Page 12 of Kylo
I opened my mouth to greet him just as his head turned to me. All my saliva dried up. The sound chirped and died in my throat.
“Hey,” he greeted, shooting me a smile that may or may not have made my panties combust.
“I, uh, hi,” I croaked, wetting my lips. “I mean, can I help you with anything?”
“I’m on the hunt for some new plants.”
“Well, you came to the right place. What kind of plants are you into? Trailing?” I asked, waving toward the spider plants and pothos. “Cacti or succulents?” I waved toward the wall of those. They’d originally been on one of the center tables. Until I realized that pokey cactuses within reach of children was a terrible idea. “Easy plants? More finicky ones?”
“I like this one. What’s its deal?”
“Oh,” I said, wincing a little as he gestured toward a stunning, heart-shaped, dark-leaf Alocasia with light veining.
“Bad choice, huh?”
“I mean… no. There are no bad choices. Except for parlor palms,” I said, gesturing toward the sole one in the shop because my patience could not tolerate having to care for another one. “I think everyone has their type.”
“Their type.”
“Yeah, so some people are Calathea people, others are Alocasia people. Or fern people. Or Maranta people.”
“What kind of person are you?”
“Iwantto be a Calathea person,” I admitted, gesturing toward them. “But I think I’m more of a Philodendron person. I like the big, showy leaves,” I told him as I gestured toward them. “And there are bonus points with them because they’re usually on the easier side.”
“Alright. I’ll bite,” he said, that smooth, sexy voice of his making a shiver move through me. The chill of that had my nipples twisting tighter. Did he notice? Did I want him to? “Talk to me about Philodendrons then.”
“My favorite topic. So, here is most of our supply. I love a Xanadu for its size, but there are smaller ones like heartleafs and pink micans.”
“Pink. I didn’t know there were pink houseplants.”
“It’s a whole trend lately. It was the white ones for a while. Now, everyone wants the pink varieties. But, fair warning, the ones with the pink and white variegation tend to be a lot more finicky than the ones without. Do you have any other plants? Just so I can gauge what to recommend to you?”
“Not a one,” he admitted, shrugging. “But I’m really into them all of a sudden. So I’m ready to dive in.”
“Okay, for beginners, you can’t go wrong with pothos, ZZs, or snake plants. They’re all basically unkillable. They let you learn how to take care of a plant, but they won’t hold a grudge if you get the water or light wrong for a while.”
“That would be good.”
“Everything comes with a care page. I will get those for you if you buy anything. They even have handy-dandy charts showing you what terms like ‘indirect’ light even mean practically. It took me forever to figure that out myself, so I figured everyone else should benefit from that learning curve of mine.”
“You weren’t always into plants?”
“I never had a single plant until I took this place over for my grandmother a few years ago.”
“Oh, wow. You had a lot to learn then.”
“My grandma eased me into it too. She also started me slow with these beginner plants, then worked me up. I wasn’t allowed anywhere near the Fiddle Leaf,” I said, gesturing toward the towering tree that was threatening to outgrow the ceiling of the shop in the next year or two, “until I hadn’t killed anything for months.”
“You’ve killed plants?”
“I tend to be better with plants that either require borderline neglect or complete obsessive care. All the plants that like something in between took me a long time to figure out.”
“Seems like you’ve got it down now,” he said, turning in a circle to take in the rows of tables, then the towering shelves up the walls. “Lotta lights.”
“Yeah. The shop only has that big front window,” I said, nodding toward where the bay seat was covered in a bunch of plants. “And a lot of these plants have high light requirements. So we supplement. They make it pretty idiot-proof. We also sell the lights, if you think you’re going to need them. And pots, watering cans, water globes, humidity testers, fertilizer…”
“I had no idea having plants was so complicated.”
