Free Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans by Laina Turner

holding the door open for me. “We can grow just about anything, but I’m not sure if we have grown any tassel flowers lately. In fact, I don’t ever remember growing any.”
    As soon as I stepped in, I was taken aback not only by the temperature and humidity, but also the overwhelming, strong floral fragrance.”
    Jeff noticed my reaction. “Give it a minute, it will subside.”
    “What, the humidity or the smell?” I said, smiling.
    “Both. We keep the temperature a steady seventy-eight degrees, but the amount of moisture in the air here causes the humidity to skyrocket. But you’ve got to like the smell of the flowers as the humidity makes the smell much more potent. What girl doesn’t like flowers?” he teased.
    “It’s a wonderful smell, just a little overpowering. What do you grow here?”
    “Mostly roses and orchids and a few specialty flowers. We grow and sell to the bigger greenhouses, our niche being varieties of roses and orchids that aren’t as common. My grandfather personally loves to grow orchids, but there isn’t as much profit in those. It takes a much bigger investment to grow orchids. I mean investment in the sense that the quantities must be that much greater to make it worthwhile.” He stopped talking for a few minutes while he concentrated on the computer screen.
    “Now let me see if this program works the way it is supposed to. Theoretically, I should be able to put tassel flower in the search bar and it will pull up anything related to that product. I say theoretically, because we just recently migrated to an online system. Grandfather has been resistant into coming into the modern technology age, and not all the data made it. Too much of the business knowledge was in his head and he finally realized, for me to be able to take over one day, we needed to join the new way of doing business.”
    “So this is a family-owned business?”
    “Yep. Proud to say I’m the fourth generation. Trying to learn all I can before Gramps retires next year. Though that’s what he says, I’m not sure I believe it. I can’t imagine him ever retiring completely. Here we are. Nothing. Sorry. We either haven’t grown any tassel flowers for anyone or else the records just didn’t make it. I know we haven’t grown any in the year I’ve been here full time.”
    “Well, I appreciate you looking.”
    “Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
    “That’s okay,” I said, walking back to the door, anxious to get out of here before my hair completely frizzed up. Humidity was not my friend.
    “Why don’t you leave your number, and I’ll ask grandfather when he gets back if he knows of anyone else around here who may have grown some. The greenhouse community is pretty tightly knit.”
    “That would be great,” I said, digging in my purse for one of my new business cards designating me as an official member of Sands Security. I handed it to him and he slipped it in his pocket. “Thanks again for looking.”
    “No problem. I hope you have better luck at your next stop.”
    Unfortunately, I didn’t. The person working at the next greenhouse I stopped at wasn’t nearly as pleasant as Jeff, being quick to convey how my request was a bother. I was even more frustrated at the second dead end. Patience was not a strong suit of mine. I wanted an answer now! Hopefully, the third greenhouse on my list would have some useful information.
    An hour later and two wrong turns, Bertha was confused, but I arrived at The Gallery, which was the last greenhouse on my list. It seemed a strange name for a greenhouse, but then again what I knew about anything green wouldn’t get me far. I did not have a green thumb and killed any plant I tried to bring home, so I had given up on that a long time ago, much to my mother’s dismay. She was a prizewinner in the Junior League for her roses and was disappointed I wasn’t going to carry on that tradition.
    It was a little after five, so I was hoping someone was still here. I