Rose Gardner's Florist (The Providence Street Shops #2) - Bonnie Dee Page 0,2

emotions in front of his friend. If he deemed Will Carmody trustworthy and loyal, perhaps the man was not so bad.

Rose offered Carmody another smile.

He grimaced and looked away. What a snob!

Just then, the first actual customer of the day entered the shop, so Guy bid Rose farewell.

Mr. Carmody did, too. “Good morning. That is, good day, Miss Gardener. Nice to have met. It was your pleasure…that is, a pleasure to have met. You. Today.”

He ducked his head to avoid the lintel as he passed through the doorway.

Rose shook her head and rolled her eyes.

After that, she had no time, or reason, to think of the odd man until much later when she picked up one of the funeral notes from the floor: Gone but Not Forgotten.

She thought of Carmody’s height and looming presence—somewhat as she had envisioned Frankenstein’s monster in Mrs. Shelley’s thrilling book, though not stitched together from body parts. And the monster would not have worn a scholarly pair of spectacles perched upon his nose. The thought of Carmody’s large hands seizing her body to carry her away made her shiver. Oddly enough, it wasn’t fear, but another sort of inexplicable excitement that zipped through her with the speed of lightning.

What was it about Mr. Carmody that haunted her long after his rangy frame no longer filled her doorway? He might be ungainly, but there was a strange magnetism about his presence that made him difficult to forget. If Guy Hardy was pure energy filling any room he entered and drawing all attention, William Carmody was his dark counterpart, the shadow to his light.

Too bad Carmody was also stuck up. Under other circumstances, Rose might have been interested in knowing him better. After all, he was her investor’s best mate.

***

Idiot! Fool! Clumsy buffoon! No wonder pretty Miss Rose had laughed at him standing in the corner like a troll. She was probably laughing still at his clownish ways. And the stammering! He had hardly been able to put two intelligible words together.

“Are you suffering heatstroke, Carmody?” Guy asked. “Perhaps you should go home and lie down with a damp cloth on your head rather than engage in a strenuous fencing match which you know I will ultimately win.”

Will closed his fingers together. “Shut it.”

Guy laughed as he led the way to Hattie Glover’s Millinery several doors down from the florist. Will would be equally uncomfortable in a room full of ladies’ hats and sundries, but at least there was no Miss Gardener to make him act like an utter fool.

“Good morning, William,” Hattie greeted him, when he entered.

“Good morning, Miss Glover.” Will remained near the door this time so he would not knock over a mannequin head.

Hardy offered his fiancée the roses. “Good morning, my dearest.”

She buried her nose in a bloom and inhaled deeply. “They are beautiful.”

“The petals are not as soft as your lips.” Guy leaned over the display counter to murmur something that earned an even bigger smile.

How at ease the fellow was with women. All women. Not only his beloved, but the entire gender. Will had never been able to speak easily with females, except for Penny. He wasn’t certain how he’d become shy. In the luck of the draw, his elder brother Rupert and younger sister Penelope had inherited charisma and confidence, while Will ended up with insecurity and self-doubt.

He was only truly good at one thing—study, and he’d made it his life’s work to learn all he could about every subject under the sun. With his extensive library and prodigious memory, this made for a lot of information crammed into his brain. But to what purpose? What did it matter if he knew everything in the world? That was a mystery he had yet to solve.

Guy bid farewell to his fiancée at last. “I will see you later, my love.”

“If you’re lucky,” Hattie retorted. Then she smiled at Will. “You must join us for supper soon.”

“I would welcome the invitation. Thank you, Mrs. Glover.”

“Please, call me Hattie. We are too dear of friends for such formality.”

Will followed Guy from the foreign sanctum of women’s hats and sundries to the bright outdoors. Immediately he began to sweat under layers of clothes. “The day is already hot and it is not yet noon. Are you certain you wish to exercise this morning? Perhaps a quiet game of billiards instead…”

“Have to get you moving, or you’ll rot away indoors.” Guy briskly strode down the sidewalk.

“Might I point out that the fencing is also indoors?”