As the Roses Bloomed Beneath His Feet, I Buried Our Seven-Year Marriage. novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Hold This For Him

Alister stopped in the doorway of the back room and took in the whole scene.

Briggs, standing close to me. The bloody towel around my palm. The broken vase on the floor.

"What happened to your hand?" he asked.

"I cut it," I said.

"Let me see."

He reached for me, and I stepped back.

Behind him, Carina pressed her fingers to her mouth.

"Oh, Lena, you're hurt." Her eyes went to Briggs. "Did something happen?"

"A vase happened," Briggs said.

Alister looked at him for a long moment, and then he smiled.

"Thank you for looking after her, Briggs. You always did have good instincts in a crisis."

It sounded like a compliment, and it was a warning.

Two women stood at the counter in the front room, waiting on bouquets Maeve had stopped wrapping, and neither one pretended not to listen.

Alister turned to me, and his voice dropped into the gentle register he used on clients.

"Carina wanted to apologize in person. She hasn't slept since the dinner."

"I'm so sorry," Carina said. "I should have left."

"She came all this way," Alister said, "and you're standing here bleeding in a back room with a man who hasn't called you in seven years. I'd say we've all had a long week."

"That's enough," I said.

"I'm only saying that you're upset. And when you're upset, you imagine things."

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