Chapter 26
The season faded into late summer before the farmer’s market pavilion was fully constructed.
On the Saturday morning of its grand unveiling, Rowan woke Juniper with a mug of coffee.
Even in the late summer heat and humidity, she still took her cup steaming hot with a splash of oat milk.
She sat up in bed and pulled the sheet over her bare chest to tuck under her arms before taking the mug in both hands.
Rowan sunk back into bed and leaned against the headboard next to her to enjoy her own mug.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Juniper exclaimed.
Rowan tilted her head toward her and raised an eyebrow.
“Do you remember how I stole that white button down shirt from the back of your old truck?”
“Like months ago, and you never gave it back?”
“Yes, that one, among many other things. I know. I can finally give it back to you now.”
“Have you been wearing it? I haven’t noticed.”
That was cute. Juniper shot her a near laughing smile.
“I definitely can’t fit into your work clothes.”
Rowan looked at her quizzically. Juniper gripped the front of her t-shirt to pull her in for a kiss.
“I don’t think it would close past my nipples.”
Rowan groaned. “Show me.”
Juniper dropped the sheet from her naked body and sat forward to crawl off the edge of the bed. She turned back and gave Rowan a sly smile. Rowan looked ravenous peering over her mug as she took a long sip. Juniper knew the game she was playing.
“It’s up to you whether we’re on time this morning. I set the alarm and made the coffee. Everything else is all on you,” she warned.
Juniper finished making her way over to the closet. She reached in all the way to the far right and pulled a white shirt on a hanger out. She turned back around and pressed it against her body.
“I did something to it.”
“Okay,” Rowan breathed out with a laugh.
“You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to. I promise I won’t be upset. I just thought I’d show it to you now.”
“Show me, Junie.”
Her tone was so soft, Juniper wanted to melt.
She took the few steps to Rowan’s side of the bed and turned the shirt around.
Juniper had sewn a panel of rows of ribbon horizontally across the chest of the shirt in muted browns, greens, and blues.
These shirts, called ribbon shirts, were typically worn by men as a visual sign of their culture but were increasingly being worn by LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people who felt it represented the way they wanted to express themselves better than feminine cultural garments.
Juniper waited with baited breath for Rowan’s reaction.
Rowan looked at the shirt contemplatively and a smile spread across her face as she brought her gaze to Juniper’s eyes.
“I know you have felt like our culture doesn’t include you in the ways you need it to. Or… the ways it’s supposed to but hasn’t. I thought maybe making you a ribbon shirt would feel more like you. I want to make sure everything about this place feels like home for you.”
Rowan set her coffee mug on the side table and looked into Juniper’s eyes. She sat forward to cup her face in her hands and brought their lips together. Then she pulled her the rest of the way onto the bed with her. Juniper laid her face against the crook of Rowan’s elbow and looked up at her.
With glossy eyes, Rowan was emphatic. “I love it so much.”
“Yeah?”
Rowan traced her finger down Juniper’s cheekbone and kissed her so lovingly it made her breathless.
“You really think of everything, don’t you?” Rowan asked, beaming a smile at her. “Of course I want to wear it.”
“I wanted to give it to you a lot sooner, but since I’ve been over here so much, I couldn’t really hide what I was working on. I had to sneak around.”
Rowan laughed and pressed a kiss into each of her cheeks and then her forehead and then her nose.
“That reminds me, you haven’t given me an answer yet on if you want to live here with me.”
Juniper’s answer was an obvious yes, and they both knew that. They had made other life decisions together in the last few weeks, but she also hoped they’d have a long lifetime of these little teasing games.
“Have I really left you hanging for weeks on end like that?”
“You have,” Rowan pointed out with a smirk.
“I guess it’s finally time I finally said yes.”
Later that morning, Juniper and Rowan left their house together and picked up Wren and Wanchese on the way. Juniper hopped out of the passenger seat when she saw Wanchese flatten the blind slats he had pushed open to watch for them and dart out of sight.
“Nuqisus!” She exclaimed as she held her arms out for him to run into.
She kissed the top of his head and flattened his middle part against his scalp. She opened the back passenger door of the four-door cab of her and Rowan’s new Toyota Tacoma. Wanchese pushed his glasses up his nose and climbed inside.
“Nice truck!” Wren yelled out to them while she twisted the key into the lock of her front door.
“Juniper thinks it’s too much,” Rowan yelled through the open window.
“What are you talking about, Junie?” Wren scoffed, slid in beside Wanchese, and shut the door.
“I don’t know. I’ve never bought anything new before.”
“Dang, this is yours?”
“Well, technically it’s hers,” Juniper tilted her head toward Rowan.
“No, it’s not technically mine. Your name is on it too.”
Wren leaned her head forward and balanced it on the side of Juniper’s seat.
“You guys are a walking fucking cliché, aren’t you?”
She pinched Juniper’s shoulder, and Juniper swatted her hand away.
“Mom, language.”
“Yeah, Wren,” Juniper mocked.
“Who picked out the color?” Wren shot back.
“She did,” Rowan confirmed.
“Love the dark green, by the way. And who gave the final confirmation about whether you should buy it?”
No one answered.
“Right,” Wren said, “it was Juniper.”
“Okay,” Juniper lilted, “sit back and put on your seatbelt and shut the fuck up,” she descended into a muffled whisper.
“Auntie, I heard that.”
Rowan laughed and looked at him through the rearview mirror as she backed out of Wren’s driveway. “Keese, you keep everyone honest. Good for you.”
“Thank you. My mom says that I need to stop telling on her.”
“I get away with nothing,” Wren huffed as she finally sat back and put on her seatbelt.
Juniper extended a hand back to Wanchese, who slapped it.
“Whatever,” Wren muttered.
They only had to pass through two of the seven intersections on the reservation to arrive at the Tribal gardens. It still took about ten minutes.
Wren leaned forward and grasped Juniper’s shoulders as it came into view. “Juniper,” she gasped.
Rowan looked over at Juniper and smiled before turning her attention back to the road.
The whole entire area had changed so much over the last two months.
It had expanded to almost four times its original size.
All of the original metal fencing had been torn down and repurposed to accommodate for the expansion, and in its place now stood a natural wood picket fence.
Now there were rows and rows of new beds made out of mostly reclaimed wood from the reservation, and a large greenhouse stood at the back right corner of the property.
The showstopper, of course, was the pavilion, which was now located directly in the center, at the front of the garden.
Wren had worked with the Tribal education department to commission a mural to be painted on the back enclosed side of the pavilion that featured all kinds of animals and fish, flora and fauna that was indigenous to their land and their lives.
She worked with several high school students to get it painted during the heat of the summer and made no effort to stop teasingly complaining to Juniper about all of the unsightly tan lines she incurred because of it.
Gravel crunched as they pulled into a parking spot off to the side of the front gates. There were already several cars and trucks in the parking area, and Juniper was surprised by that. They were there early because they had to be. Everyone else must have just been excited.
They all hopped out of the truck and caught sight of Beckett who was standing just inside the front gates. Wanchese rushed ahead and opened the gates for the rest of them.
“Big day,” Beckett declared as she clapped hands with Rowan and drew her in for a hug.
“Big day, indeed,” she responded.
“I like that shirt,” Beckett pointed at the ribbon work on the front of Rowan’s shirt.
“Isn’t it beautiful? Juniper did this for me.”
Juniper drew Beckett in for a hug. They had all gotten to know each other much better over the course of the summer.
Rowan had started hosting weekly bonfires at her house, their house now, and it was something they all looked forward to.
Until the mosquitoes got too bad, and they had to move the gathering indoors until the weather cooled back down.
“I need something like that.”
“Then you need to get you a pretty lady to make you one,” Juniper teased.
Beckett smirked. “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”
“Did you see my mom’s mural?” Wanchese interjected.
Beckett raised her eyebrows and looked down at him. Not out of rudeness. She looked more surprised that a kid would be talking to her. She was a little more than intimidating. She uncrossed her arms to respond to him.
“Is Wren your mom?”
She looked over to Wren who briefly smiled.
“She is.”
Wanchese almost hip checked Wren with how hard he wrapped himself around her side. She let out a surprised laugh and steadied herself from the impact.
“You’re proud of your mom, aren’t you?” Beckett asked, her gaze moving back to Wren.
Juniper was sure she caught Wren blush, but she looked away quickly.
“Why don’t you come show me? I haven’t had a chance to see it yet. Maybe you can tell me more about it.”
He happily strolled past Beckett to lead her to the back of the pavilion. “Follow me,” he called back over his shoulder.
Juniper turned to Rowan. “Okay, let’s go over our plan of events one more time.”
Rowan nodded.