Chapter 3: GeriGeri finally managed to get the last customer out of the shop and flipped over the Open sign to the Closed side. She’d been on the go for nearly ten hours now. Not that she minded being busy. Spring was the time of year for it, after all, and she had a much bigger stake in the success of the garden center than ever before. Tomorrow was officially Frank’s last day. She was going to be joining him and Bill, his partner of thirty-four years, for a celebratory dinner. God. It so wasn’t fair. Finally, Frank was going to have some free time, and the two of them should be able to do all the things they’d wanted to for years together. But Bill was diagnosed with leukemia just six months ago, a very aggressive form, sadly.
She remembered the first time she’d come into the shop looki
