Legacy Of Magick (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 1) (4 page)

“Ha!” Ivy said from across the shop. “They dress like everyone else. Most the time.”

I shook my head. Somehow, I knew she was going to say that.

CHAPTER THREE

Aunt Gwen was so pleased with the progress that we had all made, and happy with finishing her fall ordering, that she ordered pizza for lunch for Ivy and me. Gwen announced that she and her friend Cora O’Connell, whose flower shop sat next door, were going out and that she was leaving Ivy and me in charge.

“If you need anything, call my cell. We’ll be at the deli down the street.” Aunt Gwen laid some money on the counter for the pizza delivery guy, and cheerfully walked out.

Ivy and I broke down a few packing boxes and emptied the garbage, while we waited for lunch to arrive. I volunteered to take out the trash and put it in the dumpster behind the shop. As I opened the back door, I heard a top volume argument coming from behind the shop next door.

Violet O’Connell stood on the back steps of the building next door, surrounded by fallen boxes of flowers, and cursed her younger brothers in rapid fire…
something
. Was that Gaelic? Both of the adolescents stood there, with their heads down, and held their skateboards. I supposed they had gotten busted for skateboarding in the back parking lot.

My lips twitched. I had no idea exactly what she was saying but the tone was universal. Violet had really let loose on them. I wondered why.

I had met Violet briefly the first time I came to the shop. I liked her. She was a couple of years older than me, and she had recently become partners with her mother in the family business. Outside of work, she, her mother, and my aunt were also all in a coven together.

Violet seemed like she was fun and feisty, but boy, did she have a temper. It sounded like her brothers were getting a taste of it, right now.

I waved at them as I hauled the trash bag to the dumpster.

“Autumn!” Violet waved me over. “Can you come give me a hand?”

I tossed the bag toward the open dumpster, went over, and reached for the nearest cardboard box. The smell of roses overpowered me and a picture popped in my head of a wedding gown. Ah ha! I had a hunch why Violet was so frantic.

“Wedding flower shipment?” I asked her as we scooped up the fallen boxes.

“Yes. It must have been a new delivery man. They never leave the flowers on the back steps.” Violet pulled up the lid on the boxes and groaned to discover many of the flower heads of the white roses had snapped off from the long stems.

“Kevin and I didn’t know they were back there,” her brother, Eddie, said in their defense.

“All we did was open the door. The boxes all went crashing down the steps on their own!” Kevin piped up.

“Oh no.” I quickly pulled up the lids on the other boxes as Violet stared at the damage.

“These boxes don’t seem so bad,” I said. I only counted a couple of snapped roses in the other boxes. The other flowers were all in shades of yellow and orange. But the white roses had taken the worst of it.

“They were out here in the heat for too long.” Violet told me. “They are starting to open too much. I have to get them processed and cooled off— fast— to keep the blooms tight.”

I reached for my cell phone in the pocket of my shorts. “Do you want me to call Gwen and have her tell your mom about the flower shipment?”

“No! Mum rarely gets to leave the shop. She was so happy to go out to lunch with Gwen today. If too many flowers are ruined we could have a big problem on our hands. This weekend’s bride is a real Bridezilla.” Violet dragged her hands through her hair.

Okay, maybe I could help. “Kevin, Eddie, go run next door. Tell Ivy what’s happening and that I’m going to help Violet for a while.”

The boys took off like a shot, ready to get away from their older sister’s wrath. I picked up two of the boxes and braced the back door open so Violet could bring all of the other boxes in.

My cell phone rang while we wrestled flower boxes inside. That would be Ivy. “Yeah?” I asked as I balanced the boxes I held, with the phone tucked under my ear.

“So… what do you want me to do with the rodents?” She asked about Violet’s brothers.

“Can you keep them out of trouble for a while?” I asked as we hauled the boxes to the back design table in the shop.

“Yeah, the pizza’s here. I could feed them,” she suggested.

“Good. Send a few slices over here and I’ll see if I can help Violet save the wedding flower shipment.”

“You got it,” Ivy said. Then I heard, “Don’t even think about riding that skateboard in here!” Ivy continued to threaten the boys as she hung up.

Violet handed me a green apron, “Here put that on or you will ruin your shirt. This will be a messy job.” She warned, as she blew her bangs out of her eyes. I saw that she had her eyebrow pierced and there were streaks the same color as her name in her blonde hair. A colorful sleeve of tattoos started at her right elbow and disappeared under her shirt sleeve.

I did as directed, and we spent the next half hour quickly cutting stems, stripping foliage and putting the flowers into the tall buckets filled with water and floral food solution. I actually loved helping Violet as we quickly worked on the flowers. She had an irreverent humor and regaled me with horror stories about their current Bridezilla.

At Violet’s direction I hauled the flower filled tall buckets into the walk-in cooler and arranged them neatly side by side. She was right about wearing the apron. Who knew the fancy flowers you got from the florist were so messy? I had worked landscaping with my father for years. I knew dirty jobs. I also helped design, plant and maintain the flower beds at the landscape center and at my parent’s house and we sure got grubby.

But these were fancy, expensive flowers for somebody’s wedding. For some reason I thought working with flowers would be — I don’t know — tidy, neat, clean, or something. However, they did smell terrific. There was something enchanting about the scent, color, and energy of them. Plus, the wedding flowers seemed to have a magick and a hopeful vibe all of their very own.

Fortunately for us it had stayed fairly quiet in the shop. We chatted while we cleaned up and finally ate. She told me about becoming a partner with her mother and I told her about my upcoming classes. No customers came in and the phone stayed silent while we worked to ’process’ the wedding flowers, as Violet told me it was called.

We had finished and were stacking the empty boxes as her mother, Cora, and Aunt Gwen strolled through the door.

My aunt did a double take, when she saw me wearing the flower shop’s apron. “Autumn, what happened?”

“There was a little problem with the flower shipment...” I started to say and Violet rushed in to explain to her mother what had transpired while she was out to lunch.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Cora demanded.

“I’m supposed to be your partner now, and I wanted you to have some time off and to enjoy yourself.” Violet said.

“Where are your brothers?” Her mother demanded, sounding suspicious.

“Autumn sent them over to stay with Ivy.”

At Violet’s answer, my aunt closed her eyes and muttered something about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Gwen moved quickly and went directly next door to check on her own shop. I hoped it was still standing. But with Ivy in charge, riding herd on two middle school boys, who knew? She’d probably started skateboarding with them. Inside the shop.

“Let’s see what we have here.” Cora strode forward and poked her head in the cooler.

I stood by Violet, and resisted the urge to wring my hands.

Mrs. O’Connell came out of the cooler a moment later. “You did a good job. It was smart to move quickly to minimize the damage.”

“What about all those broken roses?” I asked Mrs. O’Connell.

“I can easily use those for boutonnières and corsages. There are enough long stems left for the bride’s bouquet.” She waved my concern away and headed for her office in the back of the shop. “But for now I need to make a phone call to my supplier and have a little talk about the new delivery man.”

I bet that delivery man’s ears would be blistered by time Mrs. O’Connell got through with him. A few moments later we could hear her mother having a
little talk
and we both started to grin. When the store’s main phone rang, Violet went to grab it. I finished straightening the counters up, as Violet took an order for a delivery.

The bells over the flower shops door chimed, and as the door opened I turned to look automatically. To my amazement, Duncan Quinn and another man walked in the store. Duncan and I stood there and stared at each other for a few seconds. I felt a little tingle again.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” he said seriously. He was dressed in old jeans, heavy work boots, and a snug dark blue t-shirt. He must have come from a job site.

“People are going to start talking,” I joked.

“Do you work here?”

“No. I was helping out a friend with flowers that came in for a wedding today.”

Then, I saw his companion look me over from head to toe. I tried not to flinch, but there was something
dismissive
about the way the other guy looked at me, like I was beneath him or something. I saw his gaze travel down to my legs.
Was this guy checking me out?

“Nice sandals,” he smirked at the aqua gladiator sandals on my feet.

“I like bright colors,” I defended my choice automatically.

“Can I help you?” Violet asked them so politely that it sounded nasty. I glanced at her in surprise, as she hung up the phone. Then I watched as she swung her gaze to Duncan, and then to the other guy with an openly hostile expression.

“Violet,” I introduced the two of them, “This is Duncan Quinn. He and I… ran into each other this morning.” I looked at Duncan to introduce me to his friend.

“This is my cousin, Julian Drake.”

Julian stared at me in an I’m-better-than-you-are sort of way that reminded me all too much of my cousin Bran. He, in contrast to his cousin, was wearing a suit and tie, that was cut in a way that let you know it was custom made and expensive. He had darker hair than Duncan, was a bit shorter, and more muscular. Julian was built like a weight lifter, while Duncan was thinner, taller, and basically built like a runner.

While I could see some family resemblance in their features, any similarity ended there. While Duncan was friendly, Julian radiated arrogance. Clearly he thought he was better than everybody else. As I watched him sneer at a few floral displays in the shop, for a second I thought I saw deep red field of energy floating around him, like I was looking at his aura.

When I realized what I was seeing, I jumped a little. I did not usually see auras around people unless I really worked at it. It was something else I’d tried to keep under control over the years. I blinked and then the color was gone.

Duncan nodded politely at Violet. “Hi Violet. My mother’s birthday is today. I wanted to get her some flowers.”

“Certainly.” Violet said with a smile that showed all teeth and no warmth.

Feeling out of the loop, I decided to retreat. “I better get back to the shop and help out Ivy and Aunt Gwen. Let me get out of the way.” I said to Violet, as I took off the apron. I snuck a peek at Duncan’s cousin again. He looked normal except for the constant sneer. Had I imagined seeing his aura?

“Thanks for helping.” She turned her back on the men to take the apron, and raised her eyebrows at me. The questioning look on her face said it all.

“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered. Then I nodded politely to Duncan and his cousin. “Bye.” I said, as I attempted a casual and sophisticated exit out the front door of the shop. In other words, without tripping on anything.

“Blessed be,” Violet called after me.

I clearly heard Julian snicker after me as I left.

Jerk!
I walked down the sidewalk and opened the door of Enchantments, fully expecting pandemonium, only to discover Kevin and Eddie O’Connell quietly sitting on the floor, each with clipboards, happily counting out the number of tumbled stones in bins.

Ivy was ringing up a customer, while Aunt Gwen measured out dried herbs for another person. Peace and serenity ruled the store as Celtic music played softly in the background. I had to wonder if Ivy had cast a spell on those two rowdy boys.

I walked behind the counter as the customer took her shopping bag and moved to the door. “Have any trouble with Kevin and Eddie?” I said quietly to Ivy.

“Nope. After they ate pizza, they started doing the inventory on the tumbled stones and crystals.” Ivy replied in a mater of fact tone.

“Jeez! What did you do, mind control on them or something?” I joked.

Ivy whipped her head up. “You wouldn’t know, but it is not ethical to work magick that impedes another person’s free will. It’s also against the rules to work magick on another person without their permission.”

“Oh.” I said. Wasn’t that interesting? I hadn’t known that.

“Besides, I didn’t have to resort to magick.” Ivy wiggled her eyebrows at me and grinned. “I bribed them.”

I had to laugh. “With what?”

“I promised to go to the skate park with them later and watch them practice.” She confided back in a whisper, so only I could hear.

Aunt Gwen moved to the register to ring up her customer. “Be sure to wear your helmet, when you skateboard this afternoon, dear,” she said calmly.

I jumped, and Ivy only shrugged. You’d think I would start to get used to it by now. But Aunt Gwen still caught me off guard. I was also starting to recognize that I really needed to learn more about telepathy: pronto.

“I’ll go see if I can help them finish up.” Ivy headed over to help the boys.

I took a clipboard myself and went to the rack of greeting cards to start counting. I wondered about Duncan and his jerk of a cousin, Julian. I was a little surprised at myself and my instant reaction. But there was something about that other guy that I truly did not like.

I told myself to focus, and looked down at the list. Aunt Gwen had the card inventory separated by the company, the design, and the price of each card. All I had to do was count them, which was going to be hard to do given the disarray of the greeting cards. So, I set the clipboard down and started pulling the cards out of the rack. These cards were so pretty, with lots of magickal and mystical artwork and designs. But they were totally mixed up.