Chapter 14
“What’s that?” he asked, looking at it.
“We’re numbering all the arrangements so we know who has what and we can figure out delivery. This is Marty and Stella’s biggest single day, and they won’t have electricity back in time for Vday.”
“So this isn’t an overnight thing.”
“Definitely not.”
“EXCUSE ME!” Rachel stood on the rung of the stool and clapped her hands twice, ignoring incoming calls for a moment.
“Stella is organizing the Love You Chocolate cooler items!” She pointed to Skylar.
“Skylar can help with walk-in offers. I am manning the phones and tracking data. Everyone else should be foot soldiers, hauling items to the right locations. IF YOU NEED A JOB, ASK MARTY!”
Everyone immediately began moving in a more efficient manner. Kell checked with Stella, grabbed three large baskets, and made his way outside and over to the chocolate store.
The next three hours were a blur, but by midnight, they were more than half done.
And exhausted.
Reef showed up with gallons of coffee from his shop, and Greta and Wolf brought dozens of pastries from Love You Bakery. Joe Kendrill dragged in case after case of water and soda. Blake and Sheila appeared around eleven thirty with big foil trays of chicken and pasta.
“We cooked up what we could and everyone can sample,” they said.
Rachel, meanwhile, stayed on her perch, fielding all the calls and typing on her spreadsheet as fast she could. Kell caught glimpses of her in between trips, able to catch her eye every third time or so. She was in the zone, working hard.
At midnight, Kell nearly crashed into another volunteer.
It was his mom.
“Oh! Excuse me, I’m so–” As Deanna looked up, her mouth formed an O of surprise. She punched his chest. “KELLAN LUVIEW WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR FACE?”
“I traded it with Prince Harry, Mom. What do you think I did?”
“OH MY GOODNESS! You look so good! Look at you! I haven't seen you in that suit in years!” Then she spotted Rachel at the desk. Her lipstick was long gone, there were dark smudges under her eyes, and she’d used a pencil to secure her long curls in a bun.
“Rachel’s helping, too?” she gushed, clapping lightly.
“Hi, Mom. Kinda busy.”
“I know! I just got here. Had to help with Harriet. Poor Luke was on a shift and this is crazy.”
“We’re more than halfway. Ask Marty for a job.”
Marty pointed to Kell, then one of the coolers. “Numbers one sixty through one seventy can go to the coffee shop. Reef says there’s room where they store their milk.”
“Got it.” Kell took 160 and 161, both fruit arrangements, while Deanna grabbed two smaller glass vases, and they headed outside.
“So,” she said, making him groan.
“Mom. Do not pump me about my date.”
“Was it going well? Before the interruption?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Mom,” he growled.
“Just asking. Things seem to be going well with you two.”
“Not talking about it.”
“It’s sweet of her to help out.”
“She isn’t just helping out. She’s running logistics on everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s the one who insisted we stop our date and help. Then she walked right in and started answering phones. Using her laptop, she’s created a spreadsheet that tracks every arrangement so Marty and Stella know where everything is and they can figure out delivery arrangements.”
“That’s amazing! What a sweet girl! Smart, too. She’s the whole package, Kellan.”
Then his mother winked.
But she wasn’t wrong.
On the front steps of the shop, Selena was standing with Marty, interviewing him for a live radio segment about the outage and doing more harm than good as helpers squeezed around her.
“We’re live here at Love You Flowers on Main Street in downtown Love You, Maine–where every day is Valentine’s Day–at the scene of a power outage. Townspeople have come together to help the beleaguered florists, who–”
“Selena Martinez, either start helping or get out of here!” Anne Petrinelli shouted, walking up to her, wagging a finger in her face.
“We’re live! This is radio journalism, Anne.”
“I don’t care what you call it, you’re in the way! Help or leave!”
Kell and Deanna picked up more arrangements and left quickly, avoiding whatever argument was brewing. Given those two strong-headed, determined women, it would be a doozy.
Halfway across Main Street, he tripped, nearly pitching an arrangement of chocolate-covered strawberries and red roses onto the double yellow line.
“Kell!” his mom called out.
“Got it! It’s fine!”
Slow and steady, he reminded himself.
After they delivered that batch, he chose one at a time. Most of the volunteers were his parents’ age, and over time, the biggest beasts were safely stored at Love You Chocolate, the smaller ones sent to people’s homes.
The final fruit arrangement smelled like candied apples, with an array of apple slices cut into heart shapes, dipped in caramel and various shades of chocolate, with white roses and babies breath sprinkled throughout. As he delivered it to Love You Chocolate, Boyce eyed the cooler warily.
“That has to be the last one, Kell,” he said. “We’re full.”
“No problem. Plenty of room elsewhere. Rachel says we’ve had a hundred and twelve people offer their fridges.”
“Great. Looks like we can save Valentine’s Day for Stella and Marty.” He clapped Kell on the shoulder. “You and Rachel have been fantastic. Sorry your date got ruined.”
Kell shrugged as they walked outside. “Not ruined. Just different.”
Boyce walked with him across the street, the two immediately told where to deliver the next arrangements.
As midnight became one a.m., then two, the crew thinned out, down to Kell and Rachel, Dean and Deanna, Annabeth, Wolf from Greta’s, Skylar, and Stella and Marty, plus a few folks Kell didn’t even know.
Which meant word had really gotten out.
At nearly three a.m., Kell and Deanna finally made their way back, arms aching from carrying so many flowers. Rachel was drinking a bottled water, loose strands of hair around her face, her eyes looking tired, but the blue glow of her screen showed she was still entering data.
“Done?” Deanna asked as his dad came over and pulled her in for a hug.
Kell yawned. “Dunno. Ask Marty.”
With a flourish of her right hand, Rachel hit a button, then called out, “It’s done!
All the data entered, including Skylar’s notes.
All the phone calls. We have a database of where all 323 arrangements are located, and all 1200 roses, plus 800 carnations, 100 bundles of baby’s breath, and ten dozen tulips. ”
Marty walked over to Rachel and kissed her on both cheeks, then one for the crown of her head. “You are a goddess!”
Stella was in tears, her arm around Skylar’s waist. “Thank you so, so much. All that inventory. All that money. We would have lost it. We owe everyone so much.”
“No, you don’t,” Dean said, sounding tired but clear. “You and Marty were so helpful to us when... when, well, you know…” he said, his voice cracking on the last word. “Every person in this town helps everyone else. It’s our way. Nothing we’ve done for you is special. It just is.”
A tear rolled down Rachel’s cheek as Kell watched her from across the store. Moved by her emotion, he walked over to her and wrapped her in a hug. Rachel’s whole body melted into him.
“I am so tired, Kell. So tired!”
“I know. Come back to my place.”
“I want to, but…”
“To sleep,” he whispered in her ear. “I just want to curl up with you and sleep.”
“Oh, bless you.”
As Marty and Stella hugged them goodbye, and his mom and dad did, too, for good measure, Deanna whispered in his ear, “Blake said he cleaned up everything back at the chocolate shop. You two just go to your place. You must be exhausted, and you and Dean have that job at six.”
Rachel’s tired eyes grew big at that.
“Oh, Kell,” she said in a voice that said everything.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
He wanted to pick her up and carry her back to his place, her high heels so small and not optimal for three a.m. walking in the bitter cold, but the walk wasn’t terribly long. He keyed into his place and led her straight to his bedroom.
Unwrapping the belt of her coat, he eased her out of it, then bent down to slip off her shoes. She groaned with pleasure.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, a huge, jaw-stretching yawn following her words. “That was… a lot.” She peeled off her suit jacket, revealing a red silk camisole underneath, and she slipped her dangling earrings out of her ears. Finally she stepped out of her suit pants and sat on the bed.
“Here,” he said, plucking the pencil out of her messy bun, hair cascading over her shoulders.
She was delicious.
Maybe they could…
Before he could finish his thought, Rachel slumped to the side and curled up in a ball, her head on the pillow.
No. They couldn’t.
And that was just fine.
As he took off his suit jacket and tie, toed off his shoes, and pulled the top sheet and comforter back so she would be warm, he heard her steady breathing.
He wondered if he should have offered her pajamas, but too late now.
With a sigh, he quickly changed into a t-shirt and flannel bottoms, crawled in beside her, and spooned.
His last thought before he faded off to sleep was simple, yet elegant:
Rachel Hart really has stolen my heart.