Moms, roses, and romance. Hmm. I know my mom has read some of my romances, but I don't like to think about that, so we'll skip the mom part and focus on the roses. And I know the roses are supposed to be tied in with mom, but when I think of roses the first thing that comes to mind is the year I received three dozen roses for Valentine's Day.
No, my husband isn't some kind of massive Romeo. Actually, I can count the times he's purchased flowers for me on both hands, and we've been married for coming up on thirty-three years, been together for thirty-five. But the story I'm thinking about happened some years ago...
The year was 1990. We were fresh out of college, having moved out of state and to a city where we didn't know a soul. My husband had begun his career at the Fortune 500 company he hopes to soon retire from. I was teaching junior high school English and Composition to freshman at the junior college. A huge ice storm had most of the city, well, frozen. With no heat, we went to the mall to watch Driving Miss Daisy and keep warm. (This was back in the day when malls had movie theaters. Remember that?) When we got back, my husband expected there to be a dozen roses there for me, but, alas, they were missing. After a call to the florist-- who was extremely apologetic--we received two dozen roses to make up for the mistake. A half-hour later, the neighbor knocked on the door with another dozen roses, which she'd accepted delivery on for us. Whoops! Three dozen roses in the little townhouse we lived in when we first moved here was pretty overwhelming. Needless to say, I haven't seen the likes of that since, nor would I have expected to see that ever again. It was kind of nice, though.
So, that's my rose story. Of course, as a writer, it got me thinking of roses in my work. With twenty-six books out, I'm sure I'm forgetting some significant rose scenes, but the two that come to mind are creepy, not romantic. In THE HEART TEACHES BEST Laney's sister's murderer sneaks into her bedroom when she's asleep and leaves a rose on her pillow. Later, he leaves one on a carousel that Laney was on to taunt Cooper, her policeman love interest, and show him how close he was able to get to her despite Cooper's best efforts to protect her.
In BETWEEN ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, rock star Jasmine Barrett finds her best friend murdered in the singer's bed. The killer dipped a rose in her friend's blood and left it, theatrically, beside the body. Later, a key clue comes from a vase of roses in Jazz's dressing room. The killer leaves a coded message with the bouquet that doesn't seem like a clue until someone casually mentions one of the words on the card much later. That offhand remark leads Heath to the realization of who the murderer is. But will he get to Jasmine before the killer does?
What about you? Do you have a favorite story about a time you received flowers? Do you receive or purchase flowers often?
Thanks for reading! Come back for more tomorrow from another fabulous Romance Gems author!
