Love in Bloom Read Online Free PDF Page A

easier to leave it open.”
    Her jaw dropped. “Even after the bed came?”
    “Sure. I didn’t see the point in…” She found the light switch and flipped it on, illuminating the narrow, enclosed staircase. “Why lock the door on an empty apartment?” he asked as she slipped inside and started climbing the stairs. Tate stepped up and blocked the door open with his shoulder, calling after her, “No one locks their doors around here, not to their houses.” She ignored him and kept climbing.
    Tate indicated with a nod that Isabella should go next. Shrugging, she started up after Lily, who quickly reached the small landing at the top and let herself into the apartment. A light came on in the small foyer. Isabella followed. Tate came last into the dark but spacious living and dining area.
    “What is this place?” Isabella asked.
    “This is my home,” Lily told her, coming out of the dark hallway behind her. Lily quickly moved into the small kitchen and switched on a light there. “Not many overhead lights in here. I’ll need to buy some lamps.”
    “You’re going to live in town?” Isabella asked doubtfully.
    “Right above my shop,” Lily confirmed, “in the very heart of Main Street.”
    “We live in the country. Right, Dad?”
    “Yep.”
    “On the ranch. Right, Dad?”
    “Right.”
    “Grandpa, though, he calls it the farm. Don’t he, Daddy?”
    “That’s because he’s in charge of the farming end of things.”
    “And Daddy, he does the horses and the cows and all the animal stuff. And he helps with the farm, too, and sometimes the tractor stuff. And he and Grandpa do the oil lease stuff together.”
    “You talk too much,” he told her, nudging her with the suitcase. He looked to Lily and asked, “So where do you want these?”
    She took the box from Isabella, saying, “I’ll put this in the bathroom. You can just leave that there, though.”
    Tate nodded. “If you didn’t notice, there’s a coat closet here.”
    “That’s convenient.”
    “And there’s a walk-in closet in the front bedroom. I had them set up the bed in there. The back room is really small, but you could put a twin bed in there for company.”
    She looked around the empty living area and said, “I think I’ll concentrate on a couch first.”
    Tate chuckled. “Yeah, or a chair at least.”
    She smiled and nodded. “I understood there was a washer and dryer.”
    “That closet in the kitchen,” he said. “It’s one of those stacked jobs with the dryer on top.”
    “That’s fine.”
    “Okay, well…”
    Isabella pointed at the trio of bare windows overlooking the vacant, softly lit street. Tilting her curly head, she asked, “Who’s that?”
    Tate and Lily both moved toward the window, staring at the wildly waving figure in the window of the building across the street.
    “Oh, that,” Tate said with a grin. “That’s Miss Ann Mars. You know her.”
    “Sure. Ever’body knows Miss Mars. She’s had her shop in Bygones forever.”
    “I guess you didn’t know that she lives downtown above her shop, too.”
    “This ‘N’ That,” Lily read the sign on the awning across the street. “What sort of shop is it?”
    “Um, sundries,” Tate answered. “You know, needles and pins, candles, handkerchiefs, coin purses, hand mirrors, little stuff. That’s in the front. Out back, now that’s—how do I put this?—mostly junk, I guess.”
    Lily raised her eyebrows. Her glasses slid down her nose, so she pushed them back up. Tate fought the urge to smile for some reason. Clearing his throat, he turned away from the window at the same time Miss Mars did.
    “Miss Ann is on the committee,” he told Lily, pulling a card from his shirt pocket. “If you need something and you can’t reach me, you can always tell Miss Mars.” He pressed the card into Lily’s hand and started for the door.
    “I’ll walk you down,” Lily said. “I want to take another look at the shop.”
    Shrugging, he turned a sleepy-eyed