Romancing the Flower Shop Girl: A Sweet Romantic Comedy

Tina Gardenia lives in a tiny house and works in a tiny flower shop. She doesn't have room for a big, strong man like Luca Lowell.

Luca has taken over the garage down the street, and now he's trying to expand Tina's tiny world. He can't exactly buy flowers for a florist, so he has to get creative with his romantic gestures. Very creative.

Luca doesn't know that Tina is holding on to something from the past. It might be a problem for the couple. She won't let him into her tiny life if she has no space.

There are plenty of LOLs and bittersweet moments to savour on Tina and Luca's bumpy journey toward love.

Coming January 2021, from USA Today Bestselling author Angela Pepper, writing under her romance name, Angie Pepper.

NOTE: This is an expanded and updated full-length novel based on a story originally published in 2014 as Blue Roses under the pen name Mimi Strong.

CHAPTER 1:

Tina Gardenia was on the edge of crying. A bundle of blue roses sat before her on the prep counter. They were so tacky, so unnatural. Natural roses came in so many wonderful colors, but people preferred the white ones tinted with blue dye. People didn’t always have the best taste. Florists were supposed to help, but the customer was always right. Even if they wanted dyed blue roses.

She picked up one rose, cupping the blossom in her palm as she stripped the thorns off with a knife.

Her eyes felt hot and itchy. They hadn’t recovered from the previous night’s sad movie, which should have come with an Ugly Cry warning. It served her right for picking one with a dog on the poster. She should have known the dog would die. Now her tear ducts were probably permanently damaged. She blinked hard, but it didn’t help.

The door chime let out a chirp. Someone walked into Gardenia Flowers. By the sound of his steps, it was a man, and not a small one.

Tina’s gaze went first to the boots. They were motorcycle boots. And they were big.

Next, her gaze climbed up his jeans. And what a climb it was, over long legs clad in denim, and noticeably muscled thighs. Her mouth went dry, and she nearly looked away out of modesty but didn’t. She was having a good day, and on good days she didn’t feel like a shrinking violet at all.

The man wore a black shirt with a bike logo, stretched tight across his chest muscles. He was so big, and the flower shop was so tiny, that he had to turn his body sideways to squeeze past the ferns. His presence in the cramped shop reminded Tina of that old expression: Bull in a china shop.

Tina watched him with detached amusement, the way she watched comedy movies. The man was in his early thirties, which would have made him a potential dating prospect, if it weren’t for those big boots and that tall, manly frame. The guy fighting his way through the fern jungle wasn’t her type at all. She usually went for skinny video game or movie geeks. Guys who were more boys than men. The sort of guys who didn’t have their lives figured out, either, and therefore didn’t bug her to “get out of her comfort zone.” Tina liked her comfort zone. It was called that for a reason.

The man had breached the fern jungle, and was now looking over the other tropical houseplants as he made his way toward the counter.

Tina’s heart started to pound. This was no comedy movie. This was real life, and it was happening in real time.

The closer he got, the more easily she could see the definition in his arms, his shoulders, even his neck. Whenever she saw a bunch of muscles, she got stupid and giggly on the inside. One time, she’d tried to buy some men’s underwear as a Christmas present for someone, but she’d left the store empty-handed because the hunky beefcakes on the packaging made her feel funny. She wasn’t as squeamish as her best friend, but Tina had her moments.

This guy had about a week’s worth of beard. It was light brown, like his wavy hair. His face had strong, balanced proportions. He looked like the kind of guy...