Page 10 of A Future in Blossom

Chris

How’s everything coming along with the Opposite Wedding?

Great! Amazing how working with Jaime and Tessa feels so normal.

Good to hear. Heading back to Sunrise late this afternoon.

Claire set the aster bouquet in a floral box. “The customer should be coming for this any minute now. It’s ready.” She set thebox to one side so she could clean up the workbench. “Jaime, whatever happened to Tessa’s neighbor? That famous author?”

Jaime spun around so fast, with the strangest look on her face. “Rose saidnotto talk about that night! Not without her.” Hearing the chimes on the front door, she picked up the floral box and disappeared into the front room.

Claire sat back on the stool, feeling scolded. What had she said that was so wrong? And what did the author guy have to do with that August night?

Miffed, she picked up her phone and texted Chris.

Working together mightseemnormal, but it isn’t.

Ha! You just described the essence of being a magician. Things aren’t what they appear. See you tonight. I’ll take you out for tacos.

Claire felt better. He remembered how much she loved tacos. With a sigh, she remembered how much she still loved Chris.

seven

A weed is but an unloved flower.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox

TESSA

Tessa and Dawson prepared the site for a wedding event by creating a pathway to what would be, hopefully, the door of the still-not-arrived greenhouse. They spread sand along the pathway—it was the only medium he would agree to because it would help benefit the soil, and frankly, it was the only one she could afford. Her stomach was in knots. What if the greenhouse didn’t come in time? Jaime’s Opposite Wedding plans would crumble. The tenuous relationship she had with her would disappear. With Claire too. And even Dawson would be furious with her for losing two to three weeks of time to prepare the soil. He wasn’t keen on the notion of turning this site into a wedding venue, though he did like the benefits that came with it. They were just his cup of tea—bartering for goods and services instead of paying taxes on them.

Jaime had told Tessa that in exchange for the use of the venue(there was no venue! just a field that Jaime called a blank canvas), Epic Events would pay the cost of liability insurance for an entire year, plus pay for the entire electrical installation of the greenhouse. She said they’d leave all the components, like special lighting, for Tessa to keep for her own personal use. She even mentioned chandeliers! Tessa had yet to tell Dawson about that. She could just imagine the horrified look on his face.

Tessa felt overwhelmed by this good fortune. So grateful. It had all come about so unexpectedly too.

Last week, after bumping into each other at the coffee shop, Tessa had taken Jaime over to look at the field. Jaime had walked all around, examining it as intently as Dawson would, except that she was looking for other things besides the condition of the soil and worms. Jaime noticed things that never occurred to Tessa and Dawson.

For example, the end of the road was a cul-de-sac, which delighted Jaime. Ease of parking, she explained, something Tessa hadn’t considered. She should have, though, because down the road, she had an inkling to host people at the flower farm. She’d thought about a pick-your-own-bouquet event, or classes for flower arranging. But all those ideas were for down the road ... way down the road.

Jaime had walked back and forth along the slab foundation, noticing the angle of the sun. She took all kinds of pictures from every corner of the property and sent them to someone on her phone. Five minutes later, a text pinged on her phone. Jaime read it, smiling, and said, “Liam says to book it.”

“Book it? Book ... this, you mean, this field?” Then Tessa gasped. “Liam as in Liam McMillan?”

Jaime didn’t miss a beat. “He said it’s just the kind of setting the bride wants.”

“Bride? A wedding? But ... Jaime, there’s nothing here.”

“Exactly. It’s a blank canvas.” Jaime looked around. “Nothing, yet everything. Electricity—”

“Just a pole.”

“Good enough. Water—”

“Well, there’s hoses.”

“We can make that work.” She pointed to Tessa’s Airstream. “Even that. It’s perfect. Could we use that for staging?”

“Staging? You mean, use it for a bathroom? I suppose so, but it’s pretty small.”

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