10. Wildflower

10

Wildflower

I Bought A Monstera

"I want to carry it!" Lou exclaims loudly as we finish crossing the street.

I squat down, maneuvering the monstera plant into her hands. "Careful. Hold it from the bottom." The damn thing is nearly as big as she is, and I know she can't see where she's walking through the leaves covering her face.

She wobbles slightly but steadies herself, determined. I place my hands on her shoulders and steer her toward the boardwalk. We slowly make our way to the back entrance to Heathen's. I finally told Lou I'd be starting my new job this coming Monday after Leo and Darby return home from their travels this weekend. I told her I'd have my own private office—something my father never granted me when I worked for him—and she was elated about it, demanded to see what it looked like.

We went out together after she finished school today and bought a plant for the space, a plant I'll likely need to ask my sister to take care of because I do not have her green thumb.

As we reach the back staircase, I pause at the bottom. "Alright, bug. You're gonna have to let me carry that thing up the stairs."

She huffs, setting the monstera down on the bottom step. By the way she's panting, I can tell she quickly began rethinking her insistence on carrying it all this way down the boardwalk, but her stubborn nature didn't allow her to drop it.

I hide a laugh at that.

I carry the plant up the stairs and unlock the door with Leo's spare key. I show Lou the space and my office. She jumps around in excitement, spinning in my chair and pulling out every drawer in the desk— which I notice has been entirely cleared out, just as Everett promised he would. I let her play around a little longer before we head out, and I lock up behind us.

"Can we go inside the store?" she asks as we reach the bottom of the stairs.

I'm hesitant after what happened last time, but I know if I'm going to keep this job, I'll be spending a lot of time in Heathen's, likely in all the small businesses in the area. I'm going to have to get used to it, but I'm also not sure I'm ready to face Everett again, not after the emotional information dump I placed on him Monday after he came to fix my car.

I'm normally much better at locking things up. I only open up around my sister, really. Maybe she has been gone too long and I'm feeling too many things with nowhere to put them. Regardless, though, Everett isn't that person—that place. So I try not to think too hard about why it was so easy to vent to him about all my fears, about my past.

I sigh, checking my phone. It's a half hour before the store closes on a Friday night, so it's unlikely he's the one there anyway. "Yeah, we can check it out real quick."

She skips ahead of me, darting around the edge of the building and to the front doors. I catch up to her just as she stops at the entrance. She takes in the surf boards propped up outside the doors, slowly running her hand along one of them.

"Leo owns all of these?"

I laugh. "Well, I think they're for sale, but he owns the shop. So, yeah. Kind of. He and Everett."

She looks back at me. "Everett too?"

I hum in response. "They're brothers."

Her nose scrunches, a trait she took on from my sister, I think. "They don't look like brothers."

I maneuver her toward the front door as I pull it open. "Well, they're not brothers by blood. They don't have the same parents. Monica and Carlos took care of Leo when he was a kid, and they've been best friends their whole lives, so they're brothers in all the ways that count."

"Will I have a best friend like that?" she asks. My stomach plummets at the question. She doesn't say it like she's sad, like she's longing for anything, but I know someday—someday soon—she may be. She has always had a tough time making friends, always isolated herself a bit.

Sometimes, I'm afraid it's because she's an only child from a broken home.

I've always been a sister first and a friend second. Everything I've learned about friendship and bonding and communication came from Darby and our closeness. I've never needed any other friends because I've always had her.

Lou doesn't have that, and it breaks my heart that I can't give it to her.

"I hope so, bug," I whisper against the top of her head, planting a kiss in her hair.

I'm not sure she even heard me, her train of thought already barreling down another track as she enters the shop and takes it in. Her head is snapped back, tracing the surf boards hanging from the ceiling, the paintings along the walls. The entire place exists in shades of blue and green and orange, bright and colorful.

I love seeing the look on her face when she discovers something new for the first time.

Her eyes are wide with wonder as she wanders behind a stack of surfboards, sliding her hands along the smooth surfaces and yelling out to me which colors she likes most.

So hyper focused on my daughter, I almost don't hear the caress of his deep voice as he says, "Hey, Wildflower."

I jump around to face the back of the store. Everett is leaning on the counter, hands resting on his elbows as he smiles at me, studying me like I'm his favorite painting. My hands come to my chest—an attempt at calming my racing heart.

I can't decide if it's racing because he startled me or because he startled me. "Shit. You scared me."

"Mom!" Lou calls from the other side of the shop. "That's a dollar!"

Shit. That stupid swear jar was such a bad idea. It has been draining my wallet for months.

Everett chuckles as he walks around the counter and closes the distance between us. Towering over me, he flashes that wicked grin again. "What're you two doing here?"

"I bought a monstera," I say.

I bought a monstera ? Idiot.

Those chocolate eyes and straining arms—tattooed fingers—make me incapable of normal speech sometimes. "I mean, for my office. I bought a plant for my office. Lou wanted to see it, and then she wanted to see the store."

He nods, a knowing smile on his face. Without taking his gaze from mine, he calls, "What do you think of it, Luce?"

Small foot steps pitter-patter toward us until she's at my side. "It's so cool!" She tugs at my shirt. "You have to come look at this one board. I need it, Mom."

We both laugh. "What are you gonna do with a surfboard, bug?"

She gives me an eye roll that is far too exaggerated for a child her age. "Surf?"

"You don't know how to surf."

"Leo can teach me."

For the fact that she's never actually met him in person, only having ever spoken on Facetime, Lou is incredibly comfortable with Darby's new fiancé. I'm thankful for that, for the ease in which she settled into her new reality, but I don't need my sister or my brother-in-law feeling like they have some kind of responsibility over her, not when they're just starting to build their new life together.

I'm not sure Lou understands those boundaries, though. Darby has been so deeply ingrained in every aspect of her life since she was born, I'm not sure Lou knows what normal family dynamics are supposed to look like.

"Leo's busy, bug. I don't know if he's going to have time for that. You know they're only going to be back in town for a few weeks before they have to leave again."

Leo has another competition later this year in Hawaii or Africa or… somewhere. I can't keep track. He'll be working with me, training for that next competition, and running Heathen's in the meantime, not to mention helping Darby get her flower shop ready to open and planning their wedding.

I'm already living in their house. I don't need to add this to their plate too.

"I can do it," Everett says. My head snaps up from Lou's pleading puppy eyes to meet his. He has a soft smile on his face, nothing but sincerity in his eyes. "I mean, I'm no record-setting prodigy, but I've spent pretty much my whole life on a board." He laughs to himself. "I always say that the only reason Leo is as good as he is is because he spent so much time trying to be better than me when we were kids."

I can practically feel my daughter vibrating with excitement next to me. "I couldn't ask you to do that. You're just as busy as he is."

"You're not asking, I'm offering." He shrugs. "I could easily carve out…what?" He looks down at Lou with a smile. "An hour a week? Would that work for you, kid?"

She nods rapidly.

"The auto-shop is closed on Sundays, so how about Sundays at….ten o'clock?" he asks me.

I give a strained smile. "Yeah, that works." I press against Lou's shoulder and point back toward the swimsuits. "Why don't you go pick out a new one?"

She starts to run off toward racks of children's swimwear when she pauses and turns back. "Okay, but what about–"

"Girlfriend. I am not buying you a new surfboard when there is a strong possibility you will get out there and after ten minutes decide you hate it. We'll rent one until we know it's something you actually want to pursue, then I'll take a look at getting you a new one for yourself."

She lets out a frustrated huff. "Fine."

"I have boards you can borro–" Everett tells me the same time as I say, "You don't really have to do this."

He blinks at me. "Dahlia. Do you not want me giving your daughter surf lessons?" he asks in a hushed tone. "I want to respect your boundaries. If it makes you uncomfortable, then we don't have to do it, of course."

I shake my head. "It's not that. I just…I don't understand why you'd want to. What's in it for you?"

"Something has to be in it for me?" He crosses his arms. "She looks excited. It's the same excitement Leo and I used to have in our eyes when we were two poor, good-for-nothing kids running amok around town and wishing we had boards we could ride waves with." He nods in Lou's direction, and we both turn our heads to look at her skipping around the back corner of the store. "That kind of reaction is exactly the reason we opened this place, the joy we want to spread to anyone willing to accept it. So…that's what I get out of it. The smile on the face of a kid who just discovered how great it feels to be out there on the water."

I swallow slowly. Somehow, I feel like there's more to it than that, but I'm afraid to know what that may be. All I know is the way his brown eyes electrify with intensity as he looks at me spell nothing but sincerity and conviction.

"Thank you," I say quietly, looking away. "I can pay you."

"Don't you fucking dare."

I let my eyes flutter upward, meeting his. I melt beneath his stare, summoning only a nod in response. "It's late on a Friday, and I know you need to close the store. I don't want to take up any more of your time." His eyes soften at that, almost as if he's going to disagree, but he says nothing. "Lucille, you have thirty seconds to pick a bathing suit and then we're out of here."

She runs up to me with some frilly, bright pink one piece. I carry it to the counter, and Everett tries to argue with me about paying for it, but I argue back. We finally agreed to give me the employee discount.

The bells on the door chime as Lou pushes it open. "Goodnight, Ev!"

"Oh, that better not be the nickname you decided on, Luce!" he calls back. She looks at him with furrowed brows, and he winks at her before his eyes filter up to meet mine. "Ten o'clock Sunday morning. Meet me here."

I nod.

"Goodnight, Wildflower."

"Goodnight," I murmur back.

"That's a good nickname, Mom," Lou says as we make our way back to the car.