Page 6 of Just Let Go

Mimi swatted her arm. “I sure am going to miss you.”

“Me too.” Quinn reached out for one more hug, blinked back fresh tears, and watched as Mimi turned around and walked out the door.

Maybe for the last time.

Standing there, in the middle of the flower shop, surrounded by the old displays, she was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.

This was it. She was on her own. No more Mimi to take care of her or make sure she was okay. Sure, she still had her dad and his friends, but business-wise, Forget-Me-Not was her responsibility.

And she was determined not to mess that up.

She pulled her notebook from her purse and sat down on the floor in the center of the space. The flower shop was old and run-down, so she’d been collecting ideas on how to improve it for years. She scooted the elastic band holding the book together off to the side and opened the pages. Even in the near dark, she knew what the sketches and scraps of magazine clippings were. She remembered every idea, every plan as if she’d just saved them yesterday.

She was excited, but she knew that as much fun as she’d had collecting ideas, it was going to take a lot of work and money to whip this place into shape. That thought overwhelmed her.

The floors needed to be refinished and the walls needed to be painted. There was a whole shelving system in the back room that still had to be put together. The signs outside hadn’t been replaced since the year Mimi bought the shop, and the window displays needed to be rebuilt. She wanted to add some small gift items to their inventory, but she had to get the display shelves put in place, and then, of course, there was the office where Quinn would meet with brides, plan festival displays, place orders, and work on the designs she’d enter into the Michigan Floral Expo, just a few short months away.

Florists from all over the state could enter the Michigan Floral Expo with displays they created for any event—festivals, carnivals, weddings. For Quinn, the Harbor Pointe Winter Carnival would be the locale for her entry. And that carnival was coming up quickly.

She pulled out her phone and swiped over to the Expo website. The entry form nagged at her. She had displays she’d designed throughout the year that would be perfectly fine to enter, but none of them were perfect.

None of them would win.

And this year—after finally becoming the official owner of the Forget-Me-Not Flower Shop, winning was the only possible outcome.

And the only way to get her mother’s attention after living twenty invisible years.

CHAPTER

3

GRADY WOKE WITH A START.Where was he? His aching body screamed at him and there was a kink in his neck. He was definitelynotin a five-star ski resort in Colorado.

He stared up at a blank, gray ceiling. Unfamiliar.

“You’re awake.”

He turned and saw the bars that surrounded him and wondered if this was how animals at the zoo felt. He sat up. Groaned.

“Wondered how long you’d sleep on that cot.” It was the old sheriff from last night.

Grady rubbed the back of his neck, willing away the dull ache around his temples. He wasn’t accustomed to sleeping without pillows and a decent mattress, even though this wasn’t the first night he’d spent in jail.

His mind spun back to the night before. The annoying guy who’d goaded him until he unleashed the rage of a year of disappointments. “Where’s that other guy?”

“Made bail this morning. Pressed charges against you.”

“Are you kidding? He’s not exactly innocent,” Grady said.

“No, he’s not. Never is. Jimmy’s been known to pick fights around town. It’s practically a hobby for him.” The man’s bushy white mustache moved as he spoke, but that was about the most demonstrative thing on this guy. He leaned in the doorway of an office, thumbs hooked into his gun belt, chewing on a toothpick.

“Did you even go home last night?” Grady asked, though he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t care how many hours this guy had been on duty.

“I did. Came back this morning when one of my deputies called to tell me something that happened in our little town was trending on Twitter.” He said it with disdain.

“What?” Grady sighed. “Great. That’s just what I need.”

“Figured. I did a little digging. You’ve been having a heckuva year.”

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