Must Love Flowers

Joan Sample is a 54-year-old widow living in the Seattle area who has spent four years retreating into near-total isolation since her husband Jared's sudden death from a brain aneurysm. Joan worked alongside Jared daily at his dental practice, so his loss stripped her of both a partner and a purpose. The COVID-19 pandemic struck six months later, deepening her withdrawal. Even after restrictions lifted, she rarely leaves the house, neglects her appearance, and fills her days with puzzles and word games.

On her birthday, Joan spends the evening alone after her younger son, Nick, a carpenter on a Seattle construction project, cancels dinner by text. Her older son, Steve, who lives in Phoenix and works at Dick's Sporting Goods, called earlier but kept the conversation brief. Her older sister, Emmie, phones with suggestions: get a haircut, join a grief therapy group, take in a boarder. Joan dismisses the ideas but accepts Emmie's gift certificate for Cutting Edge salon, owned by their friend Charlene Royce.

Nick visits the next morning and is startled by Joan's disheveled state. He apologizes and offers to take her to dinner. Joan also receives a homeowners' association letter threatening a fine for her neglected yard, which spurs her to call Harrison Lawn and Landscaping. She leaves a rambling voicemail, nervously adding that any landscaper she hires "must love flowers."

The novel also follows Maggie Herbert, a nursing student at Seattle Central College who works at Starbucks and tutors children with reading difficulties. Maggie lives with her father, Roy Herbert, a former construction worker with a disability. Roy developed a severe alcohol addiction after Maggie's mother, Elaine, died from a hospital infection following routine surgery. Elaine's death inspired Maggie to pursue nursing. Roy spends bill money on alcohol, leaving Maggie to cover household expenses. Desperate to escape, Maggie interviews to become a boarder for Charlene, but Charlene must give the room to her niece instead.

At Cutting Edge salon, Joan gets a haircut, and Charlene tells her about Maggie's difficult home situation and strong references. Over dinner at Il Lucano, an Italian restaurant she once frequented with Jared, Joan and Nick talk candidly. He opposes the boarder idea but urges Joan to seek grief counseling, admitting her sadness has made it hard for him and Steve to be around her. Joan recalls that her friend Gennie Davis recommended a counselor named Dr. O'Brien and promises to follow up.

Despite Nick's objections, Joan calls Maggie and invites her for an interview. They meet over tea and snickerdoodle cookies. Joan finds Maggie's references glowing and offers Nick's old upstairs bedroom for $300 a month. Maggie, whose electricity is about to be shut off, asks to move in immediately.

Phil Harrison, the lawn service owner, arrives that evening to give an estimate, hinting that he left a previous career and found solace in working with the earth. When Maggie returns in tears because Roy became aggressive and refused to let her take her belongings, Phil volunteers to help. At the Herbert home, he calmly distracts Roy with conversation while Joan and Maggie collect Maggie's things. Impressed, Joan hires Phil without waiting for other bids.

Joan and Maggie settle into a comfortable domestic routine. Joan starts cooking again and makes an appointment with Dr. O'Brien, who persuades her to try one Wednesday evening grief therapy session. Nick drops off an abandoned puppy he rescued from his construction site, and Maggie suggests naming the dog Edison because Joan said the puppy brought light into her life.

At Starbucks, Maggie realizes that "Einstein," a construction worker she finds attractive, is almost certainly Nick. When he asks her out, she fabricates an excuse, afraid of the awkwardness if he discovers she lives in his old room. The inevitable confrontation comes when Nick arrives at the house and finds Maggie on the stairs. Joan mediates, and Nick and Maggie agree to start fresh.

Joan attends her first grief therapy group and is surprised to find Phil among the members. The group proves far warmer than she feared, and she bonds with Mary Lou, a fellow widow. Joan begins attending regularly and joins the post-session gatherings at a local restaurant.

Nick invites Maggie to join his weekly bar trivia team, and her medical knowledge helps them win first place. Nick kisses her in celebration, marking the start of their romance. After a group session, Phil confides to Joan that he is divorced and lost his daughter Amanda five years earlier when her college roommate fell asleep at the wheel. He left a successful law partnership afterward, finding healing in landscaping.

Joan has a cathartic breakthrough: She tears Jared's clothes from the closet in anger, then visits his grave and yells at him for neglecting his health and leaving her. Dr. O'Brien frames this as a natural balance between moving forward and staying connected. Steve also confesses that he lost his girlfriend Zoe by refusing to set a wedding date. Joan asks whether his fear of commitment might be connected to losing his father.

A crisis arrives when Roy collapses at a tavern and is hospitalized with liver disease. The doctor tells Maggie her father must stop drinking entirely. Maggie spends her entire paycheck on his prescriptions and moves back home, setting firm conditions: Roy must enter rehab, or she will leave permanently. Nick issues an ultimatum, saying they are through if she moves. Maggie stands firm and leaves Joan's house.

Joan becomes Maggie's lifeline during the following weeks, calling daily and visiting Roy's house. Phil accompanies Joan to the Herbert property, where they work to improve its condition so Maggie can secure a bank loan for rehab costs. Nick eventually shows up to repair Roy's crumbling porch, admitting he was miserable without Maggie. They reconcile, and he enlists his construction crew to help renovate the house.

Roy enters the Turning Point Treatment Center. On the advice of his Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) sponsor, Maggie attends Al-Anon, a support group for family members of people with addictions. She recognizes she has been enabling her father and moves back in with Joan. Steve calls to announce he has proposed to Zoe again, crediting Joan's advice for helping him see what matters most.

On Labor Day weekend, Joan hosts a barbecue for her grief therapy group. Phil barbecues ribs, his late daughter's favorite recipe, for the first time since Amanda's death. After the guests leave, Phil asks Joan if she is ready for a relationship. She says yes, and they share their first kiss.

The epilogue takes place roughly a year after Joan's birthday. Steve and Zoe have married, and Nick is shopping for an engagement ring for Maggie. Joan volunteers as a tutor and brings Edison to visit seniors at a nursing home. Roy died of a heart attack three months after leaving rehab, having maintained his sobriety and rebuilt a loving relationship with Maggie. Maggie inherited the house and renovated it with Nick, Joan, and Phil. Phil tells Joan that her voicemail insisting a landscaper "must love flowers" made him certain he would fall in love with her. He asks if she is ready for the rest of her life, and Joan says she is.