped over at the Cunningham Security offices earlier in the week, I mentioned wedding planning in Pierce’s presence. He told us about your place here and said you were the best in the business. We trust him, so we’re hoping you’ll be able to do the flowers for our wedding.”
My eyes rounded. I was shocked that someone was willing to trust me with such a special occasion without wanting to see what experience I had. Of course, I had none, so while I was relieved they weren’t asking for it, I wasn’t sure I was up to the task.
“I’m honored. I’d love to do it, but I need to be honest with you,” I started. “I haven’t even been in business for a full year yet, and I’ve never done a wedding. You’d be hiring an amateur.”
Cruz shrugged his shoulders and gave me an indifferent look. Lexi responded, “I opened my own business early last year. A lot of people were willing to give me a chance because I was referred by people they trusted. Because of that, I now own a very successful public relations firm here in Windsor. Pierce tells us you’re the best, so we’re going to give you the chance to prove it to us.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that,” I began, offering a genuine smile. “So, when is the big day?”
“Not until late next year. We haven’t settled on an official date yet since we’re trying to work out the details of a venue still, but we’re thinking either late September or early October,” Lexi shared.
“Oh, so we’ve got plenty of time then. Perfect. Do you have an idea for what you’d like? What types of flowers? What colors?” I wondered.
“Yes,” Lexi exclaimed.
She launched in and we spent the next forty-five minutes discussing all things flowers and weddings. Just as we were finishing up, the front door opened and Trent walked in.
“Hi, Trent,” I greeted him.
“Hey, Zara. How’s Callie?”
I smiled, happy that he’d asked about my girl. “She’s great. Still as bossy as ever.” He returned a nod before I continued, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just needed to order an arrangement for my grandma’s headstone for next week,” he said.
My voice got soft. “Of course.”
“We’re going to head out,” Cruz interrupted.
Lexi added, “Yeah, I’ll do a bit more research on those few things you mentioned and then I’ll be back in touch to finalize the details.”
“Perfect.”
Just as they were about to leave, the door chimed again indicating another client had arrived. My eyes left Cruz and Lexi and went to the front of the store. When they did, my entire body locked.
Before I had an opportunity to think, I immediately spat, “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Cruz and Lexi, who had started walking toward the door suddenly stopped. While Cruz moved Lexi’s body behind his, Trent put himself between me and my ex-fiancé.
“Zara?” Brad called, a bit of surprise in his voice. “Wow, baby, you look fantastic.”
“Get out,” I clipped.
He took two steps forward. Cruz put his arm out to Brad’s chest and ordered, “That’s as far as you go.”
“Who the hell are you?” Brad retorted.
“Lexi, get back over there by Zara,” Cruz instructed.
Lexi immediately did as Cruz asked.
“Zara, honey, can you tell me what’s going on here?” Trent wondered, his eyes
still trained on Brad.
I took in a deep breath and answered, “This is Brad, my cheating ex-fiancé.”
Trent reached into his back pocket, pulled out his phone, tapped on the screen, and held it up to his ear.
After a beat of silence, he spoke. “Yeah, I just stopped in at Zara’s shop. Cruz and Lexi were here, and about a minute after I got here some guy named Brad, who Zara tells us is her ex, showed up. Zara has asked him to leave, but he’s not honoring her wishes. Would you like Cruz and me to take care of it?”
Take care of it?
What the heck did that mean?
The nerves in my belly were beginning to overwhelm me.
“Right. Will do. We’ll see you in a few minutes then.”
Trent pulled the phone from his ear and slid it back into his pocket. As he did that, he joked, “I’m a bit disappointed. I don’t get a lot of time in the field, so I was kind of hoping Reynolds was going to let me deal with this. He prefers to be the one to handle it instead and will be here in less than two minutes.”
“The field?” Brad repeated. “What field? Zara, who are these people? Can we talk a minute?” He had no idea what he was up against. I didn’t expect a brawl to break out, and I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it in the physical sense; though, I had no doubts that Pierce would easily best Brad if it ever came down to it.
I blinked my eyes in disbelief at him. He couldn’t be serious. “No, Brad, we cannot talk for a minute. We cannot talk at all. Your chance to talk was…oh, I don’t know…maybe more than a year ago. You know, perhaps before you decided to cheat on me!”
The door chimed, but Brad either didn’t realize what it was or didn’t care. Instead, he tried to reason with me. “I know, I was wrong to do that to you. I should have come to you first and talked to you about things. We could have discussed it and you could have worked to fix things. I know you would have, too. It was foolish of me, and I should have handled it better.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m sorry, did you say we could have discussed it and I could have worked to fix things? What things could I have fixed, Brad?”
His eyes moved over my body. And they did it in a way that made me feel extremely uncomfortable. “Zara, baby, maybe I didn’t handle this the way that I should have, but it’s clear to me that it’s been just what you’ve needed. I mean, like I said before, you look fantastic now.”
My eyes went wide, and I was certain there was steam coming out of my ears. While I knew that I wasn’t in the best shape while Brad and I were together, he was not, in any way, going to take credit for any of the work I’d put in over the last few months to get myself back to where I was now. In the four weeks since I met Pierce’s family for the Fourth of July celebration, I’d added an extra yoga class each week to my routine. I’d lost the remaining eight pounds I’d put on since I moved to Windsor. The yoga had done wonders for my body, making it look and feel longer and leaner than ever.
“Stop calling me baby. I’m not your baby. And are you actually admitting that you cheated on me because I didn’t have the perfect body?” I demanded to know.
“You’ve got to admit that you had quite a few extra pounds on you back then,” he advised. Lexi gasped beside me, but Brad ignored that and continued, “Baby, I screwed up. I admit it, but if you’d taken better care of yourself—”
“You’re done,” Pierce ordered, cutting him off.
Brad spun around and took in Pierce. “Excuse me?”
Pierce didn’t reply. He simply gave Brad a death stare.
“I don’t know who you are,” Brad began before he looked to Trent and Cruz. When his eyes settled on Pierce again, he continued, “I don’t know who any of you are, but this is between me and Zara.”
“It stopped being between you and Zara the moment you brought another woman into it. And it’s certainly not between the two of you when you’re standing here trying to humiliate her in front of everyone else that’s here. Zara’s done with you, and I’m not going to let you stand here and fill her head with your garbage all over again.”
Brad raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “You’re not going to let me? Who are you to think you can tell me what I can do?”
“I’m the man who’s going to love her until she can find a way to love herself.”
My hand flew up to cover my mouth. Lexi shifted closer to me and took my free hand into hers, where she gave me a gentle squeeze. My throat was so tight it began to hurt.
“I see,” Brad scoffed. “And so, you’re going to do that only until she can love herself? Then what?”
Pierce smirked at him before turning his attention to me. His voice was gentle, but held so much promise when he admitted, “Then I’m going to make her fall in love with me.”
And that’s when I knew that I already had.
Because over the last several months, especially after I met his family at the beginning of July, Pierce had proven to me what he knew was true. I already had every reason to be confident.
Sadly, it wasn’t until I was standing here with my ex-fiancé in front of me, making a mockery of me, that I realized it. I was never confident because the perceptions I had of myself were shaped by someone other than me. Each new negative experience I had only served to perpetuate the vicious cycle.
And when someone like Brad thought he could blame me and the size of my body for his choice to cheat, I’d normally have accepted that to be the truth.
But not anymore.
Because I was finally beginning to realize that I was beautiful. Pierce helped me see that.
I was not, by any means, anywhere near perfect, but nobody was. Not even Brad. Especially not Brad.
Suddenly, with all that I felt in my heart, I wanted to be alone with Pierce.
My eyes slid to my ex, and I demanded, “Get out. And don’t come back here ever again.”
“Zara,” he started. “Tomorrow would have been our one-year wedding anniversary.”
I stumbled back at the news. Sure, if I took the time to think about it, I’d have realized it. But the truth was that I wasn’t thinking about it because I didn’t think about Brad anymore.
I recovered quickly and shot back, “You’re right. It would have been. Thankfully, I dodged that bullet. I’ve got something,” I paused, my eyes sliding to Pierce for a moment before returning to Brad. Then, I continued, “No, nothing something. I’ve got someone great in my life right now. You are no longer part of the equation. It’d be best if you’d just leave me alone.”
“We can work it out,” he practically pleaded.
Shaking my head, I insisted, “No, we can’t. I’ve moved on. You had your chance; you blew it. I’m with Pierce now and I’m happier than I’ve ever been in…my…life.”
“Zara—” he got out before he was cut off.
“Dude,” Pierce warned. “It’s done. You’re done. She’s over you. You need to leave now before I see you out myself.”
Brad shook his head, looking to me with a question in his eyes, before he asked, “This is what you want?”
Without a moment of hesitation, I replied, “Yes.”
Disappointment and a touch of regret flashed in his face. It seemed like it was finally sinking in that he’d made his own bed and now he’d have to lie in it. For his sake, hopefully he could figure out a way to learn from this and find a way to do better with the next one. Either way, it was no longer my concern.
A few seconds later, Brad turned and walked out.
In the next moment, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t tear mine away from Pierce.
It wasn’t until Lexi finally spoke that I snapped out of it. “Are you okay?” she wondered, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.
Turning my head in her direction, I nodded. “Yeah, thank you,” I started before looking to Trent and Cruz. “Thanks for staying here with me. And for calling Pierce.”
Their faces softened as they offered gentle dips of their chins.
Cruz turned
to Pierce and said, “We’re going to head out so you two can talk. If you need any further assistance with this, just let us know.”
As they moved to leave, I snapped out of it, and exclaimed, “Wait!” When they turned around to face me, I looked at Trent and reminded him, “You came in here to order flowers for your grandma.”
Trent offered a beautiful smile and shook his head. “I did, but don’t worry about it right now. I’ll stop back in on Monday morning before I head into work.”
“Are you sure?”
Nodding, he reassured me, “Yes.”
With that, Cruz, Lexi, and Trent walked out together. I followed behind them to the door where I locked it up and flipped the sign to closed.
The minute I turned around, I saw Pierce looking at me. Before he had an opportunity to say anything, I blurted, “I love you.”
Pierce was visibly shocked. He rocked back on his heels as his chin jerked back. Blinking his eyes several times, he whispered, “What?”
“I love you,” I repeated. My feet took me the four steps separating us until I was standing in front of him. Looking up at him, I held his eyes several beats before I said it again. “I love you, Pierce.”
Pierce was no longer frozen.
He was frantic, kissing me, driving one hand into my hair while he wrapped his other arm around my waist and lifted. After I slid my arms up his chest to curl around his neck, I crossed my ankles behind his back. Pierce moved us through the shop and down the hall to the door that led up to my loft.
His mouth never left mine, even as he climbed the stairs.
The moment we made it to the top of the stairs and through the door, Pierce kicked it shut with his foot and turned to put my back against it.
Even with his body pressed against mine and our tongues gliding against one another, I didn’t feel close enough to him. I needed more.