Page 107

ALL HANDS ON DECK

Evie: We need to talk.

Jon: Are we breaking up?

Evie: Not THAT talk.

Evie: Besides, I’m out of your league.

Jon: You should be so lucky.

Evie: Get home when you can.

Evie: I have news.

The moment I opened the door, the smell of flowers filled my nostrils.

Lilacs mingled with roses, each a rich scent I’d walk out with.

It was everything I had hoped for in a flower shop.

Vases covered almost every surface, some with flowers, some with clippings yet to be arranged.

Even the arch over the door had a trellis with vines, making for a grand entrance.

“Mimi’s grandson!”

In the coffee shop, I hadn’t thought about her voice.

Now, in her flower shop, Marigold had a slight chime in the way she spoke.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was one of the faeries that called tree stumps home.

Through some magic, she had grown and now spent her days bathing in the scent of spring.

I stopped by a short Grecian column, leaning in to smell a bouquet of multicolored roses. They had a sweet moistness to them that made me smile. Everything about her shop screamed joy.

“I was wondering if you could help me?” I entered, realizing that I was about to stir the pot. It’d be impossible to make this request without activating the phone tree. Let the rumors fly. I’d endure whatever Firefly sent my way.

Marigold didn’t walk from behind her counter. She glided. If I didn’t know better, I’d say translucent wings flapped back and forth, allowing her to hover above the shop floor. It didn’t help that she wore a billowing dress with a floral print that crept up her side and crossed over her chest.

“Happy or sad?”

I cocked my head to the side, not sure what she asked. Even her smile had a warmth. The lines along her face deepened, revealing she spent more time with a smile than without.

“The occasion. Is it a happy one or sad?”

I’d describe every encounter with Tyler as happy. It had been days since I saw him last. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him laughing, the sound of his intermittent snorting echoing in the back of my head.

She nodded. “Definitely a happy one.”

I slid my backpack off my shoulder, holding it by the strap as I walked further into her shop. Marigold gestured to the entire back. “We love happy occasions.”

“She lives for the happy ones.”

I jumped at the gruff voice. Sitting in an armchair, almost hidden by potted shrubs, I could see Peter’s eyes. He raised a hand, giving a wave. “Mr. Olsen, good to see you again.”

He turned back to his book, engrossed in the story. Knowing he found a perch in amongst the greenery completed the picture. After seeing them in the coffee shop, I imagined they were the couple that did everything together. He read while she lived out her dream, making my heart swell.

“I’m not really a flower guy.”

“But you want to impress a certain gentleman.” I couldn’t even stammer out a reply. Of course, she knew what I wanted the moment I entered. “Just so happens that I know a certain librarian loves purple orchids.”

There was no point in arguing. “Would those say I think you’re special?”

“When I’m done with them, of course.” She didn’t wait for confirmation as she worked her way to the fridges in the back of the store. “Speaking of… what’s your favorite color?”

Odd question. “Cerulean.”

“Favorite flower?”

I had never given it much thought. “Lilacs.” As if on cue, I could smell them in the air. “Mimi has a lilac bush behind the house. During the summer, if I opened the window, I could smell them.” I hadn’t thought about that memory in ages. “Especially after it rained.”

“Perfect.” Marigold sounded proud of herself, as if she had guessed accurately. “I take it you want them now?”

“I mean…” Yes, I was impatient. “If it’s no problem.”

“Bah. Making somebody’s day is never a problem.” She plucked flowers from the fridge and moved over to the table where she arranged them. Glancing over my shoulder, I found Peter still engrossed in his novel.

While I wanted flowers for Tyler, I had an ulterior motive.

Quietly unzipping my backpack, I pulled a loose page from my sketchbook.

I glimpsed Marigold and Peter on the page.

They were cute on their own, but the intertwined pinkies, that was the radical love between them.

Behind an ear, she had a flower, but it was the way he eyed her that made my heart skip a beat.

Without saying a word, I slid the sheet of paper between a couple of vases on the counter.

For the next fifteen minutes, I wandered about the shop, admiring the decorative vases. I’m pretty sure I recognized one or two from the bookshelves at Mimi’s house. Try as I might, I couldn’t recall if they ever contained flowers.

“What was Mimi’s favorite?”

Marigold rolled the bouquet in powder blue paper before walking up to the counter.

She looked at the flowers the same way Peter did for her.

If the Romance Channel were making a documentary on the perfect couple, I think I found their first subject.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder as she handed me the bundle of beautiful.

“She claimed she didn’t have a favorite. But I have a photo of her in a field of sunflowers that says otherwise.” She chuckled. “She has her head back, basking in the sun and with the hat; I’d think she was one of them.”

Mimi loved the sun. She’d sit in her rocking chair knitting, but when the sun moved and hit her, she’d be snoozing in no time.

With a final shift of an orchid, she admired her handiwork.

“He’s going to love them.” I certainly hoped so.

Despite watching a thousand movies where the man showed up with flowers, I felt awkward.

It held a cheesy factor, and I feared I might be falling on the wrong side of adorable.

If there was one thing I learned from all the hours of watching heartfelt romances was that love requires vulnerability.

I paid and mustered the courage to storm across the green and barge into the library like a man on a mission. I’d thrust them forward like a child with a new shiny rock, and then we’d laugh.

“The library closed early today,” Peter said.

“How do you know that, mister?”

He held up his book. “Tyler had it waiting for me.”

Marigold leaned in. “Don’t let that deter you. You go find your man and make his day.” She exaggerated a wink as she shooed me away from the counter. “Sometimes love finds us. Other times, we need to go find it.”

Marigold instilled courage. It was time to find a certain handsome man.

I couldn’t find the right handsome man.

Walking up the stairs to Mimi’s house, I tried to shake off the defeat. Tyler had vanished. Rita hadn’t seen him since this morning. Simon saw him briefly at lunch. Bonnie said he had stopped in to buy a loaf of bread. I resorted to Gladys and the whisper network. She had nothing.

Tyler had evaporated.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day I showed up with flowers.

It’d give me time to come up with the perfect words.

I’d say something pithy but coy. I didn’t want to scare him off.

It’d be the right mix of sweet and suggestive.

I’d blush, hand them over, and he’d be at a loss for words.

Okay, that made everything better. I had time to polish this idea.

I reached for the door, and it opened.

“Hi.”

Tyler stood at the entrance to… I checked the porch to make sure I was at the right house. Confused, I thrust the bouquet forward. “Here.” What? No. “I mean…” I didn’t have time to plan. Say something pithy. “You like flowers.” Grab a shovel, I was digging my grave. “I… uh…”

“What are those?” He glanced down and back at me. “I mean, I know what they are. I…”

“Stop acting like it’s your first date.” I could see Evie at the end of the hall leading into the kitchen. “You two are so bad at this.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Tyler snorted. He took the flowers and wrapped an arm around me in a hug. He kissed my cheek. “What I meant to say is, it’s sweet that you got me flowers.”

I squeezed him, picking him off the floor and waddling into the house. “Imagine I said something that made you blush.” I kicked the door shut before setting him down. “You’ll remember it forever.”

He pulled back, sniffing them. “Oh, I’ll remember this.”

It wasn’t the suave delivery I hoped for. I should have expected nothing less. Being a klutz extended from tripping over my feet to tripping over my words. At least it came off charming… I think.

With that out of the way, the questions came rushing in. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, that’d be my fault.” Evie. I don’t know if I wanted to strangle her or give her a kiss. “I needed to talk to a local, and I thought, who better than my brother’s boyfriend?”

My cheeks turned red, and Tyler smirked. We hadn’t discussed labels. I didn’t hate the idea, but more than that, Evie had called me her brother. She hadn’t called me that in… I couldn’t remember. To others, it wouldn’t perk up their ears, but for us… our bridge construction continued.

“Are you just being nosey?” I asked.

I slid past Tyler, my hand casually brushing his hand until he hooked his pinky with mine.

She had taken up a seat in Mimi’s rocking chair.

Boxes littered the floor, half filled with books.

She had cleared off the shelves. For the first time, I felt odd about cleaning the house.

It was one thing to declutter the attic or the million rooms, but this had been Mimi’s sanctuary. I shelved the discomfort for later.

“Sit.” We took a place on the sofa. “Where were we before Jon so rudely intruded?”

She hadn’t been kidding. This wasn’t an elaborate ruse to get us together. If it had been anybody else in Firefly, this meeting would have been a thinly veiled attempt to get us in the same room. I felt like a third wheel with my… boyfriend .

Yeah. I liked that.