6. Emery #2
I barely gave her a nod. “Yeah. I’m just tired.”
Just tired and anguished and disgusted at the mistake I’d made.
“Here it is,” I said with feigned excitement when we came to the cute little restaurant called Cup Café that was open for breakfast and lunch. It was fronted by large windows, and both the exterior and interior were done in rustic, whitewashed woods.
I started to pull open the door when I was distracted by a woman who stepped out from the flower shop next door with a giant bouquet in her arms.
Maci jumped between me and Mom the second she saw her. “Hey, hey! You sure got a lot of flowers! I bet you got a billion!”
The woman shifted the bouquet around, angling it to the side so she could peer around it.
She had black hair that she had twisted up in a knot with flowers in it, and her eyes were nearly as dark as her hair. Her makeup thick and done to precision. So strikingly beautiful it was hard not to stare.
But she had this huge smile that instantly wrapped around you and made you feel welcome, a reaction I didn’t typically have to strangers of any kind, but she managed it, anyway.
I would guess she was about the same age as me, maybe a little younger. Twenty-six, give or take a year or two.
She wore a white and red floral dress that hugged her curves and these super high heels that made my feet hurt just looking at them.
“Well, hello!” Her voice was warm as she turned her attention to Maci. She didn’t hesitate to move forward and kneel in front of her. “Do you like flowers?”
“Everyone likes flowers.” Maci said it like anyone would be ludicrous to think otherwise.
A trilling laugh rolled through the woman. “You and I must be of the same heart because I think the exact same thing. Who doesn’t love flowers?” She glanced up at me and my mom with a smile. “I mean, unless you have a nasty case of allergies, which I think would be really awful, pitiful luck.”
“The pitifulest,” Maci agreed, wide-eyed and completely somber.
A tiny jolt of laughter ripped from me.
The woman held the bouquet out in front of her. “Do you want to pick out your favorite?”
“Really?” Maci asked in her cute lisp as she swayed between me and Mom.
The woman lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Guess what? You were totally right, and I do have almost a billion in my store, so you can have any of them you want.”
“I knew it,” Maci whispered back, just as low.
Then my niece tipped her head back so she could look up at me, those mesmerizing green eyes swirling as she silently asked for permission.
“It’s okay. Just remember to say thank you.”
“Well, I always say fank you, so you don’t even got to worry about it. My mommy taught me I got to have really good manners, Auntie. ”
I didn’t know whether to weep or laugh as Maci pulled her hands from us, and she bent forward so she could carefully inspect each bud.
Finally, she settled on a peach-colored tulip. “I fink this one is the prettiest.”
“It is beautiful, just like you.” The woman pulled it from the bouquet and handed it to Maci. My niece beamed and grinned and swayed from side to side. “Guess I gotta give you two fank yous.”
“And that is two ‘you’re welcomes’.” The woman tapped Maci on the nose twice before she stood.
Softness filled her pretty face. A genuineness rarely seen. “Hi, I’m Raven, and I own this flower shop, which is pretty much the best flower shop in all of Moonlit Ridge, if I do say so myself, but of course, there are only two of them, so…”
She did a little curtsy, and I would have giggled if it weren’t for the rocks still lodged in my throat.
I tried to clear them away before I spoke. “Hi, Raven. I’m Emery, this is my mom, Wendy, and this sweet one is my niece, Maci. That was really kind of you.”
“Very nice,” Mom added. “I think you made our Maci’s day.”
“Well, I’m a personal believer that flowers always brighten our days, no matter what the situation. A hug when we need it most and a gentle reminder that there is always beauty around us, even when it’s difficult to see it. I think it was perfect timing that I ran into you.”
Her gaze swept back to Maci. Normally, someone coming up and talking to her would set me on edge. But there was something so utterly sincere about her that I felt at ease.
No threat when it seemed like that’s the only thing this town could be.
“Perfect timing,” I whispered.
Her head tilted to the side as she looked between the three of us. “Are you new to town? I haven’t seen you around before, and not to brag or anything, but I’m excellent at remembering faces.”
“Oh, no. We’re just visiting.” I couldn’t help but plant my hands on Maci’s shoulders. As if that contact could will it into being. That I might stand the chance of keeping her with me .
Clinging to the hope that Kane Asher would be completely uninterested in what I’d come here to tell him.
Unable to imagine a man—someone like the one I’d met last night—would want to take on a child.
Right?
He wouldn’t.
And there was no way I could trust him if he did.
Disappointment flashed through Raven’s features, and she gave a little pout. “Oh, bummer. I was hoping you were staying. I have a nephew who’s almost six.” Her gaze dropped to Maci. “I bet he would have loved to meet you.”
Maci brightened, the child nothing but a beaming light. So badly she wanted to belong after she’d been ripped from everything she knew. “Is he so big? I’m only four…”
She held up four chubby fingers.
“But I really need to get a new friend because I don’t live at my old house anymore, and I don’t got a preschool, but I fink I need to find one because it’s gettin’ time I learned to read.”
Curiosity filtered into Raven’s expression as she glanced at me. I wondered what she saw because compassion followed it, the woman staring at me for a beat of sympathy before she cast a smile at Maci.
“He might be a big boy, but I think he would love to be your friend. So, if you happen to stick around for a while, you know where to find me.”
She hooked a thumb back at her shop.
“ Wif a billion flowers.” Maci waved her flower overhead.
“That’s right. I’ll be right here with all the flowers, hoping to brighten your day.”
Shifting the bouquet around, she straightened and gave us a little wave.
“It really was nice to meet you. If you need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to pop by.
It’s what I’m here for, and I’m pretty much a great time if you need someone to show you around town. I think we would really get along.”
“You fink my auntie needs a new friend, too?”
Raven reached out and ran her fingers through a lock of Maci’s hair, though she peered over at me when she murmured, “Yeah, it looks like she might.”
My chest stretched tight, and I couldn’t even respond, so my mother did for me. “We really appreciate that.”
“Any time. And when I say any time, I mean any time,” she peeped. “Now, I have to run these flowers to the restaurant across the street because they need their day brightened, too.”
She gave a wink before she turned and stepped up to the edge of the sidewalk. She looked both ways before she flounced across the street, her high heels clicking on the pavement as she went.
A surprise whirlwind that somehow left me with a faint smile pulling at my lips.
Mom looked back at me. “Well, she was quite…friendly.”
“That’s right, because she gots a really good friend for me,” Maci peeped as she slipped her tiny hand back into mine.
Mom’s gaze turned intense. Emphatic. What she’d been telling me all along.
We had to. We had to.
But I had no idea how to see this through. Not when it would be the hardest thing I’d ever done.