The Accidental Florist

emerald dress to both the real and fake wedding. Mel loves it when I wear that dress and very few people will know I’d already worn it for the civil wedding. And we can forget all about matching fabrics for the cummerbunds for the tuxes.“
    With this shopping victory stalled out for all time, Jane was relieved that she could get on with real life. Going out to lunches with Shelley or dinners with Mel, doing research for her next book, gawking at the rapid progress of the room addition. She also kept asking the workers questions about what they were doing. They were kind to her. She brought them iced tea and sodas to ensure they’d remain tolerant of her.
    The room was almost starting to look like a room, not a place to roller skate. Timbers were going up, firmly attached to the foundation.
    She was told that electricity had to be next. There were several copies of Jack’s blueprints. The overall structure. Where electrical lines went. Where windows of precise dimensions would be put in were marked as such. Where phone lines went. There were even water and sewer lines chalked out so Mel could have his own bathroom and sink.
    Jack himself was there for at least an hour every day, overseeing the work. Sometimes he stayed longer.
    “This is the fastest, most professional crew I’ve ever had the luck to put to work. A few of them are new to me, Jane.“
    He looked so smug about this that Jane was compelled to compliment him. And she meant it, too. He cared about how his projects turned out, and zealously pursued a timely, perfect completion.
    “Your workers have been very polite about my uninformed questions.“
    “I know. They say you’re the nicest lady most of them have ever worked for.“
    Jane actually simpered at the compliment. But she added, “There’s a truck behind my car and I need to run an errand. Could you ask someone to move it? I’ll park mine on the street when I get back.“
    She drove to the nearest public phone she could find and called her brother-in-law Ted. She feared that Thelma might be around and see the caller ID of her home phone.
    “Ted, it’s Jane. Don’t say anything. Just let me ask you a favor. Your mother has forged a codicil to Steve’s will cutting me out if I remarry.“
    Ted said, as if this was an ordinary business call, “That doesn’t surprise me.“
    “Furthermore, I suspect she’s hired a detective to keep track of where I go and how I’m dressed.“
    Ted’s response was simply, “Ah.“
    “Here’s what I’d like to do,“ Jane said. “Meet with me at the McDonald’s down the street to the north of my house. You get there by eleven-thirty and I’ll arrive ten or fifteen minutes later. Surely if there is a detective following me, he won’t bother to come inside.“
    “Done.“
    When Jane arrived Ted was sitting as far from a window as it was possible to be. She joined him. “Was someone following you?“ he asked.
    “There was a black car parked down the block that turned in here just two cars behind mine.“
    “Jane, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. My mother should be put away somewhere. She’s always been a rude woman. Now she’s out of control. Right in front of our daughters she called our girls `Chinks’ without realizing how offensive it was. Poor Dixie cried all night. But I knew that my mother wouldn’t be able to negate the adoption of the girls. Every single step was done correctly.“
    “I’m sorry for you, too, Ted. You have to spend a lot more time with her than I do. And thank goodness the girls aren’t old enough or know enough English words to realize they had been insulted.“
    “It’s getting harder and harder to put up with her,“ he admitted. “Dixie says she’ll never allow my mother to be around the girls again, and I agree.“
    He went on, “As for the detective, I think I can easily put a stop to it. I do my mother’s taxes every year and keep her checkbook balanced monthly, and this year there was a suspicious check for a thousand dollars that she wouldn’t explain. She just said it was none of my business. But I still have the check in the file and it was endorsed by a detective agency. I thought at first she’d hired them to try to find something wrong with the adoption papers and get the girls sent back to China, and I knew that it was all in perfect order, so I didn’t give it another thought. I’ll call them off you. I’ll also tell her I know what she’s doing and put a stop to it. I’ll tell