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her.”
    Celia smacked the pliers on the counter. “Oh, no. Maggie is never to know about it. Hazel will make sure of that. Besides, Hazel has a year to fight it.”
    Sam eyed the computer on the desk in the office part of the shop. “Can I use your computer?”
    “Nothing porn.” Celia smiled.
    Sam didn’t find it funny. He never needed porn to fulfill his needs and she wasn’t going to be personal now.
    He never looked on tabloid web sites, but if he was missing and his agent started looking around, the tabloids would be all over it.
    He moved the cursor on the Google search. “P-e-o-p-l-e.” He whispered aloud pecking with his pointer finger. He scoured the screen looking for his name. He clicked on the celebrity icon where it showed pictures of him at his latest premiere. It wasn’t unusual for him to take several months off after a film.
    “Los Angeles actor devoted to sick fiancé.” The headline read. He clicked on the title and a picture of him and his beautiful Bianca stood on the Italian Riviera. She loved it there.
    “Can’t we stay here and live on the beach?” She begged him. Shortly after, she found the lump in her breast and the chaos began.
    Quickly he erased the history so Celia couldn’t trace what he was doing and shut the computer off. He couldn’t look at her picture. He couldn’t think about their life.
    “These are ready.” Celia was gluing in the last ladybug.  “Are you okay?”
    He felt flush. “I’m fine.”
    Sam put the last of his deliveries in the truck. Charlie followed him back and forth into the shop. “Is this the last for the day?” Sam wanted her to say yes. He was emotionally exhausted and wanted to get back to his efficiency.
    “Yes.” Celia sounded curious and he wasn’t about to entertain her.
    Sam got into the truck, leaving a dust trail in his path.

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.”
    Albert Camus
     
    6
     
    Celia’s mind drifted to the look on Sam’s face as she watched the dust settle from his truck. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. He had definitely done a complete 180 degrees from the fast talking outsider this morning.
    “Hmm.” Celia looked down at Charlie and talked to him like he was human or understood her. “I told you there was something about him.”
    Celia tilted her head up towards the sky and let the sun give her a good dose of vitamin D. The warmth made her muse soar and she sure could use a creative burst. She gets so lost in her arrangements and forgets to take breaks for herself.
    Before walking back into the shop, she stops to pick up a few freshly fallen leaves to go with the next arrangement for a funeral. Funerals take a lot out of her creative process. She always remembers her grandfather’s death and positions each flower as if she was arranging her grandfather’s.
    At her mother’s funeral, Celia had arranged her own flower spread to top her mother’s casket. All the town was raving how beautiful it was and Celia knew she was free to start her business. Celia strained to remember her grandfather’s death. The last time she saw him, he was a picture of health. But what did she know, she was a child.
    Celia resented her mother for not taking her to his funeral or even telling her he had died. When Celia would ask her, her mom blew her off and didn’t want to talk about it. Celia’s father only responded, “Ask your mother.” Celia got so tired of asking her mother, she just accepted what was.
    “The Ladybug.” Celia laid the leaves on the table as she cradled the phone on her shoulder. Immediately she began to arrange the leaves in the funeral spread.
    “Cee, we still having dinner?” Marty asked.
    “Hey, dad.” Celia was used to seeing her father first thing in the morning. It was his first day and she didn’t want to disturb his new found freedom. “What have you been doing?” Celia didn’t want him to slip back into the deep depression he was in over a year ago.
    “I ran some