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    Late Bloomer
    Late Bloomer
    Late Bloomer
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Late Bloomer

    By Bru Baker

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    If not for his family and his Christmas tree farm, David Rochester would be a recluse. And Erik Shriver wouldn’t know a quiet moment if it smacked him in the face. But now David’s farm has brought them together. When Erik’s flurry of bad jokes and frenetic energy sets David off kilter, his family notices and begins conspiring. They push David and a very willing Erik together again and again until David stops denying his attraction. But an almost-hermit and a soon-to-be-former club boy each bring baggage into a relationship. They’ll have to take things slowly to find the middle ground between David's taciturn silence and Eric's boundless chatter.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamspinner Press
    Release dateDec 10, 2014
    ISBN9781627989831
    Late Bloomer
    Author

    Bru Baker

    Bru Baker a eu un avant-goût de la vie comme écrivain à l’âge de quatre ans, quand elle a commencé à publier un journal hebdomadaire pour sa famille. Ce qu’ils appelaient de la curiosité, elle l’appelait avoir du nez pour les informations, et personne n’a été surpris quand elle s’est retrouvée avec des diplômes en journalisme et en science politique, et a commencé une carrière dans le journalisme. Bru a passé plus d’une décennie à écrire pour les journaux avant de sauter le pas vers la fiction. Elle travaille désormais comme référence et conseillère des lecteurs dans une bibliothèque du Midwest, bien qu’elle trouve toujours ça difficile de croire que quelqu’un soit prêt à la payer pour parler de livres toute la journée. Souvent, le soir, on peut la trouver pelotonnée avec un livre ou son ordinateur portable. Que ce soit pour créer ses propres personnages ou immergée avec ceux de quelqu’un d’autre, on ne peut nier que Bru est plus heureuse quand elle est captivée par une histoire. Son mari et elle ont deux enfants, ce qui signifie que nombre de ses livres sont écrits sur la touche de différents entraînements sportifs.

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    3/5

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    • 3/5
      David Rochester is perfectly content just keeping to himself. He's a bit reserved, and maybe even closed off, but that works for him. Erik Shriver, an employee at David's family's tree farm, seems exactly the opposite. He's outgoing and talkative, and there's something about Erik that just gets right under David's skin. This isn't so bad on it's own, but when David's sister notices the effect Erik has on him, the whole family decides to play matchmaker. Even as David starts to reluctantly wear down and give in, he knows it's unlikely this could amount to anything. Both David and Erik have a fair amount of baggage--albeit different kinds--and it's hard to build a relationship when there's so much of it there's no room for the two people involved.

      The story of David and Erik is definitely a charming one. These two just can't help but get in their own way, even after they start to admit there might be an attraction between them. David's meddling family isn't nearly as scheming as David makes them out to be, and the supporting cast of characters serve as such a great support system for them both. If you're looking for something sweet with a dash of angst, this is it.

    Book preview

    Late Bloomer - Bru Baker

    Table of Contents

    Dedication

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    Chapter Three

    Chapter Four

    About the Author

    By Bru Baker

    More from Bru Baler

    Copyright

    For Shannon, who is always there when I have difficulties,

    whether they’re the technical or literary sort.

    Chapter One

    ROCHESTER FARMS grew a lot more than pine trees, but from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, that was practically the only thing anyone came out to the farm to buy. Poinsettias, wreaths, and other seasonal favorites were fairly popular in the farm’s Christmas shop as well, but no one wanted the colorful persimmon trees or the hardy and exotic nandina plants displayed alongside them.

    Luckily, David Rochester cared very little about what other people liked. Well, not entirely. He did still grow the popular flowers that made up Rochester Farms’ best-seller list, but he was also methodically expanding the nursery’s offerings. The nerine bulbs that had come in yesterday’s shipment would sprout into gorgeously delicate flowers when he planted them in February.

    David put the burlap sack full of bulbs away regretfully. He’d much prefer to stay in the hothouse, but today’s busy agenda didn’t leave any time for him to be out here. He’d already wasted too much time as it was.

    Pine needles crunched under his feet as he made his way back to the main barn. Thanksgiving meant a day off for most people, but not the Rochesters. Today was one of their busiest workdays of the year.

    In the years since David had officially taken on the title of the farm’s horticulturist, when he’d come back to Rives Junction after graduate school, Rochester Farms had greatly expanded its plant offerings. His sister Mel liked to tease him about his dedication to plants no one was interested in, but David didn’t care. Cultivating seedlings for the spring rush and his experiments with hybrid breeding were the only things that made working on the family farm bearable.

    Not that he hated working in the family business—he didn’t. He’d known from a young age he wanted to spend his life in the greenhouse. Unlike so many of his classmates in the small town, he’d gone away to college fully intending to come back and settle in Rives Junction afterward. He liked small town life, and he loved being near his family. The only thing he hated was the customers. And the employees. Basically, anything that dragged him away from his plants.

    Manual labor had always appealed to him because David loved being outside. So today’s sulk wasn’t so much about what he was going to be doing—setting up the outdoor displays and working on the tractor so it was ready for hay rides—as much as it was about who he was going to be doing it with.

    He was a solitary creature, and most of the time that worked. He put in long hours without complaint in the greenhouses and fields cultivating the nursery’s stock. Those twelve-hour days seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, unlike his seemingly interminable eight-hour shifts in the shop during the spring and winter rushes.

    Today there wouldn’t be a gaggle of customers to make nice with, though. That would have been a cakewalk in comparison.

    Hey, good-lookin’, what’s cookin’?

    David sighed and shook his head, his eyes sliding closed at the sound of the person he least wanted to be alone with for an entire day.

    In addition to the hundreds of customers who tromped through the farm’s grounds, the busy times also brought dozens of seasonal workers, who got in David’s way and always seemed to want to talk and flirt with him. Worst of all was Erik Shriver, who’d been doggedly pursuing David with playful banter and seductive eyelash batting since last spring.

    It’s a joke, get it? Because today’s Thanksgiving. Most people are in the kitchen cooking right now, Erik said.

    His easy grin was almost contagious. Almost, because David didn’t smile at a lot of people, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to smile at Erik. The man took the slightest encouragement and ran with it, and if David wasn’t careful, he’d be in for an entire day of casual touches and innuendo.

    Not that he wasn’t attracted to Erik. He was. That was the problem.

    If your shift is keeping you from your turkey duties, by all means head on home. I’m used to handling this alone, David said gruffly.

    And he wasn’t just saying it in hopes of getting rid of Erik. Although the extra help during their busy seasons was a necessity, the part-timers never worked on Thanksgiving.

    Over the years the farm had grown enough that his family couldn’t keep up with everything themselves, especially after his parents had retreated into semiretirement, leaving David and his sister Mel in charge. Their younger brother Danny was still in college, though he lived at home and took shifts whenever he could. Unlike David and Mel, though, Danny wanted off the farm. He wanted a career that didn’t involve hauling potting soil and agonizing over the daily weather reports.

    Nah, I’m good, Erik answered. Mel’s giving me time and a half today. He gave David a long, appraising look, and David did his best not to squirm under the scrutiny. At the time, I thought it was for working on a holiday, but now I think it might have been hazard pay since I’d be working with you all day.

    David bared his teeth in a mock snarl and grabbed the clipboard from its hook on the wall. His surly attitude usually put people off, but he knew from experience that Erik saw it as more of a challenge than an impediment. And damn if that didn’t turn David on as well. He was screwed.

    You could go organize stock with Mel.

    Pass.

    David gritted his teeth and tossed a pair of heavy-duty work gloves at Erik, not bothering to look up to see if he caught them. It was Mel’s fault he was in this mess. Part-timers were usually perky teenagers David had no trouble glaring into silent submission as

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