19.
FARRAH
I scanned the inventory sheet and looked over the tables before I directed Ginger to reorganize a few things and restock some others. Fiona waved me over to talk to a woman who had a special request for some flower starts, so I took down her information before I gave her my business card.
Someone tapped my arm and then a cup of coffee appeared in my peripheral. I gratefully reached for it and took a hesitant sip to see how hot it was before I took another few in the hopes that it would either give me enough energy to make it for a few more hours or make time speed by so I could sit somewhere quiet for a while.
“This is freaking crazy,” Serana said as she carried a tray of petunias past me. I watched her walk toward Moe and caught sight of my friend waving me her way.
As soon as I got close enough, she got out of her chair and handed me the credit card reader. “I need to pee so bad that it’s going to become a religious experience when I do get to go.”
I didn’t have time to react before she scurried off, and the customer waiting in line burst out laughing.
“I think you’re a little busier than Zoey expected.”
“You know Zoey?”
“I’ve known her all of her life.”
A woman close to my age lifted a hanging basket of mixed flowers and then thrust a credit card my way.
“Jenna! I’ll buy that!”
“I’m going to buy it for you along with that soap you liked so much.”
“Then I’m going back to that shirt for you that you were admiring.” As I swiped the woman’s card, she said, “We should get a hanging basket for Summer’s porch, don’t you think?”
“After all these years, you still haven’t realized that all she has to do to kill a plant is look at it?”
“I’m beginning to think you may be right,” the older woman said with a wince.
“Some people don’t have a green thumb, but then there are people like Zoey who can make anything grow,” I said as I handed the woman her card and the bag that held the hand-crafted soap she'd purchased. “There’s a card in the bag with Taylor’s contact information. She’d be happy to make some personalized scents for you, but you will also be able to find a wider selection of products at The Flower Patch when it opens to the public.”
“I can’t wait!” the older woman said cheerfully. She linked arms with the woman I assumed was her daughter before she said, “Let’s get out of here before my people meter gets any lower. I may lose it if one more person bumps into me.”
“Take me with you!” I jokingly pleaded.
Suddenly, Zoey appeared beside me and hurried around the register setup to greet the women who were walking away. I heard her call the woman Gamma right before my attention went to the next customer who had at least a dozen questions. I answered all of them as I checked out three more people.
By the time Moe came back, my coffee was lukewarm. I welcomed the opportunity to hurry back to the van and check the stock we still had on hand.
I had just walked around the corner when I saw Lynn and his granddaughters nearby. Lynn got their attention, and the girls looked over and spotted me. All of the stress and irritation I’d been feeling seemed to melt away. By the time they got to me, I had butterflies in my stomach and my heart was racing.
“Farrah! We got to sit in a pool with a bunch of kittens! The lady said that if we come back later, she’ll bring some puppies out for us to cuddle!”
Lynn had given me some pointers on how to tell the girls apart, so I assumed the girl with her hair up was Berklee since he said that Brinlee usually wanted hers down with just a section pulled back from her face.
I smiled at Berklee before I asked, “How many kittens did you get to play with?”
Brinlee bounced up and down as she said, “Sooo many!”
“I hope they have that many puppies too!”
Lynn gave me a quick kiss in greeting before she said, “It was a veterinarian who has rescued puppies and kittens for adoption.”
“I wish we could get one of each!” Berklee said sadly.
I knew that was not a conversation I wanted to jump into, so I stayed quiet until Brinlee explained, “Pop is allergic.”
“To cats and dogs?” I asked.
When the girls nodded, I looked at Lynn in question and asked, “Won’t it irritate your allergies if they’re covered in cat and dog hair?”
Lynn leaned close again and whispered, “I’m allergic to anything that poops anywhere other than the toilet.” He stood up straighter before he shrugged and, in a normal voice, said, “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
He shot me a glare when I pointed out, “You seem to like Kaylynn just fine.”
“He’s not allergic to Kaylynn!”
“It looks like you’ve found plenty of other things you liked here,” I said as I motioned toward the bag in Lynn’s hand, hoping to change the subject before the astute little girls caught onto Lynn’s game.
“We have. We wanted to buy some flowers when we brought you your coffee, but you were so busy that we decided to come back later,” Berklee explained.
“You brought me that coffee? I’m sorry! I didn’t even look up! I just thought it was one of the girls passing them out.”
“It’s okay. You were really busy and looked awfully stressed,” Lynn said, dismissing my apology. “Will y’all have enough plants to last until the end?”
I glanced over my shoulder at the open door of one of the vans and did some quick calculations before I shook my head. “I doubt it.”
“Do you have any plans tonight?”
“We have a meeting scheduled for seven and then a potluck afterward, so I’m not sure what time I’ll be finished.”
“Call me when you get home, and we’ll see about making plans for tomorrow then.”
“I’d like that,” I said eagerly before I looked down at the girls. “What do y’all have planned for tonight?”
“We’re going to open gym night, and then we’re going to have pancakes for dinner!” Berklee said cheerfully.
Brinlee added, “And we’re having a swim party tomorrow with some of our friends.”
“That sounds like fun!” I said as I glanced over at Lynn. “How many kids will you have at this pool party?”
“Too many,” Lynn muttered.
Berklee shrugged before she said, “Only eight. He said that if we have more people than that, we’ll splash all the water out of the pool.”
“And the noise level will break all the windows,” Brinlee added. She frowned before she said, “I don’t know if all of that is true, though.”
“I don’t know if I’d be willing to risk it,” I said, going along with Lynn’s lie.
“Do you want to come over to eat lunch with us and then play in the pool?”
Lynn nodded eagerly, so I said, “I’ll see if one of the girls can drop me off.”
“If you can’t find a ride, I’ll send you an Uber.”
“You really want some company, don’t you?” I asked.
“Please!” Lynn said as he reached out and clutched my hand in desperation. “I could really use the backup.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Any word on your car?”
I shook my head sadly before I said, “Nothing so far. No one’s seen Margie either.”
“And the other woman is still not talking?”
“If I had to say one nice thing about Jill, it’s that she’s tight-lipped and loyal, although only when it suits her.”
“Can we get some plants now?” Brinlee asked.
“I have an idea,” I said as I enjoyed Lynn’s thumb rubbing over the top of my hand. I said, “Why don’t you wait until Pop can bring you to the store to choose some flowers? You’ll have a bigger selection to choose from, and some of us can come out and help you plant them.”
“I like that idea.” Berklee and Brinlee seemed happy with that option, and I knew Lynn had to be relieved since that took one more thing off his list of things to do for today. “I better get back to work.”
“There’s Moe!” Berklee squealed. “Pop, can we go say hi?”
“Sure,” Lynn said before the girls dashed off toward the booth where Moe was working with a customer. As soon as they were gone, Lynn pulled me into his arms and said, “I can’t wait to see you again.”
“You’re seeing me right now.”
“You know what I’m talking about,” he mumbled in my ear before he nipped at my earlobe. “I’ll be thinking of you while I’m alone in bed tonight.”
“Why don’t you call me, and we’ll compare naughty ideas?”
Lynn’s growl made me shiver, and when he settled his mouth on mine for a long kiss, the butterflies in my stomach came back again.
I’d worked diligently to take what he said last night at face value and not read anything more into his thoughts that the girls would love me, too, with enough time. “Too” being the part I was trying to ignore because the butterflies in my stomach were screaming that they weren’t the only ones in danger of falling in love. The hope that Lynn may be feeling the same way wouldn’t stop popping up every time I thought about him, which I had to admit was more often than not.
When our kiss ended, Lynn touched his forehead to mine while we caught our breath, and I smiled when he said, “That might hold me over until I see you tomorrow.”
“Don’t forget to call me tonight.”
“There’s not a chance of that.”
◆◆◆
“I know all of you are exhausted and really just wanted to go home and clean up, but I think tonight’s meeting has been very productive. I know how hard it is to share your doubts and fears. Whether you’re a fan of Margie or not, it really hits home that relapse can happen to any one of us if we don’t actively keep working on our recovery.”
“Not to make this all about me or anything, but I have to say that her bullshit has hit me pretty hard,” I said sarcastically as I glared at Jill.
I was positive that she knew more than she was saying about my car. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that she’d been with Margie when it was stolen if she hadn’t done it her damn self. She was a lot less erratic today than she had been for the last few days, but I could sense that she wasn’t sober even though I couldn’t smell it on her.
I remembered all the times in my life where I was in the middle of active addiction but had learned to mask the worst of the signs so I could make it through another day of work or a visit with my parole officer. I sadly did the same thing many times while I was visiting with my son.
As difficult as it was, I felt like I needed to be the bigger person and talk to Jill since nothing anyone else had said so far had seemed to penetrate.
“Jill, I’m gonna be blunt because I know that tiptoeing around the issue doesn’t work with people like us.”
“Save it,” Jill hissed.
“It’s obvious that you’re not sober and haven’t been in days, maybe even weeks.”
“I’m not interested in listening to you preach to me about your perfect life and what is wrong with mine,” Jill said with a bored expression as she looked at her phone.
I shook my head before I blew out a frustrated breath and tried again. “I’m not trying to bust your chops, Jill, and I’m not gonna lie and say I give a whistling shit about you or Margie’s future. With that being said, I feel a certain kinship with you because I’ve been there, and I’d like to think that if I had someone extend their hand to help me, I might have taken it and accepted whatever help was offered. I didn’t, and I lost even more years away from my kid and life in general.”
“Are we done here?” Jill snapped as she stood up. Before any of us could answer, she stomped toward the door and grumbled, “I know I’m fucking done here.”
The door slammed behind her, and everyone was quiet until we heard the loud thump of bass coming from her ride. We could tell from a distance that the man that usually drove Jill around was bad news.
After the music faded again, Garvey said, “All we can do is try. You can lead a horse to water . . .”
“But if you drown that bitch, you end up back in prison,” Moe finished for him.
“Yes, that’s most definitely true,” Garvey agreed through his laughter.
“Can we just halfway drown her? We won’t hold her under until the bubbles completely stop before we let her up for air and then do it again,” Fiona assured him.
“I’m almost positive that will also land you in prison.”
“But it’s Jill, so there’s extenuating circumstances,” Taylor argued.
“I’m almost willing to risk it,” I chimed in.
“We could put it to a vote,” Meredith suggested. “All in favor say . . .”
“Premeditation!” Garvey yelled before any of us could respond. He took a calming breath and gave us a tight smile before he said, “Let’s get back on track.”
“That’s a great idea!” Moe cheered. “There are train tracks around here! We don’t have to drown her at all.”
Garvey hung his head in defeat, and I almost felt sorry for the guy. I had to admit, though, that with thousands of hours of group therapy, support meetings, and everything else that I’d participated in during my recovery, the meetings he chaired were the best. From the start, he’d made us feel like a support system of friends that were more like family, but a family that didn’t judge each other and could really relate to what each other was going through.
That meant a lot to all of us, and we’d discussed the differences of this sober living group as opposed to others we’d been part of. With Garvey Forrester as our leader, it felt much more personal than most all of the others.
Most of the time, I felt a kinship with the others who were going through some of the same struggles as I was, but there was still some distance there. It might have been due to the fact that most of us were living here on the property, but I thought it was more than that. It wasn’t just a crappy coffee and stale donut type of meeting, of which I’d been to hundreds. It was more of a family setting with laughter and conversation combined with the support we were seeking.
“No one’s going to use the train tracks or any bodies of water,” Garvey said firmly. “We all know that everyone deals with their struggles in their own individual ways. Jill may be going through things we have no idea about, and if we can find a way to support her through them, then that makes us better for it.”
“You’re a much nicer person than most of us, Garvey,” Fiona said cheerfully.
“He’s like our own little ray of sunshine and hope,” Moe added, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “So, since the drowning and train death plots are out, what else can we come up with, ladies?”
Jill had been shitty to all of us at one point or another, and even worse with some of us, so it didn’t take much for the women to jump in with plenty of ideas.
But I had a few of my own too.
“If we ever find my car, I’d like to drag Margie and Jill behind it.”
Apparently, my idea had merit because it took quite a while for Garvey to get control of the meeting once the rest of our group started adding to my stolen car punishment. Although, there were a few ideas that he didn’t seem to argue nearly as much as others.