She skips up the stairs, followed by her door closing.
“Ari is stuck at her shop and she agreed to talk to me. The sooner I can figure all of this out, the sooner I can stop debating my life decisions,” I explain.
“For the fact that you are acting partially normal this second, I won’t give you shit for trekking out into a blizzard for some chick—not that it’s normal to do that.”
She isn’t some chick. AJ knows this but that’s how he sees her. Arguing this won’t help anything, it’ll just waste more time. “Do you mind watching Olive for a bit? I’ll try to keep it under two hours.”
“Dude, it’ll probably take you two hours to get there in this crap.”
“I’ll keep you updated,” I tell him. I look out the window, watching a plow fly by. “I’ll be fine.”
Olive comes flying back down the stairs in sweatpants and t-shirt with her dress-up apron on. “Ready!”
“When I get home, I want to hear more about what happened with Alexa,” I tell him. I do feel guilty for completely ignoring his life issues.
“Not much to tell,” he says. “In fact, I’d like to forget her name all together.”
“Understood,” I say, slipping on my jacket.
“Make sure you’re home in time for dinner, Daddy,” Olive shouts from the kitchen.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Another giggle floats through the air. “Love you, Olive.”
“Love you!”
Two hours. Pft. Try twenty minutes. I followed a salting truck half of the way, which sort of worked out perfectly. At least they’re keeping up with the roads. As I’m driving, I realize I never responded to Charlotte’s request to fix her washing machine. Well, she’ll just have to wait or let Lance take care of it.
When I pull up to the flower shop, I create a spot for myself along the sidewalk. I’m sure I shouldn’t be parking here right now since the plows are trying to get by but there’s nowhere else to park. Plus, Ari’s car is buried right in front of me.
I kick through the foot of snow and make a narrow path up to the glass door of the flower shop. I’m guessing this might be why she isn’t going anywhere tonight. Besides the fact that her car is pretty much stuck, thanks to the drifts, the door is also snowed in.
I walk back to my truck and grab a shovel out of the bed. Clearing a path, I remove the snow so the door can move freely, but as I pull on the handle, the door doesn’t budge. I knock a few times, rubbing away a coat of frost on the window so I can see inside.
Through the blur, it only takes a few seconds before Ari appears in the door with a smile. She unlocks the deadbolt and pushes on the door. “You were stuck in here and felt the need to lock the door?” I ask with amusement.
“You never know who is crazy enough to have a shovel and dig me out so they can break in and abduct me,” she says with a cunning grin. Her soft laughter fills the air as she brushes a few strands of hair away from her cheek. At the same moment I’m watching her, the mixed scent of different flowers hits me all at once, nearly making my knees weak. So many of the scents remind me of Ellie. She always had a new flower obsession and each flower had its moment in the spotlight under the skylight in our family room. The aroma from the flowers always filled the house.
“Have you always been into flowers?” I ask Ari.
She bobs her head from side to side as if her answer is neither here nor there. She lifts a planter from one of the stands and places it down on the glass counter. “Actually, no, but because my parents are gardeners, I was always around plants and flowers. You know, too much of anything can sometimes be more than enough.”
“Yeah, I can understand that.” Kind of.
“Anyway, once I recovered from the transplant, I sort of needed a fresh start. I considered going back to teaching but they made me take a year off for liability reasons and I wasn’t about to waste precious days of my life sitting in front of the TV. My parents were friends with the guy that owned this place and he was getting ready to retire. A month later, I was running the shop. Crazy, right?”
“I guess everything happens for a reason,” I tell her. “Ellie would have loved this shop. She lived and breathed for flowers. It was just a hobby but it was her greatest passion.”
“I know,” she says. “She told me many times.” Ari moves the planter to the back counter and I follow. “Knowing that definitely helped with my decision to manage this shop. I think it’s a nice tribute to her.” She turns around, finding me probably a little too close. “I know it’s silly but I sometimes wonder if she can sense me being in the shop here—you know if she really is connected to me and stuff.”
“I’d like to think that,” I tell her. Her words are enticing, soul-filling, wonderful and similar to the thoughts I don’t share with anyone. Why does that make me want to tell this woman I love her? Why do I want to kiss her and press my hand up against her heart and never separate from her existence again?I do not know her. This is wrong.
If I’m wrong, though, why is she looking at me like I’m right?Myheart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my head and in my arms and legs. I just need to... I shouldn't.There’s Charlotte. And Ellie, but part of Ellie is inside of her. I have to...I think...
The struggle is short lived and I act on an un-thought-out whim, cupping my hands firmly around her face as I press my lips against hers. I startle her, as well as me, and she falls heavily against the back counter, her hands moving back and forth from my waist to the counter behind her, as if she can’t make up her mind on the right or wrong of this situation. I’m kissing a complete stranger who I might soulfully know the most in this world. My chest is against hers and holy shit, I can feel her heart pounding. My cheeks are burning and I squeeze my eyes shut tightly, avoiding tears that would destroy this moment before it had a chance to unravel.I can feel her heart. Ellie’s heart. It’s beating against mine again. It’s beating against me. I can feel it. I can feel her.Ellie. Ellie. It’s pounding so hard, just like mine. It feels everything mine feels, just like it always had before. She’s in there.
As our lips part, I realize I didn’t even consider the sensation of her mouth against mine; my only thoughts were focused on her heart. That’s all I can feel. Still. I can feel it against my chest even though there is space between us now.
“Hunter,” she says between heavy breaths. “Is this wrong?” Yes. Completely wrong. My mind is spinning between Charlotte and Ellie and now Ari, and why would I throw myself into a mess like this?
