Chapter 12 #2
That afternoon Victor and Rowan had just finished bringing in the last of her moving boxes into the house when Juniper arrived. Most of the boxes were still scattered across the furniture-less living room, so Juniper had to step over a few to get to them.
“Hey there pretty girl, how are you?” Victor asked happily as he wrapped Juniper into a tight hug and squeezed.
“I’m doing okay,” Juniper replied, her eyes meeting Rowan’s and then diverting away again.
He released her from the hug but kept his hands on her shoulders to get a good look at her. “Oh, it’s so good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you too.”
Rowan warmed at Juniper’s smile, even though it wasn’t for her.
Victor pointed to the bundle of flowers Juniper held, various shades of white, cream, pink, and green joined together in a beautiful array. “Are these flowers for me?”
She giggled. “Not these, but I can bring you some this week if you want.”
“Who would turn that down? You grow all these too, Junie?”
“I do.” She met Rowan’s eyes again, scooted past her, and walked toward the kitchen area.
Rowan’s body wanted to propel her towards Juniper. To be near her. To tell her how she felt. But she stayed where she was at.
“Ah, I get it. The wildflower,” Victor acknowledged quietly to Rowan.
He winked and patted his chest in the same spot she had placed the single white aster the night prior into her pocket.
Rowan wiped the sweat from her forehead under the brim of her hat in self-consciousness.
Was she that obvious? She was a little surprised he made that connection, but maybe that’s where she got it from — her romantic heart.
Stories she remembered Anita telling about how much he had loved her mom fell into place in her mind, how absolutely devoted to her he’d been, how he’d never made it work with anyone else in the thirty years since.
She wasn’t even sure he’d actually tried.
And that seemed a little too similar to her own experience to deny.
At least it only took her half that time to come to her senses, to maybe try to make a second chance work. At least she even had the ability to do that. Her heart ached for her dad who didn’t. She finally really understood.
Victor squeezed one of her shoulders before announcing, “Alright, I’ll be in the back unpacking this kid’s million books for the rest of my life if you need me. No furniture,” he teased, “except a bed and a room full of bookcases of course.”
Rowan watched Juniper put her large bag on the counter by the sink, pull out a translucent sea-green vase, and start to fill it with water.
“It reminded me of seaglass, and I thought of you,” Juniper called over her shoulder to her.
Her heart pulled her into the kitchen like she was responding to a siren’s call.
“It’s beautiful, thank you. I don’t think anyone has ever given me flowers before.”
Juniper turned off the water and turned around to face Rowan. “Really? Why not?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m usually the one who is expected to buy the flowers.”
Rowan shrugged. She liked buying flowers, but this was nice too. She could get used to this — fresh flowers on a kitchen counter every week.
“Oh,” Juniper scrunched up her face and added, “well, I grew these, so I think that makes it different.”
She arranged the small cluster of flowers into the vase, fanning out the flowers so they could be seen in full view, and set it on the middle of the counter.
“Are you… feeling better today?” Rowan asked.
“I am, thank you,” Juniper replied quietly.
She shifted her gaze away from Rowan’s and put her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. Rowan wished it could be her hands in those back pockets.
“Junie, am I…” She took a breath to calm her racing heart. “Am I alone in thinking there’s something going on here?”
Juniper’s eyes darted back up to hers. “What do you mean?”
“I mean. Me and you. Is this something?”
“Hasn’t this always been something?”
Juniper reached out to grab Rowan’s hand, to what appeared to be both of their surprise as they locked their nervous eyes together.
But she didn’t drop it, and Rowan certainly wasn’t going to pull away.
She laced their fingers together, and she studied the way it looked, to have their different shades of brown skin woven together like this.
Juniper’s manicured nails next to hers, bare.
For a few moments, that’s all there was. Their two hands joined together.
They both jumped as they heard what sounded like a heavy box of books drop in one of the bedrooms down the hall.
Rowan turned her head in the direction the bang came from and called out, “Dad?”
“Yep, I’m fine,” he replied through labored breaths.
Juniper dropped her hand. “I’m sorry, you’re seeing someone. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, no I’m not. I’m not with Claire. It was never really anything, but it’s nothing now.”
“Okay,” was all Juniper said in response, though her eyes were transfixed onto Rowan’s.
Rowan quickly looked back down the hallway and back to Juniper. “Do you want to talk in private?” She indicated with a head nod toward the small cased opening on the far side of the kitchen.
Juniper nodded. Rowan led the way through the cased opening into a hallway that ran parallel to the kitchen. It had a washer and dryer tucked in at the end, and a door to her bedroom in the center of the wall.
Rowan took a couple of paces into the room and turned around to face Juniper. In a brazen move, she declared, “I’m just going to come right out and say it. I don’t think you should see Jess anymore.”
Juniper’s lips parted in shock and amusement. Rowan detected what she hoped was a hint of desire there too. Juniper closed her lips again and slightly narrowed her eyes.
“Why?” She countered.
“I didn’t like the way she treated you. She’s a fuckboy. And you deserve so much more than that.”
“And what is it I deserve exactly?”
Rowan couldn’t get the answer out. She couldn’t stop staring at her lips, navigating the overwhelming temptation to push hers against them. To feel her, to taste her again.
Juniper pressed. “No, go on. Don’t be shy with me now. I want to know. What do you think I deserve?”
“You deserve to be with someone who respects you. Someone who treats you with reverence. Like they’re in awe of every thought, every word you say.”
Rowan couldn’t quite place the look in Juniper’s eyes. Was it appreciation? Sadness? A mix of both and other things?
“I’ve never had anyone say things like that to me before.”
“You should hear things like that every day of your life.”
Juniper crossed her arms suddenly and fear struck Rowan that she was losing the traction she’d made.
“What makes you think I don’t view you in the same way though?”
“I can’t answer that.” Rowan shook her head, more at herself than anything. “I hope you’ll let me show you that I’m not.”
“My heart’s only ever truly been broken once. Don’t do this to me again if you don’t mean it.” Juniper pressed.
Rowan flinched, and it took more effort to recover from that blow than she’d been expecting. “I mean it, Juniper. I will do anything I can to prove it to you. Name it, I’ll do it.”
Juniper dropped her arms to shove them against her hips, but Rowan could see a softening around her eyes at the same time.
“Aren’t you a lawyer? Shouldn’t you know not to agree to something without knowing the terms and conditions?”
“Law is a little like gambling. You have to know when to hold ‘em and when to plead ‘em.”
“Is this you pleading?”
Juniper’s tone was husky as it shifted to a lower octave, and Rowan thought she might fall to her knees to plead her case right then and there.
“Not yet.” She hoped Juniper could sense the promise in those words.
A smile started to curl the edge of Juniper’s lips. “Work with me in the garden tomorrow, then come to my house for dinner. My mom wants to see you.”
Fuck.
“Don’t be scared, Birdsong,” she teased over her shoulder, walking out of the bedroom.
Rowan’s eyebrows raised of their own volition. “And you wouldn’t be?!”
Later that evening, Rowan overturned her laundry bag to separate out her lights and darks, and a little wildflower formerly tucked into her t-shirt pocket showed its face amongst the piles.
Even though it was mostly wilted by now, she still picked it up and walked it over to the vase with the other ones.
This moving experience had been vastly different from all the other ones before.