“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 theflowers 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 winkas 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 therighthandsome 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, Iknowwhat 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 aresobad 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.”
