Rushing Amy: A Love and Football Novel (19 page)

“Crazy Daisy. Yes. Yes, she is. One moment, please.”

Estelle handed Amy the phone, and she heard Matt’s voice.

“Hey, Fifi, how are you doing this morning?”

She wondered what he’d do if she burst into tears. Just hearing his voice soothed her. She took a deep breath and dropped onto one of the stools in her workroom.

“Awful. Matt, things are falling apart here, and I really can’t talk right now. Do you need to make an order?”

“No. Not now.” He paused for a moment. “What’s up?”

Amy closed her eyes. “It’s a long list. Can I call you back later?”

“Absolutely. I hope whatever’s wrong gets better. Be good.”

He hung up the phone, and she stared at the buzzing receiver. Okay, fine, so she’d been a little short, but what the hell was that? She shoved the phone back in its cradle and concentrated on the teeny bouquet she was making out of pink tea roses. It would go in an equally teeny clear plastic vase, then into a basket along with a plush brown teddy bear named Truffle, a few children’s picture books, and a Mylar balloon depicting a teddy bear holding a pink rose.

Hiring Estelle was the best fifteen bucks an hour she could hardly afford. Estelle was saving her butt right now. She assembled the basket, made sure the balloon was secured to the handle, and grabbed her purse.

“Hey, Estelle, I’m going to run this over there. I should be back in half an hour. If the insurance company or Scott needs to talk with me, I have my phone.” She dug into her jeans pocket to make sure this was still the case. Her hand closed around her Droid, and she let out a sigh of relief. At least one thing had gone right for her today.

“Okay. I’ll get the law firm stuff started. The rest are ready to go when you get back.” Estelle glanced up from her work. “Be careful.”

“I will.”

Amy was currently driving a new-to-her 2004 Volkswagen Bug that she purchased shortly after hiring a delivery driver for her business. It wasn’t much, but it was paid for. It was wheels, although it was another huge dent out of her savings account. She picked up the arrangement and started for the door. She heard the bells on the front door ring, and Matt strolled in. She felt a surge of happiness, despite her awful day.

“Hey, Fifi. Going somewhere?”

He paused just inside the doorway of the shop. Instead of his usual beat-up jeans or very expensive suits, he had on a pair of Under Armour sweat pants, running shoes, and an NFL “Play 60” t-shirt. His hair was still a tousled mess. Someone would have to address this, but right now, she didn’t have time.

“I have a delivery.”

He stepped aside as she opened the front door, and followed her out onto the sidewalk. The sky was cerulean blue. The sun was warm on her skin, but she didn’t have time to enjoy it. She had to handle this. She had to get back.

“Where’s Scott?”

“He’s at Harborview.”

“What the hell happened?”

“Car wreck.”

She dug her car keys out of the mess she called a purse and unlocked the passenger side door. The basket would fit in the back seat; she’d have to be careful while she was driving. Matt was still talking to her. She couldn’t listen to it right now. Well, she didn’t listen till he took her car keys out of her hand.

“I’ll drive,” he told her.

It finally penetrated the fog in her head that no, this was not what she wanted. She straightened up and tried to take the keys out of his hand, which he held high over his head. She was torn between kicking him in the shin and bursting into tears of frustration.

“You can’t drive. My business insurance won’t cover you. I shouldn’t even be driving right now, but I have no other choice. If I get in a wreck, it’s on me, but if you are hurt—”

“Okay, then. Let’s take my car,” he said.

“Matt, I don’t have time to mess around with this today. I have to do this—”

“Let me help,” he told her. He grabbed the basket out of the back seat of the Bug, evaded her easily, and yanked open the back door of his Mercedes M-Class. “We’ll go together. Get in the car, Fifi.”

She didn’t have the strength to keep arguing with him, so she got in the passenger seat, slammed the door, and buckled her seatbelt.

“Where to?” he asked.

“Children’s Hospital.”

Matt pulled out into Broadway’s traffic without further comment. In some distant recess of her mind, she knew it was a good thing he was driving. She was too distracted to get behind the wheel of any car. Mostly she was bracing herself. Everything that could go wrong today had, and it wasn’t even eleven o’clock.

When she had time to think about it later, she’d consider the fact that Matt dropped whatever he was doing to stop by and help her. He was making sure she got where she needed to go safely. He overlooked the fact she’d barely talked to him earlier.

Her phone was ringing. Again. She pulled it out of her pocket and hit the “answer” button.

“Amy Hamilton.”

“Hi Amy, this is Trudy from Superior Insurance. How are you doing today?”

“Oh, I’m fine. How are you?” Small talk with the insurance adjuster was always something she looked forward to.

“I’m fine. Listen, I wish I had better news. Your van’s totaled. The body is shoved two inches off the frame; it would cost more to fix than the van’s worth.”

Amy squeezed her eyes shut. She clutched the cell so hard she was surprised it didn’t shatter in her hand. “It’s
totaled
? Oh, God.”

“We’ll write you a check for the Blue Book value today. Unfortunately, that leaves a balance on your loan amount. You’ll have to work with the bank on that one.”

“I bought gap insurance—”

Amy heard paperwork rustle at the other end of the phone. “I see no evidence of a gap insurance addendum on your policy, Amy. I’m really sorry.” There must have been something in the insurance adjuster’s manual about trying to sound sympathetic. “I know this is a tough blow for a small business owner. Luckily the hospital assures me that your delivery driver sustained only minor injuries in the accident, so that’s positive.”

“Yes. Yes, it is.” Amy fell silent. She wasn’t sure what to say next. Mostly, she needed to get off the phone. She felt Matt’s car stop, and heard him pull the keys out of the ignition. “Thanks for your call. I have to hang up,” she said.

“We still need to discuss—”

“I will call you back later. Thanks for calling. Goodbye.” She hung up, pried her eyes open, and glanced over at Matt.

“So, Fifi, I take it you are short one delivery van.”

Amy attempted to follow Matt’s long strides into Children’s Hospital. Children’s was one of the more highly regarded pediatric hospitals in the country, and a magnet for current and former professional athletes in the city of Seattle. In other words, he’d been here before, most likely visiting kids he didn’t know. He glanced down at the order form he’d managed to pry out of her hand as they crossed the parking lot.

“Okay. The little girl is on Green Whale floor. We have to stop at the desk; they won’t let us take the basket to her room.” He reached back to grab Amy’s hand. “We’ll do this, and then I’ll take you by the car dealer.”

“Why?”

“You need a new delivery van. Try to keep up, Fifi.”

“I can’t go van shopping today. I have to talk to the ba—”

“Hey. We can look. Plus, I have a buddy that might be persuaded to give you a deal.” He came to a halt at a reception desk. The floor they were on was called “Giraffe.” Amy glanced around at art pieces, lots of light streaming in from the windows, and an older woman whose nametag read “Connie.”

Matt set the basket on her desk. “Hi, Connie, I’m Matt Stephens. We have a delivery for a little girl on Green Whale named Madeline. What do you suggest we do?”

Connie’s eyes lit up. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Stephens. My husband is your biggest fan.”

“Is that so? I like him already.”

Amy was so freaked out about the refrigerated unit, Scott, and the wrecked van, all she had the strength to do was cross her arms. She felt Matt’s fingertips brush the small of her back.

“Need a map?”

“No. I’ve been here before. Tell your husband I said hello.”

Matt pointed Amy toward the elevator bank. A few minutes later, they were advancing on another reception desk. The scent of disinfectant hung in the air, but the corridor was dominated by bright colors and lots of light. Seattle tended toward shades of gray nine months a year. The kids likely didn’t notice the architecture, but their parents probably did. The décor was as cheery as a hospital could get.

It was a good thing Matt was handling the delivery chores right now. The thoughts were whirling through her brain at a hundred miles an hour:
Dead cooler. Scott in the hospital. Wrecked van. How was she going to make deliveries and help with arrangements for an indefinite period of time?
She needed to focus.

Matt held the delivery basket up so the nurse sitting at the desk could see it. “I have something special for a little girl named Madeline.”

“Wonderful. She’ll be back from the recovery room soon, so I’ll take it in there and put it right where she’ll see it.” The nurse got to her feet and rounded the desk. “She will love this. It’s adorable.”

At that moment, the metallic sound of wheels rolling over a polished vinyl floor, penetrated Amy’s panicked thoughts. She heard a little girl’s voice. “Is that for me?”

Amy and Matt turned.

She wasn’t tall. Her face had the rounded, puffy look of serious illness. Her honey-colored hair was wispy. She wore flower-print pink pajamas, which hung on her, and slipper socks. The wheels belonged to the IV stand she pulled along with her as she walked. Her dark brown eyes lit with excitement as she glanced over the basket.

“Sarah, honey? I’m so sorry, but this is for Maddy,” the nurse told her. “Did you take a good nap?”

Sarah’s face fell. In that moment, no matter what else happened today, Amy realized that her worst day couldn’t compare to a very sick little girl’s disappointment that the special treat wasn’t for her. She also wasn’t spending her days sitting at a hospital bedside and praying that somehow, God would give her child another chance. Scott would get better. She could get another damn van, and another cooler.

She was doing something for this little girl, if she had to clean out her walk-in and crawl back here on her hands and knees to do it. Today.

She crouched down next to Sarah. “I’m Amy. I have a flower shop. I made something for you, too, but I forgot it. Isn’t that silly?”

Sarah’s mouth curved into a smile. “It is silly! My mom forgets stuff, too.” She let out a giggle.

“I’m going to have to go and get it. It might be a few minutes. Will you still be here when I get back?” Amy asked.

“Oh, yes. I have a treatment, and they’ll make me stay in bed,” Sarah assured her. “I’ll see you then.” She padded into her room once more.

A
MY PRACTICALLY RAN
to Matt’s car. He threw himself into the driver’s seat, glanced over at her, and a smile twitched over his mouth. “I’m guessing you want to go back to the shop, and van shopping will happen another day.”

“Yes, I do. And yes, it will.” Her business would survive. Right now, she had a very important appointment with a little girl named Sarah.

Amy glanced over at Matt while he waited at the stoplight. “I’m sorry I haven’t been the best of company. I haven’t even asked you what you’ve been doing today,” she said.

“I’ve seen worse.” He reached out to take her hand. “I spent some time this morning at a promo event for Play 60. You sounded like you needed a knight in shining armor, so I stopped by.”

“Thank you for the help.” She blinked away the tears that threatened to spill over.

“We’ll get through this, Fifi,” he said.

Chapter Fifteen

T
HINGS WERE SLOWLY
getting back to normal at Crazy Daisy by the next morning. Scott the delivery driver was taking a couple of days off to recover. Besides bumps, bruises, and a little remaining soreness, he was going to be just fine. Amy put an ad on Craigslist to sell her Volkswagen. She’d owned it less than a month. The proceeds would help her pay off the remaining balance on the wrecked delivery van and fund a down payment for a new van. She’d be dealing with finding the money for a new cooler right after she qualified for the loan to get another van. She wasn’t sure where that additional five thousand dollars was coming from, but she’d better think of something, and it had better be damn quick. Selling her car wasn’t the perfect decision, but she didn’t have a lot of other choices at the moment.

She was currently tooling around town in a rental van, which wasn’t cheap. She was also going to have to figure out how she could be at least two places at one time; she was going to have to make deliveries today. Estelle was a huge help, but she couldn’t make arrangements, answer the phone, and deal with the walk-in business alone.

When Amy wasn’t busy juggling her shop’s financial and personnel woes, she stopped by Children’s Hospital with flowers, a teddy bear, and a copy of
The Velveteen Rabbit
for Sarah. She ended up playing Candy Land with the little girl, too. It was good to spend an hour or so focused on something other than her own problems.

She’d have to do it more often.

Amy was rearranging the flowers and awaiting delivery to make more room in her walk-in when she heard the shop’s phone ringing. She wasn’t due to open for another hour and a half, so she let it go to voice mail. A few minutes later, the phone rang again.

Maybe it was Scott, or Estelle couldn’t come in today, which would be an even bigger disaster. She skidded across a damp—it would be good to mop a little more often—workroom floor to grab the phone off its base.

“Good morning, Fifi,” Matt said.

“Good morning, Matt.” She had to smile. “How are you?”

“Spectacular. Listen: I found you a delivery driver for a few days. He’ll be there in an hour.”

“What? Matt, I can’t afford—”

“It’s Glenn Testerman’s oldest son.” In other words, his dad worked as an assistant coach for the Sharks. “He’s climbing the walls before the NFL Combine, and you’d be doing his dad a favor. He can’t take any cash because of NCAA rules. He has a clean driving record and he’s over twenty-one.”