Chapter 24 #3
“Blame Poe,” Annie said. “He ran away yesterday. All the way to town. To the bookstore. I freaked out—because I couldn’t find him—and texted Dorian.
He texted back that Poe had just shown up.
So I came to get him and Dorian and I had a talk.
I told him that daffodils are my favorite flower and that we should plant some to show you he’s not going anywhere. ”
“They come up every spring,” Dorian said. “Doesn’t matter how harsh the winter.”
“Which reminds me of Dorian,” Annie said. “He’s tough. Reliable. Someone who will show up for us when we need him.”
Dorian nodded. “We thought they were a symbol of my promise to you. To both of you.”
“I’m surprised,” I said. “Surprised you two would risk this, knowing how I feel about my garden. How sacred it is to me.”
“That’s exactly why, Mom. We thought it would mean something to you.”
“It does.” I hesitated, thinking about my relationship with daffodils and my mother. “They were my mother’s favorite flower. Which is why I didn’t want them in my garden.”
“I didn’t know that,” Annie said.
“I never shared that with you.” I rubbed my thumb down the sweating glass of lemonade.
“There’s darkness in me. Deep hurt and anger toward my mother.
I can’t change the past, but I can work on letting it go.
” Tears pricked my eyes once again. “When I look at you two looking at me—as if I were someone worthy of love—it feels true. I didn’t get that from my mom.
On the worst day of my life—the day we buried Jon—she told me it was my fault. Can you imagine being that cruel?”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Annie said. “She didn’t deserve you.”
“I’ve carried this all around inside of me for too long,” I said. “It’s time to let spring return to my heart. As far as Poe goes, I have no explanation for why that cat loves me, but he does.”
“Enough to walk five miles into town,” Dorian said. “To make sure we somehow reunited. I never thought he was that smart.”
“He’s misunderstood,” I said. “Kind of like me.”
“Yeah, Mom, it’s no surprise to me that he imprinted on you. You’re a lot alike.”
“I have an idea about the daffodils,” I said. “We should plant some here and some at your house, Dorian. No matter which house we’re in, they’ll remind us every spring of our promise to each other.”
“I think that’s nice, Mom,” Annie said.
“I know just the place for them,” Dorian said. “My mother would be pleased.”
“I wish I could have known her better,” Annie said wistfully. “And thanked her for Edward.”
“She would have loved you, no doubt about that,” Dorian said. “Both of you.”
We were quiet for a moment, drinking our lemonades, the buzz of bees doing their work in my garden all around us.
“I say we go for pizza,” Dorian said after a few minutes.
“I’m in,” I said, exchanging a glance with Dorian. We both knew what I meant. I was in for all of it.
“Great. All that gardening made me ravenous,” Annie said, hopping to her feet. “But I have to shower first. I smell really bad.”
She left us sitting together under the apple tree, dappled light between the branches and the sea breeze fluttering its leaves.
Nothing could be as good as this moment, I thought.
Or could it? Maybe there were more moments like this one coming.
Maybe it was time to start looking forward to the future.
I smiled, thinking about the days and weeks and years to come. “Are you really here?”
He turned his head to smile back at me. “I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”
We kissed again, and I could practically feel my bruised heart going from black to a soft pink. Then we went inside to thank one naughty cat for his inappropriate boundaries.
That night, I texted Seraphina, with an apology, asking if we could get together tomorrow after work. She texted back immediately.
Seraphina
Yes please! I feel terrible about our argument. I’m sorry too.
Delphine
This is all on me. I’ll swing by after work tomorrow to apologize in person.
The next evening, as promised, I headed to Seraphina’s. Tyler answered the door, hair damp from a shower. “Hey, Aunt Delphine.” He gave me a hug. “You doing okay?”
“I am, actually.”
He grinned, running a hand though his damp locks. “Annie told me about the daffodils. I’m happy for you. And for Annie.”
“You’ve always been a good friend to her,” I said.
“She makes it easy,” Tyler said. “Mom will be out in a minute. On a call. Some work thing.”
Their Lab, Lucky, came over to give me a lick. I knelt to pet him. “How’s the best dog in the world?”
“He ate an entire piece of chicken earlier,” Tyler said. “You see the shame in his eyes?”
I laughed, noting Lucky’s vigorous tail wagging. “I see no shame.”
“He stole it right off my plate,” Tyler said. “And then made a run for it, out to the yard. He’d eaten the entire thing before I could even get to him.”
“Lucky, you are a bad dog,” I said, giving him another scratch behind the ears.
Tyler led me into the kitchen. “Hunter’s out too. Recording over at Wes’s. Ivy’s in town.”
“That’s exciting.” Ivy James, one of the biggest singers in country music at the moment, was a good friend of Hunter’s.
She and Hunter wrote songs together and separately, with Ivy recording many of them.
Ivy’s career had exploded in the last year, mostly due to Hunter’s songwriting and Wes’s excellent engineering.
I’d heard rumors that she was dating Jack Wilder, another famous country star.
“How’s your summer going?” I asked, sitting on a stool at the island.
“Good. Busy with baseball.”
“Your matchmaking days over?” I asked, teasing him.
“You were our hold out,” Tyler said.
“You kids took a big risk,” I said. “But I can’t lie and say it wasn’t worth it. You rascals pulled it off.”
“I heard we should add Poe to our gang of matchmakers,” Tyler said, eyes twinkling.
“I think he only had one match in him. He doesn’t seem inclined to walk into town ever again. In fact, he’s been curled up on my bed asleep for the better part of two days.”
Seraphina came in, holding out her arms. We embraced, both saying sorry at the same time.
“You guys had a fight?” Tyler asked. “No way.”
“Just a spat,” Seraphina said. “Nothing to worry about.”
Tyler excused himself and left us alone.
“Tell me everything,” Seraphina said, taking my hand and leading me outside to the patio.
“How much do you know?”
“Annie texted Tyler, who told me. Flower bed. Daffodils. Poe running back to the store. Epic.”
“You’re right about Dorian,” I said. “I was just protecting myself.”
“I understand. I felt much the same when Hunter and I were first dating. I pushed him away a few times. Which is why I knew what you were doing and really wished you could spare yourself more pain by doing so.”
“Daffodils were my mother’s flower,” I said. “So they weren’t allowed in the garden.”
Seraphina knew about my mother’s treatment of me. She’d been there at Jon’s funeral. She’d opened her door to me when I learned of my mother’s death the year before. Like it was with us, we could speak in shorthand.
“But I’m letting the past stay there,” I said. “And they’re Annie’s favorite flower.”
“There will be daffodils?”
“There will daffodils.”
She squeezed my hand. “I’m so happy for you. And for Dorian. Also, I would like to say I was right about him. You know you have to let me have that.”
I laughed. “As much as I love to be right, I don’t always have to be. And in this case, I’m really glad I wasn’t.”
“As am I.” Seraphina looked into my eyes. “You have no idea how much I admire you. You’ve been strong all these years. Now it’s time for you to be less so. Enjoy yourself. Let yourself have all the love you deserve.”
We hugged again and promised to never fight again. After I said goodbye to her, I got in my car and headed home to Annie and Dorian.