Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Yes, yes, take it all in,” Edgar said, his hands behind his back, feigning patience. “I’d hate it if you solely experienced mine. There are some fantastic efforts through here. What do you think, Ulric?”
“Uhhm,” Ulric said softly. “The Mad Hatter’s tea party is cool, I guess.”
It was the area with the least amount of flowers.
The next couple of attractions also had pretty cool themes, one with a Men in Black situation and the other fashioned after a Japanese-style garden. I perused them slowly and Austin kept pace. He slipped his arm around me, tucking his hand into my back pocket.
“Are you bored?” I asked him, moving on to the next one.
“Not at all. It’s nice. I’ve never been to a flower show.”
Near the wall, I stopped as I reached a display without a discernible theme. “Oh wow, look at this one.”
I curled my arm up and lightly grabbed the bit of shirt over his heart, leaning against his side and taking it in. A little stone archway embedded with a metal gate and surrounded by flowers reminded me of one of the hobbit holes in Lord of the Rings. A similar archway was filled with wine bottles, the bottoms facing out, toward the audience. Water streamed around them in the middle, pouring into a little pond at the bottom, encased in vines. A few new pennies sparkled within the shallow water, and I knew they were encouraging people to make a wish. The flowers were vibrant, all different colors, but organized in such a way that they didn’t feel too busy.
“This would be a cool backyard,” Jasper said, standing beside me. “Look at the wine barrel waterfall up top.”
He pointed to a cool water effect that tumbled down from a grouping of barrels and stone, the water gathering into a little canal that disappeared behind the flowers.
“This artist might be someone we invite out to the winery to bid on the landscaping job,” Austin murmured, leaning down to kiss my temple.
“Keep your voice down,” I whispered. “If Edgar ever found out I hired out for that, he’ll go ahead and retire himself. He won’t wait for me to do it for him.”
Austin laughed as we walked on, not taking my comment as seriously as he should have.
“Mimi should see this,” he said. “Why didn’t she come? She’s initiated herself as part of your house crew, I believe.”
Austin’s grandma had decided she’d be more useful to our territory than to her own. She would officially move to O’Briens after Kingsley’s pack was secured. Her plan was to stay at Ivy House, as she’d already been doing, until she found a place of her own. None of this had been discussed with me. I’d merely been informed and told that if she became a nuisance, I could just kick her out. As if I’d ever do that.
Given she still had so much work to do on Ivy House, and we would have huge builds in our future to accommodate our growing pack-slash-crew, I was relieved she was staying. She would be a great help, not only for that, but also because she seemed to understand and agree with my style of management.
I’d ended the one-sided conversation by shrugging and telling her to clear it with Austin. According to him, he hadn’t gotten a chance to argue, either, but I knew he was happy to be strong-armed into the arrangement.
“She said she had better things to do than waste time looking at amateur flower growers.” I stopped at the next exhibit, not as taken with their house of cards theme. “It’s too bad she’s not here, though. Some of these are really great. She could have helped us steer Edgar in a different direction.”
“And Patty?”
“She has something planned with a woman in town or something. I think she was thinking along the lines Naomi was.”
“Hey, pretty couple, look this way!”
I glanced over at Nessa, who had her phone held up to snap a picture.
She lowered it again and winked at us. “That was a good candid take. It shows you weren’t posing for the other one I just got, which is totally adorable and going to make everyone jealous of what you two have.”
“What is she talking about?” Austin asked as Nessa bounded away, meeting Sebastian at a different exhibit.
I shrugged. “We chatted about the whole ex thing earlier.”
“And?” he prompted.
I shrugged again.
“Jess?” He slowed, pulling me a little closer. “What about the ex thing?”
I quickly led him through our earlier conversation as we hit a wall of flowers—a literal wall with flowers emerging from the cracks or hanging from rings embedded in stone. Moss was glued onto rocks at the bottom, and a few areas were wet, as though the fabricator had attempted a pond or stream or something and missed the mark.