Forget Me Not. Crystal B. Bright
and once you get done at the store, make an appointment with a doctor about your knee.” His mother smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. The silk purse that hung from a gold chain dangled from her arm.
Gideon remained quiet. He smiled and almost laughed off her assumption about his health. To stall for time, he said, “Mom, I got checked out by the team’s doctor. I’m fi—”
“Don’t lie to me. I apologize for interrupting.” She pointed down. “I know you haven’t developed a strut in your walk after twenty years. What’s going on with your leg?”
Gideon glanced over to the cashier area. When he noticed a couple of customers looking at him and whispering, he kept a cool head while talking to his mother.
“I love you, Mom. I’ll try to be by your house later for dinner.” He kissed her forehead.
“Love you, baby.” She patted his shoulder. “Remember to go see Janelle if you need anything, understand?”
Gideon nodded. He would have to school his mother on having public conversations about him. He had seen too many real and fake stories about him in the press. For once, he wanted to control his image.
As though on autopilot, Gideon got to Pick ’N Clip in record time. He parked in the back like he used to when he’d worked alongside Queen Elizabeth. Once he got out of the car, he realized very quickly that he no longer had keys to access the store from the locked back door. After his mother made him and his brothers sign power of attorney forms for her business, she’d tried giving him a set of keys to the store. Believing that holding the keys meant something bad would happen to Elizabeth, Gideon had refused. Now he would have to get that extra set while he stayed in town.
“Damn.” He circled the standalone store to get to the front door.
Nothing had changed about the place. Gideon’s mother had a way of making every place, including all of her stores, feel like home. The front of the all-white store with a black shingled roof created a great frame for the black wrought-iron trellis that surrounded the front door. His mother had ivy creeping up each to give the place a garden appeal.
As soon as he opened the door, a fragrant bouquet greeted him. As he scanned the inside, he realized not much had changed in here either. Roses, daisies, and lilies remained housed in lit glass cases. Vases lined the shelves behind the bouquet-making counter. Streamers of different colored ribbon came off rolls on both sides of the counter. His sneakers squeaked over the brick-colored tile floor.
“Oh, great. You’re here.” Victor put his hand to his chest as he came from the back room.
Except for the sprigs of gray hair, Victor looked exactly the same. The diminutive Filipino man embraced Gideon before taking a step back.
“The shipment came in.” Victor pointed to the storeroom.
Gideon glanced around but noticed that the glass cases and shelves still looked bare. “Did you have a good sales day or something? I don’t see any merchandise.”
“I received a shipment two days ago, and I put it all in the cases like usual. I didn’t know the thermostat stopped working.” Victor rushed over to one of the cases and opened a door. “Feel.”
Gideon strolled over to him. He put his hand in the case to feel the temperature. Hot air surrounded his digits. “That’s too hot.”
“No shit.” Victor covered his mouth. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to curse in front of Queen’s boy.”
“Don’t sweat it. I’ve heard worse in the locker rooms.”
“I’m sure you have. I’m used to you being a little kid.” Victor put his hand up to his waist to illustrate Gideon’s height when he’d first started working with his mother at the store. “Anyway, I think one of the delivery drivers must have knocked the thermostat out of whack when they were putting away the merchandise. I didn’t discover it had been messed up until today. Every flower and plant in the cases has open buds or worse.” He went to a nearby trash can and picked up a long-stem rose.
It drooped down. To illustrate Victor’s point, a petal fell from the bud.
“I can’t sell any of these. Your mother has very high standards.” He slammed the stem back into the bin. “What am I going to do?”
Gideon put his hands on Victor’s shoulders. “First thing’s first. Have you called an electrician or heating and cooling tech to fix the thermostat? No use restocking it if it still doesn’t work.”
Victor shook his head. “No. Your mother keeps this place in tip-top shape. Any maintenance she’s done, she’s kept me out of the loop.” He pointed to her office. “There’s only a few things in her office that I can touch. I don’t go in the drawers.” He shuddered and shook his head.
“I’ll contact her to see who she uses.”
Victor gripped Gideon’s arm. “No, don’t. If your mother finds out that I couldn’t handle something like this, she’ll freak out. She’ll never trust me to run the store for her again.”
Gideon cocked his head. “You can’t believe that. You’ve worked for her for years. You’re like family. She would understand.”
He shook his head. “I let thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise get destroyed. I love Queen, and I know she loves me. But to let all that money go down the drain is something even I couldn’t forgive.”
Gideon found it hard to believe that his saint of a mother would be that irrational. Then again, Victor did have a flair for the dramatic.
“Okay, I’ll go in the office and see if I can find a number for someone to fix it. If I can’t, I’ll find someone to do it. Can’t be that hard.” He patted Victor’s shoulder. “Next, we’ll need more plants and flowers.”
“That’s the other thing. I called the vendor. They won’t be able to get us more flowers for two days. He said he may be able to bring something tomorrow, but it would be late.” Victor ran to the front counter and held up some papers. “We have orders that have to be fulfilled today.” His eyes widened as he stared at Gideon. “Maybe you can call them and tell them who you are—the great Gideon Wells, Super Bowl champion—and they’ll make an exception.”
Gideon counted in his head, a second time within twenty-four hours, before he addressed Queen Elizabeth’s employee. “No. I don’t work that way. You’ve been around my mother long enough to know that. We do things the right way every time.”
Victor shrugged. “Suit yourself. In the meantime, we’re out of everything, and one of Queen’s biggest clients is expecting their order tomorrow.”
“Let me see the orders. I’m sure there are plenty of greenhouses around that would be willing to help us out.”
Victor shook his head. “You’re going to have to make a miracle happen to get them to give up their stock. You know what time of year it is, right?”
Gideon slipped his hands in his pockets. A brief thought hit him to go to as many florists as he could to get what he needed. What his mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. He had never betrayed her trust, and he wouldn’t be starting now.
His fingers brushed over a card. He pulled it out and read it. “I think I have an idea. I’ll be right back.”
Chapter 5
Janelle decorated the front window of the store with vases filled with red roses and white baby’s breath. Nothing said stereotypical Valentine ’s Day bouquet like roses.
“Pretty.” Penny nodded as she arranged the greeting cards on the rack by the counter. “Anyone ever tell you that you should do this for a living?”
Janelle snickered. “Maybe once or twice.” She put her fists to her hips as she scanned the store. “I think we’re ready.”
“Ready