Page 47 of My Kind of Happy

I smiled cheerfully as I waved them off. I didn’t know how much they’d spend at the café, but I was pretty sure it would be more than one of my new bouquets.

‘Nina?’ I called sternly, once the two of them had gone.

She appeared with her hands up in surrender. ‘I know, I know. I shouldn’t have started doing people’s flowers for free.’

I gaped at her. ‘You mean it’s not just Delphine?’

She chewed her lip. ‘The perfume of home-grown flowers is always so wonderful. I can’t resist helping people get the best out of them.’

‘Getting you to focus on making a profit is going to be like herding cats,’ I said sternly.

Her eyes lit up. ‘Oh, that sounds like fun.’

I groaned.

‘Don’t be sad. I think we should celebrate,’ she said, tweaking a twenty-pound note out of the till. ‘An official business partners’ lunch.’

I pinched it from her and put it back. ‘I’ve brought ham sandwiches to share and we’ve got Maria’s biscotti. We can celebrate when we see the bank account go back up again.’

‘This partnership business isn’t half as fun as I thought it was going to be,’ she grumbled, taking the lid off my plastic sandwich box.

Scamp scooted straight over and eyed the box hopefully.

‘It will be fun,’ I assured her. ‘Just think how happy you’ll be if we can turn the flower shop’s fortunes around and start making a profit.’

‘I suppose I just kept hoping that one day things would change and the shop would start being more successful.’ She picked up a sandwich and bit into it.

‘In my experience, it’s no good hoping that things are going to change,’ I said firmly. ‘You’ve got to make it change.’

I had a flashback then to that day last month when I’d read Freddie’s letter. That had been my catalyst for change. Was it egotistical of me to hope that I could be the catalyst to help Nina change, or at least change the fortunes of the florist’s? Because I couldn’t think of anything which would make me happier.

‘You’re right,’ said Nina decisively, feeding a bit of crust to Scamp, and then laughed. ‘I hope you’re not already regretting throwing your lot in with mine?’

Just then someone arrived outside the front door. Whoever it was had a large striped golf umbrella over their head. But as it lowered I found myself looking directly into the deep blue eyes of Sam Diamond. As Maria would say, molto sexy.

‘No,’ I said, a wide smile crossing my face. ‘Not at all.’