After I got home from Los Angeles, I avoided going to my parents’ house for dinner for two weeks in a row. The first week, I said I was too tired and wanted to stay home. The second week, I lied and said I had too much work to do. By the third, my mom pretty much came to my apartment and dragged me to dinner.“You can’t sit in your apartment and wallow forever,” she said. “You got second place, sweetheart. That’s nothing to sneeze at.”I hadn’t felt all that inclined to tell her I wasn’t wallowing because of my loss. That was a very tiny part of this shit situation I’d found myself in. Losing fair and square would be one thing: I’d lost before, and although it sucked, it was the nature of the game.Losing because the guy who I’d fallen in love with had won by being a sneaky cheating asshole?That was something else entirely.I hadn’t told anyone what had happened down in LA, not even Anna. I preferred to believe it had never happened. If I brushed it under the rug, then it didn’t
The following Monday, I went to the cafe two blocks from Buds and Blossoms to get my usual latte. I had about an hour before I needed to open the store, but I hadn’t slept well and I thought I could get a jump-start on all the work I needed to get done.“Dani? Is that you?”I turned to see Tiffany McClain, now in line for coffee. She was dressed in scrubs, and she even looked tired, although she still managed to be beautiful despite the bags under her eyes.“How’s Kevin?” she asked.Taking Kevin into the emergency vet felt like it had happened a million years ago, instead of just two months ago. “He’s good. No more lily incidents.”“Oh, Dani, I’d love for you to meet my fiancée.” A woman with dark brown skin and hair as dark as midnight approached. “Lola, this is Dani. We went to school together as kids.”I shook hands with Lola, wondering if their combined beauty would melt my eyeballs. It was like staring into the sun.Lola, Tiffany, and I chatted for a few minutes until every
When I moved back to Seattle six months ago, I never expected that I’d be moving into a condo with the girl who’d been my childhood friend years ago and who turned out to be my soulmate, or that her evil cat would decide that he actually loved me, or that we’d be in the process of merging our stores together, despite the many protests of our parents.But life has a way of making the unexpected exactly what you needed. And somehow the universe had known I needed Dandelion Wright, and I’d somehow managed to get a second (or really, third) chance with her.“Kevin, look at your new window!” Dani lifted her ridiculously mangy cat up to show him the view of Lake Union. “You’ll be able to watch all the birds.”Kevin yawned, already bored. He wiggled to get down and proceeded to get into one of the many empty boxes to take a nap. I took the opportunity to watch Dani bend over one of the boxes she’d been unpacking, admiring the round curve of her ass through her skinny jeans.The only reaso
The moment I woke up after my best friend’s raucous bachelorette party in Las Vegas, I realized two things in quick succession:To my horror, the man had his arm slung across me, and it weighed at least a thousand pounds, I was sure. My bladder yelled profanities at me as I pushed at the ridiculously heavy arm trapping me against the bed.Finally, he turned over, taking his arm with him. I shuffled to the bathroom and didn’t feel the panic hit me until after I’d peed and saw the ring on my left hand.Ring. Left hand. I didn’t wear a ring there anymore since I’d caught my ex-fiancé cheating on me. I’d thrown the ring David had bought me in his face.This ring wasn’t that diamond David had gotten me. I peered more closely at it. It was—plastic? Was it from a ring pop?Did I call the police? No, that was stupid. 911, I got married last night to a stranger. Yeah, that’d go over well. I was sure the Vegas police would just laugh and tell us to get a lawyer.I heard movement in the roo
Say You’re MineAll I Ask of YouMake Me YoursHold Me CloseOopsie DaisyHe Loves Me, He Loves Me NotPetal PluckerWar of the RosesincludingThen Came YouTaking a Chance on LoveAll I Want Is YouMy One and OnlyThe Nearness of YouThe Very Thought of YouIf I Can’t Have YouDream a Little Dream of MeSomeone to Watch Over MeTill There Was YouI’ll Be Home for Christmas
A coffee addict and cat lover, Iris Morland writes sexy and funny contemporary romances. If she's not reading or writing, she enjoys binging on Netflix shows and cooking something delicious.Stay in touch!irismorland.comIris Morland’s MermaidsNewsletter Facebook Twitter BookBub Goodreads Instagram
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.Petal Plucker (The Flower Shop Sisters Book 1)Published by Blue Violet Press LLCSeattle, WashingtonCopyright © 2019 by Iris MorlandCover design by Qamber DesignsAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
If you’ve already read the prelude to Petal Plucker, War of the Roses, you can skip to chapter five.If you haven’t read War of the Roses or if you’d like to reread, turn the page to start Petal Plucker from the beginning.Happy reading!Iris
A coffee addict and cat lover, Iris Morland writes sexy and funny contemporary romances. If she's not reading or writing, she enjoys binging on Netflix shows and cooking something delicious.Stay in touch!irismorland.comIris Morland’s MermaidsNewsletter Facebook Twitter BookBub Goodreads Instagram
Say You’re MineAll I Ask of YouMake Me YoursHold Me CloseOopsie DaisyHe Loves Me, He Loves Me NotPetal PluckerWar of the RosesincludingThen Came YouTaking a Chance on LoveAll I Want Is YouMy One and OnlyThe Nearness of YouThe Very Thought of YouIf I Can’t Have YouDream a Little Dream of MeSomeone to Watch Over MeTill There Was YouI’ll Be Home for Christmas
The moment I woke up after my best friend’s raucous bachelorette party in Las Vegas, I realized two things in quick succession:To my horror, the man had his arm slung across me, and it weighed at least a thousand pounds, I was sure. My bladder yelled profanities at me as I pushed at the ridiculously heavy arm trapping me against the bed.Finally, he turned over, taking his arm with him. I shuffled to the bathroom and didn’t feel the panic hit me until after I’d peed and saw the ring on my left hand.Ring. Left hand. I didn’t wear a ring there anymore since I’d caught my ex-fiancé cheating on me. I’d thrown the ring David had bought me in his face.This ring wasn’t that diamond David had gotten me. I peered more closely at it. It was—plastic? Was it from a ring pop?Did I call the police? No, that was stupid. 911, I got married last night to a stranger. Yeah, that’d go over well. I was sure the Vegas police would just laugh and tell us to get a lawyer.I heard movement in the roo
When I moved back to Seattle six months ago, I never expected that I’d be moving into a condo with the girl who’d been my childhood friend years ago and who turned out to be my soulmate, or that her evil cat would decide that he actually loved me, or that we’d be in the process of merging our stores together, despite the many protests of our parents.But life has a way of making the unexpected exactly what you needed. And somehow the universe had known I needed Dandelion Wright, and I’d somehow managed to get a second (or really, third) chance with her.“Kevin, look at your new window!” Dani lifted her ridiculously mangy cat up to show him the view of Lake Union. “You’ll be able to watch all the birds.”Kevin yawned, already bored. He wiggled to get down and proceeded to get into one of the many empty boxes to take a nap. I took the opportunity to watch Dani bend over one of the boxes she’d been unpacking, admiring the round curve of her ass through her skinny jeans.The only reaso
The following Monday, I went to the cafe two blocks from Buds and Blossoms to get my usual latte. I had about an hour before I needed to open the store, but I hadn’t slept well and I thought I could get a jump-start on all the work I needed to get done.“Dani? Is that you?”I turned to see Tiffany McClain, now in line for coffee. She was dressed in scrubs, and she even looked tired, although she still managed to be beautiful despite the bags under her eyes.“How’s Kevin?” she asked.Taking Kevin into the emergency vet felt like it had happened a million years ago, instead of just two months ago. “He’s good. No more lily incidents.”“Oh, Dani, I’d love for you to meet my fiancée.” A woman with dark brown skin and hair as dark as midnight approached. “Lola, this is Dani. We went to school together as kids.”I shook hands with Lola, wondering if their combined beauty would melt my eyeballs. It was like staring into the sun.Lola, Tiffany, and I chatted for a few minutes until every
After I got home from Los Angeles, I avoided going to my parents’ house for dinner for two weeks in a row. The first week, I said I was too tired and wanted to stay home. The second week, I lied and said I had too much work to do. By the third, my mom pretty much came to my apartment and dragged me to dinner.“You can’t sit in your apartment and wallow forever,” she said. “You got second place, sweetheart. That’s nothing to sneeze at.”I hadn’t felt all that inclined to tell her I wasn’t wallowing because of my loss. That was a very tiny part of this shit situation I’d found myself in. Losing fair and square would be one thing: I’d lost before, and although it sucked, it was the nature of the game.Losing because the guy who I’d fallen in love with had won by being a sneaky cheating asshole?That was something else entirely.I hadn’t told anyone what had happened down in LA, not even Anna. I preferred to believe it had never happened. If I brushed it under the rug, then it didn’t
I woke up the next morning with a giant headache like I was hung over. I’d barely slept, and I’d stopped myself from going back to Jacob’s room, banging on the door, and demanding to know what the hell his problem was.Except that meant having to hear the words I didn’t want to hear: I don’t love you. Sorry, Dani. This has just been a fling. You knew that, right?I forced my mind away from Jacob and his bullshit. Today was the competition. The judges would choose the winners midmorning. I was so close to that prize money and contract that I could smell it. I was immensely proud of my arrangement, despite my dad not being a fan of it. Even if the judges didn’t like it, at least I was proud of myself and my hard work.I left the hotel and walked to the convention center that was a block away. Since it was still early in the morning, it wasn’t packed, but it would be pretty soon. I grabbed coffee and began to wander through the gardens that had been created inside the convention center
The next few days were a whirlwind of preparation, not just for the competition, but with creating bouquets for a wedding for that Sunday. Judith had worked with me on tons of weddings, but she’d never gone to one on her own. I wanted to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible while I was gone.“It’ll be fine,” said Judith for the thousandth time. “You aren’t going to the moon. I can call you if I need to.”“I know. I trust you and Will.” I forced a smile onto my face. “I’m just nervous. Sorry if I’m taking it out on you.”Judith told me that I could buy her a drink when I got back, to which I agreed readily. I’d probably need a drink or five once this competition was over. Not only did I need to make sure Buds and Blossoms was running during my absence, but my dad had come by that morning to see my arrangement. He’d been decidedly unenthusiastic with my design.“Honey, you’re so talented, but I thought you wanted to win,” he’d said. He’d sounded genuinely flummoxed. “Thi
It was hard to concentrate when your brain was reminding you that you’d had sex last night. And that you’d had sex this morning. And that it would very much like you to have more sex.Sex sex sex sex sex sex SEXXXXXXX went my brain that Saturday morning. It was pretty much an endless stream of porno, except it was featuring me and Jacob.When my first customer came in, she wanted to buy some peonies. Except my brain heard penis, and then my brain thought, I LOVE PENISES! And for a moment my body got very excited, too. Until my customer looked at me strangely, as if she knew my mind was a nonstop loop of Pornhub, and I realized that I hadn’t said a word to her.Like I said: way harder to concentrate than I would’ve expected.During a lull, I checked my phone and saw that Anna had texted me a bunch of times last night, but my phone had been on silent so I hadn’t heard them.7:05 PM: Want to get drinks tonight?7:30 PM: Where are you? You better not be dead.8:16 PM: WHY ARE YOU IG