“All day?”
“No, not all day. All afternoon. Plus, Candace is coming in tonight. I want to make sure the house is spic and span for her. You know how weird she is about cleanliness. And right now we’re at the park. The boys have been asking all weekend to go to the park. We can’t leave.”
She was going to be at the park all morning long with Milo and Henry—ages one and two?
“Hey, random question. Did you drive by Matt’s wedding on Saturday?”
“Matt’s wedding?” My face exploded with warmth. So much that I could have heated a small village in Siberia.
“Candace and I could have sworn we saw you outside the church. Your car too.”
“No, of course not.” More heat. Waves upon waves of it. I cleared my throat, told Crystal I had to get back to work, then hung up the phone like it was a hot potato. Before I could relive the mortifying memory for too long, the front bell chimed and in stepped my brother. Shaggy red hair, my pointy chin, Mom’s infectious smile. Her brown eyes too.
“Well, this is a nice surprise.” William was a rare customer at my flower shop. Not because he didn’t like flowers, but because he worked during store hours. He graduated from Cross Point last spring and had moved to Mayfair afterward to work as a CPA for a local accounting firm. I loved having him so near.
He headed toward me with that smile still in place, set his elbows on the counter, and flipped open a small velvet box in the palm of his hand—one with a diamond ring inside. It took me a bit to process what it meant. A diamond ring in a velvet box? I looked from the piece of jewelry up to him. “Are you—is this . . .?”
“I’m going to ask her to marry me.”
“Bridget?”
“Of course Bridget, who else?”
I blinked. Several times. Stammered a bit. Then did what adoring big sisters should do when they hear such news from their baby brother. I beat my worry into submission, came around the counter, and wrapped him in a hug. “Wow, Will. Congratulations!”
“I’m going to pop the question tonight.”
“Wow.” I tucked my hands into the back pockets of my jeans, trying to relax the muscles in my face. Will and Bridget were so young, and they’d only started dating at the end of May.
He tipped his chin down and gave me that look. “Amelia . . .”
“What?”
“I love her. Madly. I’m telling you, she’s the one.”
“That’s great.”
He tipped his chin down farther. “Please don’t worry about this.”
“I won’t. I’m not. Seriously, Will, I’m thrilled for you.” My baby brother was getting married. To a woman I barely knew. Could he really blame me if a heavy dose of unease was mixed in with that thrill?
“I was hoping you could make up a bouquet for me to give her tonight?” He shut the small box and slipped it into his pocket.
“Of course! Any particular flower in mind?”
“Red roses symbolize love, don’t they?”
“A dozen red roses, coming up.”
His smile returned, bigger than before. “Let’s make that two dozen.”
William delivered my before-noon bouquet on the remainder of his lunch break. I closed the shop early so I could deliver the before-six arrangements myself. Not a big deal, since I’d had a sum total of four customers walk through the door, and that sum total included my brother. Such was the nature of the floral business. Seasonal fluctuations. My crazy time came between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Unless a lot of brides decided to have fall weddings, the fall months tended to be slower ones.
I stowed the arrangements in the backseat of my Honda Accord, plugged the addresses into my GPS, turned on my Lorie Line Pandora station, and began the final part of my day. Maybe when I finished I could grab a hamburger to go from Patty’s House of Pancakes, curl up on my couch at home with my tabby cat, Baxter, and watch something romantic. Get my mind off of my brother’s impending proposal. He didn’t want me to worry, but that was easier said than done. To me William would always be my scrapes-on-his-knobby-knees, dirt-on-his-nose, shoes-on-the-wrong-feet, attached-at-the-hip little brother. He wasn’t old enough to get married. And how could he know Bridget was “the one” when they’d only been dating three and a half months?