Real Men Don't Break Hearts by Coleen Kwan

Author:Coleen Kwan [Kwan, Coleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Bliss)
Published: 2012-12-03T10:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Ally, thank Christ, am I glad to see you.”

“Hey, that’s what sisters are for.” Ally squeezed Jess’s arm as she took her place at the workbench beside her sister.

“Are you sure about this?” Jess chewed her lip. “I mean, it seems a bit weird…”

To ask her to make floral arrangements for her ex-fiancé’s wedding? Maybe, but not under these circumstances. It was just after six in the evening, the day before the wedding. Jess had called Ally, asking if she could come over and help, and when Ally had arrived at the floral shop shortly afterward, she’d seen why. Jess looked awful. Her face was sallow, and her fingers were scarred from the florist wire she’d been twisting all day long. Her shoulders were slumped with exhaustion, and her eyes had taken on a glazed yet panicked expression.

“I’m glad you called me,” Ally said. “Now that I’m here, why don’t you go home and relax?”

Brian, who had been hovering in the background, moved forward to cup Jess’s shoulders. “Yeah, honey. I’ve been telling you for hours to take a break. Ally and I can finish the rest.”

“No, you can’t.” Jess shrugged off her husband and pulled a ceramic bowl toward her. “Here, let me show you how to do the centerpieces.”

Ally threw a sympathetic glance at Brian before focusing her attention on her sister’s demonstration. Brian was a lovely husband, but when it came to floral arrangements he was all thumbs, and Jess had long ago assumed full responsibility for this aspect of their business. From the side benches filled with ornate bouquets, Ally could see Jess had already completed the bigger arrangements. She would have finished the smaller centerpieces, too, if she hadn’t been plagued by morning sickness the entire day.

Ally watched as Jess gathered peonies, mock orange, fern, and laurel leaves and fashioned a graceful arrangement around a white scented candle set into a bowl. Ally had often helped her sister, and it wasn’t too difficult to follow her instructions. Taking her own materials, she worked at a slower pace, carefully replicating Jess’s centerpiece.

“Good enough?” she asked when she’d finished.

Jess nodded and gave her a faint smile of relief.

As she gazed at her work, Ally experienced the faintest of twinges in her chest. Tomorrow the centerpiece she’d just created would grace a table at Seth and Paige’s wedding. She wouldn’t be human if she didn’t feel a slight regret that beautiful flowers like these wouldn’t be adorning her own wedding. At nineteen she’d been too young to get married, but she knew that she wanted a husband, a loving relationship, and eventually children. Maybe not now, but some day in the future.

“Ally?”

She shook herself out of her reverie to find her sister regarding her with a slight frown. “I’m fine.” She waved her off. “Go home and rest.”

Instead, Jess cast a glance at the number of empty bowls waiting to be filled. “Now that you’re here,” she said to Ally, “we should be done in an hour.”

In

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