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***
“Thank you, Mrs. Cooper! I’ll see you next week.” I smiled as the elegant lady in her late fifties waved goodbye with her weekly bouquet of lilies in hand.
“See you then, honey!”
The bell above the door dinged twice, once when she opened it and again when it swung shut behind her. The blast of late-summer heat from the outside was unwelcome, but it quickly dissipated as my air-conditioning ate it up.
This was probably the coldest store in town, but I think that was probably the reason why everyone came in during the summer. Sales were up, and it wasn’t just because homecoming season was coming up.
People came into escape the Southern heat, then ended up buying things.
I wasn’t against using the weather to sell flowers.
We sold them for dead people, so…
I checked my phone, but the mystery picture sender still hadn’t replied. It was two in the afternoon, so they were either too embarrassed to respond, or they hadn’t seen it yet.
With a sigh, I put my phone back under the counter. I figured I’d keep the text for a day or so before deleting it, just in case he did reply. Knowing me, I’d forget it tomorrow and end up with a random text I couldn’t put into context.
The bell rang again, and I looked up in time to see Halley and Ava at the door. They were both wearing running clothes and had water bottles in their hands, but their expressions couldn’t be more different.
Halley was a little winded, with pink cheeks and a smirk on her lips.
Ava, on the other hand… Well, wisps of her black hair were stuck to her face with sweat. She resembled a tomato, more than anything, and I could feel the murderous vibes that radiated off her.
She stormed past me and went through to the back. There was a clunk as the refrigerator door opened, and I raised my eyebrows as a huge, “Ahhhhh!” filtered through the building.
I turned and met Halley’s eyes. “I see running is going well.”
“About as well as a dumpster fire.” She lifted her bottle and took a long drink. “She is not a runner. She’s worse than you.”
“I can run. I just don’t like to.” I pulled my stool beneath me and sat down. “How long is she going to stand in my refrigerator?”
Halley shrugged, sitting on one of the spare stools in front of the counter. “Presumably until she realizes it’s just as cool out here and she can sit down here.”
“What happened today?”
“The sun,” she replied dryly. “It’s her day off, so instead of getting up to run before work like we normally do, she slept in. She refused to run tonight when it’s cooler, so…” She motioned up and down her body. “Apparently, Ava doesn’t like sweating.”
“Ava doesn’t like anything.”
“I heard that.” There was a clunk as the fridge door shut again. Ava emerged from the back, still looking as if she’d run a four-minute-mile, and wiped the bottom of her tank top over her face. “I like plenty of things, but running in the heat isn’t one of them.”
Unbothered, Halley said, “I told you to wake up early this morning.”
Ava looked at her. “We might have to break up.”
I laughed when Halley rolled her eyes. Since they’d started running a few weeks ago, Ava had threatened it at least twice a week.
It was yet to happen.
“Hey, you guys—”
Halley’s phone rang, cutting me off. “Sorry. Hold on.” She stood to pull it out of the zip pocket in her yoga pants and answered it. “Hello? Yeah—no, shut up… For the love of God, she’s supposed to be supervised! … Ugh, fine. I’ll be there soon.”
I shared a look with Ava.
Halley hung up and looked at us. “My grandmother escaped and is terrorizing the village.”
I fought a smile. Ever since she’d made the choice to move back in with Halley’s dad and stepmom, Margaret Dawson had made as much of a nuisance of herself as she possibly could without getting arrested.
Given that my Great Aunt Bethel and her partner in crime was also now living back in Creek Falls, there was only one way to put it.
We were all fucked.
Halley looked at Ava. “My car is parked a couple blocks away. Do you want a ride home?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. I just need to use the bathroom before we leave. Give me a second.” She slid off the stool and headed for the back.
Ava looked at me. “Hey, Reagan, weren’t you going to say something before Halley’s phone rang?”
“I forgot,” I lied, lifting my shoulders in a light shrug. Right then, the store phone rang. “Hi! This is the Wright Bouquet, Reagan speaking. How can I help you?”
The woman on the end said she needed a bouquet for her grandma’s eightieth birthday to be delivered to her front door. I confirmed that we could absolutely do that and waved goodbye to Reagan and Ava when they left halfway through the call.
