Deadly Arrangements (Book Two in the Cozy Flower Shop Mystery Series) (The Flower Shop Mystery Series) Read online

  Deadly Arrangements

  The Flower Shop Mystery Series

  Book Two

  By

  Annie Adams

  Deadly Arrangements © 2014 Annie Adams

  Book Two in The Flower Shop Mystery Series

  All rights reserved

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. The book contained herein constitutes a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, or stored in or introduced into an information storage and retrieval system in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Annie Adams

  Cover Art © 2014 Kelli Ann Morgan / Inspire Creative Services

  Formatting by Bob Houston eBook Formatting

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Quincy, you look…stunning,” Allie said.

  As corny as it was, I couldn't help feeling very much like Cinderella prepping for the ball as I stepped out of the dressing room of the Beautiful Bride Dress Shop. My mother and sister had waited patiently in the sitting room as I tried on dress after dress.

  “If you ask me, this is awful soon for a wedding. Of course, no one ever asks me,” Mom said. I glanced sideways at Allie who rolled her eyes just out of our mother’s line of sight. I couldn’t help but giggle.

  “What’s so funny?” Mom said.

  “Oh, nothing,” I said in a sing-song voice as I slipped back into the dressing room.

  “Well, anyway, it’s been what, two months since they met?” My mother made sure to use a loud enough voice so I could hear inside the dressing room and probably in Cleveland.

  “I think it’s incredibly romantic,” Allie said.

  “Oh, puh-lease,” my mother said, the hardened edge to her voice as crusty as week-old bread. Her tone made my heart ache. She’d become a cynic about many topics, especially romantic love. Marriage and romance had become mutually exclusive in her oft-voiced opinion.

  Of course, my mother will always nag about her younger daughters' marital status, whether any romance is involved or not. Once we’re married, she’ll move on to nagging about getting some grandchildren.

  But, she had good reason to feel cynical about love and romance. My father had left my mother just after I got married—or should I say got married off? That’s what it felt like, anyway. Nothing like a little societal pressure to make you feel like an old-maid in your early twenties. But, in Utah’s religiously influenced culture, that's nothing new. At almost thirty, I felt like I was practically ready for the glue factory.

  My ill-fated marriage had been the biggest mistake of my life. One abusive husband later, it may seem surprising I wasn’t joining in the chorus with my well-intentioned mother.

  I had escaped the marriage on my own. And I landed on my feet with the help of my Aunt Rosie, who decided to travel the world and turned her flower shop over to me. But the escape from the emotional cave I was living in had been much more difficult to accomplish.

  I was out of the cave and seeing the daylight thanks to the beautiful hunk of a man that was now my…boyfriend?…Alex, with whom I had been spending as much time as our busy schedules would allow.

  My dressing room attendant had disappeared, so I attempted to unfasten the gown myself as the marriage discussion continued.

  "Like K.C. always says, there’s no time like the present," I said. My delivery driver, Karma Clackerton, has a knack for handing out advice. She’s one tough grandma who continuously amazes with wacky outfits and new additions to her weapons arsenal. "Besides, she’s older than you, Mom. At least I think she is,” I said, and then cringed at venturing into the touchy subject of my mother’s age. "I think that's the reason she and Fred decided to get married so soon."

  “You do have a point there, Quincy.” Did my ears deceive me? Had my mother actually agreed with me? Would wonders would never cease?

  “Neither of us is getting any younger. I suppose she should jump at the chance she’s been given for happiness.” I could hear the sadness in my mom’s voice and I felt a tiny bit guilty for the gift of happiness I’d been given with Alex.

  “Was that the last dress, Quincy?” Allie asked.

  “Last one. But I might be in here for a while.” The dress wouldn’t be too hard to tackle, but then there were the undergarments I'd been instructed to wear by the attendant.

  “You’ll thank me later,” she’d said. “Things will be firmed, lifted and separated in a way that your regular, ahem, delicates will never accomplish.”

  My regular delicates usually came with the words Fruit and Loom printed on them somewhere, so I was pretty sure things would feel different with this fancy underwear.

  And actually, the attendant had been right. I felt incredibly sexy when I looked in the mirror. Almost every dress I tried on fit as if it were designed just for me, except for the length. No underwear would make a dress fit a 5'9" girl in the same way it fit a more vertically challenged one, but the curves worked in all the right places. It was going to be quite a feat removing the lace and mesh body sculpting device. Where was that attendant, anyway?

  For her grand wedding extravaganza, with the help of Danny, my closest friend and fellow flower shop owner, K.C. had chosen an overall scheme of harvest colors, such as pumpkin spice, ochre, celadon, and aubergine, but she’d left the choice of bridesmaid dress style and color up to me. I was partial to a tea-length number in a burnt orange organza with a shoulder wrap, but I wanted to check another shop before making my decision.

  “Speaking of romance, Quincy,” Allie said, “how are things with Alex?” Her tone made me blush. I envisioned Alex the way he looked the last time I saw him. He was on his way to work in a navy fitted suit with a steel gray shirt, which perfectly accented his brown eyes and light golden brown hair.

  “Things are—great. I mean, well yeah, they’re great.” Things were great when we were together, but he was currently on an undercover operation in the southern part of the state. That’s all I knew. A
lex worked in Internal Affairs for the Utah State Police, and much of the work he did was undercover. That’s how we met—he was posing as a patrol officer while investigating the dirty detective who had framed me for the murder of a competitor.

  I really liked Alex.

  Okay—so maybe liked is an understatement. My knees turned to Jell-O at just the sound of his voice on the phone, not to mention all the things that happened to me when we were in the same room. But like was the only “L” word I could allow myself to use for a man, given my romantic relationship history.

  I knew we had something together, although I couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what we had, because every time I thought I had "us" figured out, he would leave again. He also worked on a gang task force and traveled a lot for that job. Between dirty cops and gangsters, I was feeling part of a competition for his attention.

  “Is he out of town for long?” Allie asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I called out, as I hung the dress on the satin hanger. Now to remove the figure-enhancing Iron Maiden.

  “It must be hard not seeing him for that long,” Allie said. “Heck, I miss seeing that fine man of yours.”

  “Allison!” Our mother had a lack of appreciation for the “color” of our conversation.

  I caught myself smiling in the mirror. The fact hadn’t escaped me that Alex was, shall we say, appreciated by fellow members of my gender.

  Allie kept up the teasing with our mother. “Oh, Mom, admit it now. Alex is H-O-T, hot! It’s okay to state the obvious. Quincy doesn’t mind if you speak the truth. Do you, Quincy?”

  “Of course not, Mother dear,” I said.

  “Well, he does have certain—physical—attributes.” Mom cleared her throat, “Despite some differences I might have with him, he is quite easy to look at.”

  “Easy on the eyes? Is that what you’re trying to say, Mom?” Allie said. “Quincy, our mother is blushing because she has the hots for your hot boyfriend.”

  Allie giggled again and my mother tsked. It was nice to have fun together again, even if it was at the expense of my—yes he was—my hot boyfriend.

  I struggled with the hooks on the back of the bustier-entrapment device and realized I wasn’t going to get it un-fastened without tearing the delicate-yet iron-like support fabric. We had the dressing room and sitting area reserved for an hour, so no one else would be around to see me in my fancy skivvies, including the attendant, apparently. I unlatched the door and used my backside to push it open while my hands were occupied with the blasted hooks and eyes fasteners between my shoulder blades. “I’m going to need some help getting out of this thing.”

  I turned and looked in the direction of Allie and our mother, but my eyes landed behind them, directly into the dark brown eyes of a man grinning from ear to ear and casually leaning against the wall, ankles crossed, hand in the hip pocket of his jeans.

  “I’d be happy to fulfill that request,” he said.

  “Ohmagosh!” I reflexively crossed my arms over my boosted breasts and then reached down in an attempt to cover the southern hemisphere with one of my arms in an awkward dance toward the dressing room.

  “Who—wha—what?” I heard my mother exclaim.

  “I’m so sorry,” the familiar deep voice said without really sounding sorry at all. “The woman at the front counter told me I could find Quincy back here.”

  He was trying not to laugh—and failing.

  “Alex?” Allie said in a high-pitched squeak, “We were just talking about you.” I was sure her face was as scarlet as the face looking back at me in the dressing room mirror.

  “I know,” he said.

  I threw my t-shirt and jeans on over the fancy underwear, which only added to the extreme discomfort of the situation. I admit it was thrilling to see Alex’s face when he saw me in my sculpted and shaped glory. It was the closest to naked he’d ever seen me…on the other hand, my mother just had to be there for the big event. Ick. Blegh. Eew.

  I escaped the dressing room as fast as I could to do some damage control.

  My mother’s face was not red as a poppy, as I had suspected it would be. It was, in fact, extremely pale.

  “Alex,” she said. “Hhh—how long have you been here?”

  “Only a minute…or ten,” he said, through perfect white teeth, which he was having an awfully hard time covering up because his smile was reaching epic proportions.

  “We’ll meet you up front, Quincy,” Allie said. She and our mother slipped past Alex while twittering like a couple of thirteen-year-old girls who had just seen their latest movie star crush.

  I bit my bottom lip when I finally approached Alex. He had an almost full beard of golden blond hair.

  “What’s this?” I asked as I reached up and stroked the furry side of his jaw.

  “Ah, you like it? It’s been part of my persona for the last little while.” Truthfully, I hated it, but it didn’t matter. He could have been wearing a dress and he still would have been the hottest cop on the planet.

  He wrapped his strong arms around my waist and bent down to kiss me. I put my arms around his neck and held tight. His fingers wandered and fussed along my back where the tenacious hooks were still fastened under my t-shirt. He broke the kiss and leaned back just a centimeter. His warm breath passed across my lips, teasing.

  “This little item is…inspiring.”

  He arched one eyebrow.

  “Yeah, about that. How much did you actually see?”

  What a dumb question. He wasn’t blind.

  “Just exactly enough, babe.” The words slid out of his mouth in that deep voice, slow and deliberate. I swallowed and forced myself to start breathing again.

  “Oh.” A flutter started in my chest. I cleared my throat in anticipation of finding something to say. Things were getting warm in that little parlor. Actually, the warmth mostly seemed to be twirling around me. Why was my throat so dry?

  “So, how much of our silly conversation did you hear?” I said, trying to appear nonchalant while my fingers toyed with the new curls at the back of his neck which had developed along with the beard during his absence.

  “Um, probably just…all of it.”

  “Huh,” is all that would come out, and that was followed by an excruciatingly long pause. I came up with a weak laugh, “Well, at least you know how everyone feels," I said and shrugged. He just stood there and grinned at me.

  "What did I miss while I was gone?" he said, finally.

  "Where to start?" I said. "I'll tell you what I missed…"

  His eyes crinkled around the edges and he bent down and nuzzled my neck. "What's that?"

  "Let me just show you." I kissed him, then he took over and kissed me back, long and slow. Electricity seemed to spark between our bodies.

  He came up for breath. “Mmm, I like show better than tell. Seems like you’ve put some thought into what we talked about before I left.”

  Oh boy, had I ever. We had discussed the next step. Theee next step with a capital “T,” if you know what I mean. Taking our physical relationship to the next level had been the topic after the hottest, handsiest, gropingest, make-out session two adults could have without moving on to more adult activities.

  I had hesitated a nano-second when he asked about going further. I mean, who hasn’t taken a pause before speaking once in a while? When someone asks you a question, isn’t it polite to give a thoughtful response? So I hesitated. So what? Not that big a deal.

  He took that hesitation to mean an absolute no. Despite my protests, he thought we should cool things down and wait until I was ready. I thought I was ready. My body was certain it was ready, and I was all set to prove it the next time we were together. But then he was called out of town for the job.

  And now he was back from the job.

  “Absolutely,” I said. I looked into his brown eyes, “I’m ready.”

  “Are you sure?” He pulled away, which wasn’t exactly the response I was hoping for. But then, we were in a public p
lace.

  “I’m sure.” Wasn’t I? Why wasn’t he convinced? Was I sending out a vibe that I wasn’t aware of? Like a dog whistle, the pitch only matching Alex’s ears? “You just say the word—or make the move—or whatever else, and I am there.”

  He furrowed his brows and leaned back some more. Oh no. My inner dork had just taken over again.

  I was ready. I had no reservations, no hesitations, no…no idea why I would have any reason to not feel ready.

  "Quincy, hey, there's no pressure here. I understand." He completely let go of me. "Let's just keep things slow. I want you to feel comfortable with everything. You'll be ready when you're ready. And I'll be ready then too. Okay?" Then, horror of horrors, he chucked my chin like he was giving encouragement to a little leaguer. He might as well have called me "champ," and told me to get back in the game.

  The temperature between us dropped as if we had just walked into my flower cooler. I rested the palm of my hand on his sculpted chest. "Thank you for being so thoughtful, but don't worry, I'm ready now. I mean, not now—now, like right here in the bridal shop, but now like from now on.” I looked left, and then right. “I do still have about twenty minutes left on the room reservation, though. We could lock the door…"

  He laughed and cradled my face with his hands. Much better than the chin-chuck for sure. "I've missed you, Q." He kissed my forehead then gave me a hug. "So, what are you doing later?"

  I wanted to say, “Taking off your shirt,” but I thought that might be pushing it. “Spending time with you, I hope."

  "Let's go to dinner. No, better yet, let me make dinner for you at my place," he said.

  This would be our chance. He was setting the stage.

  "What day of the week is this?" he said.

  "It’s Saturday.”

  "My schedule is so off from the traveling, I can’t keep track of the days."

  "How did you know I would be here, anyway?" I said.

  "I called K.C. when you and Allie didn't answer your phones. Great news for K.C. and Fred, huh?"

  "Yeah, I guess you were gone when they made their big announcement. It's been a whirlwind ever since," I said.