Page 40 of The Floral Arrangement

I exhaled. Apples and wine—that I could handle.

“Are you coming or not?” Olivia called, cycling surprisingly fast for someone who had just eaten their body weight in dairy.

I sighed and began pedaling after her, trying to escape the sickly sweet scent of dairy lingering in the air.

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

OLIVIA

The delicate citrusflavors of Rosedale Estate’s prized Riesling swept over my taste buds as I gazed at the rolling hills covered in rows of vines. Prue had given us a tour of the event space and the vineyard and then secured us a prime table on the patio of her restaurant. My eyes flickered across the white tablecloth, dominated by two large pizzas and a bowl of arugula salad, to Roz. She leaned back, her arms resting on the sides of her chair, looking out over the vista. Her blond hair was slightly tousled from the bike helmet, but it suited her. It gave her a rakish look. My eyes dropped to the curves of Roz’s Lycra-clad upper body. The milk appeared to have dried now, leaving off-white stains and a faintly sweet scent.

Roz shifted her gaze to me. “Well, should we get down to business?”

I blinked. “Business?”

“The whole point of this little adventure was to get to know each other. I’ve prepared a list of questions for us to run through.” Roz pulled a leather Moleskine notebook and pen out of her backpack.

I crossed my arms. “Can’t we just have a casual chat and learn about each other organically? I mean, I feel like I’ve already learned a lot about you this weekend.”

Roz narrowed her eyes. “Such as?”

“Your sneeze would cause an avalanche. You are highly competitive, stubborn as hell and assume the worst of people.” I ticked them off on my fingers as I spoke.You have Catwoman’s body but not her grace or agility.“But you also adore your niece, are intent on making Red Tractor Farm a success, and while you’re rude to them, you also care enough about your employees that you don’t want to fire them.”

Roz leaned over and helped herself to a slice of pizza. “While all of those things you listed offmaybe aspects of my personality, you need to learn some other basic things about me that a girlfriend would know. Which is why I have prepared this list.” Roz snapped open her notebook.

“Fine,” I said. “Hand it over.”

Roz placed the leather notebook in front of me.

I wiped my hands on my napkin and scanned the list.Ugh. This reminded me of a more boring version of the dating profile I still hadn’t completed. Roz was intriguing, there was no doubt about it, and I had a number of questions I wanted to ask her, but they were not on this list.

It also reminded me of something else. I chuckled. “Did you hear about that study that theorized that if two people asked each other a list of questions and then stared into each other’s eyes, they’d fall in love?”

Roz shook her head. “That’s ridiculous.”

A warm breeze sent a few strands of hair dancing across my face. I brushed them aside. “Someone wrote aNew York Times‘Modern Love’ article about it. It sounded legit.” I grinned. “Are you sure you want to keep going with the list?”

“Yes.” Roz reached out her hand. “Give me back my notebook.”

“I can read,” I replied, waving her away. “But if you’re madly in love with me at the end of this session, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Roz settled into her chair. I was confident the list of questions in the study had been a lot more interesting thanAge?,Family?andEducation?, but I enjoyed teasing Roz too much to let that stop me. I took a bite of the capricciosa pizza, my eyes closing as my teeth sunk into the delicious combination of wood-fired sourdough pizza base, tomato, ham, mushrooms, and a generous topping of mozzarella cheese.Damn.

Roz’s gaze darted to my lips and then away again. I swallowed. Did I have cheese hanging out of my mouth or something? I dabbed my mouth with my napkin.

“Hurry up. We don’t have all day.” Roz picked up her wine glass and took a long sip.

I swiped my tongue along my front teeth to ensure they weren’t covered in food before I spoke. “Okay. Question one. How old are you?

“Forty-two. You?”

“Thirty-one.” I raised my eyebrows. “So we have quite an age gap then. Does that bother you?”

Roz narrowed her eyes. “Am I bothered by the age gap in ourfakerelationship?”

Someone cleared their throat. I looked up to see Prue beaming at us.Oh god. I hope she didn’t overhear us.“Hi ladies! I thought I’d bring over two complimentary wine flights as aWelcome to Sapphire Springsgift for Roz.”

My eyes dropped to the tray she was holding and widened. Was that all for us? Prue placed six glasses in front of each of us. “And here are the tasting notes.” She handed us a piece of paper. Damn, I loved Prue. Being a Black woman in an overwhelmingly white, male industry couldn’t have been easy, but she seemed to take it in stride. Not only were her wines incredible, but her restaurant made some of the best food in the area and she played a key role in the local farming community.

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