17. Lacy
17
LACY
I walk out to the bottle room and survey the kids.
He looks like he is having a great time.
Of course he is, Tanner promised him ice cream. Does he have friends?
He has a friend. They are laughing at Connor.
Also, are we texting right now? Have your thumbs fallen off and working entirely on their own without you? Do you need a doctor?
I laugh as I read his response. This feels good. Feels right. I’m not sure why I waited so long to text him back after all these months.
My thumbs are perfectly fine.
Hang on. Is this the real Lacy? Because the real Lacy doesn’t text me back usually.
Ha ha, very funny.
One of my many appealing qualities as I am sure you are starting to learn.
That and getting rid of the excess salt from my lips…
I hold my breath, biting my lip as I wait. I see the bubble dance on the screen as he replies. I haven’t really flirted like this before. It’s new. Exciting. Fun.
Jesus, Lacy, now all I can think about is your lips. I have patients to see!
I will leave you with that image, then.
Before I can think about it, I lift my cell and take a quick selfie of me pouting a kiss and send it to him.
You’re killing me…
I pocket my cell and look back at little Harvey. Hudson’s question has my heart clenching. I know what it’s like to not have many friends. I also know what it’s like to be raised by a single parent. Father’s Day at school every year was my most despised day. Mom even kept me home from school on more than one occasion, just so I didn’t have to sit there by myself, while everyone else got to do show-and-tell and play games with their dads. So I’m happy that Harvey is giggling with another boy, whom I see with Nikki at the diner occasionally, so assume he is her child.
The movie night with Hudson was great. If just for a little while, I felt like a normal girl. He was a gentleman and swept me off my feet, if I am honest. I was giddy and a little bit smitten and Mom was more than okay when I got home, which made me feel better about everything. She was better than okay actually, and full of questions about Hudson and me, none of which I was prepared to answer. Because I just don’t know. It feels good to be with him, and the date was perfect. But it also doesn’t feel real. I’m hesitant to give myself over to it because my life has always been unsettled. Just when I seem to have a handle on things in my life, they change on a dime, and usually not for the better.
Now, a few days later, life has resumed as normal, except for this new nervous energy. I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but it’s hard not to when the man hires out an entire movie complex for your first official date. So I have buried myself in the everyday. Hudson has been busy at the hospital, and I’ve been busy preparing for my New York trip, so we haven’t seen each other again. But even now, I touch my lips, remembering the searing kiss we shared, and my stomach flips.
“So here are the machines we use to put the labels on the bottles,” Connor says, walking to the far side of a machine that’s not operating at the moment. The kids follow him like he is the pied piper, shuffling around to get a look. I search through their faces until I spot Harvey again, looking at Connor and taking it all in, just like the rest of them, even though he’s seen it a few times already.
I wait in the wings until Connor is finished and then step up to the group as they all take their time looking at everything, the school tour now complete, before they all go into the restaurant for ice cream, compliments of Tanner.
“Lacy!” Harvey spots me the minute I walk toward them and runs forward, giving me a hug. My heart swells.
“Hey, buddy,” I say, giving him a quick cuddle in greeting. I try to ensure I give him my full attention whenever he is here with Hudson or at my place when Susan brings him over because being an only child is lonely. I know all too well.
“Hey, why didn’t I get a cuddle that big?” Connor asks him as he steps toward us.
“Because Lacy is my favorite,” Harvey says honestly as he stands close to me, and my eyebrows rise. Harvey looks at me. “Plus, you give me those yummy candies from your desk,” he whispers, and I laugh, remembering the last time he was here months ago, I did have a bowl of candy on my desk.
“So you just like me for my candy?” I tease him, and he shakes his head, laughing.
“Are you missing LA, or are you happy to be here with the cool kids in Whispers?” Connor asks him, scuffing his hair in the process.
“I love it here. I don’t ever want to go back,” Harvey says, and my eyebrows rise for a second time. It’s great that he loves it, but I thought it would take him a bit longer than a month or so to settle in .
“What about your friends back there? Your family back there?” Connor asks him, grinning.
“Aunt Melody is coming to town soon,” he says with a little shrug, and Connor and I look at each other over the top of his head.
“Oh yeah? Are you excited to see her?” Connor prods, clearly just as interested in the response as I am.
“Not really.”
“Why not?” I ask him, now intrigued.
“She treats me like a little kid,” he mumbles, and Connor laughs.
“That’s because you are a little kid,” Connor says, scruffing his hair again.
“No, you’re not, you are a fine young man, and we love having you in Whispers with us,” I tell him. Even though we’re joking, little kids don’t always get the humor in our words, and I feel like Harvey needs to have some confidence instilled in him.
“Thanks, Lacy. I gotta go. I want to get to the front of the ice cream line,” he says, chirping up immediately before running back to his class.
“That was interesting,” Connor says to me as we both watch him, already chatting with another young boy in his class, the two of them laughing together, seemingly best friends.
“A box arrived for you, Lacy. I put it on your desk,” Tanner says as he walks into the room, his larger profile looking humorously giant against the small children.
“Thanks, boss,” I say to him, and he gives me the evil eye, hating me calling him boss, but that is what he is, and I like to humor him .
“Okay! Who’s ready for ice cream?” Tanner's voice booms into the room, and all the kids immediately squeal and laugh and run to him, following him into the restaurant where a large buffet of ice cream and syrups now wait.
“Coming?” Connor asks as he starts to follow the crowd.
“You go ahead. I will go and check what the delivery is. It might be those new bottle samples we are waiting on,” I tell him, and he nods.
“Let me know if it is, and I will come take a look,” he says, walking backward until he is out of sight, the big kid now going to join the little kids with their afternoon delight.
I head to my office, smiling, thinking of the kids and little Harvey, before I make a mental note to get more candy to keep here for when he comes back for a visit. I see the box on my desk Tanner left and frown, because it is too small to be bottle samples, and I don’t think I ordered anything else.
“Open me outside.” I read the label out loud before I pick up the box, the weight almost nonexistent. I walk out to the distillery garden, one of my favorite places here at work, knowing it’s quiet and peaceful today with everyone inside with the kids.
My interest piqued, I open the box, setting it on the garden seat next to me, and pull out another smaller white box from inside it. The white box feels cool, and I notice an ice pack in the bottom of the packing box.
“What is this?” I murmur to myself, having no idea what the hell I ordered or what this could be. I grab the smaller box and put it on my lap, opening it carefully, and see a small white envelope inside. Pulling it out, I gasp.
Two monarch butterflies.
I open the envelope and wait, seeing them start to wriggle and slowly flutter out. They are a little slow as they flutter around my head, and I watch in awe as they fly around my face. One lands on my nose for a few moments while the other sits on my hand. I hold my breath, not wanting to move as my eyes start to sting in disbelief, happiness, and I feel somewhat overcome. They are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I watch as they slowly fly toward the lavender plant nearby, and I grab the note from the box and open it.
You already have your wings, Lacy. Now all you need to do is fly.
Hudson.
I sink into my seat and struggle to breathe. Holy shit. Hudson bought me butterflies.