NICE GIRL TO LOVE (THE COMPLETE THREE-BOOK COLLECTION)(85)

“I’ve been saving the funniest ones every weekend for the past few months. I had just enough to cover the box,” he informed her proudly.

Forget whatever was inside the box, the wrapping alone was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

“Open it, Abby.” He slid a thumb over cheekbone, wiping away the single happy tear that managed to break free.

Even though she could see he was going out of his mind with anticipation waiting for her to open the gift—crazy, adorable man—she still took an extra minute to make sure she didn’t rip the paper as she removed the tape.

Flipping open the box, she saw a hand-drawn card that instantly brought on another weather alert for the waterworks.

Brian grinned. “Skylar must have gone through a dozen drafts before deciding this one was perfect.”

It really was. Vibrant, and funny, and wholly supportive, just like Skylar.

“She wanted to miss her first two classes too but she had a quiz so we settled on this alternative instead—” Brian hit a few buttons on his smartphone to play a video clip.

“Good luck, Abby! You’re going to rock today, I just know it! I’m SO proud of you! Love you!”

Okay, they’d officially moved from a waterworks watch to a full-blown alert. A level four cry-storm was imminent.

Pulling back the tissue wrapping of Brian’s gift, she upgraded the alert to a level six.

“You got me a charcoal gray purse,” she whispered, shaking her head in amazement.

“I told you, I know you as well as I know myself, sweetie.” He placed a gentle kiss to her forehead and placed one more thing into the palm of her hand. “To put on the strap after your defense,” he added with a smile.

It was a button pin.

Dr. Abby Bartlett

…Arched over the image of a treasure troll dressed as a wizard.

Holy swizzle sticks, but she loved this man.

“Knock ‘em dead today, honey.”




BACKING OUT OF ABBY’S DRIVEWAY, Brian looked at the box on his passenger seat and the potted orchid plant inside of it, his second surprise gift for Abby this afternoon, after she completed her defense. He couldn’t stop looking at it—never had he seen such a unique flower before. It was no wonder Abby had loved it so much as a kid.

She’d mentioned it once in one of her rare stories about her childhood home—not the one her parents still live in now, but the one before it. The look on her face when she’d talked about that flower had haunted him ever since. While he didn’t know what exactly had happened to Abby during her junior year in high school, he knew it had been traumatic, and it had led to her family moving out of the school district, out of the home she’d grown up in.

Over the years, he’d heard a few more snippets about that home and how much Abby had loved it, primarily because of the backyard, her fairytale sanctuary. Brian tried not to pry too much because it was clear Abby didn’t want to talk about that traumatic event, but he did make a point to ask Abby’s parents to share more about that first home they’d lived in, whenever they were here visiting from California.

He still remembered Abby’s face the first time her mother had answered his questions about their home.

“Abby used to spend hours out there in the backyard. Unlike me, her father had quite the green thumb, and had dozens of beautiful potted orchids out in the shade house, along with a whole host of wild orchids rooted in the rock wall and the trees out back. I swear, Abby had named every single flower out there.” She shook her head, smiling wistfully. “And every day, she’d be out there talking to them all like they were her magical forest friends.”

“I still remember ‘Snickers,’ the Flying Duck Orchid,” grinned Abby. “It literally looked like a dark purple duck getting ready to take off in flight, with an orange beak and all. It was so cute.”

“That was Abby’s second favorite,” chimed in her mother. “But it had nothing on the White Egret Orchid. That one, Abby could sit and talk to for hours. More often than not, Abby’s father and I would find her planted right in front of that orchid with all her toys spread out, just playing as if that orchid were a friend over for a play date.”

“It was the prettiest flower I’d ever seen,” agreed Abby softly. “It had these wide, wispy white petals that looked exactly like the wings of the egret bird soaring in the sky.”

The smile he’d witnessed on Abby’s face was different from any he’d ever seen on her. That magical sanctuary, those flowers…they were a part of her past that she’d lost because of whatever horrible thing she’d gone through in high school. And it killed him to see that smile disappear whenever the talk would eventually end the same way, with an uncomfortable, vague statement about them not being able to uproot the wild orchids and take it with them when they’d moved into their new home without a yard.

For the past few months, Brian had done a ton of research trying to find out for one, if the White Egret Orchid could even survive in Arizona, and secondly, if he could get any growers to ship the rare flower to Arizona. Luckily it could, and he did. The orchid had come in about a month ago, around the time he and Abby decided to give their relationship a try. Unbeknownst to her, that’s why he hadn’t let her go out back for the past few weeks; he wanted to make absolutely sure he could keep the little flower alive. With Skylar’s help and a whole lot of googling, the flower had done very nicely in their secret hideout on the back porch.