H udson was staying away from me. And I didn't know how I felt about it .

Me. The girl who projected her thoughts and feelings in neon lights. Who may as well hire a skywriter to tell the world her emotions. I wore my heart on my sleeve, but when it came to Hudson I felt like I'd misplaced that shirt entirely .

My only hope was that this week would keep going by quickly. Because when he left at the end of it? Well, then it wouldn't matter if I wanted him to stay with me or stay away. He'd be heading back out on tour with Wreckage and I'd go back to being a student and being disappointed by men. Everything would go back to normal. And in the mean time, it was easy to find ways to busy myself in wedding preparations .

Especially when I found distractions as pressing as missing flowers .

"I'm trying," Reese said, her light eyes shining with tears I'm sure she had no intention of shedding. "Trying really hard not to be a Bridezilla about all this ."

I put my hand on her shoulder. I was out on the looped front drive with her and Niall, all three of us watching for a florist delivery truck that wasn't coming. "It's completely fine if you want to throw a fit, sweetheart," I reassured her, rubbing tight circles on her tense shoulder. "I've thrown fits for way less than this ."

She shot me a grateful look but in the next instant her lip wobbled. "I don't normally even give a shit about flowers, why is this bothering me so much ?"

"Because it's your wedding and you don't want anything going wrong. And the entire shipment getting lost is something rather ridiculously wrong." I took a deep breath, staring out in to the distance like it would give me some kind of answer and to my eternal irritation, my eyes managed to land on Hudson as he came walking back up the front lawn from the main tent .

"Everything all right, ladies?" he called, giving Niall a smirk .

I took a deep breath. "You heard about the flowers, right ?"

He screwed up the side of his mouth. "The refrigeration died, right? Yeah, that's a bunch of bullshit if you ask me ."

"It is." A tear slipped down Reese's cheek, and that was that. She was about to be my sister, and I was desperate for anything to stop her from crying .

Niall looked like he wanted to murder someone and then let the earth swallow him when he was done. He kept looking at Reese and raising his hand, then letting it fall again. I'm not sure how many times Reese had cried in her life but it was making us all crazy .

"So, okay," Hudson piped up. "Looks like we're gonna need to get some more ."

"The wedding is tomorrow," I reminded him. "Where are we going to get flowers at this time ?"

He looked back out on the lawn and a slow smile spread across his face. "Seems to me," he said, maddeningly slow. "That you've got a whole bunch of flowers at the ready, right over there." He gestured to the gardens .

I wanted to smack myself in the head. I grinned at him. "The gardens ?"

"Mum will have a fit," Niall groaned .

"Oh come off it, Niall, we can pick from the back gardens. What are they there for, otherwise ?"

"I can help," Hudson said, as cool as can be. "Give me some scissors ."

"Clippers. Right. We can ask the gardener ."

Hudson was nodding along with me. "Do you have a place to store them once I'm done ?"

"There's this old root cellar. Almost like a walk in refrigerator, actually. But you're not doing it all yourself. Plus I reckon I'd better make sure you don't kill Mum's prize roses, right Niall?" Was I looking for an excuse to be alone with him again? Was I looking for that danger we both knew we were in ?

Hudson didn't protest me coming with him. He just said. "We just need buckets to put them in ."

"Right, gardener's shed has those too ."

"And where to put them when they're picked ?

I looked at Niall. "Call the florist again. The vases they were supposed to supply couldn't have also died in the un-refrigerated truck ."

Hudson grinned. "Good thinking, Lulu ."

I ducked my head at the nickname. It seemed special and dangerous at the same time. I smiled at him. His easy smile was waiting right there in return .

Reese sniffled. "You guys," she started to say, then her voice caught and she fell against Niall who gathered her up .

Niall's mouth twisted and I could tell he wanted to say something about the two of us going off together. But Reese's distress was too pressing. "Go," he mouthed over her dark head as he smoothed her hair and shushed her. "Thank you ."

I swallowed, tasting the danger I was deliberately causing. I grinned at Hudson. "Ready to go pick flowers, big man ?"

He lifted his chin. "I'm game for anything," he said and I kept my mind deliberately empty of any subtext to that statement .

I followed him as he strode out into the gardens. He didn't look back at me, but there was something in the way his long stride slowed down that let me know he was waiting for me to catch up. "She wanted yellows and golds," I mused, drawing up alongside him. Then I looked up and squinted at the sky. "Bloody hell is it hot ."

He chuckled. "You'd wilt in Texas heat ."

"Ooh, wilted? Too soon. Poor Reese ."

He winced. "Okay, well, yeah. Poor choice of words ."

He turned as we entered the first formal garden, his back to the blaze of yellow asters behind him. He looked like one of them made human, all golden-tanned skin and glinting blond hair. I itched for my sketchbook. "Hold still," I told him, taking out my phone. I could snap a quick picture, work on it later. When I'd calmed down .

Hudson closed his eyes and lifted his face to the sun. I lowered my phone, knowing on instinct that it wouldn't capture what I was seeing, and the frustration that would cause ,

He opened his eyes to catch me staring. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. He tilted his head to the asters. "So, should we pick them? Those are yellow, right ?"

Panic made me sarcastic. "Of course they're yellow," I scoffed. "What are you, colorblind ?"

He blinked .

My hand flew to my mouth. "Are you actually colorblind? Oh fuck me, I'm sorry ."

He laughed. "Actually blue and yellow I'm pretty good with, but I just like to check. Reds and purples get me all screwed up. I can't see them at all ."

"Really? Do you see things in black and white then ?"

"Everything is sort of faded." He grimaced at me. "Like an Instagram filter ."

I tucked my phone back in my pocket and stuck out my tongue. "Point taken. But you can't exactly blame me for wanting to document that I'm picking flowers with the badass lead singer of Wreckage, can you now ?"

"Here." He plucked a flower and held it out, his long arm extended to me. "Take a picture. Hudson Grant picking flowers. For you ."

I swallowed hard. Here in the blazing sun, his feet planted wide in the grass, the sun on his face, he looked like...well he looked like he belonged. Outdoors with the wind lifting that little playful piece of hair that kept falling in his face. Out here in the sunshine there was nothing too much about him. He was exactly enough .

Exactly... right .

His long fingers brushed mine as I took the flower, and I hid my blush behind my phone as I framed the shot. "Thanks," I murmured .

"It looks almost as pretty as you do." He said this like he was commenting on the weather .

"Um." I turned away. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. "These are yellow right here too," I pointed out .

"Even I can see that," he said, deftly plucking an armful. As he did, he hummed in concentration, little snatches of song escaping his lips in that rich, layered voice of his. Was he doing it on purpose? Did he know the way his voice got under my skin? Listening to him was torture, especially this close to me. And suddenly he was too big again, and too close and too right here for me to handle .

He glanced up at me, letting a few words fall from his lips, a song I didn't recognize but my body seemed to know by heart .

He definitely knew what he was doing .

Watching Hudson was like watching a still pond. On the surface, everything is calm, but you know that underneath there is life churning and teeming just out of your sight. You can sense it, but not see it, not until you dive below the surface .

I shouldn't dive .

I couldn't dive .

"You're surprisingly good at picking flowers," I blurted. I couldn't keep my eyes off the way his fingers moved so deftly. Or the way his voice made heat pool in my belly .

"I was a mechanic a while back," he told me, dropping an armful into the bucket. "Back before your brother and them pulled me from obscurity ."

At the mention of my brother it was like someone poured a bucket of ice water over my head. Quickly I stepped back away from him. He seemed to understand and strode over to another golden clump. "I'll grab these," he said. "You want to go check further down ?"

"Yes," I stammered in a rush. I hurried past Hudson and down the path, determined to get as far away as I could .