Turning the Paige by Laura Jensen Walker

Author:Laura Jensen Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan

13

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I pushed open the door of the flower shop and entered chaos.

Overhead, a twangy country voice was belting out the seventies’ chestnut, “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” while from the back, Marc’s voice thundered over the music. “Did you find someone?”

“Not yet,” Annie yelled, her head turned toward the back room and a phone clutched against her yellow T-shirt that read Watch out or I’ll use my opera voice. “Still trying. And could you please lose the country twang-fest so they can hear me?”

The music softened by several decibels.

“Thank you!” Annie’s head snapped back to the front and she punched in a phone number. When she finished dialing, she looked up. Seeing me, she gave me a quick smile and held up her index finger in a just-a-minute gesture while she spoke into the phone. “Suze? Hey, it’s Annie. What’s goin’ on?” Her face fell. “Oh. Sounds fun. Don’t suppose you’d like to blow it off and earn fifty bucks instead? Toby’s sick and we’re desperate.” She listened to the voice on the other end. “No, that’s okay, I understand. Don’t worry about it. I’ll find someone else. Have fun.” She hung up the phone and blew out a large puff of air.

“Sounds like you guys are having a bad day.”

“You can say that again. My brother, our delivery driver, is sicker than a dog and we’re absolutely slammed. We’ve got four funerals and a wedding, a couple birthdays, and some assorted congratulations all to deliver before the end of the day.”

“Don’t you have a back-up driver?”

“That would be my mom.” She shoved her hand through her platinum spikes. “And she’s at the ER with Toby. She thinks it might be pneumonia or something.”

“I’m sorry.” I touched her arm. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Annie shook her head. “You know how ER’s are. I was there for nearly three hours this morning just hangin’ out in the waiting room. Couldn’t do anything there, so I decided to come to work and keep busy. Mom’ll call me once they see the doctor.” She scrolled through her contacts on her cell. “Now I’m just trying to find someone to — ”

“Any luck?” Marc called from the back.

“Nope. Still trying.”

He hurried out front. “We might have to clos— Paige, hi. Sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

“That’s okay. I know you guys are busy and stressed.”

Should I?

What? Offer to help? You’re directionally impaired. Remember? And you don’t even have a GPS system. You’d get totally lost.

I know. But they’re really in a jam. The least I can do is offer.

You sure you want to do this? You might really screw it up. Take the wrong flowers to the wrong house or whatever.

Oh, put a sock in it.

I took a deep breath. “Can I help?”

“Really?” Marc’s face lit up. Annie’s, too. “Can you drive a stick?”

“I learned to drive in a VW bug.

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