Free A Root Awakening: A Flower Shop Mystery by Kate Collins

have for me.”
    Seedy chose that moment to hobble out from under the table and put her paw on Rosa’s leg, gazing up with the same loving expression she usually reserved for me.
    “Well, hello,
perrito
!” Rosa crouched down to take Seedy’s shaggy little head between her hands and plant a kiss on top of her head. “What a sweet dog.”
    Seedy gave a happy little yip and wagged her tail, then, having accomplished her goodwill mission, returned to her bed.
    “That’s a first,” Lottie said. “Seedy usually hides from strangers.”
    “Animals,” Rosa said with a shrug. “They love me.”
    Animals, assistants . . . who was next?
    She took my hand and pressed it between hers. “Please, Mrs. Salvare? Will you let me help you?”
    Grace and Lottie stood behind her, nodding their approval.
    What could I say?
You can work here only if you keep away from my husband
? That was tantamount to saying I didn’t trust Marco, and that wasn’t true at all.
    Forcing a smile, I said, “I suppose we can try it. Can you start tomorrow?”
    She nearly lifted me out of my chair with her hug. “I will start right now. Give me a job and I will do it. Where should I begin?”
    A better question was, how would this end?
    Everyone was waiting for me to say something, so I turned to Grace. “Let’s find her an apron, and then why don’t you teach her how to run the parlor?”
    “An apron?” Lottie asked. We hadn’t worn the bib-style yellow aprons with
Bloomers
embroidered on the front since I took over the business.
    “I was just thinking earlier that we should start wearing them again.” Like two minutes earlier. Especially since the bib part would cover Rosa’s cleavage.
    Lottie pulled a stack from a cupboard and handed them out. “Here we go.”
    “You have a parlor?” Rosa asked Grace as they left the workroom together.
    “It’s where we serve coffee, tea, and scones, love,” I heard Grace reply.
    “What are scones?”
    “Oh, goodness. You must try one. I bake them myself.”
    Lottie stood in front of me, arms crossed. “You look like a deer in the headlights.”
    “What just happened?”
    “I think our prayer was answered.”
    I wasn’t so sure about that. I shook myself and plucked an order from the spindle.
    “Rosa will be good for Bloomers,” Lottie said as she opened the big walk-in cooler where we kept fresh blossoms. “She’ll certainly liven things up.”
    “Isn’t that what you said about Francesca?” I asked.
    “You have to admit that our customers loved Francesca.”
    “Let’s just hope Rosa doesn’t start bringing in food like Francesca did. We had mobs coming here to eat allthose free Italian goodies and no one bought a thing. And don’t forget how Francesca arranged all the tools in my drawers in alphabetical order. It took an entire morning to put everything back the way it had been.”
    Lottie laid her mums and roses on the table and put her hands on my shoulder. “Okay, Abby, listen to Earth Mom Lottie now. Stop anticipating problems. If you focus on things you don’t want to happen, you’ll draw them to you.”
    “Seriously?”
    “You bet. Like attracts like.” She pointed to the full spindle. “You think that’s just a coincidence? Haven’t we all been remarking how great it is to see it full? Law of attraction at work. It’s in a book on quantum physics that Herman just finished reading, and whatever he reads he gives me daily reports on. Daily. Reports.” She rolled her eyes. “So be positive and you’ll draw all kinds of good energy.”
    I thought about that as I gathered supplies for a twenty-fifth anniversary arrangement. If I focused on having creamy skin, would my freckles disappear?
    After choosing a combination of hybrid tea roses, grandifloras, and poly pompon roses in three shades of pink, with a few lilies in white for contrast, I prepped a silver-colored container shaped like a giant martini glass and began putting the arrangement together. I hummed as