Emily: Oh my god, she is sooooooo adorbs! Tell her I can’t wait for her to help. Give her kisses from Auntie Emily. My guts twisted. God, I’d gotten too close too fast. Danger lurking all around. My heart at risk. It’d already been battered so desperately I didn’t know if I could handle it all again. Getting wound up in their lives. I was already achin’ thinking about them leaving again after the wedding.
I was letting pieces of myself go when I knew full well I shouldn’t. Richard was already chiseling out more of the broken pieces that were barely being held together as it was. The problem was, they’d always belonged to him, anyway.
From the second I’d seen him.
The man my downfall.
My dark night sky.
A million glittering stars that I could never reach far enough to touch.
The hell I’d never imagined I’d be sentenced to.
I walked into the kitchen to Daisy standing on her stool next to my daddy, washing the potatoes for dinner.
“You got a message, Daisy.”
Her eyes lit in excitement. “From Mr. Richard?”
Daddy grumbled his disapproval.
“Nope. From Emily. She said the dress is perfect, and she can’t wait for you to help with the wedding.”
“Yay!” she sang.
I kissed her cheek. “I need to head out to the workshop and get a few things in order for deliveries in the mornin’. Shoot me a text when dinner is ready?”
This I addressed to my daddy who was watching me with concern and all his fatherly love. “You work too hard.”
A soft giggle rippled out. “What are you talkin’ about? I took the whole day off. If I keep it up, you’re going to have to find someone more worthy to fill your shoes.”
He tipped up my chin in a show of affection. “You’ve overfilled my shoes. Look at the land.”
He gestured out the kitchen window that overlooked the abundantly colored fields.
Pride pressed at my ribs. “I had a good teacher.”
His smile was adoring. “And I had the best student.”
“The best!” Daisy shouted her agreement.
On light laughter, I kissed them both again before I headed out the back door and down the porch steps to where the world was darkening, the solar lights lining the path flickering to life, illuminating the trail in a glittering haze.
My phone buzzed again, and I clicked into the message.
It was from a number that wasn’t in my contacts. It didn’t take a whole lot to decipher who it was from.
Richard: Beautiful. Like her mother.I knew he wasn’t referring to my sister, and somehow that hurt, too. That he would assert it. That he was doing this to me.
Me: She is beautiful. Innocent. Vulnerable.I sent my warning.
My phone buzzed back a second later, more texts following right behind.
Richard: I’d never hurt her. Just like I never wanted to hurt you. Last night was…Richard: It was magic, Violet. Fucking magic. I almost forgot how perfect we are together, and the only reason I tried to put it out of my mind was for my own sanity, dyin’ from missing you.Richard: But like you said—I’m insane. Insane with my love for you. My need for you.My stomach climbed to my chest, that energy flapping with the butterflies that spread their wings in my belly. I tapped out a response while I begged my foolish heart to build up a resistance.
Me: Last night was a mistake.Richard: No. It might have scared you, but you and I both know it wasn’t a mistake. We never were. It was all the other decisions surrounding it that were wrong.Tears blurred my eyes.
Me: I need to go.I couldn’t handle it, the man feeding me lines so sweet they were going to decimate my logic and leave me massacred in the end.
I wasn’t expecting another message, but my phone buzzed again.
Richard: And I need you to stay. Need to keep close. Please, just be safe.What the hell was he trying to say?
Unable to handle it, I shoved my phone into my pocket and continued to wind down the long path. When I made it to the workshop, I entered the code to open the door, propped it open, flicked on the lights, and powered up the old MacBook I kept in there on my desk so I could verify the orders that needed to go out tomorrow.
The sounds of the night surrounded me, the peace of this place, and I got lost in my work. I focused on the minute details to ensure each order was perfect. Nothing forgotten. It might not seem like a whole lot to some people, but this job was so important to me.
The fact that flowers brought joy.
They expressed grief.
They showed love.
A message given in each one.
So engrossed in it, I jumped when my phone started to ring on the desk beside me.
Those nerves doubled when I saw the caller ID.