Page 9 of A Field of Beauty
“But maybe you shouldn’t spend it.”
Until they turned consistent profits, Dawson discouraged all spending, unless it was something that could directly benefit thefield and the flowers. He was a self-made man, remaining staunchly in the camp of what he called frugality. She called it scarcity. He thought she was spoiled. She thought he was a miser. They came from very different worlds, though she didn’t know much about his world because, unlike her, he wasn’t much of a talker. But she didn’t have enormous college debt like he did. She didn’t lose sleep at night about keeping the farm afloat. And she knew she could always turn to her parents if she really needed financial help. But she did work hard.
They passed a billboard that had Tyler’s face plastered on it, along with aVote for Mecaption.
“County dogcatcher, right?”
She swallowed a smile. “Nowthatwas an unnecessary remark.” Based on a costly mistake by an intern in Tyler’s election office who’d been given the task of proofreading the ads. The billboards neglected to say what office Tyler was running for, and it had become a standing joke around Asheville to fill in the gap. County Coroner, Trustee for the Cemeteries, Port Commissioner for the French Broad River (there was no such thing). “Tyler said it’s going to get fixed soon.”
“So you’ve said. Why doesn’t he fire the intern? Oh, that’s right. He’s a cousin.”
“Another unnecessary remark.” True, though. “Tyler knows that mistakes happen. I’ll bet you’ve even made a mistake or two.”
“Oh yeah. I’ve made plenty of mistakes.”
She wondered, though. As far as she could tell, Dawson was squeaky clean.
“What about you?”
“Me?”
“Surely you must have done something you regretted.”
That silenced her.
“Well, what matters is you clean things up. Right?” He glanced at her.
Had she cleaned up things she regretted? No. No, she hadn’t. She’d left a mess behind her.
Not a minute later, they arrived near the City Market and thoughts of regretful moments were set aside as they focused on finding a spot to park. Tessa hopped out of the cab to help Dawson guide the trailer. When satisfied, he climbed out of the truck to unhook the trailer, and Tessa opened the back to start pulling out buckets of flowers. A loud voice startled them.
“Y’all! Dawson!”
Dawson and Tessa looked up at the same time as a woman with bright pink hair came flying over, arms wide open, to envelop him in a hug. He looked as if he might die of mortification. She released him to turn her attention to Tessa, reaching out a hand with long fingernails painted a shiny bright blue. “I’m Lovey Mitchell.” She shook Tessa’s hand vigorously and handed her a business card. “I work in the best hair salon in Asheville.” She mussed the top of Dawson’s hair so that it stuck up out of his bandanna. He looked even more mortified. “You two look like you could use a little spit and polish.” She saw the horse trailer and let out a gasp. “Are y’all setting up right next to me? Don’t that just beat all? If we can’t get the farmers’ market to let us in, then we’ll just move the farmers’ market to us.”
Lovey Mitchell never stopped talking as Dawson and Tessa set up the buckets full of beautiful dahlias, in and around the horse trailer. Next to them, Lovey had a card table set up beneath a white canopy. On the card table was jewelry—earrings and necklaces, all made with long fluffy bird feathers. It wasn’t until customers started to arrive at the horse trailer that Lovey returned to her table.
Mountain Blooms Farm had a good morning. In fact, the trailer was a smashing success—it caught the attention of customers as they headed from the market to their cars. Nearly every flowerbucket was empty. Even Dawson seemed impressed. He told Tessa they should plan to double the cut blooms next week.
As they were putting things away, Dawson carried buckets over to the street sewer to empty water. Lovey came over to the trailer and watched him walk off in the distance. “Wouldn’t you just love to see what’s underneath all that?”
Tessa had been bent over the buckets, gathering leftovers together. “Huh?” She looked up to see Lovey staring at Dawson as he tipped buckets over. “Underneath ... Dawson?”
“Mmm-mmm. Imagine ripping off that bandanna and getting your hands into that mop.” She made it sound a little R-rated.
Tessa turned to look at Dawson as he headed back toward the trailer.
“What?” He eyed them suspiciously. “What are you both staring at?”
“Just wondering,” Lovey said, “how much handsome is under that shaggy carpet.”
“Keep dreaming,” he said, tucking the empty buckets into the horse trailer. He took the leftover dahlias from Tessa and handed them to Lovey, who giggled like a schoolgirl.
Was Dawsonflirting? With Lovey Mitchell? Tessa felt a trickle of ... what? Annoyance. Lovey Mitchell wasn’t at all the kind of woman Tessa would’ve picked out for him. She hadn’t actually found the right girl for him, but she definitely wouldn’t have been a pink-haired hairstylist.
Later that afternoon, when Tessa was back at Mountain Blooms Farm, walking through the dahlia fields to see how the blooms were doing, Dawson’s earlier question returned to nag her, like a buzzing mosquito. Had she ever made a mistake she regretted?
Of course. Plenty. But the worst mistake she’d made was compounded by another mistake. It meant the end of her time at Rose’s Flower Shop. It meant a fire at the shop that caused considerable damage and lots of blame. It meant that Tessa, Jaime, and Claire, now jobless, all left Sunrise because none of them had a reason tostay. But they didn’t leave together. It also meant that their friendship went up in the fire.
