“And Paige will be happy.”
I groan and bury my face once again. “I need to lock her up.”
Josie pushes on my shoulder and slightly turns so she can look at me. “What if they’re soulmates? What if they’re just like us?”
“Then, I hope they communicate and don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“Liam, we both made mistakes. We were eighteen. I thought I was doing what you wanted.”
“Which is exactly what I don’t want Paige or even Mack to do. If these two are meant to be together, they need to each follow their own path until they can forge one together. I don’t want Paige to give up a future to follow Mack or vice versa. And I definitely don’t want her to come home pregnant, without him by her side—still to this day, that haunts me. Learning what you went through because I couldn’t communicate my feelings to you—I’ll never forgive myself. I don’t want that for Paige or Mack. We’ve been there, JoJo.”She cups my cheek with her hand. “You’re a good man, Liam Page. And a damn good father. I’m very proud of you right now.”
I smile and tilt my head enough to kiss her palm. “I’m still going to put the fear of God into that young man though, because he and Paige are about the same age when we started having sex. I’ll be six feet below the ground before he touches my baby.”
Josie laughs. “Ah, there’s my husband. I was wondering where he went.”
“He took a trip down memory lane, and do you want to know what he found?”
“What?” she asks.
“You.” I press my lips to hers and pull the blanket over us. The last thing we need is for the young, impressionable eyes of Betty Paige to see what I’m about to do her mother.6JosieFrom the moment I turned on the lights for Whimsicality, people have come in, buying up all the holiday flowers I have. It seems Liam told “someone” we were heading out of town for the holidays, and that “someone” spread the news. Next thing I know, people are under the impression I’m closing for the rest of the year and are scrambling to get their flowers and centerpieces ordered and picked up before I lock up. I don’t know how many times I had to say the shop would still be open before people started believing me. I’m not complaining, but I can’t recall a time when I’ve been slammed from the moment I arrived at work.
I finally get a chance to sit down. Trudy brings me a sandwich and a bottle of water. She sets it on the counter, which causes me to jump up and knock the plate.
“Sorry,” she says, unaware she hasn’t done anything wrong.
“No, it’s fine. There’s a piece of paper here I want to save.” I hold up the order form and look at Mason’s faded penmanship. It’s been so long since I’ve thought about him. There was a time when all I ever did was think about Mason, the impact he had on my life and Noah’s, and how Mason’s death changed everything. I hate thinking of how Mason isn’t with us but can’t imagine my life being any different than it is now.
Carefully, I set the piece of paper between two books and leave myself a note to get a frame for it when I return from vacation. I want to save it. I want to remember the young, vivacious man he was when he came in to order Katelyn flowers.
“Something important?” Trudy asks. I forgot she was standing here.
“Sort of, it’s more of a memento. Do you remember my daughter-in-law, Peyton?”
“Yes, she’s such a lovely young woman.”
I nod. “She is. When she was five, her father died in a car accident. I had known him most of my life. He and my husband were best friends, and of course, his wife Katelyn is my best friend,” I pause and glance toward the books where I put the paper. “He used to come in and order flowers for Katelyn all the time. They didn’t have much money, but he wanted her to have a new bouquet to start her week.”
“Memories are a funny thing,” Trudy says. “Sometimes, they make us feel warm and gushy, and other times they send us down a path we sometimes don’t want to go down.”
“And sometimes memory lane isn’t the best place to be. Mason’s death changed us all.”
“How so?”
The story of Liam and I is something I haven’t told Trudy. I never saw any reason to. It’s been so long and it’s not really a big deal anymore that he’s back. I sigh and smile. “Liam and I had a rough patch for about ten years. He came home when Mason died, and we found our way back to each other.”