Bidding on Her Boss

by Rachel Bailey

  “He is,” Dylan said with no small measure of affection. “That’s why Liam and I let Adam run the overall company. Liam’s happier with his plants, anyway.”

  “And you?” Her voice grew soft. “What do you prefer?”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “I’m more of a people person. I like the buzz of retail. The colors of it. I like talking to staff and customers—interacting.”

  “I can see that about you,” she said, her tone pensive.

  “When we opened our first store, my mother and I staffed it.” They’d been amazing times, full of energy and excitement. “Liam and Dad were back home growing the plants and drawing scientific charts of plant breeding, and Adam was in his room, making spreadsheets and plans. My job was more fun.”

  “To you. But I’ll bet to them, your job sounded like hell.”

  He grinned. “Actually, yes. Being in a room full of people has been known to make them both yearn for their charts and spreadsheets.”

  He pulled into the drive to Liam’s place and went through security. It had been tightened now that Liam was engaged to a princess, and Dylan was glad for the little girls’ sakes.

  “This looks more like a private residence,” Faith said warily.

  “Liam still lives on-site. It’s the same house we grew up in, actually, though he’s had so much work done to it, you’d never know.”

  “But there was a specific farm entrance before this driveway,” she said, pointing.

  “If I came all the way out here and didn’t tell him, he’d kill me. Well,” he amended as he thought about what he’d said, “he probably wouldn’t notice, but his fiancée definitely would kill me. We’ll only be there a minute or two—just passing through.”

  “Hang on—” she put her hands on the dashboard as if she could slow their approach “—you’re taking me to meet his fiancée?”

  “If that’s okay with you,” Dylan said, glancing over at her. He hadn’t thought she might be uncomfortable—Faith always seemed as if she was ready for any adventure life threw at her.

  Her mouth opened and closed again before she replied. “She’s a princess!”

  “As it turns out, yes.” He wanted to smile at the awe in her voice, but he restrained himself. He’d known Jenna before he’d found out she was a princess, so he hadn’t had a chance to be overwhelmed by her royal status. However, he understood that this was probably an intimidating situation for Faith to be thrown into with no warning. He had confidence that she’d cope—he couldn’t imagine anything overwhelming Faith for long.

  Her expression was still uncertain as he pulled up in front of the house. But he wasn’t driving out here without at least saying hello to little Bonnie and Meg.

  He walked around to open her door. “Are you coming?”

  “Are there protocols about what I should say?” she asked as she climbed out.

  He shrugged one shoulder casually. “I’d go with complimenting their daughters and being particularly nice to me.”

  “You?”

  “What can I say? The princess is fond of me.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him as she realized he was teasing, but she’d lost the slightly awed look, which was what he’d been aiming for.

  Jenna met them at the door, twelve-month-old Meg on her hip. “Dylan,” she said in her lilting Scandinavian accent, “what a nice surprise.”

  He kissed her cheek, took Meg from her and held her up in the air until he elicited a giggle, and then kissed her cheek as well. “I’m not here long. We’re on our way down to see Liam and stopped by to say hello first.”

  “Liam’s in his office, working on his latest project. In the meantime,” she said, taking Meg back, “why don’t you introduce me to your friend?”

  “Jenna, this is Faith. She’s a florist at our Santa Monica store.” He didn’t need to emphasize the point. Jenna knew as well as any of them that he couldn’t get involved with one of their florists. “Faith, this is my future sister-in-law, Jenna.”

  Jenna held out her hand. To Faith’s credit, she hesitated only a moment before accepting it. “Lovely to meet you,” Faith said.

  Jenna smiled, and he could see her brain working overtime, trying to work out if there was something going on between them. She was far too insightful. “Would you like a drink before you set out?”

  Faith shook her head, and he wanted to get moving and focused on work again before Jenna could corner him with awkward questions. “We’re fine.”

  “Do you mind if we come with you? Bonnie is still napping, and our housekeeper can keep an ear out for her. I haven’t been outside the house all day, and I’d like Meg to get some fresh air and see something other than me.”

  “That would be great.” And it would keep him on his best behavior. None of those intimate moments they’d accidentally had at the beach.

  Five minutes later, they were walking out the back door.

  “It’s huge,” Faith said, looking out across the fields of brightly colored blooms. “Do you use them all?”

  “The main purpose is to stock our own shops,” he said as he opened the small gate that marked the edge of Liam’s yard, “but we sell the excess to other stores at the flower markets.”

  They followed a paved path to a building off to the side—Liam’s pride and joy. The Hawke’s Blooms research facility.

  When they went through the sliding doors, Jenna lifted Meg from the stroller and carried her in her arms, and Dylan spoke to a woman at the front desk. “Can you let Liam know that I’m here to see him, please?”

  She put a call through, and then looked back to him. “He’s on his way down.”

  Dylan dug his hands into his pockets and glanced over at Faith as she made baby talk with Meg. He had another plan in mind to help her career, and this time he’d be sure to take it slow and check that she was on board first. But despite his caution, he had a very good feeling about this particular plan. And that made him happier than he should have been comfortable with.

  Five

  Faith was aware that Princess Jensine of Larsland was studying her, and she had to resist squirming. It seemed almost surreal that a small-town girl who’d spent her entire childhood being shunted from one relative to another should find herself face-to-face with a member of royalty.

  “You look familiar,” Jenna eventually said. “Have we met before?”

  Dylan cleared his throat. “You might have seen her at the auction,” he admitted. “Faith had the winning bid on a date with me.”

  Jenna’s eyes widened. “This is a date? You brought a date to a research lab?”

  “It’s not like that,” Faith said quickly. “Besides, even if we wanted to, we couldn’t have a real date because of company policy.”

  She covered her mouth with two fingers. Had she just admitted she would have liked to date Dylan if the situation had been different? No one else seemed to have taken it that way. But she needed to stay on her guard because, deep down, there wasn’t much in the world she would want more than for Dylan to kiss her again, and she didn’t want anyone—especially Dylan—guessing that.

  “Ah, yes,” Jenna said. One corner of her mouth turned up. “That old fraternization policy. I know it well.”

  Liam pushed through the door into the waiting room and beamed when he saw his fiancée. He took Meg from her, swung her around onto his hip and kissed Jenna softly. “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi, yourself,” she said back and kissed him again.

  Dylan coughed loudly. “Hey, other people present.”

  Liam looked up but pulled Jenna under his arm. It was only then that he seemed to register there was a stranger in the room. He released Jenna and stuck out a hand. “I’m Liam Hawke, since it seems my brother isn’t going to introduce us.”

  “I’m Faith Crawfor
d,” she said, straightening her spine as she shook his hand. “I work for you.”

  “You do?” Liam asked, his head cocked to the side.

  Dylan took a step closer to her elbow. She could feel his body heat. “Faith is a florist at the Santa Monica store.”

  “Okay, good to meet you,” Liam said.

  Jenna looked up at her man, her eyes full of mischief. “Faith won Dylan at the auction.”

  Dylan held up a hand. “She didn’t win me.” His gaze darted to Faith before turning back to his brother. “She had the winning bid on some time with me.”

  “Three dates,” Jenna supplied helpfully.

  “They’re not dates, just time,” Dylan clarified. “In fact, this is some of that time now. Faith has a lot of creativity in her designs, and we’ve identified her as someone with potential. So I wanted to show her around the building.”

  “Sure,” Liam said casually, holding Dylan’s gaze. “The public areas?”

  “Up to you,” Dylan said just as casually.

  Faith looked from one to the other, trying to work out what they were really saying. It was obvious something else was being discussed, but what?

  “You’ll vouch for her discretion?” Liam asked.

  Dylan nodded. “I’m willing to bet on it.”

  “Then you’re about to.” Liam looked up at Faith and smiled. “Welcome to my world. Let me show you around.”

  It seemed she’d passed some kind of test on Dylan’s say-so, but she had no idea what it had been for. They spent the next twenty minutes walking through the research rooms, and Faith was enthralled with all the projects they had going on. Crossbreeding for stronger scent or bigger flowers, rooms full of benches with lines of pots containing grafted plants. Excitement buzzed through her blood at seeing the powerhouse behind the business.

  Then they reached a locked door. Liam caught her gaze. “Past this door is my personal project. Very few people know what’s in here, and even fewer have seen it. If we go inside, I need your word that you won’t leak the information.”

  “You have my word,” she said without hesitation.

  Liam looked to Dylan, who nodded, and opened the door.

  The room was like many of the others in that it had benches with rows of pots, each containing plants at different stages of growth. But the flower that many of the pots had was like nothing in the other rooms. Or anything she’d seen before. Faith knew flowers. She knew the conditions they preferred and their shelf lives. She knew which flowers were in season at any given time in which area of the country. She knew what colors each variety came in. But she’d never seen anything like the flower in those pots.

  She stepped closer. It was an iris, but it was a rich red. She wanted to touch it but was unsure, so she looked up at Liam. “May I?”

  He nodded his permission. With her fingertip, she touched the petal of one of the more advanced flowers. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed.

  “Thank you,” Liam said.

  Dylan moved to her elbow. “How do you think it will go with the customers?”

  She lifted her head and found his deep green gaze. “I think we’ll be stampeded.” She meant it. There was nothing like this flower on the market, and it was stunning. Already she could imagine how perfect it would look in a bridal bouquet or dramatic table decoration. Its crimson bloom would be the center of attention.

  “Tell me, Faith,” Dylan said, crossing his arms over his broad chest, “what would you put with it to showcase it?”

  “The design would need to be simple. It’s so beautiful, it doesn’t need much adornment. Perhaps something with soft white petals, like old-fashioned roses. Maybe a touch of silver foliage.”

  Dylan gave her an indulgent smile and dug his hands in his pockets. “Do you want a chance to try?”

  “Make an arrangement with one of these?” she asked, her heart racing with excitement. “Now?”

  Dylan lifted an eyebrow at Liam, who nodded. “Yep, now. We’ll wait here while you go out to the farm. Collect whatever you want. Then come back and make us an arrangement.”

  Chest almost bursting, Faith nodded and threaded her way back to the door.

  * * *

  As soon as Faith was gone, Dylan looked to his brother. “Thanks.”

  “If you believe in her, then that’s enough for me. But,” he said, his voice becoming serious, “do you know what you’re doing? She’s an employee.”

  Dylan arched an eyebrow. “That didn’t stop the two of you.”

  “It did for a little while,” Jenna said, grinning up at Liam.

  Liam returned the grin and then said, “It was different for us. Jenna was working for me personally, not the company.”

  Dylan leaned back on the bench. He’d had enough of this topic of conversation. The last thing he needed was for them to discover he’d crossed the line in a spectacular fashion on the very first night by kissing her.

  He shook his head once. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m just being a good boss and giving opportunities to someone with potential.”

  “Sure you are,” Jenna said and winked.

  “How are Bonnie and Meg?” Dylan asked, hoping the new topic would sidetrack them both for the short while it took Faith to return.

  “They’re just perfect,” Jenna said, a dreamy look of contentment on her face.

  Dylan asked Jenna a few more questions about the girls and suggested Liam find some floral tools for Faith to keep them occupied. Finally there was a call from the front desk, and Liam told them to let Faith back through.

  She entered with her arms full of flowers, her bright red hair falling from the clip she’d used to try to tame her curls. Dylan jumped up to help, taking some of the blooms and spreading them across a vacant bench.

  “Here, you might need these,” he said, passing her the box of tools. As their fingers brushed, he felt a tingle of electricity shoot up his arm, but he did his best to ignore it. This was a professional situation, and even if it weren’t, she was still an employee, as Liam had just pointed out.

  After recapturing her hair in the clip, Faith began to work with the flowers, trimming the thorns and leaves from the white roses, using floral wire on the blush-pink gerbera daisies and arranging them together. Liam cut three of his red irises and handed them to her.

  The expression in Faith’s eyes, of awe and honor, made Dylan’s heart swell in his chest. Her passion was contagious—he felt alive, as if every cell in his body was waking up.

  “Thank you,” she said as she took the flowers from Liam, her voice breathless. Then she wove the other flowers around them, creating a design that was elegant in its simplicity, yet stunning.

  When she was finished, she held the bouquet out to Dylan. He smiled as he took it and then showed it to Jenna and Liam.

  “What do you think?” he asked his brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. They knew what he was really asking—they’d begun talks already about launching the new flower on the market with an event, in the same way they’d launched the Midnight Lily a few months ago. Jenna had been the brains behind that and it had been a roaring success. They’d already started on preliminary plans for the second launch, and Jenna had asked him to supply a florist from his staff to work on it part-time.

  Jenna turned to Liam, one eyebrow raised, and he nodded. Then she turned to Faith.

  “Faith,” she said, her musical voice soft. “What would you say to working part-time with me on the launch of the new iris? I need a florist to handle the arrangements and a few other duties, and we think you’d be perfect.”

  Faith looked from Jenna to Dylan, eyes wide. Wary about pushing her into a job she didn’t want again, he explained further. “If you want to do it, we’ll work your hours at the store around this. You could do part-time at each until the lau
nch, then go back to full-time at the store.”

  “Then I’d love to,” she said, her warm brown eyes sparkling, and Dylan felt the satisfaction of a good plan coming together.

  Jenna grinned. “Great. I have to take Meg back up to the house, but I’ll be in touch about the details.”

  As they drove away a short while later, Dylan glanced over at Faith. He wanted to make sure this was really what she wanted, especially after he’d botched things the last time he’d tried to help her career.

  “Faith, I want you to know that this is totally up to you. If you’d enjoy the work, we’d love to have you on the project. But you can still change your mind, and it won’t affect your job at the Santa Monica store.”

  She gave him a beaming smile. “Honestly, I can’t thank you enough. The opportunity of doing large arrangements that will be seen by hundreds of people is a dream come true. And Jenna seems lovely—I think I’ll enjoy working with her.”

  As he stopped at a red light, he glanced over and found Faith looking at him as if he’d hung the moon. His heart clenched tight. He had a bad feeling that, despite everything, he’d do whatever it took to keep that look on her face. The light turned green, and he trained his gaze on the road ahead, shoring up the strength to do the right thing.

  * * *

  One week into her new working life, Faith looked up from the arrangement she was making to find Dylan letting himself in through the door of the secure room where they were keeping the new flower a secret from the world.

  As he crossed over to her, she bit down on a smile, unwilling to let it escape. He was earlier than expected, and that made her happier than it should have. Of course, every time she saw him—no, every time she even thought about him—it made her happier than it should. And yet it also made her sadder, since this was one man she shouldn’t be thinking about, or daydreaming about, in the first place. Her reactions to him were stronger than they should have been to a boss, and somehow she had to find a way to contain that.

  This week she’d been designing arrangements with the new iris for the Hawke’s Blooms promotions team to use for posters and media releases after the official launch. To give them enough lead time for their own design work, she’d agreed this would be her first priority. It hadn’t been a problem to work quickly—she was bursting with ideas. She’d even suggested they call the new flower the Ruby Iris, and everyone had liked the name. She loved that this flower would permanently have a little piece of her attached to it.