Only This

by Hadley Quinn

  Tyse looked at his sister and frowned. An artificial arrangement was the route he would have gone had he not found out Sarah was a florist. It would have been way cheaper and less maintenance, but he had to do something to get her to talk to him.

  “I already ordered some from down the street. Just trying to be friendly with the local businesses.”

  “Ah, I see.” She was about to say more, but pointed to the front of the building. “I believe your order is here. Jesus Christ, did you buy the whole damn shop?”

  Tyse followed her gaze to the sidewalk outside. All he could see was a pair of legs beneath a gigantic arrangement of flowers, so he rushed to the door to hold it open. He was kind of surprised by the way his pulse picked up speed from the anticipation of seeing her, but the second a head of black hair leaned to the side to gauge her maneuver through the doorway, Tyse’s heart dropped instantly.

  This was not Sarah.

  “Hi, I’m Rayne,” the girl said as she entered. “Could, um, well…uh…”

  “Here, let me help,” Tyse said, finally stepping into action. How she had carried that entire arrangement down the street was impressive, but he took it from her and set it on the counter for now.

  He turned back to face the delivery girl. The raven black hair was streaked with several strands of bright blue; her nose, eyebrow, and lip were pierced; tattoos were not only peeking out from the collar of her shirt, but up one upper arm and over the forearm of the other. She was very pretty, and whoever did her ink had done an amazing job.

  Tyse could tell that Kellie had noticed as well.

  “I love your tattoos,” she told Rayne, coming over to literally take her forearm in her hands to look closer.

  Kellie herself was so similar to Rayne that Tyse smiled at the comparison. The only major difference was that his sister had dark burgundy hair and her tattoos weren’t as visible.

  “You don’t mind, do you?” Kellie added, pausing for Rayne’s reaction to her up-close-and-personal greeting.

  “Not at all,” Rayne smiled genuinely.

  “That is beautiful,” Kellie said, turning her arm to see the entire piece. “Who does your work?”

  “My brother, actually,” Rayne answered. “He works in a shop over in Burbank.”

  “Really? I work over there, too. What’s the name of the shop?”

  “Oh shit, it’s like Skin Impressions, or something like that,” Rayne smiled. “No, Skin Expressions,” she corrected quickly.

  “Hey, I think I pass it on my way to work. Is it a blue building that has the lady painted on the window with the flowers over her tits and junk?”

  “Yep, that’s it!” Rayne laughed. “You should stop in sometime. Ask for Tate. That’s my brother.”

  “I think I will,” Kellie nodded. “I want something new.” She literally lifted up her shirt to show Rayne the left side of her lower back. “I want to finish something right here.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s cool,” Rayne nodded as she studied it carefully. “Go see my brother, you will love his work if you like what’s on me. He did all of it.” Pulling down her shirt to reveal her shoulder she added, “He just finished this one up a few weeks ago.”

  “Oh, I fucking love it!” Kellie exclaimed, looking it over. “I’m thinking in the next month or so—”

  “Uh, excuse me,” Tyse interrupted, amazed that the two women acted like he wasn’t even in the room. “It’s nice to meet you, Rayne, but…”

  He paused, knowing that if he said what he was going to say, it would come out sounding rude. He wanted to know where the hell Sarah was. She was the one he’d requested to deliver the flowers.

  “Oh, shit!” Rayne gasped, making a beeline for the door. “Just a sec,” she held up a finger and disappeared down the sidewalk.

  “I just met my twin that was obviously separated from me at birth,” Kellie said to him with a slightly surprised smile on her face. “How fucking cool is she?”

  “Uh, obviously really fucking cool,” Tyse replied with a shrug. “I mean if you’re twins separated at birth—which could be very possible in this family—she’s got to be as cool as you, right? Total no brainer.”

  “Shut up,” she laughed, punching him in the shoulder. “You have really awesome business neighbors. And I now have a new contact for more ink.”

  “Uh huh,” Tyse nodded, meandering toward the front door.

  “What is with you?” Kellie asked, following behind. “Those flowers are amazing. Are you not happy with ‘em?”

  Tyse glanced at the huge arrangement that nearly spanned half the desk. “No, they’re awesome. I was just, err, expecting someone else to—”

  He stopped cold when he saw Rayne at a delivery van about thirty feet down the street. Standing with her was Sarah, and she’d just pulled out another arrangement of flowers from the back and handed them to Rayne. As soon as Sarah looked up, she caught Tyse’s gaze. They stared at one another, even as he held the door open for Rayne to bring in the second arrangement.

  “Another one?” he heard Kellie ask from inside.

  “We just did what he paid for,” was Rayne’s response.

  Tyse let the door shut behind him as he came down the sidewalk. That was when Sarah decided to break their eye contact and she moved around the front of the van to get into the driver’s seat.

  “Hang on,” Tyse said as she climbed in. He was able to stop the door from shutting before she could slam it in his face.

  “Excuse me,” she narrowed her fiery sapphire eyes at him, fighting to pull the door shut. She looked pissed, and because of the end of their conversation on the phone earlier, he was pretty sure he knew why.

  Any time you have to use your last name over here, bro…you’re in for a surprise one way or another, Jay had warned him.

  “I just wanted to say thank you,” Tyse told her. It was the truth, but also the only way he felt he could have a conversation with her right now.

  She shrugged indifferently. “Okay, but I have to get back to work.”

  “I thought you promised you’d deliver them yourself,” he said, knowing it wasn’t going to get a positive reaction.

  She stared at him for a few seconds and then forced a smile. “Here I am,” she motioned to the van. “I mean I couldn’t exactly walk your order down the street by myself, so we had to load them for safe delivery. Wouldn’t want anything to go wrong and be sued or anything.”

  Tyse couldn’t help but scoff. “Over flowers? Give me a break.”

  She stared at him again, but this time there was something different in her eyes. Sadness? Disappointment? Whatever it was, he felt like he’d failed her somehow. He’d barely spent a total of five minutes with her since the first time he talked to her, but Tyse didn’t like this feeling of letting someone down.

  He stepped away from the door as he spoke. “Well the flowers are beautiful,” he said. “They somehow match and compliment the lobby and they’re very impressive. Thank you so much.”

  He walked away. There was nothing more to say, apparently. Especially since she didn’t seem interested in speaking with him or even remotely receptive to his gratitude.

  As he entered the lobby of the studio, Rayne and Kellie were in a very animated conversation about shoes, of all things. But as soon as they saw him enter, they both stopped talking. He noticed right away that the first arrangement of flowers had been moved to the end table by the couch where it fit better, and the second arrangement—which was about a third the size of the first one—was placed on the far end of the desk.

  It was a much better fit, and the room looked really nice.

  “Thank you, Rayne,” he smiled sincerely. “It looks awesome in here.”

  Obviously she knew that Sarah had some sort of grudge against him because Rayne seemed either uncomfortable or hesitant to reply. Finally she answered, “You’re very welcome. Thank you for using our shop. Hopefully, um, keep us in mind in the future…?” she asked tentatively.

  “Absolute
ly,” he nodded. “How about the same type of thing every week? Maybe each Monday? You can switch up the flowers, I don’t care, but do we have a deal?”

  Rayne’s eyebrows shot sky high. “Absolutely. Every Monday?”

  “Yep.” He nodded once resolutely, and then headed for the hall.

  “Where are you going?” Kellie asked.

  “Back to work,” he answered over his shoulder.

  Chapter Six

  “This is getting ridiculous,” Sarah muttered as she carefully perfected the ribbon into a bow around a vase.

  “Ridiculous?” Rayne scoffed with a laugh. “He is our best customer right now. I really don’t understand why you have a problem with this. And for your information, I love delivering to his recording studio. That place is freaking awesome. You should see it. I got a tour of it and—”

  “No thank you. It’s owned by the McCallans. I’m sure it is absolutely amazing because they have the money to do whatever the hell they want.”

  “We’ve been over this a dozen times,” Rayne shook her head. “You are being so damn judgmental about this. Who cares if he’s a McCallan. You liked him before you even knew that. Admit it, Sarah. You’re being so unfair.”

  Sarah sighed and shook her head. “I’m not going down that road. Of course he’s sweet and nice and polite and…whatever shit description you’ve said about him. He’s supposed to be that way. They’re all about making an image for the public.”

  “You are so wrong,” Rayne shook her head again. “Kellie is a McCallan and she’s nothing like that. And Tyse is nothing like that, either. If you’d pull your head out of your ass, you’d have a chance to see that. And now look what we get to do. We’ve been delivering all over town the past couple of weeks on his behalf and it has doubled our business.”

  “Yeah I’m sure he’s got his harem to tend to all over L.A.”

  “Oh my God,” Rayne groaned. “If you weren’t being so stupid, I would laugh right now.”

  “Stupid? How rude is that,” Sarah scowled.

  “How rude is you judging someone by their last name? Anyway, he does not have a ‘harem,’ you dumbshit. I have delivered flowers to pretty much all of the female members of his family. He’s being sweet. I mean how many guys have flowers sent to his sister, his brother’s girlfriend, his grandfather’s wife—which by the way, his mansion is absolutely gorgeous and you would totally hate it.”

  “Nice to know,” Sarah answered dryly.

  “You’d probably think you got an STD just by being near it.”

  “Probably would.”

  “He’s had flowers delivered to people I’m pretty sure he’s been working with at the studio because the notes say things like ‘thanks for your business’ or ‘it was a pleasure working with you’ and completely un harem-like things of that sort.”

  Sarah gave her a side-glance. “You of all people should understand and respect my feelings.”

  Rayne sighed and stood there in silence for a few seconds. “You’re right, and I’m sorry.” She grabbed her purse and a small potted orchid. “I’ll see you this afternoon. Try not to claw his sexy eyes out when you deliver those because I quite like staring at them every time I see him.”

  “What? Wait, where are you going?”

  “Oh hush, don’t panic. I have to deliver this across town and it’s due the same time. Jenny will be here any minute to man the phone while you head down the street.”

  “You are not making me deliver this order, damn it! Gimme that,” Sarah motioned to the orchid. “I’ll take that, you do this.”

  “Nope, sorry. This is for Grams at the nursing home. I really want to see her. Like right at ten a.m., when you need to be delivering Sexy Eyes his lobby order.”

  “I so hate you right now, bitch.”

  “Ha! Good, bring the hate on me, sister. Maybe you won’t stab him with a rose stem and lose our best customer.”

  “Well if I do, it’ll be all your fault.”

  “Whatever,” Rayne called over her shoulder, but she was out the door with her little orchid before Sarah could respond.

  Staring at the arrangement of roses and lilies, Sarah took in a deep breath. Arranging flowers had always been a calming art to her, but whenever a particular name was attached to an order lately, her stomach was tied up in knots. The truth was, Rayne was right. From the moment she met Tyse she was not only attracted to him, but felt like she wanted to get to know him better.

  Learning his name had ruined everything.

  “Put on your big girl panties,” she whispered to herself. It was a phrase she always used with her neighbor Alison, but lately she’d been trying to convince herself to do the same a lot more than usual.

  When Jenny walked through the door with a ‘hello’ and a huge smile, it softened Sarah’s heart. She’d known Jenny since they were kids, growing up on the same street as Sarah’s grandparents. It was then that she’d first learned what Down syndrome was. A lot of kids made fun of Jenny back then, but it didn’t take long for Sarah to realize that she was friendly and harmless, and only wanted to smile all the time. They’d been friends ever since, and now Jenny was more than capable of holding a part time job at the flower shop and she absolutely loved being there to help.

  “My mom will be returning in three hours to pick me up,” Jenny announced professionally.

  “Perfect,” Sarah smiled. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ll just be down the street and I’ll be back in about ten minutes.”

  “You are walking?” Jenny asked as she watched Sarah scoop up a vase of flowers in each arm.

  “Yes,” she answered, trying not to sigh.

  Apparently Rayne had convinced Tyse to downsize the one arrangement so she could just walk them over without using the van. And apparently Tyse was sooooo easy to do business with and blah blah blah and all that other annoying stuff Sarah tried to block out whenever Rayne mentioned anything about him.

  After giving Jenny a couple of brief instructions, Sarah made her way down the street. She even prayed that maybe Tyse wasn’t in the studio that day, or maybe he was busy and she could just drop the flowers off in the lobby and run.

  When she entered the building, she realized it was the first time she’d ever been inside it since it was now a music business. She’d heard plenty of descriptions from Rayne to make it feel like Sarah had been there, but after a quick glance around, the hall wasn’t where she’d pictured it, and the couch was a different color than she’d imagined.

  And she never even considered the gorgeous blonde that sat at the reception desk.

  “Hi,” the girl smiled at her as she stood. “Oh my, those are absolutely beautiful,” she added, looking over the flowers. She came around the desk and held out her hands to take one of the bouquets. Setting it on the end of the desk she added, “I love that Tyse does this every week.”

  “Mmhmm,” Sarah replied, setting the other arrangement near the couch. She at least knew where to put them from all of Rayne ’s recaps of her deliveries.

  “Just a guess, but you’re not Rayne,” the girl stated with a smile.

  Slightly surprised—and also realizing this girl had never met Rayne, either—Sarah replied, “No, I’m Sarah. I’m the other owner at the shop.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “And I’m guessing you’re not Kellie?”

  “Oh,” the blonde laughed. “Nope, I’m not. I’m Melanie, nice to meet you.” She held out her hand, so Sarah shook it. “I’m not here all the time so I haven’t really met many people, but according to Kellie, she and Rayne are long lost sisters.”

  “Oh, I know,” Sarah couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve heard the same thing. I guess they have a lot in common.”

  “Kellie is very fun and outgoing, kind of speaks her mind, but she’s such a sweetheart.”

  “Rayne is the same way. I guess they are a lot alike.”

  This wasn’t turning out to be so bad. Melanie seemed nice, and it was actually professional to get to
know the people at the businesses she did work for.

  She was about to say goodbye since she needed to get back to the shop, but wasn’t it just her luck that he came from the hallway that very instant. At first Tyse didn’t even look her way. She actually didn’t think he saw her at all since she was still in the far corner, fussing with a few flowers that needed better placing after transporting them.

  His attention was on the floor behind the desk and he suddenly dropped to his haunches and said, “Hey there, big guy! Whatya think you’re doing down here? Push-ups? You got lots of fun things to play with, I see. Is mommy working hard or hardly working? You can tell me,” he added with a feigned whisper. “I won’t tell you told on her.”

  Big guy? Things to play with? Mommy? Oh, seriously…

  Sure enough, Tyse appeared from the floor with a baby against his chest and a freaking sexy smile on his face. Sarah’s heart may have stopped for a moment. For two reasons, really. One, was this his wife and kid? –No, not his wife, Sarah was pretty sure he wasn’t married. Girlfriend?

  And two… Hello, sexy guy holding an adorable baby. Was it necessary to say more?

  “He would never tell on me,” Melanie scoffed with a smile, hands playfully on her hips.

  Tyse laughed her direction, and that’s when he finally saw Sarah. The smile completely disappeared from his face, and suddenly things became awkward. Even Melanie glanced between the two of them curiously, but whether or not she knew of their prior interactions with each other, she had the sense to take the baby from Tyse and head down the hall to another room.

  “Hey,” he finally said, taking a few steps across the lobby toward Sarah.

  “Hi,” she managed to answer. But that was about all she could get out. Flowers were delivered, check. Met the gorgeous receptionist-slash-girlfriend, check. Adorable baby added to the equation, check.

  Now it was time to leave.

  “Can I talk to you about an upcoming event?” he asked, just as she headed for the door. “I was going to talk to Rayne about it but…”

  Sarah took a silent breath of air and turned around. She could handle business talk, right? “Of course. What kind of event?”