The one where Grace can't help falling head over heels for the owner of the plant shop he booked a field trip with, but the skeletons in Simon's past are coming back to haunt him.
Chapter 1: Meet-Cutes, Milkshakes, & Motorcycles
“-are you fucking kidding me? Those little gremlins you’re so eager to bring in would tear my shop apart! Don’t even get me started on the insurance. How am I going to explain it to them? And I’d be- no, the plants would be stressed! You’ve gotta be the biggest fucking -”
I took no small satisfaction in hanging up, and marked a small red x next to Juniper Jungle Florist & Nursery with my favorite grading pen. It could join Pride & Peonies Floral Gardens, The Green Thumb, and a bunch other cheerfully named plant stores in the long list of firm no’s I’d received. While most of them had been more polite than Mark of Juniper Jungle, absolutely none of the nine shops I called had been thrilled with the idea of thirty rambunctious middle school students wreaking havoc in their place of business.
They were good kids, but middle schoolers had a reputation. Too old to be cute enough to coo over, and too young to know how to operate in a society. I deliberately chose to teach their age range because some part of me still understood what it was like to not-quite-fit where people wanted me to, and I wanted to give them a place they felt they belonged.
I was three from the bottom of the list, down into the dregs of what I could find for places with names that felt child-friendly and were within an hour drive of the school. I could make it through three more before I gave up on the field trip idea. Next up was The Last Tree. I punched in the number and let it ring.
Three times, before a gruff voice answered. “This is Simon.”
Three simple words and I nearly forgot my entire reason for calling. I was pretty sure I could listen to that voice narrate absolutely anything. It was rich and smooth with just a hint of a growl that sent a shiver down my spine.