Yoko Wong put her hands up to shield her eyes from the bright sun as she watched Kathryn Lucas expertly back up the huge eighteen-wheeler full of spring flowers and seedlings for the Wong Nursery. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a luxurious silver Mercedes inching its way into the customer parking lot. The only person she knew who drove a car like that was Garland Lee. Her heart kicked up a beat, knowing that Garland would buy every single flower and seedling the moment Kathryn unloaded the truck. Garland loved flowers.

With one eye on Kathryn and the other one on Garland, Yoko realized it had been months since she'd seen her friend. Garland was Beyoncé, Rihanna, Tina Turner, and Madonna all rolled into what the public knew as Garland Lee.

Yoko grinned when she saw her friend step out of her fancy car and wave both arms. Garland looked like a bag lady, dressed in baggy coveralls, black lace-up–to–the–ankle Converse sneakers, and a tattered T-shirt that at one time had said MUSIC IS MY LIFE. Most of the letters were worn off, and the shirt was three sizes too big for the songbird. Her long, luxurious, strawberry-blond hair, one of Garland's trademarks, was held in place by a bright red bandanna.

"I'll take it all!" Garland shouted. "How are you, sweetie?" she said, gathering Yoko in a tight bear hug. Up close, Yoko admired the other woman's ageless beauty. Garland's explanation for her looks was that she came from hearty peasant stock. She pooh-poohed those who said she had plastic surgery, telling them that if they could find the surgeon, she would pay them a cool one million dollars. She did, however, admit to dyeing her hair, wearing contact lenses, and having had her teeth capped. She always ended her explanation by saying, "I'm no different than half the women in America." And that was the end of that.

Yoko threw her hands in the air. "Hanging in there, Garland. How about you? I've missed you. Were you on tour? It's been months. I've missed our occasional lunches. Uh-oh, something's wrong. I know that look. What? Wait, wait. I have to sign off on this load and pay for it. You sure you want all of it? Because if you do, I have to place my order to replace this delivery."

"I'm sure. Go along, take care of business. I have all day. We can talk when you're finished."

Garland Lee was a very beautiful woman, with a warm smile and sparkling green eyes. Her smile was welcoming and sincere. If Garland welcomed you into her very small inner circle, you had a friend for life. She walked along now, up and down the different aisles where flats and pots of colorful spring flowers filled the nursery. She wondered if what she was seeing would be enough to replace all the damage done from the fire at her estate. She winced when she remembered how the firefighters had trampled her flower beds, how the construction workers had uprooted her beautiful shrubs and flowering trees. It had been necessary, she knew that, but still, she wished it hadn't happened. She loved her mini estate, the beautiful gardens she had designed herself because she so loved flowers. What she missed the most were her treasured lilac bushes. When they were in full bloom, she filled the house with lilacs. She looked around but did not see any. Well, Yoko was a magician when it came to plants and flowers. If anyone could find lilac bushes, it was Yoko Wong. The thought left her feeling better.

Garland's ears picked up the sound of the eighteen-wheeler's powerful engine. She turned around to walk back to the entrance. She smiled at the sound of the air horn and an arm waving out the driver's-side window. Yoko waved back.

Garland laughed. "If I had known this delivery was scheduled for this morning, I could have had you divert the driver to my house. Oh, well, everything happens for a reason. When do you think your people can deliver all of this?" she said, waving her arms about.

"When my afternoon help arrives."

"I didn't see any lilac bushes," Garland said fretfully.

"That's because there aren't any. The lilacs, the red tips, and the magnolias are scheduled for delivery next Wednesday. I guess you want all the lilacs, right?"

"Yes, all of them. I don't care how many you have. But I don't want little bitty shrubs. I want them full grown. At my age, I don't have time to watch them grow like the original batch. Yoko, I cried, do you believe that? All my beautiful plants, the hemlocks in the back, my gorgeous lilacs trampled like roadside scrub. The house ... I was able to deal with that. It was the garden, my sanctuary, that I hated to lose. But life goes on, so now I'm in a place where I am fortunate enough to be able to replace everything."

Yoko nodded. "Let's go in the office and have a cup of tea so you can bring me up to date on what's been going on in your life."

"Fine, fine. I can use a cup of tea, but I want to be sure your crew will do the entire yard. It has to be graded, fertilized, then planted. I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business, but I just want to be sure we're on the same page. By my best guess, this is a hundred-thousand-dollar job. Possibly more. I can pay you a deposit now. The insurance company settled with me last week."

"Don't worry, Garland. My people know what to do. When they're finished, you'll never know you had a fire. Are you satisfied with the house?"

"I am. It's amazing how one faulty wire could cause all that damage. But that's behind me now. This is a new page in my book of life. How are things with you? Oh, you have those sticky rice cakes that I love so much. Talk to me, Yoko."

"My life is routine. Harry does his thing, and Lily is happy as a lark and loves her new school. I work here every day. I saved you the biggest, the prettiest Christmas tree, and you never came for it. I think I knew something was wrong at that point. I had heard about your fire. One of the tabloids said you were living in your guesthouse, and another one said you were in Europe. I didn't know what to think."

Garland untied the colorful bandanna on her head, bundled up her hair, and tied the bandanna back in place. "It's complicated, Yoko. I've been in California. That's where my backup sound studio is. I did a lot of crying, but I'm over that now. I think I'm going to retire."

"No! You aren't serious, or are you?" Yoko was so shocked, she was virtually speechless.

"I'm thinking about it. Like I said, it's complicated. Part of it is that crazy lawsuit."

Once again, Yoko was speechless. "That's still going on! Good Lord, that's ... that's three years!"

"Two years and ten months, to be precise. That low-life, bottom-feeding scumbag is not giving up. I'm gearing up to go to trial because I won't settle with him. By the time it gets to court, it will be well over three years. I've had to spend millions to defend myself. The scumbag does most of his own legal work, and he has his creepy lawyer sign off on it, so his legal bills are nowhere near what mine are. The case is starting to heat up again after months of nothing. Every day, I pray that the bastard will drop off the face of the earth or just disappear into thin air. I keep rooting for a UFO to appear and whisk him away to some deep-space asteroid, preferably in another galaxy, to live out the rest of his life in abject misery. I know that's an impossible dream, but I still pray for it. There are no words to tell you how much I loathe that man."

Yoko poured the tea into pretty little...