‘Mom, I put those there for a reason.’
Her mother, Daisy May, put a hand on her hip and huffed a breath to blow the wispy hairs away from her face. She was wearing the same daisy-print apron she’d worn since Daisy was a little girl, the one Daisy had been wearing just the other day. She was left with a plain black one today.
‘But they’re blocking these smaller plants in the back.’
‘Am I in charge of the shop now, or what?’ Daisy snapped back.
‘Fine, fine,’ she said, throwing her hands up in surrender. ‘God forbid I try to pass on some of my hard-earned wisdom.’
Daisy sighed. ‘Just move the damn flowers if you want to.’
Her mother was supposed to be retired. When Daisy moved back to town with nothing but a shattered heart and puffy face from crying all the time, they’d decided that she should take over day-to-day operations. Her mom was clearly trying to make sure she had a purpose and a reason to get dressed every day. It worked. Having the shop to run had kept Daisy going.
But her mother’s version of ‘retired’ involved checking in on the shop at least a few times a week. Most of the time Daisy didn’t mind, but lately she felt like she was failing at everything and having her mom here just stressed her out, like having someone witness her failure made it that much worse.
‘You’re in a bit of a mood today, Daisy-girl. Do you need me to bring over more of those selenite crystals? They’re supposed to be excellent for sleep.’
‘I’m sleeping fine. And crystals don’t help with sleep. They’re just rocks.’
Her mother snorted. ‘Tell that to your father. I put a bunch of clear quartz around the house, and his memory is better than ever.’
‘Was Dad even having memory problems?’
‘No, but I certainly don’t want him to start!’
Daisy rested her head in her hands where she was leaning on the counter. She did not have the patience for her mother’s particular brand of quirky today. She’d just gone over their books for the fourth time this week, and she didn’t know how they were going to keep the lights on this month. Could she make shopping for flowers in the dark a new trend?
‘Do you have any crystals that will earn us more money? Because that’s what we really need,’ she mumbled, getting back to adding more calla lilies to the casket spray for the dearly departed. Isabel was right. Her ninety-eight-year-old great-uncle had taken his leave of the earthly plane two days ago. And The Daisy Chain Flower Shop had been his family’s first stop.
Daisy supposed she should be grateful.
‘Oh!’ her mom snapped her fingers. ‘Good idea! I should get us some citrines. That would help.’
‘It definitely won’t help, Mom.’
‘My little skeptic.’ She patted her hand like being skeptical was a tragic quality to have. ‘Are you worried about the curse?’ Her mother lowered her voice to a whisper.
Daisy lifted her head from her work. ‘There’s no curse.’
Her mom opened her mouth to argue but apparently one look at Daisy’s face had her changing her mind. ‘Okay, love. But I’m still going to bring over some citrines and maybe some amethyst, just in case. They couldn’t hurt anyway!’
‘Sure, Mom.’
What she didn’t tell her mom was of course she was worried about the curse. Worried that the town would never let it go. If she didn’t start booking some weddings, she was really screwed. The whole shop was screwed. She was on the brink of letting down generations of Daisies. Daisies who’d survived the great depression, a world war, and the invasive rose fungus of 1987, and now the whole damn business was going to go under if she couldn’t get her love life under control.
It was absurd.
Speaking of absurdity and her love life, her fake boyfriend came walking through the door at that exact moment and Daisy was not at all prepared for him to meet her mother.
‘Um… hi,’ he said, freezing in the doorway, clearly expecting her to be alone. This was a test. The first time they’d encountered each other out in the world in front of someone else since they officially decided to do this, and of course it had to be in front of her mom.
‘Hey, Elliot,’ Daisy said, dropping the lilies and coming around the counter. Her mother’s face lit up at the name. Daisy had had to tell her mom about him after the whole Elliot-proclaiming-their-relationship-at-the-town-meeting situation. She was sure to hear about it from someone, and Daisy figured it might as well be her.
‘Oh,thisis Elliot!’ Beaming at him, she held out a hand. ‘I’m Daisy’s mom, Daisy May Scott but you can call me May.’
Elliot stepped further into the shop and took her hand. ‘It’s so nice to meet you, May.’ His gaze flicked over her shoulder at Daisy while her mother went on about how she was so happy to hear that they were dating.
Daisy just shrugged and Elliot gave her a lopsided smile.
