Seized by Love (Love in Bloom: The Ryders, Book 1): Blue Ryder Read Online Free PDF Page A

P-town Petals, and they usually saw each other for at least a few minutes each day, but today Lizzie had been too busy to stop by. Sawyer was playing the guitar, while Sky talked with her older brothers Hunter and Grayson.
    Sky noticed Lizzie and squealed as she dashed across the sand and threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re here! Hunter called me an hour ago and said he was having a bonfire. I tried calling you, but you didn’t answer.”
    “I must not have heard my phone. We were out buying something to fix my oven.” Lizzie watched Blue spread out a blanket for them to sit on, still thinking of what he’d said in the truck. He’d opened right up to her, like he’d been thinking about all the things he’d said for a long time.
    Sky lowered her voice. “And you’re with Blue .” She raised her brows as she zipped her hoodie. A breeze swept up from the ocean, sending Sky’s long white skirt flying around her legs.
    “It’s not a date, Sky,” Blue said flatly as he sank to the blanket and patted the spot beside him for Lizzie to join him.
    Sky leaned down and hugged Blue as Lizzie sat beside him. “You’re a buzzkill. This should be a date.”
    When he shrugged, Lizzie wondered why he didn’t tell Sky that she was the one who wouldn’t allow it to be called a date. She hadn’t told Sky about Blue asking her out over the last few months because she didn’t want to explain her reason for not going—or be pressured into accepting. As it was, at least once a week Sky urged her to go out with him. She could only imagine what she’d do if she knew he’d asked her out. She didn’t keep much from Sky, just this and the Naked Baker . She didn’t even want to think about what Sky would think of that little endeavor.
    “I wondered if you’d changed your mind about the bonfire,” Hunter said, tossing a drink to each of them.
    “Nah. We just had to buy a heating element,” Blue explained. Lizzie found it interesting that he wasn’t pressuring her or flirting with her in front of their friends, and she wondered why. “Sawyer, that song is great. Is that a new one?”
    Sawyer set his guitar down and pulled Sky onto his lap. “I wrote it last weekend, for Sky.” He gathered her hair over one shoulder and kissed her cheek. Sawyer had retired from professional boxing and worked as a trainer, and songwriting was a hobby of his. He and his father, a published poet who had Parkinson’s disease, had recently collaborated on a book of poetry.
    Lizzie tried not to feel envious of their relationship, but there was no denying the longing she felt. She’d never imagined that by twenty-six years old she wouldn’t have had a serious boyfriend. Then again, she’d never thought she’d be prancing around naked beneath an apron to pay for Maddy’s education, either. Life had a way of throwing curveballs, and she was good at batting them out of the park, but that didn’t mean that at a moment like this the tweak on her heartstrings didn’t make her wish for more.
    “Blue, when’s Cash’s wedding?” Sky asked.
    “On the sixteenth.” Blue smirked at Sawyer. “Thanks to you, I have no date. I’ll be going to the Big Apple alone and will have to fend off women left and right.”
    Sawyer nuzzled closer to Sky. “She can go to the wedding with you. I’m marrying her, not putting her in jail.”
    “Like I’d take your fiancée away for a weekend so I don’t have to go alone?” Blue shook his head. “I’m not that lame.”
    “Take Lizzie!” Sky’s eyes widened with excitement, and Lizzie’s heart nearly stopped.
    The hopeful look in Blue’s eyes tugged at the part of her that wished she didn’t have the commitments of her webcast. A weekend in New York City with Blue sounded like the best escape ever.
    “I have the flower shop to run.” And a Naked Baker webcast to film .
    “The wedding is on a weekend,” Sky pushed. “I’ll watch your shop for you.”
    Will you do the Naked Baker