Pop looked at me. “Tell me to my face that I’m wrong.”
MY SLEEPcycle was starting to take on a terrible new pattern. Worst, best, worst—that meant tonight everything would be puppies and sunshine and I’d fall asleep without a care in the world, right?
Yeah, sure.
“Good morning,” Max called, trudging down the sidewalk toward me.
“Morning,” I muttered while unlocking the front door to the Emporium and punching in the security code.
It wasn’t snowing that Sunday, but it was dark and overcast, and the wind was biting, dropping the temperature below freezing. It was expected to be this cold for the next several days. People were calling this one of the worst storms the city had experienced in over one hundred years.
“How’re you doing?” he asked as we stepped out of the gale-force winds. “Should you be back to work so soon?”
“I’ll keep the workload light,” I assured, turning on the nearest lamp.
“Yeah right,” Max said with a smile. “I’m really glad you’re okay, Seb,” he continued as we both hung up our winter clothes on the coatrack.
“Me too,” I agreed.
“Beth feels terrible about what happened.”
“Why? Did she clobber me?”
Max laughed lightly. “No, but you went to defend her shop, she said.”
“I just wanted to turn the wailing alarm off.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Anyway, she said she wanted to talk to you, first chance you had.”
“All right, thanks.” I could already sense Max knew something else was up, so I walked away before he had a chance to say anything. I stopped at the steps up to the register, glancing around a bit hesitantly before calling, “Max?”
“Yeah?” He was turning on a few more lamps behind me.
“Did you leave these?”
“Leave what?” He came up behind me to see I was pointing at a bouquet of flowers sitting beside the register. “Whoa, no way. Your dad and I were here for a little while in the morning, but just to take care of the place. We didn’t stay open for business.” He looked at me warily. “Is this like the pig heart thing?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Max looked back at the flowers and then nodded to himself, suddenly understanding. “Neil.”
“What?”
“Neil had to have brought them.”
“I… don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“We… broke up, last night.”
“Oh shit.” Max put a hand on my shoulder. “Man, I’m so sorry, Seb.”
I cleared my throat. “Thanks. Still doesn’t explain the flowers.”
“Want me to see if there’s a note?”
“No, I’m not afraid of roses,” I muttered.
